In many ways this gives Putin an out from this incredibly stupid war that he created.
Agree terms with Ukraine, peacefully take back the land they lost, declare victory, and stop this war for good. He can save face and maintain power until he dies while Russia stays a pariah to the world. Ukraine will still naturally join NATO, but without the threat of war Russia can just sit on what it owns.
IMO, this is the ideal time for some final sanctions on Russia by heavily fining all western companies that don't leave within 30 days. Cut them off entirely, and then bring them to the table to negotiate the return once Putin is gone. I don't see a progressive candidate entering Russian politics any time soon, but a non-KGB candidate without ties to the Kremlin might find power by having the west on their side - they just need to stay away from radiation and balconies.
He can't do that. Losing Crimea would be a death blow for him. Some trash human standing close to him has already picked out the window he will fall from and he knows it.
Is that just because it was Russia’s best naval base? It was also the ussr vacation destination, but I’m not really up to date on Putin’s bullshit excuses for invasion.
Even when sanctions lift, it'll be hard to reenter Russia for practical reasons. My company left entirely, and it would be very hard for us to turn it all back on now. We'd be basically doing a whole deployment from scratch to the region.
Which is to say that, yeah, you can negotiate a potential return, but companies may not be quick to want to reinvest.