YT: Back in the final days of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated an agreement. The Soviets would withdraw from Eastern Europe and dismantle the Warsaw Pact, and in return the Americans would stop the NATO expansion and the encirclement of the Soviet Union. Both sides were to ease the tensions and build up relations. However, what happened next was that the Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe triggered a series of nationalist revolts throughout the USSR. The unintended consequence here was the break-up of the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of this collapse, NATO quickly moved into the former Warsaw Pact member states and even expanded into the former Soviet states in the Baltics. From the perspective of the new NATO members, joining the alliance made sense, given their past experiences with the Soviet Union. But from Russian perspective this was an utter betrayal.
Fast forward to 2005, the Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster. But Putin wasnt referring to the collapse of communism. He was referring to the fact that almost three centuries of Russian expansionist policy was reversed in a matter of days. Russia was basically retracted to its 17th century borders.
The Russians could have accepted the situation as it was. However, in 2003, the Rose revolution unfolded in Georgia. A year later the Orange revolution hit Ukraine. And the Baltic countries joined NATO. Imagine what the Russian leadership was thinking. About two decade ago they were betrayed and lost their global empire. Now NATO was moving into the remaining former Soviet states. The only thing that the Baltics, Ukraine and the Caucasus add to NATO is to increase a multi-vector offensive strategy on the Russian Federation. From Russian perspective this was the old NATO strategy of encirclement, and if things kept going at this speed, the very existence of the Russian Federation would be in question in a matter of years. This is what Putin was referring to. It was a wake up call for the Kremlin to reassert itself or perish in history.
3 Comments
YogiAmerica expanded NATO and rearmed Germany a country that and invaded and nearly destroyed Russia twice in that century. We didn't keep to our treaties and we rarely ever do.
Russia was a weak superpower in the Cold War actually, they had been under rapid industrialization but were basically moving from being mostly farmland so it was superficial. The amount of power they had was greatly exaggerated. The thing is when you have the two LARGEST propaganda systems on Earth saying that Russia is indeed a very significant threat and that they are Socialist you can't really fight that with facts because people are too emotional about the situation.
If history says anything we will likely overstate Russias power and influence. Our "Containment" of them will really be more of a power grab to increase our influence all over the world.
What's interesting is the American public is kind of sick of this shit. You see the media and the administration and tons of people on the Hill talking about how awful Putin and Russia is. How they're going to take over places bit by bit and everything is going to hell, how terrible this is, but many in the public don't believe them and don't give a shit. We're sick of this lying crap, we don't believe the President when he says we have to invade a new place anymore and he looks like an idiot when everyone shuts him down.
So my prediction is the media will do more screaming, more wringing of hands and yelling at people about why don't they care about this or that. They'll make things up, sensationalize conflicts and basically use propaganda all while ignoring our crimes and situations we're responsible for.
This was long and pointless with no citations but I've decided I don't care, take this as my opinion and shove a salt lick down your throat.
thealiNo need to take it so personal
its just every country doing what is in their geopolitical interest, what else would they be doing?
America expanded NATO and rearmed Germany a country that and invaded and nearly destroyed Russia twice in that century. We didn't keep to our treaties and we rarely ever do.
Russia was a weak superpower in the Cold War actually, they had been under rapid industrialization but were basically moving from being mostly farmland so it was superficial. The amount of power they had was greatly exaggerated. The thing is when you have the two LARGEST propaganda systems on Earth saying that Russia is indeed a very significant threat and that they are Socialist you can't really fight that with facts because people are too emotional about the situation.
If history says anything we will likely overstate Russias power and influence. Our "Containment" of them will really be more of a power grab to increase our influence all over the world.
What's interesting is the American public is kind of sick of this shit. You see the media and the administration and tons of people on the Hill talking about how awful Putin and Russia is. How they're going to take over places bit by bit and everything is going to hell, how terrible this is, but many in the public don't believe them and don't give a shit. We're sick of this lying crap, we don't believe the President when he says we have to invade a new place anymore and he looks like an idiot when everyone shuts him down.
So my prediction is the media will do more screaming, more wringing of hands and yelling at people about why don't they care about this or that. They'll make things up, sensationalize conflicts and basically use propaganda all while ignoring our crimes and situations we're responsible for.
This was long and pointless with no citations but I've decided I don't care, take this as my opinion and shove a salt lick down your throat.
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