He wants to be the new czar. the parts of russia still out there, he sees himself as an emperor and ukraine has been critically important to the soviet empire for metal works or that sort of thing but it s the breadbasket, used to be the breadbasket of the soviet union. it s important in economic terms as well as imperial philosophical terms. one of the questions, day 56 of the fighting in ukraine, will he listen to anybody? i think i know your answer. one of the oligarchs on instagram, i don t see a single beneficiary of this insane war. they realize they have a not so good army as i will paraphrase there. the civil servants are in shock not only against the children, don t want to go to the