The Russian/Ukraine war. Why and how did Putin get it so wrong?

 From mostly Around the Traps two highly interesting articles on Putin and his invasion debacle.

• armies-and-autocrats-why-putins-military-failed
  
• why-does-putin-persist
  

Added bonus

Menzie Chinn on january-2023-russia-gdp-growth-is-3-2-y-y

Just a thought on what if russia wins?  There would be no rebuilding of Ukraine as Russia cannot afford it and russians would be killed regularly by Ukrainian  freedom fighters. That would be just the start and of course the Western world would be an ineffectual joke.

Fred Kaplan comes in late ukraine-war-why-russia-army-isnt-learning-from-its-mistakes