so whats the difference between the US and Russia? Media controlled by elites? Power concentrated in a few hands? hmmmm
There are fewer differences than you would think. Both political parties are controlled by money under the guise of serving the citizens. However, the previous administration was moving headstrong into an Authoritarian Kleptocracy. When an Authoritarian solidifies his firm hold all government institutions (like Putin) that is when the human rights abuses accelerate.
Ukraine is a democracy with freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Putin would be gone in a heartbeat if Russia had those.
The Government in the Ukraine put the Leader and members of the opposition party in jail last election . Also , the opposition asked the west for help, when opposition family members started disappearing ( clinton style ) , and the US said non of our business.. The freedom of the press ? Prior to the last election , the 3 national media companies projected an opposition win. The Ruling government literally turned the switch off on the 3 TV stations taking them off the air.
MOSCOW, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday told President Vladimir Putin that some of the country's military drills had already ended and others were coming to a close. Russia's joint exercises with ally Belarus and other drills near Ukraine have fanned fears Russia may be poised to invade Ukraine, something Moscow has repeatedly denied planning.
this is putin playing chess while biddy and NATO are thinking he is playing tic-tac-toe
the old pretend to retreat tactic, people will relax and think its all good, biddy will go on TV and saw some dumb sh*t like his hard talk with putin got things done...then when troops are relaxed and heading back to germany boooom
Nato expansion has never been an issue in his 8 year war on Ukraine and Europe. It is an attack by a brutal dictator on innocent people. When people eat up and repeat that propaganda it just emboldens him by giving him attention.
The only things that deter Putin are targeting his money and hold on power. His word means absolutely nothing and Western efforts to appease have always resulted in failure.
Putin wants NATO to promise never to accept Ukraine (or Georgia and Moldova) as members as well as limit or halt deployments in Eastern and Southern Europe of new US medium-range missiles.
If this doesn't happen, USA will get to play war again and therefore legitimize its huge military budget, Russia will still take Ukraine, win-win for both sides.
The big loser here would be Ukraine, that got fooled again into thinking, that the West has the best interest of Ukrainian people at heart.
NATO already said they wouldn't expand east of Germany in 1990. Then they expanded east all the way to Russia. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Georgia and Ukraine are all that's left and there's absolutely no reason in the world Russia should take any guarantees from NATO or the US.
NATO and the US directly caused this conflict.
Europeans do not have the stomach to win a war with Russia and the US doesn't even have the stomach to fight a war with cavemen in pajamas.
ukraine is hardly "democratic" and openly supports far-right ultranationalist / neo nazi groups
i'm not saying that putin's the good guy here, but the situation isn't as black and white as is painted by western media
None of what you stated remotely support invading and taking over a Sovereign country, slaughtering thousands of people. But the more that people divert attention away from Putin being 100% responsible, the more it serves him. Putin loves when people "both sides" this like you just did. If you listen to Putin, his diplomats and the media. They always "both sides" literally everything to escape culpability.
ukraine is hardly "democratic" and openly supports far-right ultranationalist / neo nazi groups
i'm not saying that putin's the good guy here, but the situation isn't as black and white as is painted by western media
None of what you stated remotely support invading and taking over a Sovereign country, slaughtering thousands of people. But the more that people divert attention away from Putin being 100% responsible, the more it serves him. Putin loves when people "both sides" this like you just did. If you listen to Putin, his diplomats and the media. They always "both sides" literally everything to escape culpability.
It is beyond naive to just blame Putin for everything.
Something tells me the necons, war mongering Democrats, and trash like Biden who will do ANYTHING they're told will poll would be reacting much more aggressively than Putin is all of western Hemisphere other than Canada had joined the Warsaw Pact and Russia was actively trying to recruit Canada and had "advisors" in the country teaching them how to kill Americans.
ukraine is hardly "democratic" and openly supports far-right ultranationalist / neo nazi groups
i'm not saying that putin's the good guy here, but the situation isn't as black and white as is painted by western media
None of what you stated remotely support invading and taking over a Sovereign country, slaughtering thousands of people. But the more that people divert attention away from Putin being 100% responsible, the more it serves him. Putin loves when people "both sides" this like you just did. If you listen to Putin, his diplomats and the media. They always "both sides" literally everything to escape culpability.
point taken, and i don't entirely disagree. i also never said that there was any justification for an invasion, i just meant this as a response to the multiple commenters here that are basically saying that the reason behind russian aggression is simply that "putin doesn't like democracy or freedom"
most only know about the nordstream pipeline that goes from russia to germany, but there are a number of russian pipelines that have to go through ukraine to get to western europe.
so russia wants to cut out this annoying middleman, and once it does it will hold all access points of oil and gas going into all of europe, and once that happens putin can reduce flows to make europe beg on its knees and basically do whatever he wants.
also ukraine has massive oil and gas reserves but no infrastructure to deal with it.
so its part NATO, but mostly its about "owning" europe through the flow of oil and gas.
most only know about the nordstream pipeline that goes from russia to germany, but there are a number of russian pipelines that have to go through ukraine to get to western europe.
so russia wants to cut out this annoying middleman, and once it does it will hold all access points of oil and gas going into all of europe, and once that happens putin can reduce flows to make europe beg on its knees and basically do whatever he wants.
also ukraine has massive oil and gas reserves but no infrastructure to deal with it.
so its part NATO, but mostly its about "owning" europe through the flow of oil and gas.
Putin wants NATO to promise never to accept Ukraine (or Georgia and Moldova) as members as well as limit or halt deployments in Eastern and Southern Europe of new US medium-range missiles.
If this doesn't happen, USA will get to play war again and therefore legitimize its huge military budget, Russia will still take Ukraine, win-win for both sides.
The big loser here would be Ukraine, that got fooled again into thinking, that the West has the best interest of Ukrainian people at heart.
NATO can accept them as a member but not before Putin installs a puppet regime.
Ukraine may want membership in N.A.T.O. U.S. wants Ukraine in N.A.T.O. for military strategic reasons.. N.A.T.O. will NEVER allow Ukraine membership. France & Germany DO NOT want Ukraine in N.A.T.O. I won't bother listing some of the most significant reasons why Germany & France will not allow Ukraine into N.A.T.O. Just know, no matter how much U.S. and Ukraine want Ukraine in N.A.T.O., it will not occur. U.S. Military Industrial Complex providing military support to Ukraine increases the likelihood of Ukrainian bloodshed. U.S. and N.A.T.O. will never give Ukraine enough weapons to scare Russia.
A display of power to the world and to the Russian people. Russia is a failed superpower but Putin remaining on power depends on his projecting an image of power to the Russian citizenship and maintaining that he can restore Russia to the USSR days. Taking Ukraine is largely about maintaining the image of Russian power and strategically there is little advantage. In fact if it devolves into a guerilla warfare situation with a hostile populace and the West makes real sanctions there could be a bad move tactically. Unfortunately I think Putin is committed. If he doesn't invade now it will not site well back home unless he is able to extract some serious concessions out of the west that makes this charade worth it.
He may also have some backroom deals going on with China where there will be some beneficial relationship, trade or otherwise between the two parties if he acts aggressively in Europe.
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