Yeah but. Why the USA? If I say "Russia invaded Ukraine", why do I always get the response "but the USA.." and now any one of many other countries that also invade. What is the connection? The USA has nothing to do with this.
No, let me explain to you what is actually going on. What's going on is that Russians have a chip on their should the size of Texas. A deep rooted sentiment of inferiority, that triggers every time you say something bad about their country, which they hate, and respond by attacking the country they admire but can't admit.
Without looking at polls, what do you think is the percentage of the Russian population that answered Yes to the question: if given the chance to move to the USA, would you? If you believe what you're saying, you probably think this is a very small number.
Because 1. It's an easy and the most glaring example of lecturing people to do one thing, but doing the opposite themselves. 2. It was actually the country, that Russia wanted to be like during 80s and 90s, USA was a role model, but turned out to be full of shit. And the waking call happened, when USA bombed and shred to pieces Yugoslavia.
>If I say "Russia invaded Ukraine", why do I always get the response "but the USA.."
Once again, reasons are obvious if you're aware of the history.
1. USA can't lecture anyone about invading or annexing other countries, as USA invades one country after another just in the last few decades, and right now occupies Eastern part of Syria that's full of oil, and publicly brags that it's their oil. BTW, not o hard to notice a recent rhetoric in USA mass media and among politicians, that it's all about Ukraine resources and who gonna get what depending on the outcome of the war.
2. The war in Ukraine is a direct result of USA meddling in their elections in 2004 and 2013-2014, and desire to bring their military bases after the puppet government was installed. Russia was fine with sovereign Ukraine, even with a puppet like Yushchenko we were able to negotiate and live more or less peacefully, but military bases idea, kicking Russia out of Sevastopol is what spiralled this into violence.
>A deep rooted sentiment of inferiority, that triggers every time you say something bad about their country, which they hate, and respond by attacking the country they admire but can't admit.
Russians do have some sentiment on inferiority, and that's why we actually really glad when some respected and knowledgeable foreigner arrives and intend to cooperate, even teach us. For centuries such people were getting really rich working in Russia, even if they were mediocre back in their countries. But you're totally misguided on the attack part. Attack or self defense phase initiated only in the case of demonstratively refusal to make any reasonable compromise and direct hostile actions. Russian history is full of wars, we do not enjoy violence and know very well the cost in lives.
Coming back to Ukraine, it's not so hard to remember, that Putin tried really hard to avoid this war. Crimea was peacefully annexed specifically to block any attempt to bring Ukraine into NATO legally, and secure our interests in the Black Sea, after it was obvious, that newly installed puppets gonna do exactly this (later Ukraine changed their constitution and replaced their intention to be a sovereign and neutral state to be a NATO member). Then Minsk agreements were introduced, for Ukraine government to get in touch with reality, but as we know now, from public admissions, USA, Germany and France intentionally sabotaged these agreements, pushing Ukraine into a military resolution (and at the same time they were introducing more and more sanctions towards Russia, lying that we do not respect our part of the deal). Then, Ukraine finally started to move their heavy equipment to Donbass in the early Autumn of 2021, and Zelensky publicly announced, that he won't respect Minsk agreements (it meant escalation in Donbass). Putin then spent several month in the Winter of 2021-2022 trying to make a deal with USA, to prevent direct war. But USA declared, that they can do whatever they want, build their bases wherever they can etc. So, we got an initial invasion of Feb 2022, when Russian army pushed to Kiev and Putin immediately proposed just another plan of how to stop all this. Ukraine government was ready to sign it, but Boris arrived and told them that they have to fight (also a public knowledge now, with multiple admissions of people involved in the process). It's not so hard to notice, that up to this day, Putin is ready to negotiate and stop this violence, it's Ukraine and the NATO countries behind their back are refusing to. And it's very easy to target USA and Western propaganda in general, that publicly lies up to this day, that "mad Vlad just woke up and invaded a sovereign country without any reason, because he's evil".
>Without looking at polls, what do you think is the percentage of the Russian population that answered Yes to the question: if given the chance to move to the USA, would you? If you believe what you're saying, you probably think this is a very small number.
I don't know if it's a very small number, small number or anything else. What I do know, is that there's still a myth in some countries, that Russia is some country that is behind an Iron Wall, that is hard to escape. Reality is different. Russia is open to the whole world, you can buy a ticket to fly to any country. We have millions of foreign tourists and migrants for decades. Anyone who really wanted to leave Russia did it already, or can do it today, for example. And a lot of people who did, returned already, because they learnt, that what they thought about some countries is not equal to how life there actually is. Reality is, that in the last 20 years Russia made a huge leap in quality of life in every sphere, and for me personally there's no desire to live in any other country, because I like it here.
It's interesting to me how you say "war" here on an English speaking and mostly American website.
But what is the official Russian position on it? Can it be called a war there? It can but with repercussions. Why don't you use the official terms for it or would that not play over so well when trying to drum up support for what this really is. Aggressive Russian expansion.
The "peaceful" annexation of Crimea also came with Russian funding of separatist groups in eastern Ukraine and the shooting down of civilian aircraft. How peaceful is that?
Ive seen RT call it a war. When Russian propaganda calls it an "SMO" it's not because theyre allergic to the word "war" but because they legally didnt declare war.
This is not unusual. The US, for instance, didnt declare war on Iraq when it launched its unprovoked invasion.
>The "peaceful" annexation of Crimea also came with Russian funding of separatist groups in eastern Ukraine and the shooting down of civilian aircraft. How peaceful is that?
Not very, but neither was the Andrey Parubiy led terrorist attack from Hotel Ukraina which kicked off this civil war.
Kiev could have put him in prison for taking a sniper rifle to the top of the hotel and committing mass murder against peaceful protestors but instead he was elected to the Rada.
The Ukrainian war hero Nadia Savchenko who identified him - she is still, ironically, the only person to be convicted and imprisoned in relation to the terrorist attack which kicked off this civil war.
RT is a propaganda organization. They say war because it's intended for an English speaking audience. Notice I haven't said anything about Ukraine being or not being "perfect."
And the US didn't shy away from calling it a war in their media when talking to their own public.
> I encourage you to read this
More whataboutism telling me the US is bad which is supposed to distract me from what Russia is doing.
It's probably illegal or is illegal? Be honest, does the Russian government arrest people for holding a sign that says "No War" or even signs that are blank? Pieces of paper that are blank?
RT using the term war for English speaking audiences is allowed because it is state sanctioned propaganda so you can come here and point to how they say it. Well, they also come here and pay people like Tim Pool to say things too that they won't say in Russia.
>Russian government arrest people for holding a sign that says "No War" or even signs that are blank?
Yep, but coz theyre protesting against the war not coz theyre calling it a war.
It's exactly like that time British police threatened protestors in London with arrest for holding up a blank sign. They were threatened with arrest for the expression of their implied beliefs as well, at precisely a time that the government was feeling overly sensitive.
There are certain specific things that can happen in most countries that really bring out the authoritatian side of the government.
How can you protest something that's not officially happening? It's just an SMO after all. Honestly you and all your bot account friends should just go crawl back into whatever kremlin gutter you came out of.
RT is no more propaganda than CNN or any other Western mainstream media. It's just different people who set the narratives.
>And the US didn't shy away from calling it a war in their media when talking to their own public.
Once again, so called SMO is called war in Russia, just not in official documents and announcements, because juridically it's not a war, at least up to this day.
>But what is the official Russian position on it? Can it be called a war there?
Of course it can and is called war in Russia. You just missing the point: war is a juridical term. Technically neither Russia nor Ukraine are in war with each other. That's why officially it's called "Special Military Operation", and in Ukraine it was for years "Antiterrorists Operation", and recently rebranded as "armed aggression of Russian Federation against Ukraine sovereignty".
>The "peaceful" annexation of Crimea also came with Russian funding of separatist groups in eastern Ukraine and the shooting down of civilian aircraft. How peaceful is that?
Your should learn some history and geography. Crimea is a peninsula in Black Sea, majority of population are ethnic Russians. Russian special forces entered Crimea after the coup in Kiev, and peacefully blocked Ukrainian military there and let referendum happen, so it was annexed. Most of Ukrainian soldiers stayed in Crimea and were from Crimea, got Russian citizenship just like all the other population. Those who refused were peacefully allowed to return to Ukrainian territory.
Donbas is an Eastern region of Ukraine. First of all, how coup in Kiev happened? Ukrainian nationalists, driven by the idea of Ukraine dropping sovereignty and joining EU and NATO, attacked multiple military and police headquarters, got armed, entered Kiev, and after several weeks of riots in the capital that ended with mass shooting there, managed to force elected President of Ukraine and his government to flee. If you're unaware, this president was installed mostly by people in the Eastern Ukraine, opposing to previous one, that was voted in by Western part of Ukraine. So, basically, Western oligarchs (Ukraine during its 30+ years of independence was ruled by several oligarch clans originating from either Western (agricultural) or Eastern (industrial) part of Ukraine), their nationalists backed by USA embassy and Viki Nuland herself seized power in Ukraine. So Donbas with some help from remaining Eastern oligarchs started the uprising in Donetsk and Lughansk, and declared, that they want their rights for their language, religion etc be preserved (Most of Eastern Ukraine population are ethnic Russians and basically was part of Russia until 1922 or so, when Lenin gifted this territory and people to Ukrainian SSR). These people also started to raid police and military bases, got armed. So, coup government in Ukraine, instead of talking to these people, announced "antiterrorists operation" and moved army to get Donbass under control, and they started from bombing Lughansk. That's basically how it turned to war.
As to civilian plane, it was shot down many weeks after direct confrontation started, and it's up to this day very arguable who actually shot it down, as the court in Netherlands turned this case into the same farce as investigation of Nord Stream sabotage, where they were using only facts that suits their version, and ignored everything, that didn't fit the picture.
I'm not missing the point at all and I know the difference between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine.
So let me make sure I understand your story perfectly. Russia was so concerned about Ukrainian sovereignty that they sent their military into Crimea. And instead of allowing Crimea to exist as a sovereign state with what Russia viewed as the rightful president/government of Ukraine... it instead annexed it and said this is Russia now?
Quite interesting. It's almost as if Russia didn't care about the "integrity" of the elections and just wanted more land for itself.
>So let me make sure I understand your story perfectly. Russia was so concerned about Ukrainian sovereignty that they sent their military into Crimea.
Not really. Russian military was already in Crimea. If you're unaware, Sevastopol is a major Russian fleet base since 18th century, and both marines and regular soldiers were stationed there based on signed agreement with Ukraine government.
>And instead of allowing Crimea to exist as a sovereign state with what Russia viewed as the rightful president/government of Ukraine... it instead annexed it and said this is Russia now?
Those people, who Nuland and K installed as government of Ukraine after the coup were declaring as their political goal to kick Russia out of Crimea, broke the 50 years long deal and turn Sevastopol to a NATO fleet base. So yes, as soon as they were installed and declared by the West as the legitimate government of Ukraine, Putin annexed Crimea, to create a territorial dispute, that will not allow NATO to legally accept Ukraine.
>Quite interesting. It's almost as if Russia didn't care about the "integrity" of the elections and just wanted more land for itself.
Another interesting fact to you: Crimea was an Autonomous Republic, and it actually tried to separate from Ukraine in the 90's to rejoin Russia by referendum, but Kiev government sent troops there and rewrote Crimean constitution to prevent any separation.
They had a lease at, and were restricted to a specific military base there.
They were definitely not "in the Crimea", in terms of the peninsula at large, as you are perfectly aware. To suggest, in response to someone pointing out the 2014 invasion, that it's "not really" an invasion because they were "already in the Crimea" -- is just weird semantic head games.
Let's imagine a thought experiment. Imagine you tell an american "the USA did X", what's he gonna respond. I know what he won't, he won't say "but Russia...". That's because Russia is a culturally irrelevant country.
No, let me explain to you what is actually going on. What's going on is that Russians have a chip on their should the size of Texas. A deep rooted sentiment of inferiority, that triggers every time you say something bad about their country, which they hate, and respond by attacking the country they admire but can't admit.
Without looking at polls, what do you think is the percentage of the Russian population that answered Yes to the question: if given the chance to move to the USA, would you? If you believe what you're saying, you probably think this is a very small number.