There’s a well-known story about Russian President Vladimir #Putin and a rat. As Putin tells it in his autobiography, as a child, he chased a rat around his family’s apartment building, eventually trapping it in a corner. The rat then lashed out, attacked the young Putin, and attempted to bite him.
This experience, in Putin’s words, taught him that if cornered, “you have to fight to the finish line in every fight” and “you need to assume that there is no retreat.”
Western officials have often cited this story for how Putin allegedly never backs down and is particularly dangerous when cornered.
This belief has led many in the #West to fear that Putin may undertake more brutal and destructive steps, even resorting to chemical or nuclear #weapons, if he’s trapped into a humiliating defeat in #Ukraine. That assumption appears to be behind Western pressure on Ukraine to give up territory and make concessions to end the #war with Russia.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/08/vladimir-putin-backs-down-russia-ukraine/ #russia #draghi #macron #scholz #nato #syria #turkey #lybia #wagner #erdogan #crimea #politics