• Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    2 days ago

    If Putin hadn’t invaded Ukraine, it would’ve been a launching ground for an invasion into Russia or forced submission.

    With what army? Nobody wanted fund their militaries prior to the SMO, the SMO is what created what is currently the largest threat to Russia’s security.

    • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      NATO began military exercises in Ukraine at the end of 2013. In the years leading up to the SMO, NATO flew B-52 nuclear bombers up to border of Russian airspace, they ran a simulated invasion of Kaliningrad with a full force, and Putin explicitly stated that the reason the SMO launched was because there was NATO activity on the border that was indistinguishable from preparations of nuclear capabilities.

      Since the SMO, none of these things have been possible. This is the reason for the SMO. It was not mindless adventurism. It was calculated and reluctant.

    • -6-6-6-@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      With…what army? The very same fascist paramilitaries that killed the trade unionists in Odessa? Or are we continously ignoring that part? Or the banderites? Azov being an example of both? Also, they had received explicit intelligence support from the U.S…

      Like are we for real right now? The largest threat to Russia’s security is the West, NATO and the imperialists that reside within them.

      • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        2 days ago

        ALL OF THOSE THINGS THAT YOU LISTED ARE A BIGGER PROBLEM NOW THAN THEY WERE BEFORE THE SMO AND NOT ONLY THAT BUT THE CONVENTIONAL WESTERN MILITARIES ARRAYED AGAINST RUSSIA HAVE GROWN IN SIZE IN DIRECT RESPONSE TO THE PERCEIVED THREAT OF RUSSIAN AGGRESSION.

        Do you think that the American invasion of Afghanistan reduced the number of anti-American paramilitaries in the world? Because the exact same thing happened here - a big invasion to stamp out a small threat only managed to galvanize resistance against the big invader. Who would have guessed given how many times this exact scenario has played out in history.

        • -6-6-6-@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          They were already an issue to Russia’s sovereignty before as I said and then backed up in the copypasta I literally just posted that you apparently “read”. Of course the issue would be larger in proxy military confrontation. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s not Putin’s fault for launching the SMO when it was gearing up to threaten the country on orders of imperialists. Caps-lock doesn’t change that either.

          American invasion of Aghanistan was imperialist. Russian invasion of Ukraine was not. There is no comparison there. This wasn’t a “Small threat” because you keep seemingly ignoring CIA and western-intelligence sponsored paramilitaries and political organizations that reorganized the country in a violent overthrow and murdered leftists and trade-unionists as we seen in Odessa. That is not a “small threat” that is a direct threat to the sovereignty of Russia.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 days ago

            Could those CIA and western-intelligence sponsored paramilitaries and political organizations have ever inflicted as much damage to Russia as this war has? Don’t get me wrong - intervening to stop the persecution of ethnic Russians in Ukraine by organized neonazis is good and I do think that they had legitimate security concerns about Ukraine basically being turned into a hotbed for fascists, terrorism, and organized crime. I realize I’m not privy to all the information they have access to, but I just don’t see the strategic advantage this war has for Russia.

            • -6-6-6-@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              12
              ·
              2 days ago

              Have you seen the sheer violence and devastation America will bring to the periphery when it dare revolts? Hell, not even revolting, simply just choosing a path that will slightly threaten the interests of private capital in those nations owned by America or even it’s allies that cling to previous colonial vestiges like a dying tick? I mean, Chile is a great example. Beyond that, America will install dictators and brutal leaders in nations like that or support them in Indonesia and the Philippines who will gladly purge political opponents or dissidents for them. Previously, in Russia when the USSR fell, America carved out the nation financially. Pepsi was buying Russian warships for debt.

              I’m sure you know this, but remarking and looking back on the brutality of what the Empire has done, what would it do now if given the chance? Just for a single moment when it’s enemies let it’s guard down like Gaddafi?

              The strategic advantage is preventing Ukraine from being used as a launching ground for an invasion, or “hotbed” for terrorists or threats to spawn and attack the nation backed by it’s major rival and leader of the imperialist hegemony that controls the world.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                9
                ·
                edit-2
                2 days ago

                I have no doubt that Ukraine would have become a staging ground for some future attack on Russia, but would that have actually been worse than this war already is? While the US-backed Ukraine regime might have launched border incursions or terrorist attacks or something, it’s hard to imagine the Europeans openly supporting Ukraine if they attacked Russia first.

                Instead, because of Russia’s preemptive invasion, NATO expanded onto Russia’s border with Finland. That seems bad.

                • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  11
                  ·
                  2 days ago

                  it’s hard to imagine the Europeans openly supporting Ukraine if they attacked Russia first.

                  Not for me. The media does an excellent job of ignoring or hyperfocusing on whatever it takes to support their narrative.

                  When Kiev sent military jets to bomb civilians in Donetsk in 2014, did it make headlines in the US? I don’t remember hearing a thing.

                  The CIA can also do a false flag (e.g. Gulf of Tonkin) whenever it pleases, and compliant media would make it the biggest story of the decade. They’ve been priming the public for years with fake news about Russian covert ops, like Putin trying to hack the energy grid in the US.

                  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    3
                    ·
                    2 days ago

                    I think we’d be seeing a situation similar to the collapsing support for Israel, where despite media manipulation there’s been a reversal against Israel and its only getting worse for them. The masses have turned against them and already several European countries have ended arms trade with Israel because the restive masses continue direct actions against the arms supply chain.

                    A different world where people were as critical of Ukraine as they have become of Israel would be catastrophic to the empire.

                    Maybe I’m giving the Europeans too much credit.

                • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  13
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 days ago

                  Yes it would be very much worse. Genocide in Donbass was already ongoing and Russian intervention thwarted massive AFU assault against DPR and LPR. It would be massacre.

                  Secondly, Russia somewhat recovered after even the nightmarish 90’s, which for US planners mean it was not enough, this time they would loot even nails and most likely aimed for balkanisation. Imagine Yugoslavia but much worse.

                  Thirdly, the real target of entire endeavour was nor even Russia but China, taking over Russia would means economic, political and military trouble for China, encircling it and probably (or rather certainly looking at last 5 years) also destroying most of its Belt and Road initiative gains.

                  Finally, Finland was licking boots of every protofash and fash since 1918. It was de facto already NATO member, it changed nothing.

                  I cannot stress this enough, no matter how you do dislike Russia, its intervention in Ukraine stopped imperialists in their tracks to yet another round in world domination and started an event chain that could potentially lead to demise of imperialist core and quite possibly save us all and planet.

                  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    7
                    ·
                    2 days ago

                    This has nothing to do with any “dislike” I might have for Russia. My understanding is that Russia has been heavily shaped by the Western-orchestrated collapse of the USSR and the ongoing isolation of Russia to keep it on the periphery; there’s very little I can hold against their government without taking that context into account.

                    Furthermore, this doesn’t effect the critical support I have for Russia in the war. Defeating the US/NATO bloc is a good thing, even if I disagree that starting a war was the best way to defend Russia or to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

                    I just wonder if there was an alternative: give humanitarian refugee status to ethnic Russians and rescue them peacefully for resettlement in Crimea (which is one piece of Ukrainian territory that I understand Russia needed to take in order to defend itself from the rest of Ukraine, and which it took bloodlessly), and then defensively prepare for any aggression.

                    But this probably comes from ideological priors - I don’t understand the connection people have with their land. It’s something I’ve never had. I’m probably trivializing the trauma of moving people around to keep them safe and improve their economic conditions, but I think fewer people would have died or been maimed by becoming Russian citizens proper and defensively preparing for Ukrainian aggression. Even if that came at the cost of dispossession.

          • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            12
            ·
            2 days ago

            Small threat is relative here. If you think that a fringe paramilitary is a threat on par with multiple countries’ conventional militaries, then you are a moron.

            • -6-6-6-@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              13
              ·
              2 days ago

              Yeah man, the dudes who couped Assad were just fringe paramilitaries. They didn’t have explicit backing of the imperialist hegemony, weapons, funding and intelligence support.

              This didn’t happen in Ukraine whatsoever and were just some fringe paramilitaries that happened to take over suddenly despite having backing, funding, intelligence support and covert weapons support all the way back to the 60s where they then suddenly just took over a nation bordering a major rival of that hegemony. It just all happened out of nowhere, jumbles of images and such because I’m such a fucking moron.

              Get real.

              • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                10
                ·
                2 days ago

                Ukraine in 2020 was nowhere near the state of Syria in 2025. This is a totally illegitimate comparison.

                • -6-6-6-@lemmygrad.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  11
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 days ago

                  Not at all. As much as a comparison for a intelligence officer being the reason behind a worker’s state degeneration, right? You’re totally right. That’s what you want to hear, right?

                  Slavi ukraini and fuck putler, right?

                  You’re already done with me. I’m done with you. I’ve tried.