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What an epic blunder by Putin which we can only hope leads to some kind of change in Russia.
by kizer 5y ago
What an epic blunder by Putin which we can only hope leads to some kind of change in Russia.
- smoyer 5y agoCuriously, when the wall came down I thought we could all finally be friends.
- _8j50 5y agoFriends don't stockpile nukes against each other.
- GekkePrutser 5y agoNo but at that time those stockpiles were also in the process of being decommissioned. I have to echo that positive sentiment. And in some areas like Eastern Europe that's exactly what did happen of course.
- smoyer 5y agoI was in my late twenties and expecting my first child ...it was definitely a positive time and the economy was just starting to pick back up. Even the first gulf war seemed like a just cause (liberating Kuwait). I did a lot of work in Europe as well as a couple projects in Brazil and Americans weren't largely disp ised then.
- GekkePrutser 5y agoWhen people mention US aggression the first gulf war is never really one of them. I think most people still consider it pretty justified. I'm sure their motive was more about the oil but Iraq totally started it. It also didn't leave a power vacuum in the country afterwards that allowed a worse enemy to grow (Like Isis in Iraq, the Taliban's return in Afghanistan). Civilian casualties were also an order of magnitude lower. The local population was better off with the intervention than if it hadn't taken place. PS I don't despise Americans at all! Although I was opposed to the wars in Iraq (2003) and Afghanistan and my own country's involvement in them. However I don't blame the American people for it, same way I don't blame the Russian people for Ukraine. These wars are orchestrated by interests so far above the heads of common people that they really have no control over it.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- meepmorp 5y agoMaybe if the Soviet Union hadn't just completely collapsed, things might've been different. Or even just not having a corrupt, alcoholic clown for a president during the most critical period in Russian history since the war.
- laurent92 5y agoMaybe our FMI didn’t do such a good job at implementing capitalism in Russia. I know the World Bank criticized it a lot for its actions during the 1990 decade, namely Joseph Stieglitz.
- PedroBatista 5y agoThe chaos was inevitable, it happens ever time and in every society, specially after 70 years of one brutal regime. I was expecting even worse ( and it was bad ). And after a certain period of suffering and unrest, people just want "stability" and that's when any well-intention-ed politician in a country with 5min of democracy experience don't stand a change against the quintessential competent strongman savior of the once-great empire. The problems and solutions for Russia are inside, but I don't see how that society after 70 years + 20 under alternate realities can change to actually modern and democratic ( which is very different from being Americanized ).
- sofixa 5y agoMost of the Warsaw pact are doing much better ( in terms of democratic and economic development ) than most of the ex-Soviet republics, even though they came through a similar path. So it wasn't inevitable.
- PedroBatista 5y agoAll of them gone through a period of instability and serious economic hardship in the first years, that was my point. Then eventually they found the path and that path is not inevitable if they let themselves get caught by a “glorious savior”, then its inevitable they’ll end in yet another autocracy.
- 5y ago
- bingohbangoh 5y ago
- kcb 5y agoStrange. Last I checked the US arms many countries that share borders with friends. The Netherlands didn't seem to care when the US sold F-35s to Belgium.
- bingohbangoh 5y agoWhy does NATO exist again?
- poxrud 5y agoIt’s a defensive pact for smaller countries to protect themselves from Russian aggression and imperialism.
- nevermindiguess 5y agoAnd that’s exactly the problem. Seeking an enemy where there’s one eventually creates it. And lots of arms revenues too.
- timeon 5y agoHow is it problem if you want to be protected from someone who has already rolled tanks in your country before?
- timeon 5y agoMaybe you should ask people in Poland, Latvia or maybe even in Ukraine.
- _8j50 5y agoI agree with the blunder part but only if he ends up failing to control ukraine. So long as he succeeds there, the russian people will lose big time but Putin will do just fine. But if he loses, I don't think he will leave peacefully but he will leave.
- beebmam 5y agoWithout full extermination of Ukrainians, I'm having a hard time believing Russia will be able to control it.
- _8j50 5y agoI think the problem is morale for russia. If they have it, they can annex ukraine like the USSR days. Chechnya fought very hard like ukraine.
- mopsi 5y agoThe morale is such that Russia imprisons people who call this a war and any reporting other than rehashing official PR statements is banned, all independent media has been shut down. In official statements, there's only a limited "special operation" against "Neo-Nazi drug addicts" in Ukraine and it's going well, while on the ground everything's falling apart and in some sectors they've deployed rear troops that shoot their own soldiers if they attempt to retreat. Some POWs have even described how their units executed own wounded soldiers to avoid having to deal with treating them. All in all, thousands of Russian service members have died, but Russian representatives refuse to collect bodies from Ukrainian authorities for proper burial. Relatives are kept in the dark. Many will receive a letter months from now saying that their father/husband/son died in undefined military exercise. Those relatives who speak up get a visit from security service intimidating them into shutting up. It's a total nightmare. There'd be a violent revolution the next day if Russian TV showed truth for one evening: orthodox churches burning, entire towns razed to ground, kids getting limbs blown off from cluster munitions dropped onto residential areas, all kinds of unimaginable suffering. The scale of this is such that there's no way to conceal truth for an extended period of time. It will lead to implosion of Russian society just like the Afghan war did in the 1980s.
- raverbashing 5y ago"blunder" I'd argue the blunder is on the yes men surrounding him who now will lose their perks because they didn't think of dealing with the problem first
- quietthrow 5y agoDon’t expect any change I would say. It’s tragic and sad but odds are beyond low.
- nevermindiguess 5y agoHow about hoping for change in your own country? Have you considered that you may be wrong about what Russian want? It’s not nord Korea, you know.