this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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It's hilarious that you accuse the US and Ukraine of wanting to get rich from mineral rights, but you won't accuse Russia of the same thing. In reality there will be rich people in each of those countries wanting to profit from minerals.
Sure, there are likely people in Russia that want access to Ukrainian minerals, but that certainly doesn't seem to be the primary cause of the invasion to begin with.
Maybe the primary cause was Putin's megalomania, or indeed megalomania among quite a few Russian elites.
I don't believe in "Great Man Theory" as a useful method of analysis of historical trends. Material conditions and political economic factors play a far greater role in historical events than the individual whims of leaders.
I don't think it's just Putin which is why I mentioned the megalomania of other Russian elites. But Putin surely made the final decision to invade.
Believing history to be driven by the egos of a few individuals and divorcing it entirely from materialist analysis is Great Man Theory, though. Ego may have played a small factor, but certainly not the driving force.