There would be an escalation. The Russians would respond in kind, and start massing tanks, soldiers, and other materials on the border.
US and EU could easily take Russia down with sanctions. That would have high cost (especially to Germany), but in long run EU would be so much safer...
There is no pretending, no sovereign country can afford give away parts of its territory to foreign aggression and annexation.
From the article:
It doesn't matter if you are a sane democratic leader, but for paranoid dictators 67% is getting close to death sentence.
You make a great point. I feel if the US, as well as other countries, could supplement what Russia now gives to Germany they would be in a much better position.
Everything is a goalpost. It used to be Poland in the past. To say the least it's kind of shitty of the EU to sacrifice Ukraine just so they can live peacefully for 20 years or so. Poland will be next.
Someone said there are a lot of top guns in the Swiss Guard.
Economy is still a factor. No matter how much Russia is fucking over Ukraine, the politics within Ukraine will be tough. All this shit is having a huge impact on the income and corruption is not helping.
I mean even Ukraine is against military approach. But with sanctions Russia can be crippled easily. Russia is very much integrated in EU economy. And Russian economy is relatively small (last time I checked it was the size of Italy's)
There's no "backing of Ukrainian claims", the only countries that have recognized the results of the 2014 referendum in Crimea are Afghanistan, Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe. Everyone else recognizes Ukraine's pre-2014 borders.
Ever heard of Gazprom? As much as Russia wants to be Soviet Union, its not. It's easy to see where Putin gets his money from. Sure there will be cost (especially for Germany), but in long run EU will be much safer. Plus it's one of those cases where technically opposition in Russia does exist and it's not populist opposition. Sure, Putin has them under control now, but I don't think he is insane enough to start executing them en masses when shit hits the fan.
I don't know where you are from, but it should be telling that this is the WORST Russia was able to dig up. Don't you find it telling? I mean there are tapes from yesterday that are more telling than this (recordings of FSB capturing Ukrainian soldiers).
Really? Because you made it sound like it's far more than that in your post. Because I did google her and didn't really see anything all that crazy, outside of conspiracy theory stuff. Frankly, she doesn't seem like much of a boogeyman. Just a state department staffer whose phone call got tapped.
Do you speak English? I mean I see how Russia is using this propaganda by mistranslating it, but you can hear what is on the tape and you still choose to be ignorant? I mean even IF it's true and US picked Ukrainian government (who did they pick again?) they still managed NOT to INVADE THE NEIGHBOR AND KILL THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE! How freaking forgiving can you be?!
You are really trying to play all sides here. "US are involved in the background in the Ukrainian affairs" doesn't really sound that bad. You can literally replace US and Ukraine in that sentence with anything and it could possibly be true. "Spain is involved in the background in the Portuguese affairs". That said, you seem to be implying something much worse without providing any proof whatsoever.
They've been open about it since they started posting in the thread. Literally everything that brings up the US is a conspiratorial derail designed to muddy the waters and get people to ignore that Russia's a predatory aggressor.
I think one mistake you are making there is assuming that Russian population is isolated now. Big cities in Russia are no different than what you have in Europe. They play video games, they go to the restaurants, they watch sports. I think that's the major difference vs what Soviet Union was. Simple shit, like making it difficult to access Steam in Russia would have a huge impact on young people. Right now they are enjoying all the benefits of being part of European economy and they HATE Europe at the same time because of propaganda.
She also met with Russian, Romanian, and Greek officials (I'm sure plenty more) about Ukraine. And countless other issues. Because she's a diplomat and does diplomacy.
But you can't pick an choose. Putin is openly giving out medals to soldiers for capturing Crimea while that phone call discussing politics is the worst thing you can find for the US.
So why don't you link to whatever the US is doing over there, using one of those sources you like to say we should use? Because this is what I found, and it seems like there isn't much, if any, real interference. https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...7626c5ef5fb_story.html?utm_term=.bbf94ca2d453
"US: Ukraine is a sovereign nation" vs "Russia: lol no they're ours"
The crazy part is that even young people keep saying that Soviet Union was great... Propaganda is hell of a drug! So if EU even slightly showed those young people what Soviet Union was like, they would immediately pick video games over Putin.
It literally has NOTHING to do with Crimea! Why you keep talking about it? It's just a shitload of unrelated nonsense.
Apparently also along the border with the Moldovan region Transnistria.
It's probably because of that region and because of the sea access (Odessa in on Black Sea).
