Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte

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• 
  illodiini
  May 26th, 2023
  

  “the damage did not have to happen”
  Oh yes, it did. Lil’putin wanted a war with Ukraine, and he got it. He didn’t obtain his goals, though, quite the opposite. He’s probably the worst leader in a history of bad ones in Russia.

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte
• 
  caesar963
  May 26th, 2023
  

  

  Putin’s imperialistic invasions - his insecure desire for hegemony - were based upon a miscalculation of Western division. However, his aggression has only united the West still further, & exposed his own weakness & isolation. No one was going to invade & colonise nuclear-powered Russia.

  As for “the damage did not have to happen,” Putin has been attacking the legitimate sovereignty of Ukraine & other former colonies of the Soviet Empire - which are now sovereign states - for years, denying that they possess “real statehood.”

  He fears their continuing evolution as prosperous, rule of law, pluralist democratic states, after the model of the EU. Like any autocratic tyrant (his remaining allies) he fears the human rights-based legal order.

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte
• 
  mrpride
  May 26th, 2023
  

  I think the quote “the damage did not have to happen” refers to the fact that the outcome could have been different. Russia could’ve become a strong liberal democratic country.

  I actually don’t think he fears the EU as much as NATO (aka USA). When he says Ukraine isn’t a country I think we should take him at his word. He literally doesn’t believe Ukraine exists. For him it’s just a mistake the soviets made which is why NATO is such a big threat for him. Once Ukraine is in NATO it’s basically game over

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte
• 
  caesar963
  May 26th, 2023
  

  He does imagine that the collapse of the Soviet empire was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” - whereas the rest of us just think that the establishing of the Soviet Empire (or the national socialist empire; or Mao’s empire) constituted the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

  If all the threatened sovereign states were securely ensconced in an international, protective alliance, then everyone could stay in their prophylactic lanes. States could then develop & trade along their own lines, according to their sovereign imperatives.

  We may hope that, following this kleptocratic autocracy, Russia might develop peacefully & democratically. However, the tradition of liberal democracy & human rights is not there, at present.

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte
• 
  paulpi
  May 26th, 2023
  

  So far, $65million in direct arms donations and who knows how many thousands of Ukrainian men wasted in destroying Ukraine, all so that Saint Zelensky and his neo-nazi thugs can enrich themelves selling out their country to prop-up America’s imperial war machine.

  Where are the experts now who confidently predicted western sanctions would xrush both Russia and Putin, when in fact it’s been the opposite & has been abrilliant catalyst in accelerating the rise of a multipolar NWO through BRICS.

  Any anyone here talking like western bourgeois democracy has any vaule in real terms for the people of the west is either naive, deranged or an outright sophist.

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte
• 
  paulpi
  May 26th, 2023
  

  … please excuse typos etc., above - alas, no edit options on this site!

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte
• 
  caesar963
  May 26th, 2023
  

  “thousands of Ukrainian men wasted in destroying Ukraine” - So, Putin should clearly not have invaded - resulting in the mass murder of men, women & children.

  “neo-nazi thugs can enrich themelves” - neo-nazi ideology in Russia exemplified by Rusich; the Russian Imperial Movement; the Russian Imperial Legion; Reserve Squad; & the human rights-abusing Putin regime itself. Putin’s regime has cultivated its own homegrown Nazis. The Ukrainian state has protected minorities like Crimean Tatars & LGBTQ+ people, who are subject to brutal persecution in Russia. Little attention has been paid over the yrs to neo-nazi Russian militias fighting on behalf of Russia, not just in Ukraine but also in Syria. While these fighters are believed to have also joined the ranks of Russian private mercenary companies - Wagner is the best known.

  The day that Russia launched its invasion, the head of the neo-nazi Russian Imperial Movement, Denis Gariyev, posted a message on his Telegram channel saying: “Without a doubt, we are in favor of the liquidation of the separatist entity Ukraine.” They love “liquidating” “entities,” don’t they?
  The group has provided paramilitary-style training to white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Europe & actively works to rally these types of groups into a common front against their perceived enemies. A few weeks after Gariyev’s Telegram post, the organisation’s combat training centre near St. Petersburg, called Partizan, announced the recruitment of volunteers to fight in Ukraine.

  “America’s imperial” - The “WhatAboutAmerica?” is designed to distract from Putin’s actual imperialism & brutal invasions. Doesn’t work. How would it?

  “experts confidently predicted would xrush both Russia and Putin” - There were corresponding predictions that Ukraine would be quickly crushed, and that the West was too divided.

  “democracy has any vaule” - And the alternative to Western liberal democracy, rule of law & the human rights-based legal order? Anything that is coherent & functioning? P’haps the Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Iranian & Syrian models of government? I suppose we ought to seriously consider them…

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte
• 
  wolfcomm
  May 26th, 2023
  

  

  mrpride, Thank you for all the titles you’ve been upping lately.
  Got a question for you.
  > “Once Ukraine is in NATO it’s basically game over”
  Are you speaking hypothetically or do you believe it to be inevitable? An important question, indeed, because if you ask both actors (Russia and the collective West), each one would say they are winning.

  Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate - M. E. Sarotte

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