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Russians are dying every day too. Putin can save many Russian lives with a simple order to get out of Ukraine.
Putin plainly values his vanity over the lives of the Russian people.
This is serious, deadly serious, and seeing it treated so lightly is painful.
> boogyman propaganda so beloved of Hollywood.
not hollywood, they say it on Russian state tv, if you take your head out of your arse and manage to watch and listen you'll see it loud and clearly
It's not 1939 (as if their invasion of Poland was justifiable or is that not what you're claiming?). Nobody has been threatening Russian security for decades. Even back in the cold war does there were no serious plans to invade Russia itself.
> Please try to raise the level of discourse beyond the boogyman
That's sounds rather absurd... You're the one who's using propaganda bullet points like "It's about Russian security"?
As a direct result of Russia's war, NATO has expanded and Russia is now very much in China's pocket. China is quite happy to have Russia as a vassal state.
Russia had a mini civil war with Prigozhin's rebellion. Russians have been killing Russians.
Russia's life expectancy was already lower than that of developed countries and this pointless war of choice is steadily killing off an entire generation of young Russians.
Also why do you feel the need to make such pointless contributions?
>Western historians have calculated that, over the last 400 years of its existence, the Russian Empire expanded at an average rate of 50 square kilometers per day. (https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/09/10/putins-nationalism...)
Could it instead just be that they are just doing what they have habitually done?
Mearsheimer explains the perceived threat aspect very well: it doesn't matter what YOU, the Americans or any outside observer thinks. What does matter is what the Russians think, and they've made their thinking on having Ukraine be part of NATO very clear.
Putin is probably genuinely threatened by the prospect of Ukraine being a prosperous democracy and his own people saying why do we have to live under tyrany then, but that's a different thing.
Haven't you been paying attention?
> missiles close to the Russian heartland.
Any factual evidence? In any case you do realize there are Russian missiles in Kaliningrad so following the same logic you would agree that Poland/Germany/Sweden etc. have a legitimate right to invade it to demilitarize and "denazify" it (in this case of course for real because Russia at this point is literally a fascist state, it ticks all the boxes after all) following the same "logic"?
Because the PNAC/CNAC plans for the economic survival of the USA and its western allies depends on the defeat of Russia and the balkanization of its resources?
Haven't you been paying attention? The PNAC/CNAC oligarchs and their military junta have made it quite clear for decades that they want what Russia's got...
Don't be silly. Russia is a sidenote from the perspective of the west. Especially the US, they'd much rather focus on the pacific and their internal stuff.
I know Russians tend to be extremely paranoid about everyone being out to get them but that's more of an internalized issue due to historical reasons and the general tendency of blaming external powers for all of their domestic issues...
The USA is nothing without enemies.
It sounds like Putin doesn't care much about Russia's security and he's only making things worse.