If only Americans didn’t hate LGBT and minorities so much they might be actually be able to progress instead of continuing the American tradition of two steps forward one step back.
If only Americans didn’t hate LGBT and minorities so much they might be actually be able to progress instead of continuing the American tradition of two steps forward one step back.
There’s been plenty of diplomatic off ramps, I was really frustrated at the time when Boris Johnson intervened in the Istanbul talks to derail things with promises of unlimited support. There could have been a diplomatic solution years ago, but it was considered “worth it” to “grind down” Russia.
You’re way off base to make it out like Putin’s just one psycho puppeteering everyone. There’s plenty of people there who view NATO as a threat and are more than vocal that Putin hasn’t gone far enough. Plenty of Russians have nuanced opinions and are in no more of a position to vote for an end to the war than I am here.
Yeah, I am not saying NATO are the good guys. There are no good guys, never were. However Saying Boris torpedoed the negotiation is ignoring the issues that culminated just before Zelensky pulled-out.
Russia, while saying they could agree to a join guarantorship, stayed vague about exactly the letter of what responsibility that NATO would have, that they would be willing to accept. They rejected several rebalancings of this guarantorship, ones in which gave them progressively more control, signaling to Ukraine they weren’t truly on board with the idea at all. This was a sticking point for Ukraine to stay neutral, that neither Russia, nor NATO, had over-ruling control of the other’s responsibilities. They were clearly not in alignment with the idea. Then the reports of the Bucha massacre came to light. This angered Zelensky, enraged the Ukrainian public, and deeply damaged the deal. Then Russia backed-off of Kyiv. This showed that Russia wasn’t just easily walking through Ukraine any longer.
So Russia’s coolness to the guarantorship with NATO, the Bucha massacre, while Russia also had to pull back for the first time, all came to a head and Ukraine refused the agreement.
And yes, Putin is a psycho. Not the raving lunatic caricature type, the cold, calculated, killer type. He is indisputably responsible performing, and ordering, assassinations of his political rivals. He has little empathy, and has no qualms with killing people who challenge, or publicly humiliate, him. Also torture people just to make a point about optics. Putin has been saying he wants, and intends, to reclaim the Russian empire held by the USSR. He personally believe that the loss of that empire was the worst socioeconomic disaster in history, and the only way to fix it is to expand again. Ignoring this as a driving factor in Russia’s behavior is naive. Putin has Russia, to get more there needs to be expansion. Yes, of course, he is concerned about NATO. NATO is a more powerful, more wealthy, military presence, next door, that doesn’t agree with him on a lot of things. Has NATO done horrible shit to Russia, and previously the USSR? Yes. Is Russia guilty of a lot of horrible shit its self? Also yes. When I look at places like Russia and China, and hear their pleas of NATO being big bad, and they just want to exist peacefully, alone, with totally no expansionist desires, I have to laugh. I laugh at claims from NATO powers of victimization when attacked by places the west has been fucking up for decades, or centuries. China is doing a whole lot of the “empire of economy” stuff that the US has been doing. So excuse me if I feel that they would doing literally every imperialistic behavior the US does, if it weren’t for the US having an overwhelming infrastructure, for moving military power around, that really puts other major powers at a disadvantage.
Yeah, I was being a bit hyperbolic to blame Boris personally, but I really despise the guy, so it comes easily to me.
The understanding that the fall of the USSR was a world historic tragedy is not uncommon in Russia or even outside of it. The consequences of the economic looting and societal collapse from the shock therapy were real and devastating, like losing a war. The USSR was illegally dissolved, and America got exactly the kind of government it wanted. Everything that has happened since has been blowback for actions the US/NATO have taken, and simply stepping back the aggression, coups, and insistence on an ever-expanding NATO could have absolutely have allowed for a real long term diplomatic solution.