Damm….I liked reading that. I listen to Peter Zeihan a lot and he argues that Russia won’t stop until it reaches defensible borders which are actually past Ukraine and would include the Baltic states and Poland.
Maybe extreme but the events you highlight fit into that very well.
Great summary and comparisons.
In case of Putins fantasy about Russia the definition of defensible is very open: Dnipro and Vistula or Rhine and Danube? Or better a mirror of the US Monroe Doctrine with the US in the Americas and leave Europe to allmighty Russia.
Maduro’s regime has strong ties to various drug cartels that are pushing fentanyl on kids, often by contamination, while also encouraging many murders by means of more conventional weapons such as firearms and knives. Maduro’s regime is also making dangerous overtures to many important people such as Chicago school teachers:
Maduro is a staunch ally of Putin and will unquestionably support Putin’s extermination of Ukrainians and destruction of Ukraine.
The Opioid epidemic in the United States is as far as I know a US homemade problem. But thanks for your answer.
The majority of fentanyl involved in overdose deaths is trafficked from other countries, and Maduro is probably the most dangerous active ally of the cartels trafficking the fentanyl. Also, keep in mind, a huge number of fentanyl deaths, possibly most of them, are from entirely accidental exposure when cartel workers throw the fentanyl at people to kill them, or when they disguise the fentanyl as something else. See here for a couple of examples:
Also, Maduro and his affiliates appear to be backing tons of murders through other means as well. Maduro’s biggest paramilitary group/gang allied with him in America, the Tren de Aragua, has repeatedly murdered Americans.
Keep in mind that a huge number of Maduro’s cronies, possibly a majority, are not Venezuelan.
US infrastructure is already crumbling. And China can produce many more balloons than US can planes. Both Russia and China have FOBS too, with no need for nuclear heads when used against critical infrastructure.
No one in the world has an interest on invading US, even less so Canada. World just wants for US to stop “projecting” its devastating power and start collaborating with the rest of us. On the basis of mutual respect.
All of them have one weak point. They have to land somewhere.
That’s what electronic warfare is for. And S500.
Yes , you don’t like America and you think it is okay for Russia to murder steal and rape as long as it in your worldview hurts America.
America is not perfect and their history is filled with things they did wrong and things they are still doing wrong, but also things they did do right.
There is no nation on earth that does not have darkness in their past or present.
How many rights to make up for a wrong is more for philosophers and historians to think about.
But America is not the aggressor in this war , Russia is.
I just don’t understand how one person can go from “its not okay for US to illegally invade Iraq” to “Russia has every right to invade Ukraine”. How is it that these extreme right wingers (and some extreme left wingers as well) swallow Putin’s propaganda so willingly?
I don’t know where do you get that nonsense. Like most of the world, I don’t like bullies and liars. My homeland was one of victims of those.
Neah, we know now who disrespected UNSC resolutions, lied about intentions for peace negotiations. Russia is defending its territory and people.
There is no parallel there. Russia had only one demand - respect for agreed and signed principles of indivisible security.
Parallel is with NATO expansion.
Same as Hitler, NATO acquired access to Russia step by step
“We just want to restore unified Germany”
“We just want to get Czechia and Slovakia”
“We just want to have to balkanize Balkan to destroy Serbs”
“We only want Hungary and Poland”
“We invaded to protect Bulgaria and Romania against certain foreign elements (or whatever the justification was), we intend to keep them safe”
“All we need is a corridor to Baltics”
“Lets just add Ukraine and Georgia (they are not even close to Atlantic, but hey what is bit ow water between friend”
Except in the case of Yugoslavia, right?
On the other hand it could have been a show of how quickly and easily it could be done, if that was the aim.
However, they failed to mention any territorial transfer is draft peace proposal in December 2021? All they are worried are security guarantees against US/NATO.
> As Russia’s massing of military power near Ukraine prompted a crisis, President Vladimir Putin has demanded legally-binding security guarantees for… Russia.
Minsk Accords was for that, UNSC resolution 2202 was there for seven years. Ukraine and the West chose not to implement it. They chose to prepare Ukraine for the war and even threaten with arming them with nuclear arms.
Some parts of Ukraine already decided.
Can we ask North American natives if they would want their lands back? Oh, we can’t, mostly eliminated.
Started what?
Hitler or NATO were not involved in the unification of Germany, it started in East Germany with unarmed civilians and it ended (outside Germany) with a treaty between the 4 allies (inckuding the SU) and the two German states. The rest of your alternate history story is on the same level:
Sorry, that is pure nonsense.
Russia is invading a sovereign country, murdering many of its citizens, kidnapping others, chasing locals who don’t support them out so they can hold fake referendums in which they also let Russian soldiers vote.
Oh, and Serbia (or rather, the Yugoslav government running on a Serb nationalist agenda) was found guilty of using violence and engaging in ethnic cleansing to remove Croats, Bosnians, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo with a view to seizing parts of those territories for themselves. The same thing what Putin is doing now for Russia. No wonder you love Putin. Serbia was no victim, but rather an aggressor perpetrating genocide. Just like Russia today.
Repeat: Serbia was not a victim, but the chief aggressor of the socalled Yugoslav civil wars.
Perhaps we should ask him if he supported the Serbs committing genocide against Bosnians back then and ethnic cleansing against ethnic Albanians and Croats. The answer might be very telling.
Much like any supporter of bloodthirsty tyrants, he seems to think they are the victim, rather than the aggressor which Serbia was throughout most of the Yugoslav civil wars.
His love for mass murderer and war criminal Putin kind of gives away what the answer would be. Which is something to the degree of “its not genocide when we Serbs do it”.
NATO certainly was.It was the first step of its expansion eastwards.
Besides, we are talking about parallels - similar moves in different times. I find that “Drang nach Osten”, Nazi’s “Lebensraum” and NATO’s eastward expansion are suspiciously similar concepts.
It might be a nonsense for you. Not as much for Serbs. And Russians who saw what’s on the cards for them too.
Technically and legally not entirely correct. Donbass and Crimea have voted few times to separate from Ukraine. Russia has just recognized their status of independence and accepted their invitation to provide protection.
That was all after all other attempts to secure safety for ethic Russians in Ukraine failed, and after 8 years of genocide.
Again, completely incorrect on so many levels.
Serbs created Yugoslavia after being on a winning side in both World Wars. Nationalist Serbs say that Yugoslavia was the biggest mistake for Serbs, accepting losers like Slovenians and Croats - no, Serbs don’t want other people’s territory.
Yet, Serbs were the only ones that were not allowed self-determination in Yugoslavia.
Serbs have been cleansed from Coratia (from 15% of population to under 4%) large portions of Bosnia (specially Sarajevo) and Kosovo-Metohija (from 25% to under 5%).
Those are simple facts that you can easily check.
This is [NYT article from 1982 about ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija](https://Russia is invading a sovereign country, murdering many of its citizens, kidnapping others, chasing locals who don’t support them out so they can hold fake referendums in which they also let Russian soldiers vote.). It was going on for very long time.
Civil wars are called that way because they are between civilian population of particular territory, so technically, there are no aggressors. And yes, Serbs were the victims. They don’t complain, though. All will get into its place eventually.
Talking of genocide:
> On April 30, 1941, the Ustaše proclaimed the main race laws, patterned after Nazi race laws – the “Legal Decree on Racial Origins”, the “Legal Decree on the Protection of Aryan Blood and the Honor of the Croatian People”, and the “Legal Provision on Citizenship”.[26] These decrees defined who was a Jew, and took away the citizenship rights of all non-Aryans, i.e. Jews and Roma. By the end of April 1941, months before the Nazis implemented similar measures in Germany, the Ustaše required all Jews to wear insignia, typically a yellow Star of David.[27] The Ustaše declared the “Legal Provision on the Nationalization of the Property of Jews and Jewish Companies”, on 10 October 1941, and with it they confiscated all Jewish property.[28]
*> *
> The Ustaše enacted many other decrees against Jews, Roma and Serbs, which became the basis for Ustaše policies of genocide against Jews and Roma, while against Serbs – as proclaimed by an Ustaše leader, Mile Budak – the policy was to kill a third, expel a third, and forcefully convert to Catholicism a third,[29] which many historians also describe as genocide. The decrees were enforced not only through the regular court system, but also through new special courts and mobile courts-martial with extended jurisdiction.[30] Almost immediately the first concentration camps were set up, and in July 1941 the Ustaše government began clearing ground for what would become the Jasenovac concentration camp. - Wikipedia
Have in mind that Croatian “independent” state in WWII included Bosnia and parts of Serbia all the way to Belgrade.
Same as Ukrainians, Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Albanians on Kosovo-Metohija had their own SS divisions actively exterminating Serbs. Croats also fought with Nazis in Russia, very prominent in battle for Stalingrad.
Ustase came to power in Croatia in 1990s again. Policies have successfully carried out with great support from the West.
My father’s family was lucky - they were among the third that were expelled to Serbia. Millions were not as lucky.
All in all, Serbs are used to Western bulling and lies. Same story repeats for centuries. Empires come and go. American Empire will go too. It’s the matter of inevitability. No hatred from Serbs.
In East Germany I’m sure there were some who liked their USSR overlords and that they could have some power over their neighbours but a lot of Germans did not like to be a 2nd class citizen in their own country and were glad that the Soviet occupation was over after 40 years.
The transition was not easy for a lot of people and there were those who profit more since but at least they have more freedom now then during the Soviet occupation.
And yes the west also got a lot out of the German unification with also a lot of individuals making a profit of it.
The Federal Republic of Germany was involved, but not as a member of NATO. The NATO institutions were not involved. Only in your fantasy NATO was involved. NATO is an organisation of independent memberstates, not a superstate. And the expansion of NATO was a “Drang nach Westen” of East European states.
The political protests started as a pro Soviet protest. The GDR goverment was anti Perestroika and Glasnost. So the “Gorbi, Gorbi” chants became an anti GDR goverment protest. The most “2nd class citizens” in East Germany have been the Soviet conscript soldiers (the non Russians at the bottom). And the Soviets were very much carefull not to bee seen as an occupier. The suppression of opposition was done by the Stasi (Staatssicherheit).