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Comment by stunt | Hacker News Reader

Replace Ukraine and Russia with Ireland and UK, and apply the same events that happened since 2000, you will end up with UK invading Ireland in 2022.

I think this lecture (2015) explains the situation very well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4

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Huh? I've lived in the UK and Ireland around those times and there is no interest in anyone invading or problems with them being part of this or that alliance.

I watched that lecture but I still don't understand the situation. He explains that since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia made very clear that they did not want NATO to expand beyond Germany. And yet NATO did expand into Poland and the former Soviet states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia etc. So why is Putin responding now when he already ensured Ukraine wouldn't join NATO in 2014 by invading the country's western region?

Secondly the lecture doesn't explain why Russia is so concerned about having a NATO member on their border. The treaty is a defensive one, not offensive. I don't think the lecture does a good job to help westerners understand the way in which the east mistrusts the west.

He did mention in the lecture that Russia was too weak at the time to step up against neighboring countries joining NATO.

The whole thing is really sad indeed. I believe any country should have the freedom to choose its security and financial alliance, but my point is that isn't how it works with geopolitics. Any major power would do the same if they were in Russia's position.

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