Moscow has been stealthily funding much of its war costs with risky, off-budget financing overlooked by the West. That funding is now under pressure, offering new leverage to Ukraine and its allies.
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/may-just-might-just
“Just” here is part of an idiom that conveys possibility and does not mean “simply” or have any meaning that suggests the problem is small.
“Might just” and “might simply” do not mean the same thing in English.
just adverb (ONLY)
only; simply:
“Would you like another drink?” “OK, just one more.”
It was just a joke.
In the context:
Russia might just bail out or nationalise their military industry.
Simply is absolutely implied by adding “just” in this context. Possibility is already implied by might without adding “just”. So that would be a double of the same meaning. Like Dog Kennel. Ergo “just” must mean “simply” or “only” as in “they only have to” in this context as far as I can tell.
To just show possibility you would leave the just out like this: Russia might bail out or nationalise their military industry.
This idiom works differently than you think. This thread
https://old.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/161uisc/what_does_it_mean_you_just_might/
Captures the basic meaning of the idiom
“Just” in isolation can mean something different than when it’s added to a phrase.
Don’t take my word for it though, Google “might just idiom” for more discussion. This is the thing about idioms, phrasal verbs and the like: they take words that have different meaning in isolation and by joining them alter the meanings of the individual words.
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/may-just-might-just “Just” here is part of an idiom that conveys possibility and does not mean “simply” or have any meaning that suggests the problem is small. “Might just” and “might simply” do not mean the same thing in English.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/just
In the context:
Simply is absolutely implied by adding “just” in this context. Possibility is already implied by might without adding “just”. So that would be a double of the same meaning. Like Dog Kennel. Ergo “just” must mean “simply” or “only” as in “they only have to” in this context as far as I can tell.
To just show possibility you would leave the just out like this:
Russia might bail out or nationalise their military industry.
This idiom works differently than you think. This thread https://old.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/161uisc/what_does_it_mean_you_just_might/ Captures the basic meaning of the idiom “Just” in isolation can mean something different than when it’s added to a phrase. Don’t take my word for it though, Google “might just idiom” for more discussion. This is the thing about idioms, phrasal verbs and the like: they take words that have different meaning in isolation and by joining them alter the meanings of the individual words.