Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "Why Russia wants to restore the Soviet borders" video.

  1. The thing that gets me is that Russia is concerned about being attacked by a defensive alliance that came into existence to protect themselves from Russia's aggression. NATO's charter specifically says that it is a defensive alliance. In effect, Russia is projecting their own aggressive expansionism on their neighbours, none of whom are interested in invading. It is also important to note that the European plain expands as it enters Russia, which results in extended fronts and an inability to concentrate force. This is what lead to the Wehrmacht's defeat in WW2.
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  2.  @Real_OSHA_Unsafety_Engineer  What do you think a "sphere of influence" is BUT imperialism? And what has Russia done since 1917 BUT try to topple regimes and install puppet states? Stop making excuses for Russia by pointing fingers at who they see as they primary opponent. I know the US has done the same in the past, but Russia has been far, far worse. Or are you one of those communist holdovers who still dream of the world revolution?
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  3. Your video also shows that Russia needs to fear China, not NATO. In fact, by coming to an agreement with NATO, they could focus on their eastern and southern borders. Indeed, I think that at one point NATO even suggested that Russian could join the alliance. This would have given Russia the defensive shield it wants in the west. This makes Putin's latest move all the more absurd.
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  4.  @happydays5218  Yes, the treaty that was signed to divide Poland between the USSR and Germany was another in the long list of treaties that Hitler broke.
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  5.  @Real_OSHA_Unsafety_Engineer  You might want to look up "Russian Imperialism" on the internet. You might be shocked at how many countries Russia has over-run, occupied and subjugated over the years. Ask anyone from Poland, the Baltic States or the other former Warsaw Pact countries how "wonderful" it was to be under the iron heel of the USSR. And if you think American sponsored dictators are bad, you should check out the former communist ones. Oh, and look up the death toll racked up by Communist regimes on their own people too. Then you might start to understand why NATO exists. It's better to get together in a mutual protection society when there is a thug in the area who is looking at mugging all his neighbors (like he is doing to Ukraine right now). The biggest problem with the US is that they are a prime example of "The way to hell is paved with good intentions", at least in recent years. I won't sugar coat things, the US has made plenty of mistakes and has acted in an imperialist fashion in the past (as recently as the 1980s). Some of their more recent excursions have been to try and help countries, which have been fumbled badly because they don't consider what should be done to repair the damage they did when entering the country. It ends up being more, "We've protected/freed you from ______. Well, got to go, bye". And practically every recent action has had UN approval with Russia and China usually abstaining from voting. It's all very nice to point fingers at the US, but Russia is a much bigger threat. The US hasn't been attacking Mexico and Canada, or carving off chunks of their territory (at least in the last 150+ years), but Russia is. Putin's attitude is very much like a cartoon that appeared in WW2, where Hitler is hugging a large globe and shouting, "Germany will never be surrounded". That, in a nutshell, is Putin's take on things as well. He will only feel secure when he has subjugated everyone around him. So no, NATO is not meant to isolate Russia. In fact, at one point, the idea of having Russia join NATO was broached to Russia. They would act as a very good counter to the US, and it would mean they wouldn't need to worry about their western border. Unfortunately, their gangster attitude and paranoia is preventing them from seeing this as a viable possibility.
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  6.  @Real_OSHA_Unsafety_Engineer  Oh, so you mean the current invasion of Ukraine, attempts to funnel Ukrainians into Russia, bombing of hospitals, schools and residential areas are just peaceful ways of trying to resolve ethnic issues. Sorry, but my sarcasm is showing. And I assume you never heard the term Russification. The Ukrainians told me all about it when I visited the country in the mid-1990s. Yeah, Russia doesn't want ethnic conflict, which is why they suppress everyone else's culture, literature and language. I also know some people who fled Hungary after the 1957 uprising, and they said the same thing. Russia was deliberately trying to suppress their culture, literature and language. Guess what, they are imperialists who suppress anything non-Russian. Sorry, the real reason that Russia does not have a strong economy is because of Putin and the oligarchs siphoning off half the country's wealth into their own pockets instead of financing the country's growth. You see pictures of their yachts? How about Putin's mansion? That's where Russia's wealth has gone. Stop trying to sugar coat a violent, repressive dictatorship just because you don't like the US. I'm not fond of the US either, as they are a bunch of braggarts and egotistical, but they are a much better option than Russia has ever been.
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  7.  @luigigaming2717  I agree with your comment. All I was saying is that the geopolitical argument is a ridiculous one. It is based on projecting your own expansionistic ideology on you neighbours. Let's face it, Russia is concerned about being invaded because it has been attacked from the direction of Europe 5 or 6 times in the last 200 years. If that's the case, how often was Italy invaded, or France, or Germany, or Austria, during that same time frame? In reality you are right - this war is about the oil and gas reserves (and other mineral resources) that Ukraine is sitting on top of, and the fact that Putin was on the verge of losing the Crimea due to lack of water. Based on my rough calculations, Crimea would have been out of water by mid-summer this year, so Putin had to unstopper the canal that feeds the cities of Simferopol and Sevastopol now, before they would have to be evacuated for lack of water. Of course, Putin is using the standard paranoid Soviet defense of being surrounded by enemies. He just doesn't tell anyone that he has created those enemies.
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