Or the UK decides that they feel diminished in the eyes of the world and craves a return to the status quo. They spent 15 years setting the ground work and destabilizing, creating circumstance to justify their actions and then rolling in
I think this coming partly out of the need for defense (although they are looking at it through a cold war lens). Putins need to be seen as a strong man of world politics. Putins desire for Russia to be a player in geo politics and plain old imperialism.
Donāt you think that is happening already, within this very crisis? Have you forgotten our yapping on demand at the behest of the Americans, who, letās not forget - the greatest single biggest aggressor since the Second World War?
As bad as some people might make these āinvasionsā look, letās not forget how the West differs in style. US led invasions have focused on killing everything that moves and have resulted in millions of civilian deaths.
Crimea gets invaded and oddly enough, has no partisans fighting in the hills. I suspect that exactly the same is going to happen with these two new regions.
Anyone who can track a political map can see that NATO has taken on a very aggressive stance in the past 30 years. The folly was the perpetual belief that Russia would never push back. It can, it will and the West really isnāt going to be able to do much about it.
Thats predominantly down to the fact that there are large ethnic Russian contingents there, and I suspect you are right that there will not be the widespread death and destruction in those regions, providing Putinās Tanks stop at the disputed border.
I suspect that Putin is not going to stop
As for NATO have they been aggressive? The Baltics wanted to join because they were concerned about Russia on their door step. Should NATO have said tough shit, you are on your own?
NATOās purpose pretty much ended the day the Cold War did. This crisis is a direct result of the fact it never realised that.
Did it? Even though the USSR broke up, there was still a massive country armed to the teeth with nukes etc in the house.
It would have been imprudent to disband just in case you got a power mad authoritarian in charge one day.
The Warsaw Pact ended therefore NATO should have ended. It didnāt, and actually fostered disastrous bi-lateral relationships that led (quite outside of Russia) to millions dead.
If you want to deal with massively armed countries (Ukraine was one of them) then you use the international institutions in play.
Eh? That is pure whataboutery and crap to boot, deal with what Putin has done and what he is doing, on whataboutery Iām off to southern Spain to stoke unrest with the English pub owners and ex pats, the Royal Navy is booked in the Friday and weāre expecting to have annexed the Costaās by next Wednesday, I take it by your argument youāre in?
Well the threat by the Russians didnāt end did it? Ukraine in 1991 voted for independence massively, they gave up their nuclear arms, it was stated at the time Russia would come calling without them.
Russia has enough land, why do they need anymore? Putin is a madman and he also looks quite ill, maybe he wants a legacy and he looks like heās got about a year.
If Liverpool got invaded by the Irish there wouldnāt be a rebellion, that wouldnāt make it right, I take it you donāt know any Ukrainians or people from the Baltics? Iād wear a crash helmet and mouth guard if I were you having those opinions around them.
Please. These are not the actions of a madman. He knows full well that he can put troops in those regions with justification and without much meaningful complaint from the locals.
There wonāt be desperate partisans in those regions looking to overthrow their new Russian protectors. Remember that these regions have been structurally and economically devastated by Ukrainian actions for the last seven years.
If he was a madman, heād have played the nuclear button like it was Track N Field and we wouldnāt be having this conversation. Heās a prime opportunist and quite frankly, much better at playing the international chess game than those heās playing against.
He can put troops in a foreign Country, oh ok then
He is not bothers about those backward planted Russians, he wants Ukraine, lets see you justification for Russian invasion, thatāll be a good read.
Quite possibly and weāll find out but we shouldnāt have to if he respected international borders, Hitler II. One thing for sure is he has isolated himself doing this and there will be no way back.
Whatās the betting that in a couple of years the parliaments of Donetsk and Luhansk vote for a reunion with āmother Russiaā?
Youāre a big fan of parallels from history, Nobby (short for not Barry). Hitler II. Sudetenland II.
I wonāt entertain your first point because anyone with a knowledge of history knows that this sort of statement is the sort of baseless shit all politicians come up with trying to justify a big barney. It was George Bush Sr that called Saddam Hussein āa new Hitlerā.
On the Sudetenland thing, I think youāre on slightly firmer ground. Same kind of justification for moving, an ethnic population getting grief from new political masters after a border change.
Otherwise I think itās more like Poland. The West backs a spritely under 40s country to the hilt, encouraging its naĆÆve leaders to become increasingly belligerent toward its actual enemies.
I think you who is forgetting history or not knowing of it, 1991 Ukraine had a vote, what was it and how did that vote turn out? There wasnāt Western interference, also on that why hasnāt any new members asked to return to the old Soviet bloc? Or at the very least as the leave NATO?
Name a western parallel to this and Iāll eat my hat and I challenge you to find one?
Youāre also misguided in the fact you havenāt taken into account (this is telling) Ukraine actual viewpoint in wanting self determination, its a giveaway in your Pro Putin/Russian stance, you havenāt even given them a second thought, be honest you havenāt have you? To you it would sadly appear you think this is Rocky IV.
And now Putin has asked for permission (bollocks he runs the show and that request is just for show) from legislators (Dumar) to have military outside of Russia, that means invasion in Ukraine.
The upper house of Russiaās parliament has voted unanimously in favour of giving President Putin authority to deploy armed forces abroad.
It formally allows Putin to send troops into the Donbas region of Ukraine.
The head of the upper house says they expect forces to carry out peacekeeping tasks - but the US has previously said calling troops peacekeepers was ānonsenseā.
Peacekeepers = Stormtroopers.
Farscape fan?
Ok, I know itās the BBC, but worth a read: