I highly recommend a book by historian Timothy Snyder called Road to Unfreedom. It explains how we got here, what Russia wants to achieve and why.
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Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 6 months agoPost-Brexit UK is an actual crime scene and it seems like everyone stopped asking, qui bono? Not the UK, and not Europe.
Same perp who wants his American candidate to dismantle NATO, if you ask me. Means, motive, pattern of criminality are all there.
takeda@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The crux of it as far as I’ve gleaned is that their geopolitical theory revolves around being the bigger dog in every deal, so they want to be able to throw their weight around by dismantling blocs of smaller nations and creating a system of bilateral agreements. Is that about what Snyder says is going on?
takeda@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yes, but he goes into more detail about why that is, why Ukraine is so important etc.
Basically when the Soviet Union collapsed, US politicians believed that as long as Russia has a free market, the democracy will flourish.
They couldn’t be more wrong, what it became was a klepocracy ruled by oligarchy with putin as the master oligarch. Russia on paper looked like a democracy, it has the institutions, but they are all neutered and despite having “elections”, there was never a democracy and free elections in there even in the 90s.
Putin realized that with EU Russia doesn’t matter as much, because EU integration makes smaller countries powerful. EU requires countries to have functional democracy before they can join. Putin tried to join, but instead having Russia to adapt and become a democratic country, he demanded that EU would change to accommodate Russia. That of course didn’t work.
So he created his own union (Eurasian Economic Union) hoping that it would take over EU. Initially they tried to subverting things politically having their puppet (kind of like they did in Belarus), but Ukrainian people demonstrated as they wanted to be part of EU, so it switched to military action first on 2014 and later in 2022.
We did fucked up a bit not supporting Ukrainian earlier.
There is also a lot of how Russia basically changes its own history ignoring all inconvenient events, how option is following fascist authors that render Russia as the World savor, that is on the side of God.
It is quite fascinating. A lot people think of the war as it started in 2022, some more informed will say it started in 2014, but it was much earlier then that. We just ignored it, we seem to pay attention when people are actually fighting, which is sad as most of how Russia is operating is to subvert via disinformation, destabilization and sabotage.
The war of 2022 got to what it got is because putin trapped himself in it, but underestimating Ukrainians.
I’m still not finish with it and am just in the middle of the book.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Thanks for the writeup! All that gels with my understanding. It makes me think about how we thought letting China into the WTO would have the same effect, and now they’re economically propping up Russian savagery in Ukraine and continuing to crack down at home. You just can’t invite oppresive regimes to the table and hope for the best, and it’s weird that we tried.
HorseRabbit@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
It was a referendum. People are were asked “do you want to leave the EU” and the majority of people said “yes”. The British people have no one to blame but themselves.
ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
Most everybody in the UK didn’t want to leave Europe until a bunch of politicians with an agenda planted the idea in their mind and argued for it with lies after lies.
The people was lied to and Brexit was manufactured. You can’t put all the blame on the people: part of it is to be dished out to the education system that failed to give enough of them critical thinking abilities and teach them history so it doesn’t repeat itself.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Don’t waste your breath, they’re not interested in a genuine debate. They ask that we limit our view so that only the simplest of lies are needed.
Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Who proposed it? Did the people just wake up one day and say yeah we’re out?
Or did Farage and Boris cook something up?
SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Bit of both. There had always been resentment against joining the EU. Austerity policies only increased it. Boris and Farage did their best to fan the flames.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Either it is not within your power to encompass world events in relation to one another, or your argument requires that we fail to do so; in either case, be silent.
HorseRabbit@lemmy.sdf.org 6 months ago
Lmao. “Russia did Brexit” “Actually it was a referendum. People wanted it” “Be silent!”
Truly one of our greatest minds.
vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Brexit was a massive, massive win for them. Not as massive as the Trump presidency, but that’s more reflection of Trump.