War watch: Russia Burns, Vlad Fiddles

“All of Russia is beginning to smolder because of Putin’s myopic fixation” on total Ukraine victory, argue Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet at The Hill. Among Russia losses: “more than 200,000 casualties, including as many as 60,000 dead. Given Russia’s declining population of 146 million, that level of loss is generational.” Also lost: “3,595 tanks, nearly 7,000 armored combat vehicles, over 2,638 artillery pieces, 523 multiple rocket launchers, 277 air defense systems, 305 jets, and 291 helicopters.” And “Russia has been in a recession since November 2022, with annualized GDP dropping nearly 4 percent.” Meanwhile, “Beijing is slowly beginning to fully subsume Russia’s independence economically, militarily and diplomatically” — all thanks to Vlad’s “delusional, outsized need to win in Ukraine.”