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And Germany got what they wanted, and Russia invaded Georgia the very same year. Merkels and Schröders are how we got here. German military is now planning for

• danbruc 3y ago
  Germany did not get what they wanted, Georgia and Ukraine got the Bucharest declaration that they will eventually become NATO members. Russia attacking the rest of Europe is just fear mongering.
  • poszlem 3y ago
    Because Russians would never do that, right? Except perhaps for: Livonian War The Polish-Russian War of the 1600s The Great Northern War The Russo-Turkish Wars The Partitions of Poland The Crimean War The Winter War The Invasion of Czechoslovakia or some other
    • danbruc 3y ago
      By that logic the European countries should also keep a close eye on Germany.
  • khokhol 3y ago
    Russia attacking the rest of Europe is just fear mongering. Unfortunately this absolutely not the case, as applies to the Baltics and Moldova. The threat to those countries is very real.
    • danbruc 3y ago
      What is the evidence for that?
      • khokhol 3y ago
        Various menacing statements and border incidents over the years (including a cross-border kidnapping in Estonia a few years back); GRU sabotage incidents in Czechia and Romania; and most notably, ongoing occupation of a good chunk of Moldovan territory, in the form of the Kremlin-managed mafia state known as Transnistria. Basically Putin's whole idea is that any place the Russian Empire (or its temporary proxy, the Soviet Union) sat on at one point or another in the past 350 years is fair game for re-occupation, vassalization and/or intimidation of some sort today.
        • danbruc 3y ago
          The Eston Kohver kidnapping, an Estonian security service member kidnapped a few meters across the border and later exchanged for another Estonian that spyed for Russia. Shaddy business, sure, but nothing that says war with Estonia. Sabotage in Czech Republic, the Vrbětice explosion? They blew up the ammunition stockpile of some weapons trader that intended to sell them to Ukraine. That does not seem directed at the Czech Republic. Maybe I am missing something, but the history of Transnistria sound not unlike many other civil wars to me. And just to be clear, I am not supporting Russia, but we have to be real and stick to the facts. False judgments - no matter whether it is making Russia more or less evil than it is - can lead to bad decisions. In my opinion a random assortment of incidents like the ones you named are hardly enough to draw the conclusion that Putin wants to reestablish the Soviet Union.
          • khokhol 3y ago
            It's all about connecting the dots, which are more than the sum of the parts. And taking into account the last 350 years of history. In this context, the above incidents (and the cat-and-mouse games with Sweden) can be seen as shots across the bow. If you look at Transnistria, it's definitely not a random civil war, but very much a proxy conflict (like breakaway republics in Georgia, or what Russia was doing in Eastern Ukraine 2014-2022). In my opinion a random assortment of incidents like the ones you named are hardly enough to draw the conclusion that Putin wants to reestablish the Soviet Union The Soviet Union, no. But what he does want is as much re-establishment as possible of Russia's historical "sphere of influence", and in Putin's mind, of Russia's role as the protector of Slavic culture and Eastern Orthodox values. There are plenty of statements in support of this, all over the place, and very easy to find.