"Russia's advantages in capacity, capability, and geography combine to pose insurmountable challenges for Ukrainian forces tasked with defending their country." -- The RAND Corporation, January 21, 2022
In the episode, we investigate how events in the Russia-Ukraine war have unfolded. It was widely predicted by Western strategists the Russia was so much more powerful than Ukraine that any assistance Washington might provide would be largely irrelevant. How could Western experts have been so wrong? How has Ukraine managed not only to stop the Russian offensive, but also counter-attack and actually push back the Russians for the past two months? Our historical memories of the Soviet Union were never well understood and this has led Western strategists to wildly exaggerate Russia's current military capabilities. This episode puts present day Russia and its military into historical context and identifies numerous parallels in history that show the current Russian struggles in Ukraine is not that hard to understand and should have been anticipated by our intelligence agencies.