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How Odd Is Putin's Russia?

Tomef

Well-Known Member
"Some parts of what is now Ukraine were part of the Russian Empire, for about a quarter of the time those lands were part of the Lithuanian Duchy / Polish empire. Other parts were under the Hapsburgs." That's why I was asking about the Russian language and Zelenskyy, who is just now LEARNING Ukrainian.
I don’t really understand what you’re confused about. Do you mean you think Zelensky speaking Russian means Ukraine is part of Russia? Russian is the first language of many Moldovans. Many can barely speak their native language. Not many Scots or Irish have Gaelic as their first language. Relatively few can speak Gaelic fluently at all. This is what happens when countries become part of an empire, their culture is steadily eroded.
 

Kathryn

It was on fire when I laid down on it.
I don’t really understand what you’re confused about. Do you mean you think Zelensky speaking Russian means Ukraine is part of Russia? Russian is the first language of many Moldovans. Not many Scots or Irish have Gaelic as their first language. This is what happens when countries become part of an empire, their culture is steadily eroded.
So they were part of the Russian empire? Zelenskyy is only now learning Ukrainian by the way.
From 2023 the above article: Zelensky has a problem: he barely speaks Ukrainian.

Though he does speak it in public now.
 
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Magic Man

Reaper of Conversation
I don't have extreme pro-Russia bias but let me show you where you're wrong:

I don't believe that Russia wants to control all of Ukraine, only the parts it used to control. Like the SW parts. Other than Crimea which is already under Russian control. I believe four parts in total. Not the entire country, even though at one point, Ukraine and Kiev were part of Russia.
You say that as if it makes it any better. Ukraine is a sovereign country. Russia has no claim to any of its land. "Even though at one point Ukraine was part of Russia" is just more pro-Russia defense.
Ukraine has been against joining NATO for many years and only began negotiations in June of 2017. It applied for EU membership in 2022, right after the Russian invasion. So suddenly it wants desperately to become part of NATO. Gee, I wonder why?
Yeah, gee, I wonder why. Couldn't be because THEY WERE WORRIED ABOUT GETTING INVADED JUST LIKE THEY DID.

Like, I'm not even sure what this is supposed to mean. You seem to be implying some sort of underhanded action that doesn't exist.

Ukraine wanted to join NATO for years. Then their pro-Russia president moved away from that, and they got rid of him and went back to wanting to join NATO. And then Putin got aggressive. They didn't "suddenly desperately want to join NATO". They wanted to for a long time, and maybe they were desperate to avoid the actual thing that's happening right now.
Anyway, I don't blame Ukraine for not wanting to give Russia any land - heck I wouldn't want to either. But I also don't think they need to be in NATO. I think we need to stay out of it as much as humanly possible. I don't trust Putin, or Russia, OR Ukraine.
So, to recap:
Ukraine wants to join NATO to protect themselves from Russian aggression.
Russia is currently invading them trying to take them over.
Your take is "I don't think they need to be in NATO".
I honestly don't understand how that thought process works. They don't need to be in the alliance that would protect them from the thing that's happening to them right now? That's a truly baffling idea to me. I don't care if you "trust Ukraine" or not. That's irrelevant.

So much for "showing where I am wrong".
 

Tomef

Well-Known Member
So they were part of the Russian empire?
Yes - ? Like I said, after about 400 years under Lithuanian/Polish rule, what is now Ukraine was carved up by the Hapburgs and imperial Russia. After that, a brief period of independence, then relatively short Russian Bolshevik domination before becoming an ‘independent’ Soviet Republic.
 
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Tomef

Well-Known Member
So they were part of the Russian empire?
Being part of an empire is not the same as being part of the same country, if that’s what you’re asking.

Some time after the sacking of Kyiv and the gradual decline of the Mongol empire, the Muscovites unilaterally declared themselves the inheritors of Byzantium and Kyivan Rus. By any objective standard, this has only self-referential meaning. There are many other territories in Europe settled by people with some degree of shared ethnic background - although given that Ukraine is one of the most genetically diverse places in Europe on those grounds the claim is pretty thin - but countries have long since stopped (mostly) claiming the territory of other countries on that basis. Russia has no more claim on Ukrainian lands than Poland or Lithuania.
 

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
And that’s just the immediate issue. Without Russian agitation and the presence of Russian troops, issues in the Donbas could have been resolved a decade ago. You could find that out for yourself, if you had any motivation to look beyond the propaganda.
Donbas deserves independence from Kiev, especially after Kiev has become a globalist godless sewer. ;)
 

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
How exactly?
By preventing them from speaking Russian in schools, and by outlawing separatism.
Which in every civilized country it is legal. It is legal in Scotland, it is legal in Catalonia, it is legal in South Tyrol. ;)
But Poroshenko's Ukraine was not civilized.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
By preventing them from speaking Russian in schools, and by outlawing separatism.
Which in every civilized country it is legal. It is legal in Scotland, it is legal in Catalonia, it is legal in South Tyrol. ;)
But Poroshenko's Ukraine was not civilized.

Yeah, they also dealt with Chechnya the evil Ukranians. Good that Russia liberated Chechnya.
 

Kathryn

It was on fire when I laid down on it.
You say that as if it makes it any better. Ukraine is a sovereign country. Russia has no claim to any of its land. "Even though at one point Ukraine was part of Russia" is just more pro-Russia defense.

Yeah, gee, I wonder why. Couldn't be because THEY WERE WORRIED ABOUT GETTING INVADED JUST LIKE THEY DID.

Like, I'm not even sure what this is supposed to mean. You seem to be implying some sort of underhanded action that doesn't exist.

Ukraine wanted to join NATO for years. Then their pro-Russia president moved away from that, and they got rid of him and went back to wanting to join NATO. And then Putin got aggressive. They didn't "suddenly desperately want to join NATO". They wanted to for a long time, and maybe they were desperate to avoid the actual thing that's happening right now.

So, to recap:
Ukraine wants to join NATO to protect themselves from Russian aggression.
Russia is currently invading them trying to take them over.
Your take is "I don't think they need to be in NATO".
I honestly don't understand how that thought process works. They don't need to be in the alliance that would protect them from the thing that's happening to them right now? That's a truly baffling idea to me. I don't care if you "trust Ukraine" or not. That's irrelevant.

So much for "showing where I am wrong".
I did show you where you are wrong, you just didn't accept it. That's fine, I guess. It's your prerogative I suppose.

Anyway, I don't think Ukraine has any business getting into NATO and here's why - because we'd be forced to defend them and I don't think we have any business defending them.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
I did show you where you are wrong, you just didn't accept it. That's fine, I guess. It's your prerogative I suppose.

Anyway, I don't think Ukraine has any business getting into NATO and here's why - because we'd be forced to defend them and I don't think we have any business defending them.

Do you understand what it takes to be come a NATO member?
 

Magic Man

Reaper of Conversation
I did show you where you are wrong, you just didn't accept it. That's fine, I guess. It's your prerogative I suppose.
No, you didn't. All you did was say you don't believe Russia wants to control all of Ukraine. For one, they're invading all of Ukraine, not just part of it. For another, they're doing it to stop Ukraine from joining NATO, which is an attempt to control Ukraine, not just part of it. And then you gave an inaccurate recap of Ukraine's relationship with NATO and implied there was something fishy about them "suddenly" wanting to join, even though it wasn't sudden, and there's nothin fishy about wanting protection from a country that is now currently invading you.

None of that proved me wrong in any way.
Anyway, I don't think Ukraine has any business getting into NATO and here's why - because we'd be forced to defend them and I don't think we have any business defending them.
But we wouldn't be forced to defend them. Russia is doing this now because they don't want Ukraine to join, because Putin knows if they join, he can't attack anymore, unless he wants to risk WWIII. Notice how he doesn't go after any actual NATO countries, just ones that want to join. Besides, this is pretty selfish. I'm all for requiring Ukraine to meet some standards before joining, but to say "Nah, you're on your own. Good luck with Russia" is pretty heartless. But then, I guess that is the conservative platform these days.
 

Kathryn

It was on fire when I laid down on it.
No, you didn't. All you did was say you don't believe Russia wants to control all of Ukraine. For one, they're invading all of Ukraine, not just part of it. For another, they're doing it to stop Ukraine from joining NATO, which is an attempt to control Ukraine, not just part of it. And then you gave an inaccurate recap of Ukraine's relationship with NATO and implied there was something fishy about them "suddenly" wanting to join, even though it wasn't sudden, and there's nothin fishy about wanting protection from a country that is now currently invading you.

None of that proved me wrong in any way.

But we wouldn't be forced to defend them. Russia is doing this now because they don't want Ukraine to join, because Putin knows if they join, he can't attack anymore, unless he wants to risk WWIII. Notice how he doesn't go after any actual NATO countries, just ones that want to join. Besides, this is pretty selfish. I'm all for requiring Ukraine to meet some standards before joining, but to say "Nah, you're on your own. Good luck with Russia" is pretty heartless. But then, I guess that is the conservative platform these days.
There you go. Look, the US can't intervene in every global conflict.

Anyway, no, Russia is not invading "all" of Ukraine, they are focusing on the eastern parts. From the BBC in May:

They aren't doing it to "stop Ukraine from joining NATO" though I wouldn't blame them for that actually. I mean, you don't want a world war, do you? I don't, for sure (so much for that pesky conservative platform). Ukraine has sought NATO membership since the Russians attacked them in 2014 but they didn't vote to include that goal in their constitution till 2018.

Polls held before 2014 found low support among Ukrainians for NATO membership. However, Ukrainian public support for NATO membership has risen greatly during the Russo-Ukrainian War, and there has been overwhelming public support for joining NATO since the 2022 Russian invasion.
 
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