Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I've always said that you really need to understand an opponent or enemy not only to beat them, but to reach a level of understanding with them
Back in 1967 when the U.S. was pushing hard for the Soviets to end their missile defense research or risk an escalation of the arms race, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin simply stated Defense is moral offense is immoral.
If you look at what Putin is doing you can argue that what he's doing is immoral. From a Russian mind set having a bunch of what they would consider to be hostile nations and nato nations right on their border to be a dire situation. What Putin is doing in his mind probably has some effect in rebuilding the buffer zone that they had with the Warsaw pact where if sh%t went down they wouldn't have to fight a was in their own border. Right now Putin believes that what he is doing is moral.
If they take the rest of the Ukraine and start to threaten the other Nato nations right on the Russian border it will be to the effect that they are feeling threatened and they're going to rebuild a buffer.
Of course there are other factors involved. But with Russians we have to realize that shows of strength are everything, that's been drilled into them from the time they were int he crib.
We're seeing things from a very Westernized perspective. These actions aren't about gaining resources, or real estate, the Russians have plenty of both so that gets rid of the usual justifications for war or annexation.
We can call it the re-construction of the Soviet Empire which had the mission statement of world socialism in our time, but it has nothing to do with that.
From books that I've read when the Soviet Union utterly collapsed, there was a collective oh sh%t movement with the junior government set, and everything since then has been built around strengthening Russia. Over the last few years we've seen a heavy concentration in professionalizing their military and re-arming it. The goal has always been security.
Putin is just pushing forward that agenda.
at least that's what i believe is happening.
But I'm not the end all and be all.
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I guess I am more cynical than you.
I don't believe that it is about security. Gaining Crimea doesn't make them more secure from external sources (and they are already pretty secure). Unless it really is the start of mass annexation of territory, the relatively small area of Crimea is pretty meaningless as a buffer. Internally, it probably just makes the whole region a little more volatile and creates more ethnic tension.
Personally, I think it's simply about trying to get respect through power and force. Ukrainians tried to turn their backs on Russia/Putin, and now he is trying to show them (and others in the area) who is boss and who holds the power. It is defense in the sense that a Russia which shows weakness will likely collapse internally, but it is not defense from outside forces. The image of being powerful and someone not to be toiled with is ingrained in them.