Comments by "seneca983" (@seneca983) on "A different perspective on the Invasion of Ukraine" video.

  1. 2:55 "In Russia the military and the security services are effectively responsible for running the country." I've seen at least Kamil Galeev argue on Twitter that it's only the security services that run Russia. Military is low in the dominance hierarchy and deliberately kept weak so it can't challenge the security services' domination. I don't myself know enough to say whether he's right or wrong.
    437
  2.  @Nepriemlem0  Thanks for the info.
    7
  3.  @antennastoheaven  Do you think he's right or wrong about this particular issue (i.e. security services having the power, not military)?
    4
  4.  @Tokeraki  At least Kamil Galeev's profile page on the Woodrow Wilson Center webpage says that he resides in Moscow. Of course, the page could be out of date but seemingly he has at least lived there at some point.
    3
  5. "Russia has been invaded >50 times in last 200 years" Surely that number cannot be correct.
    2
  6. "I think Ukraine was invaded because Russia was about to lose their port at Sevastopol." That might explain the events of 2014 but not the present invasion.
    2
  7. "Russia has large interest is making sure N.A.T.O is kept away from the Russian border" Ukraine would have been unlikely to join NATO for the foreseeable future anyway. However, now because of this invasion Russia is likely to get a different new NATO member as a neighbor. Thus it seems that Putin's invasion works against this particular goal.
    1
  8. "In total, over eight years of shelling in the Luhansk and Donetsk republics, many houses were destroyed and about fourteen thousand people - women, children and the elderly - were killed." Note that 14,000 includes both civilian and military casualties on both sides. Civilian casualties given by the UN is 3,393 and this both those killed by Ukrainian forces and those killed by the separatist/Russian forces. Most of those also happened during the first two years.
    1
  9. "NATO aspirations to put offensive ICBMs near Moscow" I don't think there were such aspirations. Ukraine would have been unlikely to join NATO for the foreseeable future.
    1
  10. "10k civilian deaths in separatist Donbas region." UN gives the number of civilian deaths as 3,393. You're giving a 3x overestimate.
    1
  11.  @doloressverko9887  Are you referring to my original comment or some other comment in this thread? It's a bit unclear to me what you're referring to.
    1
  12.  @NikolaAvramov  The truth of the matter isn't actually obvious. It could be either security services or the military or both running the country. Note that the option of Russia being genuinely democratic wasn't considered here.
    1
  13. At least before the invasion Russia's real (PPP) GDP per capita was about 60% higher than that of China. Granted, Russia has more natural resources and China was growing faster.
    1
  14.  @carlgustafemilmannerheim9360  "the threat of bioweaponlabs in the border regions who where supported by the usa" They are not weapon labs. "and that zelensky wanted nukes" It's pretty unlikely that they would get nukes.
    1
  15. "2014 Milan coup orchestrated by the west ousted president Yanukovych, all the succeeding presidents are western friendly presidents" You should say "both" rather than "all" since there has been only two. But in any case, the reason for that is simple. Putin successfully cleaved away the most pro-Russia parts of Ukraine. That almost inevitably changes the electoral arithmetic in favor of pro-Western candidates. Putin can't eat his cake and have it too.
    1