What does Russia hope to gain from this? Is there any kind of rational motive, even an amoral
one like “grab resources,” or is this driven by a bunch of historical destiny and weird neo-trad Duginist bullshit?
Seems like if Russia had stayed peaceful they could be selling Siberia as a cheap place to put data centers (cold and tons of power) and cleaning up.
Tie up European military resources and thus reduce the weaponry available to Ukraine.
This also highlights why the US/European strategy of playing chicken and focusing on "de-escalation" is fundamentally flawed: it gives adversaries the initiative and the lever for controlling the temperature. Whenever it gets too hot for them, they can dial it down, whereas the "de-escalation" camp has to dance to the tune of their adversaries.
It's the very same mistake that was made with Hitler.
Seems like if Russia had stayed peaceful they could be selling Siberia as a cheap place to put data centers (cold and tons of power) and cleaning up.