The dead giveaway about just how hamstrung Vladimir Putin is

According to reports from various major news outlets, Vladimir Putin is now in the process of trying to send troops from Belarus, Syria, and even Hezbollah to fight on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine. Given how poorly these troops are likely to fare, given that most of them are not even trained to fight under the conditions they’ll be facing, it’s clear that Putin is desperate to reinforce his outmatched Russian troops in Ukraine. In fact he’s so desperate, he’s calling in every favor he has, and he’s relying on every absurd idea he can think of.

And yet Putin, having bet his future and probably his own life on his ability to make this Ukraine gambit work for him, still doesn’t appear to have sent any additional Russian troops to Ukraine. By all accounts, of all the Russian troops he originally amassed on the border, he’s now sent 100% of them into Ukraine. But even as they clearly fail to get the job done, Putin keeps trying to send in reinforcements from anywhere but Russia.

This leads us to ask the same question we asked several days ago: why? We still aren’t any closer to knowing the specific answer. Is Putin afraid that if he sends any more of the Russian military into Ukraine, there won’t be enough troops left in Russia to protect against a rebellion? Have the oligarchs told Putin that he’s not allowed to use any more Russian troops? Has Putin stolen so much money from the military budget, and thus depleted the military so thoroughly, there are no more troops to send to Ukraine?

But while we still don’t know the specific answer for why he hasn’t sent more Russian troops to Ukraine, it is clear that something is preventing him from doing so. You don’t bet everything on a war, and when it goes terribly, not bother to send more of your military to fight – unless you can’t do it.

Vladimir Putin’s ongoing failure to send more Russian troops to Ukraine, even as he begs his smaller and weaker allies to send troops instead, makes clear just how hamstrung he is. Whatever it is that’s keeping Putin from sending more Russian troops to Ukraine, it’s the key to understanding why he’s so hamstrung, and perhaps the key to finishing him off.