8/22: Russo-optimists: A great Russian victory in Kursk?

After two years of fighting on the defensive, Ukraine launched the Kursk invasion and conquered hundreds of miles of Russian territory and captured thousands of Russian POWS.

Oddly, there seem to be a bunch of journalists who are doing their best to paint the Ukrainian incursion as a Russian victory.

NY Times: Russia Seeks to Turn Humbling Incursion Into Military Gains

An extended news analysis Russian-born author highlights how Russia’s retreat is really a stepping stone towards victory.

The money quote: After being initially heralded as a brilliant military stroke, the Kursk operation could end up becoming a trap for the Ukrainian Army, 

But such Russo-optimism repeats often:

“Putin of Russia has pledged a decisive response”

“the battle in Russia’s border regions remains in its initial stages, and the present pace of the Kursk incursion is giving Mr. Putin time to calibrate his response.”

“from the Russian perspective, Kyiv’s gambit has also created an opportunity”

(His myopia doesn’t seem to be limited to Russia. According to his NY Times bio, Mr Kurmanaev started out reporting on Venezuela. where he documented how an oil-rich nation devolved from a powerful petrostate into a dystopian capitalist free-for-all 

I guess capitalist free-for-all is one way to describe the Maduro, the dictator of the United Socialist Party.

On the other hand, Mr Kurmanaev wisely does his reporting from Berlin and not Moscow, for some reason.

In a similar vein, the inexcrable James Mearsheimer was one of 10 scholars invited by the Quincy Institute Symposium on What does Ukraine’s incursion into Russia really mean?

9 scholars saw the incursion as a positive step for Ukraine.

In contrast, Mearsheimer wrote “Ukraine’s invasion (of Kursk) was a major strategic blunder, which will accelerate its defeat. 

Of course, I wrote previously about the Hill op-ed by Andrew Latham, the scholar of medieval political theory, Ukraine’s Kursk offensive is a huge strategic error

Instead of listening to the Russo-optomists, I prefer the Guardian’s view:  The Kursk attack has humiliated Putin – and changed the narrative over how the war is fought