She also abruptly exited nuclear energy and other energy sources at the same time. Without that, there would not have had to be price hikes, and dependency on Putin. Let me put it this way: I am not saying Merkel was on Putin's payroll (like her predecessor still is), but all her actions would be consistent with that having been the case.
[Educational Post] Let me make all of this real simple for everyone. Here's what happened: 1. Russia has for decades said that they do not want NATO expanding eastward. They have been very clear and consistent that this would lead to armed hostilities. Joe Biden, in 1997, said that the only thing that could provoke a "vigorous and hostile" Russian response would be if NATO expanded as far as the Baltic States. As a note, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (the Baltic States) joined NATO in 2004. 2. Ukraine has ALWAYS been the red line that if NATO tried to include them, Russia would act militarily. This has been clear to anyone involved in foreign relations. 3. On Nov 10, 2021, the US and Ukraine signed a partnership agreement that was intended to pave the way for Ukraine to join NATO in the future. This was the trigger for this war. https://www.state.gov/u-s-ukraine-charter-on-strategic-partnership/ 4. Soon thereafter, Russia started amassing troops to invade Ukraine, and 4 months later, here we sit. The human suffering is unthinkable. To better understand all this, how would America respond if China signed a partnership to allow Mexico to join a group hostile to the US (like NATO is hostile towards Russia) and then China started moving huge amounts of weapons to Laredo, Matamoros, and Tijuana? Would we sit idly by? Then how can we expect Russia to do the same when the complete idiots in the Biden Administration signed the November 10th strategic partnership agreement? Trump was endlessly attacked by the media, government agencies, and intel agencies because he did NOT support NATO's absurd desires for a shooting war with Russia.
I wouldn't trust any polling out of Russia right now. I doubt many Russians are willing to express how they really feel given the crackdowns. Also those who are willing to stand up to Putin in Russia are heroes. Many of us here in the US protested going into Iraq but the risk we faced were nothing compared to those in Russia still daring to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
So you feel that Russia gets to dictate who is and who isn't in NATO, and that if NATO and the US doesn't give in to Russia's demands they are justified in attacking and invading a Democratic nation who put forward no military threat to Russia? That's a very weak and APPEASING way of dealing with murderous authoritarian nations which oppose Democracy. It also ignores the fact that Russia had already taken part of the Ukraine and that Ukraine wanted to be part of NATO to deter an aggressive invasion from Russia. The whole reason Russia didn't want them as part of NATO was so they could invade without escalating into a larger war.
I know this is probably wasted on you but there needs to be some things clarified here. 1. This needs to be reiterated again. The US cannot unilaterally add Ukraine to NATO. While the agreement does talk about NATO it points out this is Ukraine's desire to join NATO and that it is up to Ukraine if they want to or not. As also noted the NATO structure means that other countries have a say in whether Ukraine joins NATO or not. 2. This isn't something that was done out of the blue like if the PRC suddenly decided to intervene in Mexico. This was done in response to year of Russian action ALREADY supporting a separatists fighting against the Ukrainian government in Eastern Ukraine. 3. Long before when this agreement was signed Russia was already interfering in Ukraine. Both in Ukrainian politics and militarily through support of the separatists conflict. This is just another attempt to excuse Putin's actions and shift blame.
Also to add. Macron did offer to Putin a negotiation on a security structure that is not NATO so the diplomatic offer was there. Also what is missing in trying to blame Biden and the US for Putin's invasion of Ukraine what is missing is shouldn't the Ukrainians have a voice in their future? If Ukraine want's to join NATO why then is it up to the US to quash that to appease Putin? Anyway the facts are that Ukraine isn't a member of NATO, it wasn't a member of NATO two weeks ago when Putin invaded, but if Ukraine survives this it will make it MORE LIKELY that Ukraine will be a member of NATO than three weeks ago.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) has removed Vladimir Putin and a Russian Oligarch from their membership. This follows last week them removing Putin as honorary President and international ambassador to Judo. Official announcement of the International Judo Federation / IJF.org "Official announcement of the International Judo Federation The International Judo Federation announces that Mr. Vladimir Putin and Mr. Arkady Rotenberg have been removed from all positions held in the International Judo Federation."
No. The trigger for the war was Trump losing the election. Trump wanted to pull out of NATO. His cabinet and aides kept telling him it would be political suicide. Trump was then quoted as saying "I'll wait until the 2nd term. Yeah I will wait until then." Once Trump lost, Putin knew the U.S. wouldn't pull out of NATO. He lost his avenue to invade Ukraine and not have pushback from the U.S. It does not have a damn thing to do with Ukraine wanting to join NATO. Putin wants the USSR back. NATO is just an excuse.
Your logic is so backwards! Russia did not want an armed NATO threat sitting on its border with Ukraine. In the same way that the US didn't want Russia's missiles in Cuba way back when. No country sits around and just decides one day that they want to invade. There is always a provocation or underlying motivation. The motivation in this case is very clearly NATO's eastward expansion. Putin (and China and India quite honestly) looks at NATO as the people who invaded Syria, Libya, IRAQ, and other places and left them in disarray. The Nov 10, 2021 strategic partnership with Ukraine was the final straw. Putin saw it as a continuation of the US-led military industrial complex's desire to expand NATO towards Russia. He felt he was forced to act. Our foreign policy was STUPID AND NAIVE to not expect this reaction. We should have never signed that strategic partnership. What was the benefit? Sadly, we now know the costs -- and they are horrific in terms of human suffering.
The point is that the cost-benefit analysis of our foreign policy did not adequately factor in the consequences of signing the Nov 10, 2021 strategic partnership. What was the benefit of that agreement? The cost was that it spurred Putin to invade. Was it worth it to you to sign that agreement? How about to the many thousands of Ukrainians who have died and the millions who have been displaced?
Not sure how you can successfully poll a place that is being seriously locked down and threatened with prison time for not towing the State's line... But that's better than I expected.
And again RUSSIA WAS ALREADY IN UKRAINE.. Russia had taken Crimea in 2014, for years they had been training, arming, funding and out rightly fighting in Eastern Ukraine. Let me ask you a simple question which I frankly don't expect an honest answer. Do you believe that the Ukrainians should have a say in whether they want to be in NATO or not?
To add some more. Putin's own justification has nothing to do with the security agreement between the US and Russia. He claims that he invaded because he was De-Nazifying Ukraine and that there was a genocide being committed on ethnic Russians.
The strategic partnership from the State dept was basically a re-affirmation of US policy of support for Ukraine since 2014 that was weakened by the Trump admin. But you got a solid point here. If the US had never given military assistance to Ukraine after the 2014 invasion, Russia would just rolled over Ukraine without a fight, saving thousands of lives and human suffering. I'm sure that's exactly what Ukraine wanted. Trump was absolutely right to think of the Ukrainian people when he tried to pull the US away from supporting Ukraine, starting with withholding weapons. Too bad, the US Congress impeached him and overruled him for that. Very bad US causing the horrific human suffering.
Allow me to give you a little refresher course on how world affairs work. Everyone is a slave to the US for two reasons: 1) We have the largest military in the world; and 2) The US Dollar is the global reserve currency. It is not Ukraine's say, or any other country's say, as to whether they get to be in NATO or not. It is the United States' decision. In what alternate universe are you living in where you think the US respects the sovereign status of other countries? Have you studied a day's worth of history?
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-new...s-03-08-22/h_80c41dda8cf19a524b760f9380015787 Biden expected to ban Russian energy imports today From CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak and Phil Mattingly US President Joe Biden is expected to today ban Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US, according to three sources familiar with the decision. The US will make the move unilaterally, without its European allies, due to disagreement among European nations about whether to ban Russian energy. EU countries have significantly more exposure to Russian energy than the US. US officials decided, given the extreme political pressure at home, they could move without the coalition and not create major issues. Biden is expected to address the news at 10:45 a.m. ET. US imports from Russia make up a small slice of the energy universe — roughly 8% in 2021, of which only about 3% was crude oil. White House economic officials have been engaged for more than a week in how to manage any decision to cut off those imports, according to officials. Biden administration officials traveled to Venezuela over the weekend for talks on potentially allowing the country to sell its oil on the international market, helping to replace Russian fuel. Biden may travel to Saudi Arabia as the US works to convince the kingdom to increase its production. And a looming nuclear deal could bring significant volumes of Iranian oil back to the market.
The deep state bureaucrat who wrote that speech knew what they were talking about. Was that when Trump went to Europe and couldn't get his uppers. He looks like he's about to fall asleep.
