Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "Lex Clips" channel.

  1. This ignores the fact that NATO membership is purely voluntary. The countries that join must WANT to join. And given what happened in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine, I think the other former Warsaw Pact nations were quite prescient. If they hadn't been concerned about Russian aggression, they wouldn't have joined. He also ignores the fact that Russia and Ukraine had an agreement to share the use of Sevastopol until Russia invaded in 2014. Russian based its fleet in Sevastopol alongside Ukrainian naval ships until then. What motivates Putin? 1) Fear of losing the European oil and gas market, which comprises 60% of Russia's foreign revenue (although he just shot himself in the foot on that one). Ukraine has enormous oil and natural gas reserves around Crimea and the Donbass, which it could exploit and undercut Russia's dominance in the European market. This would also result in Russia losing political clout in Europe (again, Putin completely blew this one too). 2) Flexing his geopolitical muscle to become a world power again. 3) His desire to fulfill the objectives of Russkiy Mir, as outlined by people like Dugin in "Foundations of Geopolitics" (I recommend looking these up on Wikipedia). 4) Fear of having a successful capitalist liberal democracy form on his doorstep, especially one that started at the same low economic standard as Russia did in 1991. And one that was showing signs of joining the EU to boot. After all, if Ukraine suddenly became wealthy, the average Russian might start asking some very hard questions about their regime. The principle reason the war started? In 2014 Russia took Crimea, but could not secure the North Crimea Canal. This canal starts near the Nova Kakhovka Dam, and runs into Crimea. The bulk of potable and irrigation water for Crimea comes from this canal. Ukraine blocked the canal in 2014, and since then Crimea's reservoirs had dropped from 100% capacity in 2014 to 7% capacity in February 2022. Most of Crimea would likely have run out of drinking water by around June or July this year. Putin was literally over a barrel (a water barrel). He had poured billions of dollars into improving the military infrastructure in Crimea and built the Kerch Strait Bridge, and was on the verge of losing all of it because he hadn't secured the water supply. So, rather than negotiate with Ukraine (who were probably not willing to accept anything but the return on Crimea to their control), Putin attacked, believing in the prowess of the Russian military.
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  2.  @andrej13666  No, the US has done a lot of things they shouldn't have done. In many cases on the behalf of US corporations. What I take issue with is the skewed narrative that makes it seem that Russia can do no wrong. I wouldn't mind if some of the critics of the US also tarred Russia with a similar brush at the same time, but most of them put Russia on some sort of pedestal when in fact they are often far worse, just using methods that give them plausible deniability or by shamelessly lying. Same with China. THAT is what I take issue with. I would really like to see one of these people give a lecture where they spend an hour discussing "warmongering, resource wars, assassinating democratically elected officials overseas and domestically, creating torture prisons and black sites, ignoring international law except when it suits them", and spend 20 minutes on the US, 20 minutes on Russia, and 20 minutes on China. THAT would be an even-handed lecture or discussion.
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  3.  @andrej13666  Yes, Stalin and Lenin.
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