Comments by "Sean Cidy" (@seancidy6008) on "How to get Putin out on thin ice" video.

  1. The British supported the US's strong urging that Ukraine join ASAP. Most counties were willing to go along with that . The only real objection was by Merkel. Ukraine did not give up and there was increasing military cooperation with Nato, which anually reiterated the official NATO conference statement of 2008 that Ukraine would join Nato at some point in the future Was Putin supposed to wait until Ukraine was admitted to NATO and then invade?  @justmy-profilename 
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  2. Russia's standing, or willingness to stand alone depends on what Russians think, not Westerners. @justmy-profilename 
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  3. Deep down everyone thinks they are more sinned against than sinning. In 2013 the former head of the US National Endowment for Democracy Carl Gershman, , wrote: “Ukraine is the biggest prize" and if it could be pulled away from Russia and into the West, “Putin may find himself on the losing end not just in the near abroad but within Russia itself.” I think the Ukrainian were a trifle hasty in thinking that Putin was going to be scared to take military action. Even after 2014, they thought he could not be serious Anders seems to think that unless Putin agree to subject himself to whatever a Western MSM interviewer wants to subject him too, the West ought to ghost Putin, but he the leader of a poweful country that, whatever you may think, is not going anywhere. He is not in the dock of an international court being cross examined. Insulting attribution, weighted questions, interrupting answers ETC has no downside for the MSM interviewer. The Russians cannot be required to grant interview to those who think Russia owes explanations. 'He is leader of a huge aggressive state angry at what we are doing so lets ignore everything he has been consistently saying. Great thinking Anders.
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  4. Russia is what it has always been: a military autocracy. You are not going to cause a political nervous breakdown of Russia by asking awkward questions about causalities as if it is a democracy.
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  5. Putin is not lying when he mentions that he tried to join Nato Multiple Western leaders and Nato officials have said he did. He was fobbed off of course (as Yeltsin was before him). That was when the scales fell from his eyes: Nato was not an anti Soviet alliance but an anti Russian one
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  6. Putin's job as leader of Russia i was to maintain and if possible increase its security. His duties did including no obligation to give other countries the benefit of the doubt about what their intention were or might become, let alone ignoring official Nato statement reiterated each year, to the effect that at some point in the future Ukraine would become a full member (so it was already more than a candidate). Was he supposed to wait and see if Ukraine became a full member and when it did start WW3?  @ABCBCNM 
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  7. So Russia ought to have done nothing; what makes you think so?  @ABCBCNM 
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  8. There is a way to avoid fighting and that is to not have different counties that can have conflicts of interest. Ukraine chose to become a separate country and it parted of friendly terms from Russia. Lo and behold, Ukraine then almost immediately began trying to join an anti Russian military alliance.  @ABCBCNM 
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  9. Since 2007 Putin and his diplomats issued thinly veiled threats that Russia would invade and try to conquer Ukraine unless it stopped trying to join the Western block. Kiev did not respect the implicit threats, so he checked them.
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  10. That is why the criteria for Ukraine becomeing eligible to join the EC included military requirements.  @justmy-profilename 
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  11. Why was Putin was simply supposed to respect Ukraine's right to choose themselves in which international alliances they seek membership? It is my distinct impression his job was to maintain and if possible increase the security of the Russian Federation and, as he could not do properly both things it seems logical that the security of Russia would be the one he chose to take care of. And by the way, countries do not have to wait until they know there is a plan to attack them before taking counter action, and how can anyone now what a a foreign country's intentions really are, still less what they might become in a few decades ?  @justmy-profilename 
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  12. Getting Ukraine into the Washington alliance was a way to totally humiliate the Putin system and cause a colour revolution in Russia. The ex director of the National Endowment for Democracy explicitly said this in a 2013 op ed. If anyone thought Putin's would response to such a gambit would be essentially impotent because ideological aggression was not a proper casus beli in international law, then they were cracked. Now people are saying that enabling Ukraine to outlast Russia in the war will lead to the implosion of Russia..  @stevesonnaquesta 
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  13. Well that is the way the game is played, because a country that did not interfere would regret it. Why anyone thought that Russia would not escalate I have no idea.  @Muzakman37 
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  14. Not forced at all; he could let his system be overthrow and someone like Yeltsin preside over the disintegration of Russia. view of the alternative, I just don't think it is remotely surprising he chose to use armed violence  @DartNoobo 
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