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They were, but they've shown that they'll gladly ignore human rights abuses and autocracy so long as the price is right. Trump's used to doing business that way
by lenerdenator 2y ago
They were, but they've shown that they'll gladly ignore human rights abuses and autocracy so long as the price is right. Trump's used to doing business that way, unfortunately.
Really, if Putin hadn't invaded Ukraine, I don't think Europeans would particularly care about those problems in Russia. It only really became problematic when the order of the continent was threatened, and even then it took some serious arm-twisting to get certain members of NATO and the EU to commit to measures to do something.
- Zigurd 2y agoOf course, relative to starting a land war in Europe "...if Putin hadn't invaded Ukraine, I don't think Europeans would particularly care..." That's proportionate. Equally, though, I'm sure they would be pleased to find Russia wanting to join a rules based order. Bolsonaro was just recently found to be plotting to kill his political rival in Brazil. What should we who are not Brazilians do about that?
- lenerdenator 2y agoDepends. Are the Brazilians doing anything about it? If not, and no one else is, then there's a chance that someone like Trump might try to do something like that himself. That's what he does. He sees someone else getting away with something bad, tries to do it because he thinks he'll get an advantage, gets caught, and complains about how unfair it is that he got caught.