The long winded speech he gave should be enough to get where Putin’s mind is. His goals are indeed absolutely clear now.
4 Likes
Very clear parallels between the two if you look at ‘spheres of influence’ from a cold War perspective. (NATO is already at Russia’s boarder by the way- Ukraine joining/ not joining won’t change some theoretical strike capabilities)
The difference is how they handled the situation. US engaged in diplomacy and agreed to remove missiles from turkey if Russia agreed not to send missiles to Cuba (all while the US said they’d sink any boat carrying missiles). Fairly straight forward and no messing around with WWIII and mutually assured destruction on the line.
Russia has been planning this for some time, obviously had no interest in diplomacy, and called the clown court together as pretext to expand its boarders.
From far away, kind of similar situations, but not when you look at it a bit closer. US was responding to a newly discovered threat, Russia pre-planned an invasion for expansion and we’ll see how far they go.
2 Likes
The other massive difference is that Cuba was a dramatic attempt by the Soviets to fundamentally alter the strategic balance. At the time, Soviet capacity to hit the US with nuclear strikes was very limited, and at a stroke would have become significant. Ukraine, inside NATO or outside, simply doesn’t do that. It is a long and significant border, to be sure, but the conventional balance remains broadly similar and the capacity to launch an attack is not immediate - as the Russians have themselves demonstrated over the past month.
4 Likes
Whats sad in the whole part (apart from the people of ukraine who will end up suffering which ofcourse is the major part) is that there has been no attempt whatsoever between the war machines of the US and Russia whatsoever to resolve the crisis. Apart from US threatening sanctions and imposing them and Putin calling the bluff.
There have been so many cases of both sides provoking each other even in the obama era that i am not surprised that it has led to this.
You cant say that US and their tacit enablement of Saudis doesnt counteract with Iran being supported by Russia and that all these factors kept together got it to this point.
Trump didnt help matters and for that matter neither did Biden… The US war machine demands conflict to improve their economy.
So theres NATO to counteract Russia and QUAD to counteract China. The whole part of this is that US can stay a whole while back relatively protected by the distance whereas the nations closer to the so called threats face the heat.
One reason why i am against India joining the QUAD… Would have rather followed the non aligned movement than openly take a side in this shithole. What happens when the inevitable happens and Russia joins forces with China
What was the US supposed to do? Agree to Russia’s down right insane demands ? Demands made with the sole purpose of being rejected ? Have you followed this situation at all over the years ?
1 Like
I think that this is directly influenced by the serbia - kosovo result as well… Those kinda things always have the potential to add fuel to the fire.
Its rather naive to suggest that theres only one euromaidan protest which has led to this.
1 Like
I am just saying that this is a continuation of the cold war.
The Cold War ended. Then western triumphalism and some bad Americans moves sure. But I got no time to discuss that, all my time is for ukraine. It is Russia that chose to be antagonistic first and foremost. Not interested in discussing Cold War when we have a developing situation.
4 Likes
Again people will be naive to think that a conflict had ended because there has been one side deciding to lie low.
Think of the parallels between germany after world war 1 and 2 , did the germans stop their intent even after losing the first war ?
I don’t think you remember the 90s- You write like you don’t. What you call the Cold War, which isn’t the Cold War, but a new situation, arose after Vladimir Putin seized power.
But that is all I will say on matter. Refuse to derail this thread with Cold War definitions.
2 Likes
I think the non-aligned movement was always a fallacy, it was a club of nations far enough away from points of friction to be somewhat disinterested. It was also rather dishonest, considering how many of the members were de facto aligned with the USSR and/or China.
1 Like
Flag is down now:
That’s just wrong. The ideology and genesis of both wars were completely different.
3 Likes
I am just suggesting that the cold war hasnt ended. You keep insisting that it has. Imo , there never has been a clear victor in the war (not one which allowed russia to still have the bulk of their military capabilities)
Good at least there’s some taking this seriously.