Comments by "Dale Crocker" (@dalecrocker3213) on "Eurasia Group president weighs in on potential Ukraine negotiation with Russia" video.

Peace is impossible as long as Zelensky remains in power.
12
@facty_kit1742 Putin will agree to peace as long as he can keep Crimea. He may even surrender Russia's four annexed territories if Donetsk and Luhansk are granted independence. Zelensky is committed to total victory, which is probably impossible and at the very least would mean a long and very expensive and dangerous conflict.
7
Do you propose starting World War III to settle the matter?
5
@RaRa-eu9mw The war started when America overthrew the Ukrainian government in 2014, leading to the revolt in Donbass. The Russian invasion is a development of that, and can be seen as a preventative measure designed to prevent a NATO equipped and trained Ukrainian military stepping up the civil war which has been going on ever since. As with a great many wars over the past several decades, the responsibility is America's.
2
@RaRa-eu9mw Of course it isn't! It's history. Any objective study of the region recognises these facts. Ukraine was a province of Imperial Russia, then a Soviet Socialistic Republic. It only became a "country" when Stalin wanted an extra vote in the UN and Crimea was only tacked on in 1954 for administrative and logistical reasons. For at least ten years America and the EU have been trying to colonise Ukraine - and the Russians have had enough.
2
@RaRa-eu9mw Not at all. American interference is by far the likeliest explanation. The Maidan riots were a manifestation of the conflict of interests between oligarchs, some of whom looked to Russia for support as opposed to others who looked to America and the EU. Violence escalated after people began being killed by sniper fire. The result was the overthrow of the pro-Russian Premier and his eventual replacement by a pro-American one, Poroshenko. The very fact that the pro-American party won is a strong indication that the American's were responsible. The who sequence of events has CIA written all over it.
2
@セ千尺丂セ Of course Russia has a professional army. It also has a large contingent of experienced mercenaries on the payroll.
2
@T39582 I like to think I might be causing them some disquiet though.
1
@RaRa-eu9mw You can't "debunk" reality! Information on the situation in Donbas existed long before the current invasion! Have you even heard of the Maidan riots? Russia supported the separatist movements certainly - it would be strange if it didn't, but you can't deny that they exist. They have armies which have been fighting Ukraine for nine years and 15,000 people have been killed. NATO supplies and trains the Ukrainians and is proud of it.
1
@RaRa-eu9mw But that is exactly what you are doing! Who has been doing the debunking? And why do you believe them? As I say, apart from allegations that the snipers were US mercenaries, which of course cannot be proved, one simply has to look at the consequences which were the replacement of a Moscow-looking regime with a Western-looking one. Add to this the huge investments made by America in equipping the Ukrainian army, deals made between US politicians and Ukrainian oligarchs and all the other signs of US colonisation and Ukraine's recent history fits exactly the tried and tested pattern. The present dreadful war is yet another of America's proxy wars, designed to advance US interests abroad. One can only hope that this time the evil men who conduct these affairs have bitten off more than they can chew.
1
@RaRa-eu9mw I keep hammering the point: look at the RESULTS for your answer. "Fact-checking" is just another sort of propaganda.
1
@RaRa-eu9mw Who are these famous fact-checkers of yours? I do not get my information from Russian state propaganda but from a wide variety of accounts of the events of 2014 which make America's involvement in the overthrow of the regime very clear. Various American "charities" financed extreme right-wing groups which were encouraged into violent action. Their activities were praised and supported by American politicians. While it may be a long time before we know its full extent of this involvement, Washington took an even more direct role once the turmoil started. Senators John McCain and Chris Murphy met with the fascist leader of one such group, Svbota, standing shoulder to shoulder with him as they announced their support to the protesters, while US assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland handed out sandwiches to them. This is just one attested fact, reported widely at the time. The 2014 revolution was supported by and almost certainly engineered by America. This is what America DOES! America, under the name of "democracy", has been involved in fermenting rebellion or suppressing it in dozens of countries and this war is just the latest result of such meddling.
1
@MarvinWestmaas Crimea is far more Russian than Ukrainian, both ethnically and historically. Sanctions are having just as much effect on the West as they are in Russia, where the shops are full and energy cheap. Russia is not bombing civilians. It is crippling Ukraine's energy networks in order to restrict its military capabilities and also to make the civilian population think very hard about supporting the present regime. I agree, of course, that this war is about the mineral resources of Donbass as much as anything. The fact is, though, that these resources were exploited by Russia and Russians from the very start and ever since independence they have been exploited by Kiev and various Ukrainian oligarchs very much to the disadvantage of local people.
1
@LureThosePixels This war has been going on since 2014 when Ukraine attacked Russian inhabitants in Donbass. Ukraine is a "sovereign nation" in name only. It is an artificial construct, created from the fallout of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
1
@セ千尺丂セ Not all of them. Only those destined to be cannon fodder.
1
@thomasb5600 Crimea and Eastern Ukraine were colonised by Russia from the 18th century inwards. Their populations are largely Russian. The Russian army is certainly pretty crap but it is probably a mistake to dismiss it entirely.
1
@thomasb5600 So you surely admit the difference between the history and ethnic make-up of the Eastern and Western parts of present-day Ukraine, which is itself entirely a construct of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union?
1
@MarvinWestmaas The Russian populations of Crimea and Donbass result from several events, the last of which was increased industrialisation of Donbass by the Soviet Union. This scarcely counts as invasion. In fact both these areas were inhabited only by a very small population of various nomadic tribes until developed by Russia (and a Welshman too, as it happens.) It wasn't Ukraine's nuclear arsenal, it was the SU's (ie Russia's) arsenal that was located there. The agreements which took place after the collapse of the SU were deeply flawed and the compromise, ie setting up buffer states in Donetsk and Luhansk as per Minsk would have been preferable to the present mess. This is a war between two sets of oligarchs and NATO's involvement in it is utterly disgraceful and only demonstrates the corruption that lies at the roots of this organisation and the American body politic. Russia has no wish to confront NATO, other than to prevent it threatening its territorial integrity.
1
@MarvinWestmaas Kaliningrad has been Russian since the end of World War II and the German population has been largely removed. This is another of those absurd analogies which liken Putin to Hitler and the situation in Ukraine in 2022 to that in Northern Europe in 1939. I have not been in Russia myself, but reports suggest that there is plenty of food on the shelves and, unlike Ukraine and much of Europe, there are no worries about freezing to death this winter. Russia seems to be forging fruitful relations with China, India, the Middle East and various countries which resent having been bullied by America for so long. This war will undoubtedly result in a major re-alignment of powers which may well ultimately destroy American hegemony and even cause the dollar to cease to be the world's reserve currency. Resentment of Kiev's corruption and incompetence in administering Donbass and Crimea seems widespread. Wages and living standards have dropped dramatically. This, being a war between two sets of oligarchs, the populations seem to be divided between which gang will treat them best. On the whole though it seems likely that a win for the Russians will bring an end to bloodshed quicker than a drawn-out attempt by Zelensky's puppet regime to retake Crimea and suppress the rebellion in Donbass.
1
@MarvinWestmaas For many years Russia and Ukraine have been in competition for the title of most corrupt country in Europe. And while it is true that Ukraine has slipped down the list of late, this is largely because it has taken on board the more sophisticated techniques suggested to it by its new master, America. It is still run by crooks, and billionaire Zelensky is one of them. We can only hope that America and other arms suppliers will realise that much of what they send him is being sold on the black market for profit and that he is no longer a sound investment.
1
@MarvinWestmaas This is true. But what of it? That was a thousand years ago.
1
@daydays12 Putin has managed to hold together one of the most volatile and hard-to-rule countries in the world for more than two decades. It is no mean achievement. I'm not quite sure if he has ever said what you claim about Ukrainian not existing but, although hyperbolic, there is a grain of truth in it. Ukraine, as an independent country, is a very new thing. Modern Ukraine is almost entirely the creation of Russia. This is not to say, of course, that it should not have independence, but its boundaries need more realistic definition and Russia can hardly be blamed for resenting having its creation stolen from under its nose.
1
@daydays12 Who invaded Donbass in February 2014? And if you expect people be truthful in times of war then you are probably an even bigger fool that I suspect you are.
1