Putin isn't doing this all for himself. He is doing this for the future of Russia. Nothing is more valuable than land. Ukraine may be poor now. In the years to come, the sanctions will fade away, but the territorial accession will be permanent. Borders rarely change in the modern world, and any chance to expand them is of tremendous national advantage, irrespective of temporary sanctions.
He's not some brilliant military genius. He's a sociopath stuck in 1984, a true piece of garbage that makes his country immeasurably more poor and more corrupt to line his own pockets, who starts wars he can't possibly win that will result in the deaths of countless soldiers because of his tiny-dick energy trying to front like Russia is some big bad powerhouse.
There is a lot of bullion and other riches in Ukraine. It make sense that Russia would want to capture and utilize it to increase the prosperity of all Russia's citizens.
yeah Putin has always put the prosperity of Russian citizens very high on his list of priorities. /sarcasm.
Russians are tough, intelligent, hard working, industrious people. They may be the toughest and most intelligent people on earth. Are you denying that Russians can compare themselves to others around the globe and not feel superior in most aspects that actually matter?
yeah Putin has always put the prosperity of Russian citizens very high on his list of priorities. /sarcasm.
Russians are tough, intelligent, hard working, industrious people. They may be the toughest and most intelligent people on earth. Are you denying that Russians can compare themselves to others around the globe and not feel superior in most aspects that actually matter?
LOOOOOOL.
Russians are scum. Literally every Russian I've worked with in a professional capacity has been a lying, duplicitous, completely untrustworthy clown.
IMO Putin has no intent to fight a war in Ukraine and take over the country. He knows Biden is a weak adversary and is using this threat to ultimately get concessions from the West, find out where the weak points are in the Western alliance, and put Biden and his administration under pressure expecting Biden to make blunders so Putin can weaken him further, or at least get others to criticize Biden's handling of the situation with the same outcome.
This is a little more of a conspiracy theory opinion, but what if Putin's maneuver is just the first punch of an multi-faceted attack. Putin drags Biden into this, then China moves on Taiwan, then North Korea decides it's time to muddy the waters even further.
yeah Putin has always put the prosperity of Russian citizens very high on his list of priorities. /sarcasm.
Russians are tough, intelligent, hard working, industrious people. They may be the toughest and most intelligent people on earth. Are you denying that Russians can compare themselves to others around the globe and not feel superior in most aspects that actually matter?
Russians are tough, intelligent, hard working, industrious people. They may be the toughest and most intelligent people on earth. Are you denying that Russians can compare themselves to others around the globe and not feel superior in most aspects that actually matter?
LOOOOOOL.
Russians are scum. Literally every Russian I've worked with in a professional capacity has been a lying, duplicitous, completely untrustworthy clown.
Sad, but not surprising to see more racism against ethnic Russians.
Putin isn't doing this all for himself. He is doing this for the future of Russia. Nothing is more valuable than land. Ukraine may be poor now. In the years to come, the sanctions will fade away, but the territorial accession will be permanent. Borders rarely change in the modern world, and any chance to expand them is of tremendous national advantage, irrespective of temporary sanctions.
Putin. Does.Not.Care.About.Russia. He only cares about his survival. He does not want to spend the rest of his life in jail or be hunted down like Ceausescu. He needs to drive down any pro-democratic or pro-West movement in the former soviet republics in order for him to survive. He was actually in East Germany when he felt the pro-West mob defy his authority. He knows what could happen to him if a similar mob got going in Russia.
And yeah Russia already has way more land than it could ever use.
Putin has immense popularity in Russia. He doesn't need to worry about his own survival. There is no such thing as a threatening "pro-West mob" in Russia. They love Putin. Get over it
A neutral cost-benefit analysis of invading Ukraine would clearly lean towards one conclusion: "no"
-Ukraine is dirt poor with no significant natural resources, so economically there's not much advantage. Ukraine has access to the Black Sea, but so does Russia.
-Ukraine borders several NATO countries, but so does Russia. So there's a minor strategic advantage to increase the buffer region, but not really.
-By invading Ukraine, Putin will make Russia an international pariah for generations to come, in both trade and international affairs (olympics, UN, international organizations, NGOs, etc).
The only motivation that makes sense is he's a desperate, aging leader who wants to gin up nationalist sentiment to consolidate more power internally, but he's already the undisputed leader/dictator of Russia so that doesn't make sense to me either.
Putin is not a stupid man, so there must be a good reason for doing this. Maybe he know something we don't?
NATO doesn’t have a good reason to exist and hasn’t since the 90s. The US has been steadily adding new members that belonged to the former soviet bloc, understandably to Russia’s chagrin. Putin’s doing what the US would do too to protect its territorial interests if it were in Russia’s shoes. The US has very strategic bases set up along Russia’s western border as well as around China. Don’t you think at some point those countries would also decide to expand their sphere of control just like the US has been for decades?
What you don't understand is your own motive. Why are you jerking off to fear porn? In public at that. Go somewhere private and fret about this non-existent invasion
So! Wigins! Why exactly are 190,000 Russian troops on the Ukrainian border? Which is way more than prior post-Soviet exercises.
Russia has 190k troops on the border where they will stay for a few weeks/months, preventing an easy false flag--invasion combo by Western countries. That's their job. Literally just defensive maneuvering against saber-rattling western countries.
Guns, ammo, tech has been pouring into Ukraine from the same countries who are insisting we will soon be at war with Russia (but it will be their fault, not ours).
The US would act the same way if some hypothetical South American confederation insisted we were about to invade Sonora, MX and frantically started pushing guns, ammo, and soldiers up to the border.
A neutral cost-benefit analysis of invading Ukraine would clearly lean towards one conclusion: "no"
-Ukraine is dirt poor with no significant natural resources, so economically there's not much advantage. Ukraine has access to the Black Sea, but so does Russia.
-Ukraine borders several NATO countries, but so does Russia. So there's a minor strategic advantage to increase the buffer region, but not really.
-By invading Ukraine, Putin will make Russia an international pariah for generations to come, in both trade and international affairs (olympics, UN, international organizations, NGOs, etc).
The only motivation that makes sense is he's a desperate, aging leader who wants to gin up nationalist sentiment to consolidate more power internally, but he's already the undisputed leader/dictator of Russia so that doesn't make sense to me either.
Putin is not a stupid man, so there must be a good reason for doing this. Maybe he know something we don't?
«This is Ukraine pictured on top of a map of Europe. It's the biggest European country, bigger than France. Donbass territories, occupied by Russia, are as big as Switzerland. What is happening now is not a small local conflict, but a hazard for the whole world.» Orig. by Olena Karpenko For those who ask: “Why does Ukraine matter?” 1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores; 2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves; 2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves); 2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons); 2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves; 3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters) 4th in the world by the total value of natural resources; 7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons) Ukraine is an agricultural country: 1st in Europe in terms of arable land area; 3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume); 1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil; 2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports; 3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world; 4th largest producer of potatoes in the world; 5th largest rye producer in the world; 5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons); 8th place in the world in wheat exports; 9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs; 16th place in the world in cheese exports. Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people. Ukraine is an industrialized country: 1st in Europe in ammonia production; 2-е Europe's and 4th largest natural gas pipeline system in the world (142.5 bln cubic meters of gas throughput capacity in the EU); 3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants; 3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km); 3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment; 3rd largest iron exporter in the world 4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world; 4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers; 4th place in the world in clay exports 4th place in the world in titanium exports 8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates; 9th place in the world in exports of defence industry products; 10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons). Source: Andriy Futey Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Ukrainian World Congress - Свiтовий Конґрес Українців 👇
I think his motivation is incredibly clear. He has made it abundantly clear.
Putin's issue is that Ukraine want to join NATO and NATO is considering it rather than stating it won't happen. Putin can't have NATO on his doorstep or risk a conflict over the Crimea with Ukraine backed by NATO.
The real question is what do you think his action is going to be? If you think his action is the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine then you're watching too much BBC.
NATO doesn’t have a good reason to exist and hasn’t since the 90s. The US has been steadily adding new members that belonged to the former soviet bloc, understandably to Russia’s chagrin. Putin’s doing what the US would do too to protect its territorial interests....
This pretty much sums things up. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been behaving like a global hegemon. History indicates this strategy tends to fail in the long run.
Western-style democracy is not breaking out in Russia any time soon. Just like it's not breaking out in the Middle East any time soon. Assad is preferable to ISIS. Putin is preferable to the chaos that almost certainly would ensue if a Western stooge like Navalny came to power in Russia.
Some balance-of-power politics would defuse the Ukraine crisis in no time.
In the big scheme of things, Putin's ambitions don't really conflict with vital US interests. Also, during the Cold War, we were allied with people like Pinochet, Franco and Syngman Rhee -- all pretty much cut from the same ideological cloth as Putin. There's no reason we can't peacefully coexist with a nationalist Russia.
NATO doesn’t have a good reason to exist and hasn’t since the 90s. The US has been steadily adding new members that belonged to the former soviet bloc, understandably to Russia’s chagrin. Putin’s doing what the US would do too to protect its territorial interests....
This pretty much sums things up. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been behaving like a global hegemon. History indicates this strategy tends to fail in the long run.
Western-style democracy is not breaking out in Russia any time soon. Just like it's not breaking out in the Middle East any time soon. Assad is preferable to ISIS. Putin is preferable to the chaos that almost certainly would ensue if a Western stooge like Navalny came to power in Russia.
Some balance-of-power politics would defuse the Ukraine crisis in no time.
In the big scheme of things, Putin's ambitions don't really conflict with vital US interests. Also, during the Cold War, we were allied with people like Pinochet, Franco and Syngman Rhee -- all pretty much cut from the same ideological cloth as Putin. There's no reason we can't peacefully coexist with a nationalist Russia.
Yeah ok. let’s just let Russia roll they countries. plant flags. great idea!
I think his motivation is incredibly clear. He has made it abundantly clear.
Putin's issue is that Ukraine want to join NATO and NATO is considering it rather than stating it won't happen. Putin can't have NATO on his doorstep or risk a conflict over the Crimea with Ukraine backed by NATO.
The real question is what do you think his action is going to be? If you think his action is the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine then you're watching too much BBC.
I’ve been of this view and I hope you are right, but the news flow from the past ~24hrs has been pretty bad. It doesn’t seem logical to me, but it does feel like Russia is setting up the ‘false flag’. Hopefully just a ruse to make Biden look bad, cut off gas supplies to Europe (to gain further negotiating leverage), etc. and ultimately won’t come to much, but it does seem likely these actions may spur preemptive sanctions, which then changes risk/reward calculations on further escalations.
Personally, I am of the view that making Ukraine a NATO country would be a catastrophic error for the US. We should give Putin that concession since it is in our own interest anyway and figure out what of value we can get in return. I think Biden prefers a different course of action, unfortunately.
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