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Russia is a schoolyard bully and should be treated as such
by kofejnik 10y ago
Russia is a schoolyard bully and should be treated as such
- TeMPOraL 10y agoA less sophisticated schoolyard bully than the US, but otherwise pretty much the same. It would actually make sense for Europe to make friends with Russia; they're, after all, kind of closer (geographically and culturally), and on the same slab of land.
- jacquesm 10y agoNo, that would not make sense at all. Russia is run by an entirely different play-book than the rest of the EU.
- kofejnik 10y agonot the same at all, US hasn't annexed territories from its neighbours for 150 years now
- TeMPOraL 10y agoNo, but they bombed the shit out of several countries in the last 15 years. Also, both US and Russia do more bullying on the economic level anyway.
- kofejnik 10y agoThere's a very simple real world test - Korea. Russia created North Korea, US created South Korea. So ask any other developing country - who would they rather be allies with?
- konart 10y agoSo bombing the hell off the Iraq (for exmaple) is okay as long you are not grabbing the land? Like you can kill 300000 people and everyone is okay as long as the territory is whole. This is the most dumb thing I've read in this thread.
- kofejnik 10y agonow russkies are bombing the hell out of Syria, do you like it better?
- TeMPOraL 10y agoWait. Last time I checked it was the US which was bombing the hell out of Syria while claiming to fight against ISIS. Russkies are actually supporting the legitimate Syrian government, also saying they fight against ISIS.
- konart 10y agoNo, but we do this after we were asked by the legit government and according to international law. While the US did that out of their own whim, even when UN said clear "NO".
- vacri 10y agoApart from the Spanish-American war, of course.
- kofejnik 10y agoright, I stand corrected, 118 years
- agumonkey 10y agoThere's a gradient of sophistication between western and eastern. Seems to me that Westerners like to hide things under the logic and courtlaw rug while easterners are more crude in how they express painful issues. For the East, West is devious, to the West, East is barbarian.
- bad_user 10y agoRussia has been "sharing" culture with Romania and other eastern countries for decades during USSR. No, we do not have the same culture and we do not share the same values. Friends you say? Oh, that's rich. Maybe when they give us back our national treasure, along with Basarabia and Northen Bukovina, which they took with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and apologize for crushing the national identity of those regions, for starving them to death and for the mass deportations and killings, maybe then we can be friends. But that will never happen, especially given its leadership. So until hell freezes over, they can go fuck themselves.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoI see the point, but to be honest, many European countries (my own included) suffered greatly under Nazi Germany - including mass deportations and killings (but maybe sans the starving part), and yet we've forgiven the Germans. Sure, the USSR times were more recent than II WW, but I hope in years people learn to forgive Russia for the soviet times too. Keeping an "eye for an eye" attitude can get you only so far, and it's better to be friendly and work towards ensuring atrocities such like these don't happen again.
- varjag 10y agoGermans went to apologize and pay retributions. Also considerable soul seeking that lasts many decades now. Russians (there are exceptions certainly, but statistically) are proud for the oppression they did upon the neighbours and cherish it as their golden years and action plan ahead.
- qaq 10y agoYou do realise that in modern Russia Stalin is considered a hero and role model?
- yurish 10y agoLie. For most people in Russia Stalin is just a figure of USSR past that they do not care much about. Few people which try to bring Stalin do not have wide support and they do not make your words true.
- fsloth 10y agoNot the same. Both aim to project geopolitical power, sure, but US still a political entity in the western tradition where totalitarian rulers are not accepted, and Russia is of the eastern tradition where total rulers are admired and loved. Most of europe falls to the western category (roughly). There is a east/west divide in political sensibilities, it's as old as antiquity, I don't know where it's coming from, but it's a real effect.