6 ms·

"If his former exes asked for a restraining order against him, what incentive or assurance does he have for allowing them to break up with him?" The problem is

"If his former exes asked for a restraining order against him, what incentive or assurance does he have for allowing them to break up with him?" The problem is Russia. Russia could be a normal country like its neighbors and make money from trading goods while wooing foreign investors, but Putin took the history books he read too seriously and thinks he can pull another round of territorial conquests. I don't see how other countries joining a defensive pact "mitigates" Russian sovereignty. No one is encroaching on Russia's borders.

vasac 4y ago
[flagged]
- tokai 4y ago
  You don't create reality with your imagination.
jabl 4y ago
Many were optimistic after the fall of the USSR ("end of history" and all that) that Russia would develop into a liberal democracy that would concentrate on improving the lives of its citizens, and engage in mutually beneficial peaceful trade with other countries, while respecting their sovereignty. But, the Russian leadership chose differently, aggression and imperialism, and are now reaping what they sowed. Whining over Finland choosing to take steps to protect it from Russian aggression is the whine of sad, small, and entitled men.
- foverzar 4y ago
  Wow. Well, I can share that quite a lot of Russians share mutual perspective these days. Kinda makes one wonder how come the privileged part of the world that lead us after "the end of history" now seems to have strained or even terrible relations with Russia, China, India, most of the Middle East (even Saudis are super grumpy at this point), half of Africa, and even souther parts of Americas. All this talk of "mutually beneficial peaceful trade" and "respect for sovereignty" is cheap and empty - systemically confirmed in practice in many parts of the world, in different environments, tested against one constant.
foverzar 4y ago
> The problem is Russia. Russia could be a normal country like its neighbors and make money from trading goods > No one is encroaching on Russia's borders. This is really horrifying how the perspectives on the current directly oppose each other, completely Orwellian. It's not like it's some ancient history, all of this is following the lessons learned from interactions in the 2000s - when the US had been violating the INF treaty with missile "defence" system in Poland and had uncorked local ethnic conflict with arms supply. From Russia's point of view the events of 2013 in Ukraine along with the previous grievances (the Second Chechen War, Georgia, NATO missile systems, etc), along with the denial of its pleads of new security agreements - were all a consecutive persistent strategy against it. And sorry, sue me, downvote me and tell me I'm brainwashed all you want, but this is a fair point - let's not pretend that NATO is a strictly defensive organization and nothing ever more than that.
- mantas 4y ago
  Why do we have to put up with Russia's expansions due to „grievances“ that some other expansions were denied or questioned? It's funny how Russia always pretend to be a victim when it's the aggressor. God forbid someone endangers „rightfully conquested“ territories :D
  - foverzar 4y ago
    > Why put up with Russia expansion Why put up with NATO expansion? Russia's expansion is also totally defensive! wink-wink > It's funny how Russia always pretend to be a victim It's ironic how Russia is always assumed to be a passive unresponsive corpse with no concerns or perspective and memory of its own. I wonder if it's even hypothetically possible for people to try to fairly grasp that perspective, otherwise Europe (and yeah, that includes Russia) would be an "interesting" place to be in the upcoming years.
    - actionfromafar 4y ago
      I never assumed Russia was a passive unresponsive corpse with no concerns or perspective and memory of its own. In fact, I am very concerned about its death-worshipping perspective and distorted memory. You still have to stand up to a bully, or you encourage them. A strategic mistake was not putting severe sanctions on Russia in 2014 when they annexed Crimea.
vasac 4y ago
I see that I struck a nerve when pointing out that this mythical 'defensive alliance' constantly wages wars on the territories of other countries :) I'm so sorry.

vasac 4y ago

[flagged]

tokai 4y ago
You don't create reality with your imagination.

jabl 4y ago

Many were optimistic after the fall of the USSR ("end of history" and all that) that Russia would develop into a liberal democracy that would concentrate on improving the lives of its citizens, and engage in mutually beneficial peaceful trade with other countries, while respecting their sovereignty. But, the Russian leadership chose differently, aggression and imperialism, and are now reaping what they sowed. Whining over Finland choosing to take steps to protect it from Russian aggression is the whine of sad, small, and entitled men.

foverzar 4y ago
Wow. Well, I can share that quite a lot of Russians share mutual perspective these days. Kinda makes one wonder how come the privileged part of the world that lead us after "the end of history" now seems to have strained or even terrible relations with Russia, China, India, most of the Middle East (even Saudis are super grumpy at this point), half of Africa, and even souther parts of Americas. All this talk of "mutually beneficial peaceful trade" and "respect for sovereignty" is cheap and empty - systemically confirmed in practice in many parts of the world, in different environments, tested against one constant.

foverzar 4y ago

> The problem is Russia. Russia could be a normal country like its neighbors and make money from trading goods > No one is encroaching on Russia's borders. This is really horrifying how the perspectives on the current directly oppose each other, completely Orwellian. It's not like it's some ancient history, all of this is following the lessons learned from interactions in the 2000s - when the US had been violating the INF treaty with missile "defence" system in Poland and had uncorked local ethnic conflict with arms supply. From Russia's point of view the events of 2013 in Ukraine along with the previous grievances (the Second Chechen War, Georgia, NATO missile systems, etc), along with the denial of its pleads of new security agreements - were all a consecutive persistent strategy against it. And sorry, sue me, downvote me and tell me I'm brainwashed all you want, but this is a fair point - let's not pretend that NATO is a strictly defensive organization and nothing ever more than that.

mantas 4y ago
Why do we have to put up with Russia's expansions due to „grievances“ that some other expansions were denied or questioned? It's funny how Russia always pretend to be a victim when it's the aggressor. God forbid someone endangers „rightfully conquested“ territories :D
- foverzar 4y ago
  > Why put up with Russia expansion Why put up with NATO expansion? Russia's expansion is also totally defensive! wink-wink > It's funny how Russia always pretend to be a victim It's ironic how Russia is always assumed to be a passive unresponsive corpse with no concerns or perspective and memory of its own. I wonder if it's even hypothetically possible for people to try to fairly grasp that perspective, otherwise Europe (and yeah, that includes Russia) would be an "interesting" place to be in the upcoming years.
  - actionfromafar 4y ago
    I never assumed Russia was a passive unresponsive corpse with no concerns or perspective and memory of its own. In fact, I am very concerned about its death-worshipping perspective and distorted memory. You still have to stand up to a bully, or you encourage them. A strategic mistake was not putting severe sanctions on Russia in 2014 when they annexed Crimea.

vasac 4y ago

I see that I struck a nerve when pointing out that this mythical 'defensive alliance' constantly wages wars on the territories of other countries :) I'm so sorry.