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>What the Kremlin says and what is actually means and does are so fundamentally divorced that it would be endearing that you think you can take them at their wo

>What the Kremlin says and what is actually means and does are so fundamentally divorced that it would be endearing that you think you can take them at their word if it wasn't so painful because even the slightest bit of study on the subject would tell you how dangerously foolish that is. >The Kremlin has telepraphed exactly one thing, since forever: they'll try to get away with blatant bluff, force, oppression and otherwise until the day Muscovy is no more. I think we tend to scrutinize our enemies harder than ourselves sometimes in that regard. I don't know what country you're from and thus won't try to guess, but here in the US looking at what our politicians have said or say over the years they're guilty of a similar disconnect. What's important is that there have been two decades of noise in Russia over what's happening now and we disregarded it, diplomatically snubbed them, stoked the flames, and followed up by not taking the steps to take full responsibility for Ukraine's safety when the dam finally burst. When the situation was reversed, and Russians were meddling in our own backyard with Cuba, we were able to reach a diplomatic solution instead of escalating- we (understandably) blew a gasket over a foreign superpower encroaching on our local home sphere of influence, reached out, and they backed down with concessions that made both sides relatively happy to leave that conflict at that. Now that something similar is happening on their side of the world, we were more than happy to goad them until they invaded. Russia's actions in Ukraine are disgusting but it's understandable what the parent comment meant when he said this was telegraphed many years in advance.

brnt 3y ago
The situations are so uncomparable, the kind of claims, aims, methods and history so different, that I'll just ask you to examine those facts a bit further. Im not American, perhaps you guessed. What (some/many) Americans dont get is that its not about 20th century geopolitics. It's about a consistent pattern playing out for the past 500 years, more depending on how you count. You can check out Timothy Snyder's lecture for a taste of that history. It's about Russia never backing off ever. That's the only role the US plays: providing a credible threat greater than Russia can muster. This Russia hasn't changed in that way of dealing, because it is core to its conception (collaborators with the Golden Horde). I never will. Cuba was far less of a thing for them then it was for the US. They didn't back off at all, that is a misunderstanding of their goals and means.

brnt 3y ago

The situations are so uncomparable, the kind of claims, aims, methods and history so different, that I'll just ask you to examine those facts a bit further. Im not American, perhaps you guessed. What (some/many) Americans dont get is that its not about 20th century geopolitics. It's about a consistent pattern playing out for the past 500 years, more depending on how you count. You can check out Timothy Snyder's lecture for a taste of that history. It's about Russia never backing off ever. That's the only role the US plays: providing a credible threat greater than Russia can muster. This Russia hasn't changed in that way of dealing, because it is core to its conception (collaborators with the Golden Horde). I never will. Cuba was far less of a thing for them then it was for the US. They didn't back off at all, that is a misunderstanding of their goals and means.