This really gets me though. Why do you think Putin has acted in any way different from what any other Russian leader would have done in the circumstance? Which is, act to put forward Russian national interests?
Is Putin putting forward Russia’s national interest or Putin’s personal interest? They are not the same thing.
Not all methods of putting forward national interest are equal. Murdering journalists is not equivalent to spending money to fight AIDS in Africa.
A blanket “everyone promotes their own national interest” is unhelpful.
My impression is that the Russians definitely think of America as their enemy, and have for long before Americans started thinking that way. Is that correct?
How differently would anyone else have reacted to Crimea, Syria or NATO expanision?
Actually, from half-remembered polls the Russian’s really started to think this way only a few years ago…right around the time Putin et al started a lot of heavy anti-American propaganda (pure coincidence I’m sure). Before that (well, since the cold war ended at least), my recollection was that polls in Russia about America had a bit over a 50% approval rating, while since then we’ve dropped in the 20-30% range, tops.
I think the NATO expansion thingy is pretty ironic, really. I’m unsure of what you mean by the others wrt Russia’s perspective, however. What do you mean there…can you elaborate?
The friend of my enemy is my enemy. Once the russians got in bed with don the con it was all over for them.
To the extent that American (western) policies sought to bring former Eastern Block countries into the European Economic Union at the expense of Russia’s interest to keep them as satellite nations, yes. Deploying NATO missile defense systems against Russian aggression certainly didn’t help matters.
The President of Russia controls the state-run oil company. He has a lot of power and his main job is to get more oil. That’s where you get the evilness.
I don’t understand the question. Who is “anyone else”?
riiiight, the evilness. No one should forget the evilness.
I wouldn’t see Russia as the enemy I see Putin as the enemy. It probably started when he started jailing his political enemies, around 2005.
Russia for quite some time seemed to be able to live with Crimea being part of Ukraine. They briefly seemed to be able to live with Ukraine being an independent country in which they did not have to meddle with the politics. It is quite unclear to me why they could not have continued these policies.
Even still, Putin is more the enemy of Russia than of us.
I see Russia as a wannabe regional hegemon and occasional bad actor but not an enemy. It has not been an enemy since Yeltsin.
Really?
A staged coup by Nazis (and these are actual nazis, swastikas and all) with the real threat of losing their very important port of Sevastopol.
You find it odd that they wouldnt just take this sitting down???
How does that Kool-aid taste, anyway? I hear the Russian flavor tastes a lot like vodka and beet soup, but haven’t tried it myself since I hate the bare-chested Putin picture on the label…
Yes, I find it odd* that Russia would unilaterally break the treaty it had established with Ukraine.
*By “odd” I don’t mean unexpected, but rather “extremely disturbing, unsettling the peace in much of Eastern Europe and the Baltics”.
I know, isn’t it astonishing a country would want stability on its borders. It’s not like the USA has had an embargo on Cuba for over half a century.