putin literally based his 3-days-to-kyiv assumption on that belief. and look where it got him. how anyone can still believe this, after a quagmire that will put russia, economically, demographically, culturally and, yes, even militarily (*) behind every peer by at least 30 years, is simply breathtaking. (*) before the ukraine war i unironically believed that only wwiii would be able to empty out the huge soviet arms reserves. i mean it was 100k+ tanks, ifv, apcs, arty etc. and not only are these reserves really low and about to be completely emptied next year. it also made every soviet arms piece look like a piece of shit.
Germany