The USSR was an enemy, but I never regarded the citizens of the Soviet Union as the enemy, and I don’t regard Russia or her people as our enemy today.
In the same way that the United States tries to protect its interests, Russia does the same. They’re not really brandishing a weapon in a threatening way at us.
You know the old saying: Stability is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
You wouldn’t be able to taste it after eating so much of your own shit.
NM…no sense riling up the mods.
Hate to break it to you but Latro is absolutely correct here.
It sure was and you are completely correct. Obviously Putin et al were simply responding to the influx of Nazi into the region from 1942…their resonse was just a bit slow.
And everyone knows Nazi’s love to stage (Little Deuce) coups…
That’ll earn you a warning, Latro. Don’t insult other posters outside of The BBQ Pit.
This question reminds me of an old Mad Magazine spoof of G.I.Joe dolls. It was describing G.I.Joes from other countries. The one for Russia read, “This is G.I.Ivan. First he was a friend. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Then he wasn’t. Which is he now? Which way is the wind blowing?”
I do believe we’ve added a was and a wasn’t since that issue came out back in the mid-70’s.
I do now.
Putin + hacking + expansionist policies in Eastern Europe = Trouble.
I’m an anti-Trump American, and I’ve been hating on Putin since he went after The Gays and started murdering people who opposed him. ~10 years?
As far as Putin goes, fucking with our election is low down on his list of offenses. As far as Americans go, embracing his shenanigans is pretty brand new and utterly beyond the pale.
Isn’t this what has happened now that Trump will be POTUS? Russia / Putin will be dictating to Trump the terms of future relations. It’s already started with Trump threatening to abandon NATO if the other members “don’t pay their fair share.”
I was lucky enough to have learned Russian and travel around Russia, from west to east. The Russian people are fine.
I don’t trust Putin, and don’t like his long-term aspirations for Russia.
Not an enemy, so much as a pain in the ass.
OTOH, I’m not sure I’d trust the White House if it could run unopposed, roughshod over the planet.
Nations can be rivals but not enemies. I don’t think of Russia (or China) as an enemy, just a rival. All the great powers try to flex their muscles and interfere with each other when possible. And I really do not like the “OMG Russia!” that the Democrats have been running with ever since Clinton proved to be the terrible campaigner we all knew she was.
Russia is contributing to Ukranian stability by destabilizing it?
Same way it’s contributing to Georgian stability by backing the Ossetians.
Not after the collapse of the USSR. And I think it’s a mistake to treat them as one.
FWIW I have two Iranian friends that have told me the sanctions, surprise surprise, are a main source of legitimacy for the regime, anything that goes wrong they can blame it on those other guys.
Also that the recently lifted sanctions helped nobody except the people at the top, the ones still in place hit the regular population the hardest.
All in all, not the best way to make friends and influence people.
Well, if a country considers you its enemy, doesn’t it make sense to return the favor? It would be kind of stupid not to.
Both sides are at fault with the whole Ukraine / Crimea thing. It is somewhat understandable that Russia would feel threatened if Ukraine was to join NATO which it seems was the intention for a time when the US backed the coup there. In a perfect world, after the end of the cold war the US / EU / NATO and Russia could have agreed on policy of “not touching” and leaving neutral buffer states between them.
Of course that doesn’t justify the annexation of Crimea, or murdering journalists or the long running funding of pro russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. It’s just pointing out that the US is not blameless for how we got where we are today.
So IMO, Russia is not an enemy, rather just an entirely ruthless and autocratic government protecting their own interests.
The Russian government is not an enemy to the American people. They are an enemy to Russian citizens (and a few other groups outside of Russia). They are also a problem for the US government. The US government is an enemy to the American people. I think most of the hate toward Russia is from very old people and/or people who are in the government orbit.