Hacker News Reader

Comment by Udo | Hacker News Reader

> disagreeing with a person is not trolling

The word troll has evolved to encompass any sort of dishonest internet activity that is designed to manipulate the response and attitude of the larger audience, but I agree: the right term would be astroturfing.

> it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way

That hilariously fails to describe Russia in any way most people would recognize.

> Realistically, with the exclusion of Crimea, Russia has done nothing that any other large country hasn't done with regards to borders

That's a pretty big exclusion, but concerns about its borders and the threat of annexation - as elevated as it is compared to any other country - is not the main concern here.

View on HN

>> it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way

>That hilariously fails to describe Russia in any way most people would recognize.

I agree. And that's a shame, Russia has always vied for peace and used force where peace was impossible. That's a trend we see all thoughout history (especially in Britain). We can't exactly crucify them for it.

>That's a pretty big exclusion, but concerns about its borders and the threat of annexation - as elevated as it is compared to any other country - is not the main concern here.

Sure. It's not but I was preempting someone else bringing it up.

And while it's a big exemption you have to at least try to understand Russia's position. Not only is it a military base falling into enemy hands, it's control of a southern region, it's potential troubles for its populace that live there in addition and finally they held a refferendum which is certainly the democratically preferred method of agreeing or disagreeing with political change. Just because we didn't send EU troops (who for all russia knows are the same folk who caused destabilisation in the Ukrainian country) to conduct it doesn't mean it was definitely rigged.

It doesn't necessarily mean it was free of corruption either of course but I'm playing devils advocate. Because the devil seems to need one.

I think Russia's problem is it spent its entire history surrounded by powerful enemies, and was frequently invaded. As a consequence Putin honestly believes NATO has the intention of invading it, and so he thinks Russia has to take aggressive actions to prevent that.

What he doesn't get is that, thanks to nuclear weapons and modern industrialization, NATO is not interested in doing that for either reasons of security or wealth. That is why, when the Cold War ended, NATO nations drastically cut their arms budgets. NATO would like to basically leave Russia alone, but Russia's agressive actions are forcing it to respond.

It is all a lot simpler: power, money and sphere of influence. No one is going to give up power and money in a poor country. That's why Mr. Putin and Company build tons of bullshit about external enemies, preventing folks from blaming the government for existing economical and social problems.

Disclaimer: I'm from a country that is in Eastern Europe and borders with Russia. It also has very close relations with it. Russia affects internal politics and mass media. 80% are brain-washed.

>I think Russia's problem is it spent its entire history surrounded by powerful enemies

That applies not only to Russia, but to pretty much everyone. Particularly, it applies to each of Russia's neighbours...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com