Ukraine is preparing for a Russian invasion

Le Figaro

The Russian army is five times larger than theirs, but the authorities in Kiev know that they will have no choice but to dodge 

Le Figaro

in the West, we quibble about economic punishments

We will not pretend that it would be better to fight - or leave the uncertainty.

The sanctions should not be so inoffensive, since the Kremlin takes the trouble to announce a

But,

Le Figaro, we should not expect miracles from our posture of avoidance: in Putin's eyes, we are only waving a paper tiger.

sanctions: Russia imperturbable 

The financial sanctions imposed by the West will have little impact.

Moscow's financing needs abroad are small.

, Les Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace

no sanction, no set of measures, however coercive they may be, will ever stop Vladimir Poutine.

If the Russian president wants to swallow the Donbass, he will swallow the Donbass, and in any case it's already done

And if he wants to swallow Ukraine whole, well he will swallow Ukraine.

In Georgia in 2008, in Crimea in 2014, he did not act otherwise.

The West stormed, threatened, sanctioned, and then what?

To stop Putin and prevent him from continuing his game of dominoes,

one would have to be ready to die for Kiev, as one would have had to be ready in other times to die for Danzig.

And no one is.

History never repeats itself, but he sometimes stutters and the comparison stops there: Putin does not intend to invade Europe, he wants to reconstitute the heart of an eternal and fantasized Russia.

It's an old project and it's running right before our eyes

Le Monde

Crisis in Ukraine: the half-hearted support of the people of Russia for Vladimir Putin 

 in the midst of the Ukrainian crisis, a certain fatigue appears in the streets of Moscow, fueled by great indifference and popular mistrust for everything that touches the public sphere.

Liberation

 In Russia, there is no possible challenge to the decisions of the Kremlin

Afterwards, Putin cannot ignore that the popular support is not the same as in 2014: there is no enthusiasm today.

The threat posed by the Kremlin is very far down the list of Russian concerns, sympathy for the Ukrainians is great, war is not a desired horizon.

Power will have to row to build the euphoria that accompanied the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

It is a mistake to think that the Russians support the action of their State

but they prefer to put themselves aside, to preserve the only thing worth preserving – the possibility of having a more or less normal life.