Putin is not stupid. What possible motivation is there for him to shoot down a civilian airliner? What does he gain?
The
PR benefit? Does that mean the EU will stop buying the Russian gas? No I did not think so. which means...virtue signaling. The new scourge of the western world.
It is partly what got us here, instead of spending time worrying about which comedian is telling unacceptable jokes and what pro noun to use, we should have been anticipating this.
Putin put 30,000 troops on the border nearly a year ago.