What do the Russians want?  Their empire back, and Putin considers it his destiny to get it.  It's interesting, though, that the face of Russian policy suddenly seems to have become Medvedev.  Whether Putin is grooming him to come back up the ladder or setting him up to be kicked off entirely remains to be seen.  What's also interesting is that Medvedev went straight to rattling the nuclear saber, which would indicate Russia is desperate to avoid a war of attrition, hot or cold.

Meanwhile, Germany finally woke up to the threat both of Russia directly and of most of its Ostis believing Russia is the victim here, and is shipping military aid and supporting cutting off Russian access to SWIFT.  That would reduce the ruble to bog paper.  In the US, the FCC, DHC, and DOJ are FINALLY investigating Russian control of communication companies, including media outlets and wireless and VoIP services.  RT seems to be the main target at the moment, but you can expect all the usual RethugliKKKon operators to be circling the wagons by Monday morning.

I think Putin may well be sincere when he says he wants to negotiate with the Ukranian military, once they have deposed Zelenskiy. The idea being that Ukraine can occupy itself and the Russians go home. I can't see another end game : any mediation between crazy old man Putin and drug-addled nazi Zelenskiy seems like a long shot.

And if the army doesn't stage a coup, then the mounting death toll among Russian troops (no idea about the numbers) is going to damage the Russian social fabric, being blamed on Putin rather than on the Ukranians.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}