Putin is largely ignoring the expertise of his military advisors, US analysts said in a report. Instead, he is making most of the key decisions on his own, they said. The experts at the RAND Corporation said Putin has proved more cautious than many expected. Russian President Vladimir Putin is making key decisions about the Ukraine war largely on his own, without input from his generals, analysts said in a report published last week.

But while doing so, Putin has proven to be more cautious than expected, said the report from the US-based RAND Corporation.

"Putin [is] making key decisions largely on his own without substantial influence from the Russian General Staff," the analysts said in the report.

RAND said that was simply because Putin does not trust those around him — and so makes "little use of economic or military expertise" at his disposal.

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[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

He must have been doing this the whole time right? Otherwise how could they be doing so poorly?

I've been assuming Putin's been calling the shots all by himself in terms of military movements this entire time.

[–] Chariotwheel@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honestly, I think corruption is at fault for the initial mess and Putin trusting too much of what the numbers say. Russia had a decent military budget, they should've done better than they did. What I think happened was that the budget dwindled as people on all levels were skimming away little bits for their own pockets until only fragments arrived where the money was supposed to go. Everyone cleaning up their numbers bottom up and thus Russia had a solid military on their papers while things were falling apart at the bottom.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Oh, this makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

[–] Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Corruption and vranyo

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When you surround yourself with yes-men, then what's the difference?

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Truth

[–] fische_stix@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

When you make your subordinates so scared to voice an opinion that is not an agreement with yours that they become yes men or fall out of a window, you essentially are running the thing by yourself the whole time.