Putin’s claim that NATO threatens Russia is a self-fulfilling prophecy

11 comments
  1. It still amazes me that Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.

    When I saw the demonstrations, I expected that Russia would eventually offer up some extra money, some free natural gas, or simply bribe the new government (whoever they happened to be) to bring Ukraine back into its orbit- this had pretty much been the pattern of things since Ukraine became independent. Ukrainians talk about moving away from Russia, Russia gives Ukraine something nice, Ukraine stops talking about moving away from Russia for awhile.

    At worst, Russia would have a couple of years of political gridlock in Ukraine thanks to significant support in Ukraine’s eastern regions and then parties supportive of Russia could retake power since those parties opposed to Russian influence couldn’t deliver on their promises of EU membership and prosperity. As long as Russia was willing to interfere in Ukrainian politics by offering generous economic assistance if pro-Russian parties won, it would eventually regain power in the Ukrainian government.

    Invading Ukraine destroyed that system that basically allowed Russian to control Ukraine at a relatively cheap cost. Russia’s supporters in the East became politically inert thanks to being in occupied territory, opposition to Russia became a matter of Ukrainian national honor rather than merely an economic argument, and Russia is paying soldiers to fight and die in a conflict that tarnishes Russia’s international standing every time it flares up.

    Cultural blindspots are one hell of a thing.

  2. > There are already four NATO states bordering Russia, though all of them relatively small: Norway and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

    You forgot the largest one ;_;

  3. Yeah, it’s the thing identified by Orwell and ‘we have always been at war with Eurasia’. Control the narrative? Hell, control the vocabulary. New twist? The proles are not neutral- they are the baying crowd at the arena.

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