That's all very nice, and no one likes coddling rogue states, but is it better than the alternative, if that alternative is war? That's the dilemma. This kind of "give me liberty or give me death" kind of rhetoric is easy to espouse if you're not the one doing the dying.
I don't think the cause is so much pure historical reasons, but current defense worries.
There was another talk explaining the russian perspective in 2015 by John J. Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago [2]
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/ru...
That must be why russia is upset with the West. No it didn't. The west spent a generation robbing, stealing, attacking and bullying russia. Also, Russia doesn't need to integrate into europe. Russia IS europe. What the west did to russia in the 90s was objectively worse than what the nazis did to them in the 40s. I know it sounds hyperbolic and I didn't believe it either. But it's true. Go look at the population, economic, etc stats. It was such a disaster that the russian population still hasn't recovered to the early 90s level. And the expansion of NATO/EU which led to the wars in Georgia and Ukraine. The problem for russia is that they have no alternative. They can't really form a alliance with china. They are historical and geographical enemies. The same for turkey, iran, etc. And india is simply too far away to form an alliance not to mention the fact that india is still part of the british empire.
It was russia trying to be nice to the west. It was russia that let NATO/EU expand into their sphere of influence. This is a fact. All the west did was treat russia like crap and take advantage of them.
This is the same thing we have done to Turkey, Iran, India, China, etc. Treat them like shit and stab them in the back. But they do not seem to be able to form a coalition against the west so they'll keep getting shit on. Of course the west doesn't suffer. It places like ukraine, taiwan, myanmar, africa, middle east, etc that will suffer.
Exactly how did the West spent a generation with Putin in power robbing, stealing and attacking Russia? Describe exactly how.
As a European I'm shocked that Euro leaders have allowed this to get so out of hand.
Alas, geography has a power which cannot be negated by the UN, NATO or pacifism.
No matter what your defence posture is, how many weapons you have, how many megatons is your nuke, all your weapons are useless if you don't use them, and more so, if you don't want to use them.
To the major demographic on HN, you have to change. There is no succinct, suave, hispter startup solution to a Russian paratrooper landing on your lawn. There is none.
You, and HN have to get ALL political, just like the society itself.
Next time somebody tries to shut your mouth for speaking about politics, I would've said the most un-gentle response to that man's face be the most befitting action.
You know, the standard of humanity shouldn’t be “Unlike Russia or China, at least America doesn’t oppress their own”.
"If you're not bothered about how the world is changing around you, it should not surprise you one day if it came with devastating effects"
England spent centuries working on the balance of power and supporting small states vs. Large. It works.
If Russia is into “Ukraine used to be Russia” then they support “Kaliningrad used to be German”, right? Or is it more “Poland and Finland used to be Russian”? And it’s really bad form to break signed treaties for the hell of it.