Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "Russia begins mass evacuation as Ukraine troops advance | DW News" video.

@narcopilehptique6341 They say every country has the government it deserves. Sadly, it applies especially to Russia. It's not like Putin only recently came to power in a KGB-engineered coup d'état. The Russians have tolerated and even enthusiastically supported him up for decades now.
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@jesusaguilar4585 You're regurgitating old excuses. After fixing its economy, Russia had plenty of time -- and money -- to institute democracy. It chose not to.
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@esQmo Duh, the UN Security Council consistently and unanimously voted in favour of US presence, as part of NATO-led ISAF, in Afghanistan. Justification can't get any better than that. Don't try to muddy the waters with other wars that received no UNSC backing. And if you must know, we were dead set against the Iraq War in the absence of clear evidence of WMDs. The gung-ho Americans called us 'Old Europeans' for that and tried to name our fries 'Freedom fries', as if they were French to begin with.
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@TheRealDuckofDeath Russia has no democratic institutions or traditions. For a while, when it was trying to reinvent itself after the Soviet collapse, it was a proto-democracy of sorts, but even that didn't stick. I'm sure post-Putin Russia will revisit the idea, but I'm afraid the authoritarian Teflon just adheres too firmly to make democracy stick this time around either. That being said, if the Russian Federation were to fall apart, its newly-independent western parts could perhaps pull it off. Who knows, maybe one day the EU -- and NATO -- will gain new members in Ingria (Leningrad oblast) and Amberland (Kaliningrad).
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@Luiz-w5s Since you're asking, the US -- and NATO -- had a justification to be in Afghanistan as per a UNSC mandate. Russia -- and China -- eagerly supported the ISAF operation.
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@MiladaKaiser Wasn't I alluding to independence for Kaliningrad? Czechia is a bit of a stretch, however. I wonder if a single Czech lives there nowadays?
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@nigelgarrett7970 I think Ukraine is establishing a buffer zone for Russia inside Russia as we speak. Obligingly, the Russians are turning it into terra nullius by evacuating the population.
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@Wingedmagician "Just a military operation", you say? It's first and foremost a political disaster for Putin, who's been caught with his pants around his ankles for all the world to see. I'm sure Putin will exact his revenge on the army brass. Not only did Gerasimov fail to act on prior intelligence, but also, he didn't dare inform Putin right away when the predictions came true. I bet the poor sap is busy writing his last will and testament.
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