Reagan didn't win the Cold War. The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West. Men like Gorbachav (and Putin) dismantled the Soviet bloc, with the understanding that the West would become a partner and mentor. Instead we unleashed our greed industrial complex on Russia. Putin was forc…
Reagan didn't win the Cold War. The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West. Men like Gorbachav (and Putin) dismantled the Soviet bloc, with the understanding that the West would become a partner and mentor. Instead we unleashed our greed industrial complex on Russia. Putin was forced to change course, as his people were starving in the streets. He successfully clawed back their assets, established good trade ties with Europe. and provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war. Trying to protect his people is STILL a full-time job for Putin, as the neocons never give up their dream of global hegemony. They deliberately provoked a confrontation through "NATO expansion," using Ukraine as our pawn in this deadly game, to weaken Russia and cause its people to oust their leader. Our failure to understand why Russians support their leader is astonishing to me, but such is like when all that matters is money and power.
Bonnie — “provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war”. You have the sequence of events backwards. 1. Trump bans the Nordstream 2 pipeline, which would have let Russia send fossil fuels to Germany without paying Ukraine billions of rubles in transit fees every year. 2. Biden cancels Trump’s ban, possibly not understanding the strategic implications. 3. Putin interprets the reopening of the pipeline as showing Biden favors Russia over Ukraine. 4. Adding that to the weakness shown in Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco, Putin orders the invasion of Ukraine. 5. Some time after the beginning of the war, the pipeline is blown up. (N.B.: It’s in rowboat distance of the Polish coast. Just sayin’!)
In other words, it was Western pandering to Russia, not Western “aggression”, that emboldened Putin to start the war. (About NATO, see remarks to uselesseater, below.)
“The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West.” Are you joking? People in the USSR didn’t get to choose their leaders: Gorbachev was elected by the Politburo, not the people. He was trying to strengthen the Soviet Union, not “dismantle” it.
He didn’t realize that the only thing holding together the Soviet Bloc was the threat of Russian tanks. When he hesitated to go full Stalin on them, all the Captive Nations, especially Ukraine, bolted for the exits. (Ukrainians were especially bitter about tens of thousands of children exposed to radiation when the Soviet Union covered up the Chernobyl disaster.)
And Reagan's military build up had nothing to do with it?
I'm not sure how much input the people of the USSR actually had in choosing their leaders, either.
Putin ". . . provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war." I am not seeing the logic here. How would provoking a war protect Russian people?
Reagan didn't win the Cold War. The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West. Men like Gorbachav (and Putin) dismantled the Soviet bloc, with the understanding that the West would become a partner and mentor. Instead we unleashed our greed industrial complex on Russia. Putin was forced to change course, as his people were starving in the streets. He successfully clawed back their assets, established good trade ties with Europe. and provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war. Trying to protect his people is STILL a full-time job for Putin, as the neocons never give up their dream of global hegemony. They deliberately provoked a confrontation through "NATO expansion," using Ukraine as our pawn in this deadly game, to weaken Russia and cause its people to oust their leader. Our failure to understand why Russians support their leader is astonishing to me, but such is like when all that matters is money and power.
Bonnie — “provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war”. You have the sequence of events backwards. 1. Trump bans the Nordstream 2 pipeline, which would have let Russia send fossil fuels to Germany without paying Ukraine billions of rubles in transit fees every year. 2. Biden cancels Trump’s ban, possibly not understanding the strategic implications. 3. Putin interprets the reopening of the pipeline as showing Biden favors Russia over Ukraine. 4. Adding that to the weakness shown in Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco, Putin orders the invasion of Ukraine. 5. Some time after the beginning of the war, the pipeline is blown up. (N.B.: It’s in rowboat distance of the Polish coast. Just sayin’!)
In other words, it was Western pandering to Russia, not Western “aggression”, that emboldened Putin to start the war. (About NATO, see remarks to uselesseater, below.)
“The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West.” Are you joking? People in the USSR didn’t get to choose their leaders: Gorbachev was elected by the Politburo, not the people. He was trying to strengthen the Soviet Union, not “dismantle” it.
He didn’t realize that the only thing holding together the Soviet Bloc was the threat of Russian tanks. When he hesitated to go full Stalin on them, all the Captive Nations, especially Ukraine, bolted for the exits. (Ukrainians were especially bitter about tens of thousands of children exposed to radiation when the Soviet Union covered up the Chernobyl disaster.)
Oh, please!
And Reagan's military build up had nothing to do with it?
I'm not sure how much input the people of the USSR actually had in choosing their leaders, either.
Putin ". . . provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war." I am not seeing the logic here. How would provoking a war protect Russian people?
What's more astonishing is why any American supports our "leader".