The answer to the Ukraine crisis is obvious: the clown who calls himself president of the Ukraine needs to remove his army from the two breakaway provinces, and let them go their own way. And hopefully, stop antagonizing Russia anymore.
Ha ha. Sure. Or maybe the rebels should just lay down their arms and fuck off to Russia if they like it so much.
Ah, it appears the kiss has already been delivered!
French President Francois Hollande has vowed to press ahead with selling warships to Russia, despite criticism from David Cameron
God bless you, Mssr. Hollande, you magnificent cheese-eating surrendering monkey, you…
Despite Anger Over Downed Jetliner, Europe Shies Away From Sanctions on Russia
This is so beautiful, I want to cry. Bravo, Vlad, you’ve done it again! Bravo!
Why?
Perhaps the peoples of Canada and Latvia can have a debate on the subject?
Uh. The US’s nearest neighbors are Mexico, Canada and Russia. I think you can ask any of them and they’ll tell you they’re just fine not being the 51st state.
Mexico lost a large proportion of its territory to the US in the 1840s.
And why are you ignoring the states are near to the United States but not technically continuous? America has behaved like a prototypical playground bully towards Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and other countries that are more broadly in its neighborhood, during the Cold War era and since.
Because there didn’t seem to be popular support for separation in the region before this mess got crazy. Isn’t it a little more fair for the militants to just emigrate rather than force everyone in the area become Russian? Now you say why just handed over the territory is reasonable.
Its not the 1840s anymore. They were 170+ years ago. Most nationstates have amended their behavior since.
This really is the root of the problem. Russia appears to believe that it can interact with its neighbours like it did in the 19th century, and uses 19th century examples to justify its behavior.
There is a reason Russias puppets rushed to join NATO the moment Russias grip slipped.
America’s intervention in Nicaragua happened in the 1980s. I happen to think that was far more morally despicable than Russia’s support for the Donetsk People’s Republic.
And at least some of Russia’s former satellites- Belarus for one- seem to be quite happy to be a a Russian ally.
There wasn’t support for separation, necessarily, but there was certainly strong political division between the east and west, and Yanukovych was quite popular in the east.
Also, the separatists are ‘about’ more than just Russian ethnonationalism, they have a strongly left wing economic platform, for example. This isn’t purely about ethnicity and language.
“funny monkey noises”… sigh.
:rolleyes: Please don’t do that any more.
Belarus is Europe’s last Stalinist dictatorship; pick a better example.
And Putin doesn’t. How is it they have any use for each other?
Here’s what I don’t get. Why doesn’t Putin movie his army in, slice off the rebel areas of Ukraine and present the world with a fait accompli as he did with Crimea. Sure, the West would up the sanctions but Putin must also know than nobody forgets faster than Western nations where there are profits to be made. I just don’t see what he has to gain by spinning things out like this. He needs to piss or get off the pot.
What’s wrong with Belarus as an example?
I might point out that they’ve been fairly economically successful over the last two decades, have a higher HDI than any other ex-Soviet state outside the Baltics, and have quite a low Gini coefficient too last I checked, so whatever they’re doing, it seems to be working pretty well for them.
Enemy of my enemy, geopolitics, etc… Putin’s also kind of a patron for left-wing regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua, even though the communists at home don’t like him.
Speculation is that his main goal is to put pressure on Ukraine to force it to avoid getting too close to the West. Not sure if this makes sense though.
That’s just it, I don’t think the policy of aiding the rebels without the goal of ultimate annexation does make sense. The pressure, rather than being on Ukraine, will be all on Russia.