I guess you mean Russia had no choice but to attack Ukraine? Because of the US/NATO? If so could you explain the reasoning behind this please? I genuinely don't understand this argument. Seems to me that this war is really detrimental to the Russian people, and they absolutely would have been better off not waging it.
The war happened because NATO kept expanding eastwards. Stoltenberg has now publicly acknowledged that Putin made clear to NATO in a draft treaty before the war that it could avert it if NATO agreed not to keep enlarging. But NATO rejected the offer.
Then lastly on Sweden. First of all, it is historic that now Finland is member of the Alliance. And we have to remember the background. The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition for not invade Ukraine. Of course we didn't sign that.
The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that.
I get that Putin hates NATO, and that NATO expansion weakens his foreign influence. So he... invades Ukraine? Which is officially the precise reason why Finland pulled the trigger and joined NATO.
So I still have the same questions: How does the war benefit the Russian people? How is it a good response to NATO expansion? And what would have happened to Russia if Putin didn't declare war? Would it have been worse than global economic sanctions and Finland joining NATO (not to mention the cost of war itself)?
NATO now openly admits that it's running low on weapons and that it lacks industrial capacity to keep up with Russia. European economies are in a crisis, and pro western governments are starting to fall as we just saw in Slovakia. If you still don't understand what a massive strategic defeat for NATO this proxy war was, then you're going to see a lot of surprises in the near future. The BRICS is now a bigger economic bloc than the G7, and there's a whole alternative economy now developing outside western control.
Meanwhile, Russia is in a far stronger geopolitical position today and majority of the world supports Russia against the west:
Russian economy is now projected to grow by 2.5% and industrial output in Russia is surging while it's collapsing in the west and Europe is now in a recession.
What would have happened was that NATO was going to absorb Ukraine and put nuclear weapons on Russian border. This was a red line that was very clearly communicated to NATO. It all comes down to the fact that NATO decided that it could act unilaterally and ignore concerns of all other countries. Now, Russia says that it is willing to challenge NATO militarily.
Thinking that this has been anything other than an utter debacle for NATO illustrates profound lack of understanding of what's actually happening.
The BRICS is now a bigger economic bloc than the G7
Yeah that's mostly China (and India) though.
Russia says that it is willing to challenge NATO militarily.
Russia also said the war would last 3 days. And that they were freeing the Ukrainians from nazi jews.
OK so the reason is fear of nuclear weapons creeping closer? But NATO already has dozens of nuclear warheads in range of Russia, doesn't it? Seems like bullshit to me, and seeing you gloating about the rise of BRICS vs the west makes me think I'm right.
Both China and India are close allies of Russia and trade between Russia and China accounts for over 200 billion now.
Russia also said the war would last 3 days.
Russia never said the war would last 3 days.
And that they were freeing the Ukrainians from nazi jews.
No, what they said is that the Ukrainian regime that the west installed in a coup in 2014 has been doing this to the people in Donbas as reported by CNN, HRW, and NPR
OK so the reason is fear of nuclear weapons creeping closer? But NATO already has dozens of nuclear warheads in range of Russia, doesn’t it?
Nuclear missiles from Ukraine could reach Moscow in five minutes. If you don't understand how that's a major escalation, don't know what else to tell you. The question is why you think that Russia should just sit back and let an aggressive military alliance with a history of invading countries continue expanding to its borders.
Seems like bullshit to me, and seeing you gloating about the rise of BRICS vs the west makes me think I’m right.
BRICS is expanding precisely because the west acts like it owns the world which is the same reason NATO is currently at war with Russia.
I'm not the one who says NATO should continue escalating the proxy war, you are. That's how you get WW3 by continuing to escalate the war instead of stopping it and starting negotiations. Anybody who has even a couple of brain cells to rub together understands this.
You are a paid Russian agent.
Your arguments basically do not exist and you seek to illicit an emotional response and distract rather than have a honest conversation.
You are a paid Russian agent.
Your arguments basically do not exist and you seek to illicit an emotional response and distract rather than have a honest conversation.