The one thing they were slightly right about is NATO’s expansion to Poland and Baltic countries. So Zelensky promised at the beginning of the war that if Putin stopped the war he would agree to not joining NATO. And finally the result is quite the opposite. Now, not only Ukraine is joining in, but Finland and Sweden are also joining in. And these were the two states who had managed to remain neutral even during the cold war.
But as a deeper way of analyzing things: I think huge errors were made in the post-soviet era (by both sides). I think the west was too opportunistic in that era. I would have made agreements to 1) support the transition of the Russian legal system to a westernized legal system 2) support and monitor all the privatization efforts of the Russian state and try to supervise the way these privatizations are being made. So that no one robs the Russian people and that these people are not pushed into alcoholism and prostitution. In exchange, I would ask for the dismantlement of more nuclear weapons.
Because I think we are seeing some form of relapse here. If it wasn’t for Nuclear weapons this is the rise of the NSDAP to power and it’s invasion of tcheko-slovakia and Poland all over again. But I thin this time the dictator was stopped in an earlier phase. Indeed, If he has taken Ukraine, than is would be Moldavia, Georgia, Poland, perhaps other countries. But he would not stop.
In fact, the Russian propaganda machine designates Michail Gorbatchev as being “naïve”. “Naïve” for believing there could be a future for Russia other than an imperialistic Russia that has control over Easter-Europe and beyond.
That’s what he did in Syria as well. Millions of refugees fled the country. Cities, historical places were razed to the ground. But the Assad regime (friendly toward Russia), has no collapsed, Russian interest has been maintained.
And Russia is also sending its mercenaries to Africa in a bid to destabilize the region and try to secure some other Russian interest in the already very chaotic region.
So again, no offence to anyone. But I don’t really like Russia’s foreign policy and in fact I didn’t like it in the Soviet Era either. I think that if the Soviets had not invaded Afghanistan, today we would have a Pakistan-like country in the region who isn’t posing any major threat to its own population or to any of the surrounding countries.
So this cruel way of governance that is probably the legacy of Ivan the Terrible has to go at some point. Russia is a big country with many natural resources and a well-educated population.
It doesn’t need any authoritarianism. It needs to get rid of its mafia and of its oligarchs (by the way, I believe that Putin is their puppet more than they are his puppets) than yes, it could even become a super-power once again at some time toward the end of this century.
Right now the whole country is in the wrong path and everything that is told by its propaganda machine is a fairy tale. All I am saying is that I literally cannot try to understand this rhetoric. Even expert political scientists are debating on the meaning of terms like “denazification” or “Ukraine being governed by drug-addicts” (yes this is what they said in the first days of the war the aim of the “military operation” was to remove “Nazis” and “drug addicts” from power in Kiev).
So this is not Western Propaganda. This is exactly what’s happening.
But as a deeper way of analyzing things: I think huge errors were made in the post-soviet era (by both sides). I think the west was too opportunistic in that era. I would have made agreements to 1) support the transition of the Russian legal system to a westernized legal system 2) support and monitor all the privatization efforts of the Russian state and try to supervise the way these privatizations are being made. So that no one robs the Russian people and that these people are not pushed into alcoholism and prostitution. In exchange, I would ask for the dismantlement of more nuclear weapons.
Because I think we are seeing some form of relapse here. If it wasn’t for Nuclear weapons this is the rise of the NSDAP to power and it’s invasion of tcheko-slovakia and Poland all over again. But I thin this time the dictator was stopped in an earlier phase. Indeed, If he has taken Ukraine, than is would be Moldavia, Georgia, Poland, perhaps other countries. But he would not stop.
In fact, the Russian propaganda machine designates Michail Gorbatchev as being “naïve”. “Naïve” for believing there could be a future for Russia other than an imperialistic Russia that has control over Easter-Europe and beyond.
That’s what he did in Syria as well. Millions of refugees fled the country. Cities, historical places were razed to the ground. But the Assad regime (friendly toward Russia), has no collapsed, Russian interest has been maintained.
And Russia is also sending its mercenaries to Africa in a bid to destabilize the region and try to secure some other Russian interest in the already very chaotic region.
So again, no offence to anyone. But I don’t really like Russia’s foreign policy and in fact I didn’t like it in the Soviet Era either. I think that if the Soviets had not invaded Afghanistan, today we would have a Pakistan-like country in the region who isn’t posing any major threat to its own population or to any of the surrounding countries.
So this cruel way of governance that is probably the legacy of Ivan the Terrible has to go at some point. Russia is a big country with many natural resources and a well-educated population.
It doesn’t need any authoritarianism. It needs to get rid of its mafia and of its oligarchs (by the way, I believe that Putin is their puppet more than they are his puppets) than yes, it could even become a super-power once again at some time toward the end of this century.
Right now the whole country is in the wrong path and everything that is told by its propaganda machine is a fairy tale. All I am saying is that I literally cannot try to understand this rhetoric. Even expert political scientists are debating on the meaning of terms like “denazification” or “Ukraine being governed by drug-addicts” (yes this is what they said in the first days of the war the aim of the “military operation” was to remove “Nazis” and “drug addicts” from power in Kiev).
So this is not Western Propaganda. This is exactly what’s happening.
