Viper16 said:
Teslag said:
Quote:
They are notoriously paranoid and further surrounding them is not going to work out well.
And yet, they did just this by having Finland and Sweden now join NATO over the past year as a result of this war. Finland in NATO was another of their supposed "red lines".
Uh......not really. Russians never have had any concerns about those two countries....read: non-threatening.
Ukraine on the other hand, has always been their "red line in the sand!" Historically. History. Centuries of it.
If Kamala, and the Biden Administration had not mouthed off about bringing Ukraine into NATO, then maybe none of this would have happened....
Harris/Biden Ukaine NATO
Plenty of news reports around that time frame.
Except Russia had already taken Crimea and begun stirring trouble in eastern Ukraine long before that. This was planned quite some time ago and had nothing to do with NATO.
Russia wanted to take control of Ukraine like they did Belarus but due to the willingness of the US and Europe to get involved, a wrench was thrown in the works. Then it looked like they'd try a more aggressive variant of what they're doing in Georgia. However, Trump screwed with that during his term by beginning to provide aid annd training that enabled Ukraine to more effectively combat Russian shenanigans in Donbas.
What precipitated this war was Biden's projection of weakness once Putin began amassing troops along the border and claiming it to be a "training exercise". The Biden administration whizzed down their leg and tripped over themselves to back down and signal that they weren't going to do anything in opposition, while lots of others waved it off as a bluff. Both of these were exactly the worst things you can do, as Russia and Putin historically shrink from opposing strength and take advantage of weakness. Hence, Russia proceeded as planned since we effectively gave them the green light.
This is also exactly why Trump isn't going to outright bail on Ukraine. Doing so will be seen as a sign of weakness by Putin and will signal to him that future acts in the same vein will pay dividends. China will also receive the same message. Trump will force negotiations but he will also ensure that Russia pays a sufficient price so as to leave a bad taste in their mouth, deterring future jackassery on his watch and sending a message to China that any juice they may get from screwing around with us will similarly not be with the squeeze.