I’ve long said the biggest mistake the west made in the early 1990s was not putting a massive Marshall Plan in place to enable transition to social democracy in Russia and the other Soviet States.
It would have been a massive undertaking and been a monumental cost but looking back it seems like it would have been a snip.
Yet most of the smaller countries were able to transition to one degree or other and become decent countries. Russia wasn’t. The great power delusion is a mass pathology.
There are spectacularly difficult issues at play here. What do you do when a massive country’s ideology turns to a poison that threatens all within it and around it.
But if you cut up Russia & share it out it, it isn’t worth a fuck without the Americans learning to keep their dirty fingers to themselves thereafter imo.
The ex soviet states in Europe bar Belarus and Moldova mainly have or are close to being ‘european’. This is what really provokes putin. It was a massive mistake. Even at the end of the 90s they could have done something while Russia was still a shitshow. 20 years of putin has led to this. He’s ex kgb soviet to the rotten core
Are some countries just too big ? It seems some of the biggest countries America, china and Russia have the biggest social issues. Literally just too big for one government to work and trying to get everybody under one government creates an even bigger divide ?
That was exactly the mistake. The Western powers danced on the grave of the USSR, the former Iron Curtain states oriented west and the mediocrity that has ruled Russia for centuries was allowed to survive.
After this week yeah, as probably can guess I’m not an expert here but a relatively good idea. I never heard talks of Moldova applying to the EU or an intension but that’s the limit of my knowledge on the country. The rest of those former soviet states in Europe have either joined or are trying to
Most people would prefer to live in a society and a world power block which is ultimately backstopped by US hard power - for all its massive faults. Its massive faults are less than the alternative. The US - certainly these days - will tend to have a decent relationship with countries which allow the basic freedoms we enjoy in this part of the world. But these days the biggest threat to all that comes from within the US.
People in those countries want to see a future for themselves and their kids. They look West. Looking East is looking at the past and towards mediocrity. It’s not even about capitalism it’s about freedom and decency and opportunity.
Is that the micro state traninista or something? It’s been mentioned here a few times as a russian mafia state within Moldova. They have a football team that plays in the europa league qualification. Is it sherrif? Can a footix correct me?
He was shocked that it kicked off. He is Russian aligned and is not a fan of Zelensky at all.
But, in the 6 years I’ve known him he’s come across as a decent chap.
No major shits or giggles but an okay guy. Has settled here, 2 kids in school, house & mortgage.
Works bloody hard.
But, he’s still very much pro Russian as I’ve learned since early last week.
Only going on what the chap tells me. He’s definitely not going home anything soon to end up in a fight.
He has settled and is fresh into a mortgage also.
