I did look up who "Yves Smith" was before posting, and agree that the take seemed odd for someone supposedly neutral and objective. Nevertheless, the content of the article speaks for itself and reads like insidious Russian propaganda masking as geopolitical analysis. So I decided to make my comment anyway.
Then I looked up someone who she quoted and gave a 1/3rd of this article to - Scott Ritter. Gotta be some kind of joke if you believe incorporating his perspective is not pro-Russian shill bullshit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter#Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
Lmao, thank you.
Gotta love .ml critical thinking faculties. I link directly to a Wikipedia article about the views of Scott Ritter (to whom Susan Webber decided to give 1/3rd of the space of her article), where he is literally identified as a contributor to Russia Today and Sputnik, and I'm downvoted for calling a Russian shill a Russian shill. chefs kiss to .ml