Russia is the most corrupt nation in the world...Not Ukraine. Russia started the war on the false pretense of fear of Nazis. That's the only example needed.
I'm not claiming diplomatic purity, but if Russia invaded Ukraine because of thew threat it posed, then why the smokescreen? I read Gaddy and Hill's "Mr. Putin Operative in the Kremlin", Everything is a smokescreen. I understand their paranoia. If Ukraine was not armed (no offensive weaponry) Russia would already have it. And that's probably true for all of the other former Soviet States.
If the west did nothing then Russia would already have reconstituted the USSR. Those former soviet states have a right of association so long as they don't invade. The Anschluss is an example.
It suggests that I do not have common sense. Condescending. Now you suggest that I will have a tough time getting answers to questions that you posed. That also seems condescending.
Thanks for sharing the platform thoughts, but I will respectfully disengage at this point.
"This all seems common sense to me. But evidently not to you?" Seems that you have reached an emotional point in this discussion so it would be best not to continue it.
With the end of the USSR came agreements by several former states that they would not retain Nuclear weapons. Both Russia and the western powers convinced Ukraine not to retain nuclear weapons and in return Ukraine received security assurances from both Russia and several western powers including the US and the UK. A key word in the Budapest Memorandum was that of "defense". Now we have Russia claiming it is defending itself from Ukraine when Russia is the aggressor.
I defend the NATO alliance as I would have defended The Peace of Westphalia where countries finally began to understand sovereignty.
I'm not about to say that the US has always respected those principles, but I do defend the right of sovereign nations to enter into mutual defense treaties even if that defense involves foreign war. I think Russia will test NATO resolve if he succeeds in Ukraine and move on to one of the former Soviet countries and hope for the same kind of inaction that allowed Germany to take Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Russia is the most corrupt nation in the world...Not Ukraine. Russia started the war on the false pretense of fear of Nazis. That's the only example needed.
I'm not claiming diplomatic purity, but if Russia invaded Ukraine because of thew threat it posed, then why the smokescreen? I read Gaddy and Hill's "Mr. Putin Operative in the Kremlin", Everything is a smokescreen. I understand their paranoia. If Ukraine was not armed (no offensive weaponry) Russia would already have it. And that's probably true for all of the other former Soviet States.
If the west did nothing then Russia would already have reconstituted the USSR. Those former soviet states have a right of association so long as they don't invade. The Anschluss is an example.
Well there is NATO
It suggests that I do not have common sense. Condescending. Now you suggest that I will have a tough time getting answers to questions that you posed. That also seems condescending.
Thanks for sharing the platform thoughts, but I will respectfully disengage at this point.
"This all seems common sense to me. But evidently not to you?" Seems that you have reached an emotional point in this discussion so it would be best not to continue it.
With the end of the USSR came agreements by several former states that they would not retain Nuclear weapons. Both Russia and the western powers convinced Ukraine not to retain nuclear weapons and in return Ukraine received security assurances from both Russia and several western powers including the US and the UK. A key word in the Budapest Memorandum was that of "defense". Now we have Russia claiming it is defending itself from Ukraine when Russia is the aggressor.
I defend the NATO alliance as I would have defended The Peace of Westphalia where countries finally began to understand sovereignty.
I'm not about to say that the US has always respected those principles, but I do defend the right of sovereign nations to enter into mutual defense treaties even if that defense involves foreign war. I think Russia will test NATO resolve if he succeeds in Ukraine and move on to one of the former Soviet countries and hope for the same kind of inaction that allowed Germany to take Czechoslovakia and Poland.