re: Putin Orders Third Troop Expansion Of War, Making Army 2nd Largest After China's

Maybe he’s just tired of the dollar continuing to lose value, and our international security deteriorating

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Putin never did and doesn't now, want to take all of Ukraine.

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Lol. Like you or anybody not named Putin knows what he wants. He lies so often, he probably doesn't know himself.

Who doesn’t lie? Our government openly blamed him for the 2016 election and it was bogus. Does he lie more than they do?

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Maybe he’s just tired of the dollar continuing to lose value

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a. Has almost 0 to do with the response of the invasion of Ukraine

b. A chaotic global economy will hurt the US economy and dollar even more.

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and our international security deteriorating

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Not occurring, currently.

If covert ops and intel warfare doesn’t matter then I just don’t know what to say to you. Aggression is never warranted or understandable unless directly attacked? I wish we lived by that principle.

If y’all are going to ignore NATO expansion being the wedge issue then I just don’t know what to tell you. Do you think William Burns is an idiot? He’s fallen upwards all the way to the CIA directorship

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They didn't initially understand what we were doing

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It's not some conspiracy theory.

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they were naive

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No. They were trying to move into the modern world and be part of the new emerging global landscape, at that point. As Putin and the oligarchs gains autocratic/oligarchic power over the country, they rejected integration with modernity out of some belief that they could create a kleptocratic state that could compete (Update: they could not, but they all got rich as shite).

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Deflection. We are talking about Putin and the shitshow he has caused.

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Hmm, let’s summon someone more qualified than myself

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Ukraine and Georgia's NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia's influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.

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William Burns, US ambassador to Russia, 2008

LINK

If you have full knowledge that X action will cause Y outcome ahead of time, and you do it anyway, can you actually blame it on someone other than yourself unless you’re just a psychopath?

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If you have full knowledge that X action will cause Y outcome ahead of time, and you do it anyway,

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Ukraine is not part of NATO.

Ukraine never even applied to be part of NATO until this invasion.

"X action" never occurred.

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If you can explain what NATO had to do with the 2014 Russian interference with Ukraine's integration with the EU, which led to the Maidan revolution in response, I'll listen.

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I’ll just post another paragraph from the same cable

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4. (U) During a press briefing January 22 in response to a question about Ukraine's request for a MAP, the MFA said "a radical new expansion of NATO may bring about a serious political-military shift that will inevitably affect the security interests of Russia." The spokesman went on to stress that Russia was bound with Ukraine by bilateral obligations set forth in the 1997 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership in which both parties undertook to "refrain from participation in or support of any actions capable of prejudicing the security of the other Side." The spokesman noted that Ukraine's "likely integration into NATO would seriously complicate the many-sided Russian-Ukrainian relations," and that Russia would "have to take appropriate measures." The spokesman added that "one has the impression that the present Ukrainian leadership regards rapprochement with NATO largely as an alternative to good-neighborly ties with the Russian Federation."

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