Ketju 1:
LINKKI
@Stanovaya is always well worth reading but I'm not convinced we're just talking about a 'messiah complex' + a genuine belief on his part that everything will work out. If anything, the opposite: he's least able to make decisions when they're hard
https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/89826
Micromanaging the war and aspects of reconstruction are distractions from the intractable big issues (like drawing up a detailed revision plan rather than actually revising!), a comfort. When faced with big, hard decisions (eg, end Kyiv offensive, leave Kherson) he dithers
So he tends to make hard decisions too late and too badly - delaying mobilisation until after the campaign season and when so many trainers and so much kit had been lost was a case in point. His apparent desire to hold off any more mobilisations until after Sept elex another
Putin is simply not doing his job: resolving damaging elite conflicts (it's not just Shoigu vs Prigozhin), setting broad policy and supporting its execution, providing the nation an icon around which to cohere. Instead, he's hiding in his bunker(s) and indulging himself, Nero fiddling while Rome burns*. He believes things will magically work out because he has to, one some level, but I suspect - and of course this is just a guess, who can really crawl into his brain** - that deep down he fears otherwise, but fears the alternatives (peace, full-scale war, etc) even more.
* yes, I know this is a myth, but it's a nice metaphor
** and who, frankly, would honestly want to go into such a dark, miserable place
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Ketju 2:
LINKKI
While I wholly accept Putin does have a grandiose sense of his historic mission, my point of divergence with you was the notion that from this came a strategy, and that he was in no way fearful about the situation
First of all, I don't see Putin as a real strategist, but rather an improviser with a very loose sense of his goals; this is something that has marked his whole presidency.
I also find it hard to believe that he is not at all afraid by the situation (especially having had not one but two authoritarian regimes collapse around him). However cocooned by yes-men, he must have some idea of how dire the situation and the long-term damage to Russia
I also worry about the notion of a 'messiah complex', which is something much greater than simply the massive ego of most political leaders, especially autocrats who have long been in power (and become in effect caricatures of themselves) as it implies some greater cause. Putin may well consider himself part of the pantheon of Russian state-building heroes, but does he necessarily believe that this means that everything with automatically work out? Even Stalin had his fears, and was often driven by them.
Ultimately, we are both guessing what is going on in his head. You think he is genuinely confident because of this 'messiah complex', I think he is defaulting to inactivity and blind hope because that is the least scary thing for him. All we can do is give our best guesses!