Originally Posted by ChipMHazard
2) I doubt that is even close to being the case, nor do I think the US or EU really cares about Ukraine. Had Russia not done anything then there would not have been any reason to fear a cancellation of the naval base lease and Ukraine would never cancel that agreement without due cause. Worst case is it wouldn't be renewed in 2045.
The current Ukrainian government does seem to be anti-Russian. I'll give you that. They revoked a past law that made Russian a recognised language in the eastern parts of the country. An utterly idiotic move which could only ever bring trouble.
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From what one can see on many levels, "less Russia" is considered to be good almost everywhere nowadays. Believe an english-speaking Russian on that one. And EU and US do care about Russia having too much presence close enough to central Europe.
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3) Not even close to the same thing. Internal conflicts are internal and not part of the treaty that the US, UK, Ukraine and Russia signed.
Russia's actions have been aggressive and against the treaty. It can be argued that Russia hasn't broken anything, yet, since they're allowed to station 25.000 troops in Crimea as part of the lease agreement. However only at their own bases, not outside Russian territory.
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Your response seems somewhat dodgy. I mean, you are NOT denying what I said about EU, while you do justify the bashing of Russia. Just a reminder - many people remember 08.08.08, and Russian actions ARE still viewed as agressive, yet I rarely hear anyone defining shelling the unevacuated city of Tskhinvali (by Georgia) as aggressive. People tend to use this word with wrong pretext nowadays and that only adds to confusion.
And I don't even want to play an anti-US hand here by mentioning some Arab countries and US involvment with them. Especially since you mention them youself.
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4) President Putin seems to be an old-school communist at heart. He's a tyrannical bully and seemingly he wants to restore some of the previous USSR glory, in spirit if not so much in practice. Compared to someone like president Obama then he's definently worse in some areas and better in others. He kinda reminds me of a more honest and brutal version of Obama whom also doesn't cater to the business world.
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He's just trying to show that Russia has strength. Why? Because he believes that finding a solution that negatively effects Russian image, will cause his old Cold War nemeses to crush his country under "evil capitalistic boot heels". Same way the US old guard (and you yourself apparently) expect Putin to start repressing everyone he can and threatening to "launch nuclear missiles left and right to bring comunism to the globe". That's exactly what I meant by conservative thinking ruining US-Russia relations.
Although I do think that Putin is a smart man and if he turns victorious in Crimean standoff, he will make it his final victory and leave the presidential post with new elections. Believe it or not but I voted for Putin, all that while I strongly disagree with many of his decisions. One can agree on him being tyrannical, "bullying" and greedy, but none can deny that he has Will and Brains. And as I like to tell my friends - I would much rather see a "strong thief" as our president, rather than a pure-hearted and honest person, that sadly happens to be an idiot.
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What I find troubeling is that over the last decades the superpowers have completely ignored international law. President Bush invading countries without having a legigimate reason to do so. Obama violating nations' sovereign space, killing civilians in foreign nations. And now Russia being able to have Crimea secede without anyone of note caring and thus doing anything about. Even though they pledged to respect a treaty.
I don't think this is really about Ukraine as much as it's about Putin flexing his muscles and seeing what he can get away with. Basicly the good old west vs east, with propaganda on both sides filling the media.
This helps set a troubling precedence of only the powerful nations being safe. No wonder why South America created a union and Iran wants nuclear weapons. No one is going to defend you, except yourself.
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Every country did things like these throughout history. It's just that Russia gets the most attention, because Putin. Question I have to ask you though: in light of what I said in my previous reply, do you still think Putin is "flexing his muscle to see what and how much with he can get away" or because of some other, not much more, but still more just reason?