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kiwifarms.net
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- Jul 27, 2020
Why is it so hard to accept that Russia is at least partly at fault for Ukrainians' desire to shift alliances? Partnership with Russia offers very few benefits rarely worth all the drawbacks.
Look at CSTO. It's a security treaty org that can't even guarantee security. Members get attacked by nations outside of it, by their fellow members, and several decided that CSTO is useless and left it. Compare that to NATO - being a member is enough of a deterrent to even keep Russia away. Do the same for Russian economy vs western ones, Russia's industry, the state of the Russian military revealed by this conflict, degree of corruption, quality of life, and almost any other metric. On average, being a partner to Russia offers far fewer benefits than partnering up with the West.
Was Washington responsible for all other Russian neighbors' growing dislike for Russia and being eager to join the west? Why are only exceptions to that trend led by de facto dictators?
One of few things in favor of Russia was the refusal to entertain trannies and their tantrums. Even that does not seem to be all that it was cracked to be, given that Russian DDoS mitigation platforms buck under trannies' pressure. Tech sector is one of the places where it starts.
All armed conflicts we saw erupt in Europe after WW2 happened outside of NATO. Say what you want but NATO does a good job of preventing conflicts within. Before it, Europeans were at each other's throats every few years.
It was one of progenitors. Grand Duchy of Moscow played far bigger role, and it was the progenitor. It basically built the modern Russian state. After Mongol influence waned, Muscovy started to conquer and annex everything nearby. Novgorod was militarily conquered by Muscovy, and Novgorodian leaders even tried to prevent it by exploring an alliance with Poland and Lithuania.
Russia retained a lot of Muscovy's militaristic, authoritarian, and expansionist character. There is very little of Novgorodian mercantilism and democratic traits left. St. Petersburg was the closest thing to what Novgorod used to be like, and writers like Gogol were comparing it to a European colony within Russia. Over time these characteristics only continued to wane. Especially during the soviet era.
It's rather lucky that Russia can still transport gas through NS2.
Other odd details are how many Russians with ties to the energy industry keep falling out of windows, off yachts, down staircases, or disappearing. Or how Russia claimed that NS1 turbine was broken but when Canadians sent it to Germany it turned out to be fine. Then Russia kept gradually turning NS1 output down, occasionally using maintenance as an excuse, until it was finally shut down completely and later blown up. And now it looks like NS2 is still fine or easy to repair.
All of that makes the entire matter muddy and we probably won't know who did it for sure any time soon.
This has been going for far longer than since 2014. American government was warning West Germany about this back in the 1970s when they started buying fossil fuels from Russia.
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