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> If Russia can provoke any NATO countries to attack first by, say, downing some airplane of theirs (fighter jets, recon, strategic bombers, etc.), they can use
by bootsmann 1y ago
> If Russia can provoke any NATO countries to attack first by, say, downing some airplane of theirs (fighter jets, recon, strategic bombers, etc.), they can use this as casus belli, and use it as propaganda.
This has already happened, Turkey shot down a Russian jet in 2015, the Russian state very quickly tucked its tail in after that. The VKS can't afford to lose these planes willy-nilly.
- piva00 1y agoThe Turkish pilot who shot down was persecuted by Erdogan: > Erdoğan announced in an interview that the two Turkish pilots who downed Russian aircraft were arrested on suspicion that they have links to the Gülen movement, and that a court should find out "the truth". Russia didn't tuck its tail, they deployed SAMs to their Syrian base, they deployed the late Moskva in the region, and they pressured Erdogan to punish the pilot.
- bootsmann 1y agoErdogan did this 9 months after the incident, shortly after a military coup against him. Presumably this was about scoring an internal policy win.
- MagnumOpus 1y ago> the Russian state very quickly tucked its tail in after that Russia retaliated by disallowing tourism to Turkey in the summer of 2016, causing about $5 billion of damage to the Turkish economy. https://carnegieendowment.org/static/media/images/202105-Pritchett_Figure1.png https://carnegieendowment.org/static/media/images/202105-Pri...