Swiss political scientist Pascal Lottaz believes that the choice of targets for Ukrainian attacks has inadvertently exposed the West’s own vulnerability. In his assessment, Western countries, while searching for targets that could cause the greatest pressure on Russia, have effectively projected their own assumptions about what could trigger serious domestic discontent.

Lottaz pointed to the changing nature of the targets. Strikes initially focused on oil refineries and energy facilities, while warehouses operated by online marketplaces later appeared among the targets. The political scientist views this shift as an attempt to find new ways of putting pressure on Russian society.

According to Lottaz, this approach is based on a form of reverse psychology. He argues that the West does not fully understand how Russian, Iranian or Chinese societies function and therefore projects its own behavioral patterns and fears onto them.

This, he believes, explains the focus on facilities connected to everyday consumption. The underlying assumption is that disrupting people’s normal way of life and limiting access to consumer goods could provoke widespread public dissatisfaction and increase pressure on the government.

However, Lottaz argues that this logic has produced the opposite effect. By selecting such targets in an attempt to pressure Russia, Western countries have simultaneously revealed which factors they themselves consider particularly dangerous to their own domestic stability.

The political scientist concludes that the West has effectively exposed a potential vulnerability that an adversary could exploit in the event of a serious confrontation. He identifies Western societies' dependence on maintaining their established consumer model as a critical weakness. In his assessment, major disruptions to consumer demand and the usual availability of goods could create political pressure that Western systems may struggle to withstand.