He had it all -- by robbing the Russian people blind. Putin created a mafia state in which he creates an economy based on kleptocracy. Those oligarchs everyone keeps talking about? They answer to *him*, not US or Western financial interests. Putin rewarded them with state contracts for businesses like mining, big oil, big coal, and other industries.
The Ukraine invasion is based partly on an old-school Russian ideology which posits that Ukraine is a part of Russia and that it doesn't have its own identity, but beyond that, there's a contempt for the West and Western liberal, democratic, free market thinking.
Any autocrat that wants to survive understands that ideas easily travel across borders. Democratic ideas can travel across borders, and that's a problem for goons who run a mafia state like Putin. My own belief is that Putin not only viewed Ukraine as 'his' or 'Russian', but that he also felt like Ukraine's lean to the West was going to create problems for him down the road. 'Democracy over there' is one thing; democracy on your doorstep, in a country where many Russians still have close relatives? No ****ing way, as far as Putin's concerned. He's afraid that Russians might see a free and Western Ukraine succeeding in giving people a better quality of life and that Russians might actually wake up, realize that they don't have to get their hard-earned tax dollars stolen, and want that 'freedom' thing for themselves. And that also means that Putin's ass would likely end up in jail. There's just no way he's going to stand by and watch that happen.
I digress, but this is also why Xi Jinping crushed the Hong Kong democracy movement a few years ago -- same exact reason. Yes, HK is a part of China, and it's China's territory and wanted to assert itself in that regard. But the deeper reason for the crackdown is that democracy is a dangerous idea for an authoritarian regime. Democracy in Japan and Korea? Not great but tolerable. Democracy in a country that's just an hour's bus ride from one of your most populous and economically sensitive regions? Again, no ****ing way, in the CCP's view.
The fight we're having now with Russia (and I'd add China and others are probably secretly siding with the Kremlin on this one) - the fight we're having is not just about Ukraine; it's so much bigger than that. Right now the liberal democratic and free market world order controls the world, and whatever it's faults, I argue that this is largely a good thing. I'm not afraid to be biased in that regard. Russia is attacking that world order. They want to break NATO. They want to divide EU countries and peel countries like Hungary and Poland away. They want to create political divisions within EU countries by aiding far-right movements in France, in Germany, and they also want to do this in the United States as well. Aiding the far right creates civil discord and distracts these countries. China is right there with Russia on this. I'd argue that even Modhi's India and much of the autocratic Middle East is as well, although these regimes have to be careful not to injure their biggest customers.
