2+4 were the two Germanys and the four occupying (of Germany) countries SU, US, FR and UK.

A bit of arrogance to suggest that these had any authority to decide for the rest of Europe.

Nato is not a threat to Russia, nor is any European country.

This is exactly the problem here: Russia continues to have a mentality of spheres of influence irrelevant of the choices of these spheres. All the countries in Eastern Europe had referendums to join NATO. Moreover, there has never been a document, treaty, agreement, whatsoever in which NATO agrees with Russia to no expansion beyond Germany. You can do well by ditching sources like zerohedge.

Most importantly, Eastern Europe knows that it did the right choice in joining NATO. This is the only thing that protects it from Russia and logically, the more Russia bullies and harasses its neighbors, the stronger this conviction is. Probably the only thing that has saved the Baltic states is indeed NATO.

Russia's "fear" of NATO is absolutely self-delusional and not even Putin ever imagines that NATO will attack Russia. He's just using it as a justification for his tantrums and finally the world is waking up to this madman and whatever the outcome of the Ukraine crisis is, the view on Russia in the West has fundamentally shifted. It is now an untrustworthy bully who needs to be contained one way or another.


Check this: quite factual and comprehensive
https://www.rferl.org/a/nato-expansi.../31263602.html

Sorry but you are bringing Putin down to the level of teeth gnashing, wide-eyed and lunatic fringe tin pot dictators of a Trumpian level. And Putin is everything except that. You are buying into the western propaganda that Putin is mired in the past, stuck in imperialistic 19th century delusions of grandeur. I would call Putin one of the first 21st century politicians. And believe me the way things are heading that may not be a good thing.

BTW, people who Russia evacuated from LDPR are still staying in buses, for two days already. Including babies and old people. Without Putin they would have lived peacefully in their homes on Ukrainian territory as they did before 2014 and no war would ever have come to their region.

"According to the latest US intelligence assessment, Russia now has close to 75% of its conventional forces postured against Ukraine, a US official with direct knowledge of the intelligence told CNN."

The latest US estimate is the Russian forces total around 190,000 which is probably larger than the Ukraine army, it must be costing Russia a fortune to keep them combat ready and supplied.

If they do invade then their costs will escalate and if the stories of strong Ukraine guerrilla forces are true then their costs will keep rising.

On the contrary, the "western" view of Putin is very very recent. The Eastern European view of Putin has been quite clear since at least the early 2000s when he started openly meddling in the politics of Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, neither NATO nor the EU were paying attention to the warnings coming from the east, they had to learn their lesson the hard way.

What is your definition of a 21st century politician? A failed economy based solely on extraction of natural resources and no value add, extreme concentration of resources in a few oligarchs, complete suppression of any political opposition and invading neighboring countries only because they are militarily weaker?

Sounds like the time is right for Georgia to takeback some of its lost territory… And Japan,

Any others.

You make that sound like a bad thing.


Actually I think you are correct regardless on where you look, Kremlin, WallStreet, The City. Perhaps the latter don´t invade with their military (American meddling as the exeption to the rule) but it doesn´t matter, the "how" is just cosmetics.

Laughable.

All the Warsaw Pact countries except Albania have higher GDPs per capita than Russia as do three former Soviet states.

And that's even when many of them has not so many natural resources riches like Russia has.

Yeah, I think serial groaning is against the forum rules though....I dragged him to my ignore list because I don't find him "cute". Predictably annoying.

Is that the building with a hole in the wall and one window shattered, while the rest of the wall and all other windows are intact?

Ah get it - cannot agree more with your support to Crimean referendum.

They would have lived peacefully in their homes with the President they elected - but no, someone decided to orchestrate an African style coup.

And that someone was not Putin, for sure.

Yep - kind of remember Putin orchestrating Russian agression/bombing of Serbia in 1999.

Cannot agree more - I am sure you mean Serbia here.

You seem to be enthralled and in love with Putin and Russia, and yet, you seem to be more comfortable in the decadent and weak West. What gives? Why don't you move there and tell us first-hand how the situation is in Russia?

Even the representatives of the pro-Russian party are leaving Ukraine with the families on charter flights towards western Europe, not Russia.

Putin encourages separatist movements and revisionism (only when it fits Russia's interests..as per divide et impera) that's why he is so loved by some people..nothing to see here, really..

But of course. They can even apply for political asylum here, and be accepted!

Armchair "rebel"....this level of militantism would deserve a better cause.

fyi!
https://www.globalfirepower.com/

Putin will decide today on the recognition of the independence of L/DPR. The problem is that they will recognize them in the borders of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, in the words of Russian government "before they have been occupied by Ukraine". It means that Russia will start a war with Ukraine to "deoccupy" the whole regions and then probably invade the whole Ukraine.

Once they recognize the independence, they might go ahead and move the troops in DNR/LNR the same way as they did in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It looks like this is what they are trying to organize. Did they go completely crazy? They cannot do this.

Oh they can do it, they shouldn't, but they definitely can do it.