uphillbothways , 11 months ago

No. You're right. I should have typed "surrogate forces" in quotations or 'supposed surrogate forces' or something. Point being, at the time and for a few news cycles after there was a story used to interject and/or some attempt to introduce uncertainty. That story was bullshit, it was even pretty obvious at the time, but they tried. This is much more cut and dry. That Putin wanted to send a message is obvious, but there was no concern this time about that message being too loud or it sending warning signals to unintended targets.

This could spook business from returning, as mentioned by another response below. This could have knock on effects. Putin didn't even try to act like he cared about any of that. That could mean a lot of things. I don't think any of them are good.