Putin's War With Ukraine (and democracy, freedom, self-determination, etc.)

Fantasy is the correct word. Dictatorial strong men almost always die in power and of natural causes well into their old age. Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, and Francisco Franco would just be the beginning of a list of recent examples. A triumphalist fantasy is what the west has been living since the end of the cold war, even in the face of the obvious cultural defeats (the military defeats being just the surface) in Iraq/Iran/Libya/Syria/Afghanistan, partial and ongoing defeats in Eastern Europe and Asia. We are still in the "I can't BELIEVE!" stage, but I suspect we have our heads so far up our peace-love-dope asses it will be some time yet before anything resembling reality will be enlightening upon the minds of western leader/elites.

 

I don't know what the percentage of "old age" vs "taken out" is but I can point to plenty of counter examples. Julius Caesar, El Duce, Hitler, Saddam Hussain, Gaddafi and many more not very famous ones.

 

I believe for Putin, this is less about a neighbor who he claims to have a shared spirit, rather than a woman he desires, but gets repeatedly turned down by her. In his somewhat bizarre article ”On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians“, Putin fantasizes about Russia living together with Ukraine like Americans and Canadians, or Germans and Austrians. Completely ignoring the fact, that relations between the latter are entirely based on shared values and voluntariness.

And at some point, he obviously must have decided to rape Ukraine, if she doesn't give herself voluntarily. I could be wrong, but as I see it, this is about some of the oldest and strongest emotions and motives in human history: vanity, jealousy and unrequited love.

 

This thread on twitter (its long, probably like. 10-15 minute read)

https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1497993363076915204

Is full of things I hadn't really considered. Like the idea that Ukraine might actually have more soldiers with combat experience than Russia

 

Those people didn't die of old age, sure, but most of them also didn't die to sudden coups or assassinations. Except for Caesar, they all died because they lost wars and couldn't find someplace to take refuge that would tolerate them.

The thing with coups is that the personal risk to coup conspirators is extreme for obvious reasons. They have to have a lot to gain (or fear having a lot to lose if they specifically don't do something) to make it an even slightly appealing prospect to start. Plus, even if you overcome the personal risk part, there's the matter of whether a coup might make things worse for the new leaders even if it succeeded, with the internal turmoil making them more susceptible to powerful neighbors and less able to impose on weaker ones.

I don't think any country really wants a coup, at least I doubt the US and Europeans do - that's just dangerous when we're talking about nuclear powers. What they'd like is a Russia that doesn't cause big problems for anyone, but it's pretty clear that isn't happening under current Russian leadership. Best to try to limit the damage from the periodic outbursts for now and see if the situation changes down the line.

 

This just reminded me of the story I saw in the news last week of this rich dude in Pakistan. He captured this girl that refused his advances, and sexually abused the girl for 2 days after which he decapitated her .

 

I would think the risk of them and everyone they know being wiped out in a nuclear war should be enough. It sure would be for me. Although, I'm also sure most of the upper echelon of Russian power has their families safely stashed in nuclear bunkers. f'ing assholes...

 

Whatever happens, the current heads of government need to stay alive and in Ukraine, so that Putin can't step in and try to install a puppet govt. Otherwise, I fear this will go on for far too long with far too much carnage on both sides. It's been said that Russia doesn't have nearly enough troops to hold Ukraine and would get completely picked apart by insurgents if they did try to take over. But the number of dead and suffering would surely be terrible in the extreme.

 

Having discovered he can't compress the whole year of 1938 into a few days, he might now be re-evaluating some of his interpretations of history. And hopefully, his aspirations as to his place in it.

 

That area is Transnitria. It's a unrecognized breakaway state where majority of people want to join Russia. I don't know how Moldova would feel about that but I think situation could develop very similarly as it did with ukraine. First it's just Crimea/Donbas/Transnitria but eventually Russia needs the whole country so they can "save" whoever.

Protecting their citizens living outside russian borders is a big thing in their national security strategy. How convenient. I live in Finland(not a NATO member). 1300km common border with russia. I hope someday Putin does not see a reason to "save" the large russian minority living here.

Of course I would be more concerned if I lived in Moldova or Kazakhstan. Russia asked Kazakhstan to send troops to Ukraine. They denied. That is perhaps surprising as Kazakhstan and Russia have/had very close relations. I'm sure Putin will not let such "betrayal" go unpunished.

I hope people go full Ceausescu on Putin soon. I red somewhere that over 60% people there support actions on Ukraine. I can't of course assess how credible such poll is. Still...there is strong support. National propaganda is effective and it's hard to believe "rumours" about how things really are if you've been brainwashed with stories about corrupt West for decades. Economic sanctions are unfair for average russians but it's necessary. Everyone in russia need to start asking why everything is REALLY going to hell. If someone from Putins inner circle won't stop him it can only happen with uprise of millions of normal russian people. Of course next guy on the "throne" could be even worse. Seriously. It might be hard to believe but Stalin, who killed 30 million of his own people is very popular in modern russia.

China could have leverage on russia but they won't intervene. Weaker Russia could infact be a convenient sock puppet for China in future. West can't demand anything of china. We're dependant on their electronics much like europe is on russian gas and oil. And not just russia actually. 2/5 main gas pipelines go through ukraine. Call me cynical but I find it suspicious that initial reaction from EU was bit of a lackluster and suddenly it changed. I would not be surprised if Zelensky had reminded Macron&Scholz where their gas is coming from. Not that I would blame Zelensky for it. Anything to survive.

 

There is something seriosly wrong with people conducting the offense. Bombing civilians who they are saving? Bombing Jewish Memorials of 2WW victims. I can't imagine a graver offense against humanity.

#narcissisticpersonalitydisorder #lies #broken #crime

Normal people are filled up with toxic crap happening in the world and want to work to rebuild or improve. Moment of silence to the victims of criminals and toxic a-holes.


I hope It gets better for people who actually want to live and want a peaceful fullfilling life. The fight for freedom and peace is real.

 

Not really... Putin will do whatever he wants with the Ukrainian leaders. Remember that his own opposition leader is in prison indefinitely, apparently with his health being destroyed.

I am very disgusted by those berate Zelenskyy as being just a comedian. But the terrible decision lies ahead: assuming surrender is inevitable, how many deaths before he gives in.

Probably not something Putin ever does. His world view and world plan seems to be pretty fixed.

 

Everything up to now has been part of a grand and not so secret plan from the 90s.

1990s Manifesto outlining Russia’s plans is starting to come true - 2017
In the 1990s, an inner-circle of Generals and political scientists wrote a manifesto outlining Russia’s goals over the coming decades. They’re falling into place.
...
In 1997, a Russian political scientist named Aleksandr Dugin and a serving Russian General named Nikolai Klokotov sat down and wrote a text that would become the foundation of Russian geopolitical strategy over the next 20 years. It was called “Foundations of Geopolitics” and it was all about how Russia could reassert itself in the world.

Chillingly, the book now reads like a to-do list for Putin’s behaviour on the world stage.
...
Like Putin, Dugin and Klokotov saw the collapse of the Soviet state as humiliating. They believed that the West had hacked infiltrated their institutions in the late-1980s, and weakened the Soviet state from within. They therefore sought revenge in kind - influencing the institutions of other countries, to return Russia to what they considered its rightful place as a superpower.


Wikipedia Excerpts on the Foundations of Geopolitics Book

In Europe:

Spoiler

• Germany should be offered the de facto political dominance over most Protestant and Catholic states located within Central and Eastern Europe. Kaliningrad Oblast could be given back to Germany. The book uses the term "Moscow–Berlin axis".
• France should be encouraged to form a bloc with Germany, as they both have a "firm anti-Atlanticist tradition".
• The United Kingdom, merely described as an "extraterritorial floating base of the U.S.", should be cut off from Europe.
• Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast".
• Estonia should be given to Germany's sphere of influence.
• Latvia and Lithuania should be given a "special status" in the Eurasian–Russian sphere.
• Poland should be granted a "special status" in the Eurasian sphere.
• Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia, "Serbian Bosnia" and Greece – "Orthodox collectivist East" – will unite with "Moscow the Third Rome" and reject the "rational-individualistic West".
• Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.

In the United States:

Spoiler

• Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".

 

I haven't seen this news yet, but a friend told me: Russian soldiers break into a house and hold family at gunpoint for... cigarettes.

It sounds almost funny, but doesn't it say something quite serious about supply lines and keeping troops happy enough to fight?