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>What are the people running Russia really afraid of? Putin seems to be afraid of losing his grip on Russian governance, and a Ukraine closer to the west means
by libertine 4y ago
>What are the people running Russia really afraid of?
Putin seems to be afraid of losing his grip on Russian governance, and a Ukraine closer to the west means Russians will have yet another ex soviet state thrive and be modernized. For how long has Ukraine been stomped by Russia?
And you can see this in all of his address, talking about the GREATNESS of Russia - greatness shouldn't be preached, it usually shows in their sphere of influence. And Russia had the resources to actually be a great power - they're sandwiched between the largest trading block in the world, and a country on a crazy growth trajectory.
No one wants to invade Russia.
Maybe the reality of the narrative of the "West never wanted to play with Russia", is probably that after what Putin did in Chechnya he set the tone for future relationships. The US has also done some wrong doing, like he constantly reminds us to try to justify the validity of his actions, but at least the US leadership is renewed - we're stuck with Putin.
So this clearly isn't about being invaded. Those days of "open plain fields will allow them to march to the doors of Moscow" are long, long gone. That's his excuse.
This event seems to point at an attempt of Putin to remain in power. Even the narrative of him being the more moderate actor, while all the others preach for nuclear war is obvious, and a foreign enemy... where Russians used to take vacations, and the governance sent their children to study... That's why the next decades will be of absurdity.
>What are the people running the West afraid of?
Of a warmonger neighbor. Don't fool yourself: I'm pretty sure if they could intervene to end this rather fast, they would.
Don't forget that the west has been providing weapons with tech from the 80's, 90's and early 2000's... the closest thing to modern hardware are drones... an actually participation of Western countries would end this conflict fast. Of course there would be casualties, but the retreat to Russian borders in sight, it would be fast.