Russia and Ukraine

[Leonardo17]

There are people on the other side of the Atlantic who share your concerns. Even in Germany there is a group of people who are asking the question “How does this war end?”
 
I personally think that you and these people are simply overestimating the capacities of Russia. Today’s Russia is not the Soviet Union. It is also not the new / dynamic and growing economy of the early 2000’s (even that was a myth in many ways). Todays Russia is a country that is about to be booted from the UN Security Council because it simply lacks the legal requirements:
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/danger-russia...46049.html
 
That’s my first point. Second point: History shows that if you turn a blind eye on such people (like they did to Mussolini and Hitler in the 30’s) they’ll keep getting hungrier and greedier. You know Hitler could have been easily stopped as soon as he started rebuilding the German Army (illegally at the time) and stationing (illegally) permanent troops in Rhineland. But the French decided to ignore him so he kept growing until he annexed Poland together with Stalin. Than you had 50 million deaths. So you cogitate on the results of a similar approach with a nuclear power like Russia.
 
3) If you don’t stop Putin in Ukraine, you can already present Taiwan to Xi-Ji-Ping on a silver plate while you’re on it.
 
4) It’s a matter of ideology. 24 million Taiwanese is not a significant number of people when compared with China that has a population of 2 billion. Yet, these 24 million people do not want the Tyranny of the CCP. Nor do Belarussians want to “reunite” with Russia.
 
But yes. This last one is a personal choice. You totally have the right to say “not my problem”. I just wanted you to see the whole picture before you say that

I don't think I'm overestimating Russia. They are in a very embarrassing spot right now, for sure. What reason do they have to not drag the war on for years though, at this point, given that NATO now says Ukraine is joining? Putin has no incentive to stop the war. Ethinc Russians are dying out, and Putin may very well see his life and survival being on the line. And how is China going to react to NATO growing stronger and clamping down on powers like Russia? Well, right now China is saying, continue with what you're doing, and there will be conflict, so you can look at it both ways. If Russia won in Ukraine, that might embolden China, sure, but with NATO clamping down on Russia, that may scare the Chinese into acting and doing what you say you are worried they might do in Taiwan/ the South China Sea.

Thanks for your post. I appreciate that you stuck to making your argument rather than just throwing out a bunch of insults like the others, and you certainly made some good points.

There is nothing wrong with diverging opinions. We live in the democratically governed parts of the world right?
 
But one of the cause of angry responses is that this is a matter of ideology rather than the protection of a group of people or nation. See this article:
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-teach...00677.html
 
Russian parents are now worried because Putin has reintroduced Stalin Era brainwashing classes on school children. Both parents and teachers are very critical (in a country in which all media is state-sponsored). 1 million Russian have fled Russia. I don’t know how to explain this, I was out yesterday for a classic music concert. There was this Russian couple, and I carry the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag on my backpack, next to my own country flag of course and in their country even wearing these colors is a sign meaning “No to War” just like the green ribbon (Mixture of blue and yellow colors) being left on a public space where everyone can see it. In Russia it’s a clear symbol of defiance toward authorities and they can take away your children for doing something like that. So I don’t know if you are old enough to remember the “Je suis Charlie” movement in 2015, but there is now a worldwide reaction to worldwide events. Like the Women, Life, Freedom movement for instance. There is this feeling of solidarity with others. And I don’t feel like I’m supporting Ukrainians by supporting Ukraine. Actually I feel more empathic toward Russians than toward Ukrainians.
 
But again: There is nothing wrong with your “mind my own business” attitude either. I have to give you that