Comments by "" (@tomk3732) on "Analysis: Would Putin get away with invading Ukraine again?" video.

The hit was acceptable price to pay for unification. At least as per opinion of majority of the Russians - which is what counts after all.
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Invading Ukraine is of zero interest for Russia - Russia only wants to control its near abroad, similar to how US controls Canada. Russian buildup is either a bluff or it is in response to perceived threat of Ukrainian invasion of Donbass. Russian takeover of Crimea is the most they want to bite off - it is a place that is as much pro joining Russia as Kosovo is on either staying independent or joining Albania. It already cost Russia arm and a leg to upgrade Crimea. Besides if they took over all Russian majority areas of Ukraine the rest could just leave... no good. As for Russian lying it pales in comparison to US lying... WMD anyone? And that is top of the ice berg.
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@williamlanger9229 The actual economic hit is rather small - looking at say military spending it did not have a decisive impact nor did it have a big impact on GDP. Of much, much greater impact is low price of oil - well, maybe not today but historically. You can see how much "low oil" costs Russia. When looking at a GDP graph of pre 2014 and post and ignoring oil one cannot see any sanction effect... mostly as GDP is actually growing a bit faster. It is very, very hard to figure out what sanctions actually do, what effect on policy that have, if any, and whatever anyone in Russia actually considers doing "something" the west wants - as no one in the west even knows what this "something" is. I.e. sanctions are like a disease that Russia got used to and is chronic.
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