Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow will deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus next month, a move that the Belarusian opposition described as an attempt to blackmail the West. Putin said during Friday's meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that work o...
Puppet states differ from allies, who choose their actions of their own initiative or in accordance with treaties they have voluntarily entered. Puppet states are forced into legally endorsing actions already taken by a foreign power.
All of Europe works as puppet states to the US, it doesn't matter what the official book says because if they would say it out loud then Europe would realise they are being dragged into collapse by the Empire. The same can be said of Israel, you will not hear US officials admitting it, but they maintain good relations because Israel is a key political figure to keep a level of destabilisation in West Asia, Europe fulfils the same role but to control Russia.
The US has a strong economic influence, but those countries still have sovereignty and can have disagreements. Lukashenko has no option but to obey Putin or he'll be dead.
If you want to know what happens to sovereign countries that step out of line with the US, just look to Libya (highest HDI in Africa to bombed out husk with open slave markets) once it gave up its nukes at US request or Japan in the 90s (dared to have too competitive of an economy, was fiscally destroyed via US financial policy) or Iraq (US-supported against Iran, then targeted for destruction because it opposed being a US client state).
To be an enemy of the US is dangerous. To be an ally is lethal. European leaders are aware of how destructive the US and US-based transnational capital can be. They know how the system works and why their imports are so cheap. Now they're helping the US deindustrialize themselves, which would be counter to any sustainable base of power and economic position without some other leverage (generally sopaking, economic and military threat to everyone else).
Can you please stop calling users reddit trolls? It undermines the conversation and alienates any user from your viewpoint. It would be more helpful for all of us, including you, if you were to address the topic rather than attack a user's character. If you arguments are sound, then they will hold weight among the rest of us the read them. The voting tool will help with that.
Of course, some trolls are going to come out, but those tend to be evident because they don't argue in good faith and use logical fallacies such as ad hominem attacks. I'm all for hearing different perspectives, so I would be happy to hear your viewpoints.
No it's going pretty badly. The energy price spike took out a ton of industry that is very unlikely to come back. If the current state of things is maintained it will just be a large loss. If similar shocks hit a few more times they'd be looking at deindustrialization.