Wow. It’s almost as if “all roads lead to Russia.”
Someone should make an anti-Trump TV ad listing out all the pro-Putin things Trump has done.
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Still hoping for a way to expose Trump’s corruption and conflicts of interest, and get him out of office, without taking it as given that US foreign military policy was done in the selfless defense of freedom and democracy. I remember distinctly that only a few years ago, many liberals would have laughed in your face for assuming such a thing, and perhaps asked if you really wanted the Cold War back.
Just having a random schmoe read off Trump’s pro-Putin actions wouldn’t be that effective.
A Vladimir Putin impersonator praising Trump’s actions that benefited Russia could make a bigger impression.
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The meeting without translators or transcripts isn’t enough? Why did you agree to that particular meeting my President Trump? Why?
“two fingers to Europe” indeed. He keeps moaning about them doing their share, and they have been increasing their spending, but he just doesn’t seem to think about the fact that over the past 75 years Europe has been pretty war-free. That is a long time and has been a huge benefit to the US. Obviously there has been the outbreaks in Europe and some awful things done, but it hasn’t been World War like. His ability to see anything besides money (or other lust) in the short term is mind boggling.
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Um, whut? Quite a few Ukrainians (and most of the former Eastern Bloc, for that matter) are pretty likely to disagree with you. So might some Afghanis.
Of note, I personally consider direct meddling with elections to be “aggression”. And yes, I indict the US for such, as well.
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So might some Afghanis.
Let’s get to the 21st century, shall we The Russian Federation has never had any armed conflict with Afghanistan. The USSR had troops in Afghanistan. Whether those troops were there at the invitation of the legitimate Afghani government seems open to question.
The Russian Federation is not the Union of Soviet Social Republics.
The Ukrainian mess is a civil war or war of succession. I think it is fairly clear that Russia is supporting the breakaway Donbass republics with humanitarian aid and military aid. I see no sign of aggression per se.
most of the former Eastern Bloc
You might like to specify some instances of Russian aggression?
Of note, I personally consider direct meddling with elections to be “aggression”.
Well I am not sure I would go that far but I can see your point. As soon as I can think of slightly less powerful term I will get back to you. I agree that it is bad. Both the Soviet Union and the USA did this all the time and the USA is continuing. I just cannot recall any recent Russian Federation interference in elections egregious enough to term it " direct meddling". I imagine the RF would do so if they thought it worthwhile, I just cannot recall one. Note I see Russiagate as nothing more than standard US xenophobic hysteria which seems to strike every few decades (See the Catholic Plots in the 19th C, the German scare in the early 20th, McCartyism…). Perhaps the build up to the Spanish–American War as well.
What is your position on what happened in Crimea?
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Simply put, “No.” Not only is the evidence for Russian meddling glaringly obvious, Putin has bragged about it several times in public. As I noted, yes the US has engaged in similar shenanigans in the past (and likely will again) but two wrongs won’t make a right, no matter how much squirming is involved.
Nor is current-day Russia much different from the USSR, in terms of global outlook or their relationship to the US, except possibly even more aggressive.
Excuse fail.
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The only way I see any in the GOP Congress pushing back on this will be if any have been (or will be) shmeered by the defense industry.
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What is your position on what happened in Crimea?
Not a popular one in the “West”.
Crimea has been a part of ‘Russia’ since about 1783 in the time of Catherine the Great, or about the time of the establishment of the USA.
It was administratively transferred from the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by Nikita Khrushchev, probably as a favour for some of his Ukrainian cronies. It is not even clear that this transfer was legally carried out.
Khrushchev spent much of his life in the Ukraine. I thik he moved to the Ukraine when he was 14 years old.
In the USSR, moving an oblast from one republic to another apparently was not that drastic a step. I have no idea if the normal Crimean really cared all that much and atmthe time no one wanted a fight with Khrushchev.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union this seems to have become a problem, particularly as the Government in Kiev in some misplaced fit of nationalistic fervor, decided to drop Russian as an official language and ban Russian as a language of instruction. This was madness.
There are not a lot of Ukrainians in Crimea. Ethnic Russians and Tartars, both of whom are more likely to relate to Russia rather than Ukraine, together make up about 75% of the population. And, I have no idea how the ethnic Ukrainians felt about Moscow vs Kiev.
With the Ukrainian Government in Kiev on a “Ukrainian nationalist kick”, Crimea was not happy and apparently there was a lot of tension between Simferopol and Kiev. I also get the feeling, not based on a lot of facts, that Ukraine was treating Crimea somewhat analogously to how the USA has recently been treating Puerto Rico.
As tensions heightened more and more Crimean wanted nothing to do with Kiev or Ukraine.
I do not know enough about the politics at the time to know if there was any interest in joining with the Donbass republics, but as far as I can tell there was a strong sentiment for self-government within the Ukraine at least, which seems to have been how the civil war started in Ukraine.
At the same time, the US interference in Ukrainian politics and the suggestion, or even hint, that Ukraine might join NATO had to be raising alarms in Moscow. Sevastopol has been Russia’s main Black Sea naval base since about the time Crimea was annexed in 1783. It is also Russia’s only navel warm water port that can be used year-round without needing ice-breakers.
From the Russian point-of-view, the possibility that Ukraine would join NATO endangered one of its key naval bases. Russia was not keen on having Sevastopol becoming a NATO/US naval base.
With a combination of Crimean sentiment and Russian strategic worries I have no problem with Crimea returning to Russia.
There was a referendum on Crimea joining Russia and the vote was something like 90% in favour. Weirdly enough, it may have been an honest vote, at least, I have not seen any credible claims that it was not.
It is nice to see Crimea is back home.
The fact that they were an occupied territory at the time presumably doesn’t count?
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Presumably you’d blame the (two) Chechen wars on Islamists, but I’d be interested to hear the Russian version of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War
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This is regularly trotted out as justification for the annexation, but I’m curious: what about Rostov-on-Don?
You don’t get that sort of extreme result without gilding the lily via obvious cheating, thuggish Cossacks, and “little green men” (i.e. armed Russian soldiers “on vacation”). Not that I blame Putin – throwing some red meat to his mouth-breathing ultra-nationalist supporters is a major point of these expansionist exercises.
Russia could have re-gained Crimea legitimately, both from a democratic and historic POV. But gangstas gonna gangsta.
Thank you for that refreshing moment of imperialist frankness, Professor Dugin.
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Or Vladimir Putin’s absolute most favourite city in the world?
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Two things:
One- that’s already a major commercial port, so I don’t know if there’s even room to put a naval base there.
Two- it’s a worse strategic location. Rostov is on the sea of Azov, putting it behind the chokepoint that is the Kerch strait. Whoever occupies Crimea could block the strait and access to the Black Sea quite easily- as seen here:
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Neither point would justify annexation though? And by the same logic both ports only give access to the Black Sea, as you would still need to pass through both the Bosphorous and Dardenelles.
