Author of quotes: Maxim Katz

Faced with the threat of the collapse of the country in which he was born and lived all his life and which he sincerely loved, Gorbachev tried different ways to solve the problem. But having reached the extreme point, he stopped, even going a little over the extreme point, of course, given the shooting in Lithuania and Georgia. But still he stopped. Did Gorbachev have the opportunity to pour blood over the entire USSR in order to maintain his power? Of course it was, but he did not use it. He quickly realized that no one could be held back with the help of tanks, and he switched from forceful methods to diplomatic ones. He began discussing a new union treaty, which envisaged a serious transformation of the USSR into a confederation of independent states. When that didn't work either, Gorbachev stepped aside, resigned, and lived on for many years in retirement.

Surovikin [the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in Ukraine] justifies Russian losses by allegedly killing even more Ukrainians. Why kill Ukrainians at all? From which side do not look all this is useless.

If defeat is inevitable, you should not burn out all your resources to the last, but minimize the damage.