It's the opposite: they have shown an incredible amount of restraint in the face of overwhelming opposition and crippling sanctions from Europe and USA.

Didn't Russia annex Crimea? How are the sanctions not Russia's fault??

What? Well, they sure have earned those sanctions haven't they? Aggressive expansionism and annexation of foreign territories, tampering with elections in the USA, not to mention atrocious domestic policies in an effective dictatorship. They have earned those sanctions and more, indeed I think we will find in the future that dealing so softly with Russia was a mistake.

Have you seen the movie this topic is about? If not I highly encourage you to watch it. Blind nationalist attitudes like yours are what will cause the disaster it depicts.

Blind nationalist attitudes like those in the Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, and Moscow?

The classic KGB tactic "accuse the enemy of exactly what you are doing" is all too transparent here.

Blind nationalism? Is anything I said not true?

Well, nobody wants to die in a Nuclear War.

It might surprise, and horrify you to know that a large number of high-ranking US staff think that nuclear war is winnable [1]. It makes my blood boil.

[1] http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-nuclear-w...

> a large number of high-ranking US staff think that nuclear war is winnable

The article [1] cites two retired generals as its examples of "senior military officers" who "might be eager to get things started in the belief that a war with Russia could actually be winnable".

[1] http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-nuclear-w...

The article mentions only a few. However, how many people did you think it took to sign off on building an ICBM 'shield' in Eastern Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_missile_defense_...

The official story, of course, is that it is intended to protect against Iran. From my limited understanding of geography, Poland does not lie between Iran and the United States.

Only the most patriotic Americans believe that lie. Is anybody in Poland worried about Iran launching missiles their way?

I don't think so!

do your smoldering bones care about whoever wins ?

Most people don't even realize that just about the same conditions led Japan to attack during WWII. There comes a time when you keep pushing a guy, and he says, enough! No mas!

Japan invaded China in 1931, Thailand in 1941 and had attacked Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. It was kind of on a roll attacking stuff before it hit the US in a way that is rather different from modern Russia.

Indeed. For example, when you push into the Ukraine and annex Crimea via military occupation.

Actually because of the restraint Russia has been showing in the last few years, I hold their leadership in very high regard.

Russia was the first country in Europe to invade and annex a part of a neighboring country since, what, WW2? If that's restraint, I hesitate to ask what the lack of it would look like.

Turkey, Cyprus.

Turkey didn't annex Northern Cyprus. Nor did Albania annex Kosovo, nor Russia itself annexed South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria before.

It's the combination of invasion and annexation - effectively, waging war for a formally acknowledged territorial gain - that makes the situation in Crimea unique post WW2.

Well, technically it was Greece that tried the annexation and Turkey does maintain a large military on Cyprus.

But you're right, the Crimea is both in scale, scope and ambition on a different level.

Which restraint would that be?