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Acting and speaking as though they are is part of how we got into this mess, Actually it was Putin's acting and speaking as if he could partially restore the g
by aguaviva 2y ago
Acting and speaking as though they are is part of how we got into this mess,
Actually it was Putin's acting and speaking as if he could partially restore the glory of the former Soviet empire (whose collapse he called "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century") that got Russia into its current mess in Ukraine.
He does, in any case, consider the current Russian Federation and the Soviet Union to be continuations of "historic Russia". So it's not Western rhetoric. And it isn't the West that is making him invade Ukraine and menace other countries.
- dralley 2y agoI think you misunderstood what I was saying. Of course Putin is an imperialist. But for two decades his grievances were treated as though they had legitimacy, or as though Russia should be given the same level deference and appeasement that the USSR was. Even holding Putin's opinions constant, the US and Europe should have pushed back harder against the aggression rather than pretending it wasn't happening.
- aguaviva 2y agoIndeed I did. I thought the referent of "as though they [were]" was "the USSR", rather than "a global superpower". The second possibility makes much more sense (and is more informative), so I should have assumed that one instead.