Historian Timothy Snyder argues that Putin invaded Ukraine as a way to
use
his influence with the wrecker, supposing the latter became
president of the US.
He also explains the importance of refusing to "obey in advance".
Even if bigger and richer people are bowing down and obeying, we must
continue to refuse.
"It's particularly distressing that it's the billionaires who have the
media outlets, so who are in some sense the most powerful. Like, what
do you have to be afraid of? Why don’t you do something interesting
that the historians will remember you for instead? But I also want to
say it’s not surprising. The reason we have Lesson One of On Tyranny is
because we can’t count on the non-regime-proximate oligarchs to do the
right thing. Like the regime-proximate oligarchs, like Elon Musk,
they're doing the wrong thing."