18 Comments

Steven, you are not wrong and it's interesting you are getting Putin apologists to comment about how poor Russia was provoked. I at least remember where he came from, what he's done, and what he wants to accomplish. I wish the US could give up the addiction to war profits but a unilateral disarmament would not serve our national interest. This topic does require much conversation, strategizing, and decades of planning between multiple nations willing to find better ways of communicating but I doubt any movement will be made at the world "leader" level.

Where real progress (and indeed the ONLY real progress) can be made is between individuals and communities willing to build bridges instead of burning them. We can still learn much from the indigenous people still remaining in the world.

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why put Putin in the article?..

US Empire pushed Putin to invade, with NATO expansion towards Russia border..

https://youtu.be/emD1cN2xEz4?si=df182jQSQUweSSGH

also worth a mention

Empire Secretary Of Defense Lloyd Austin came from Raytheon, where he was on the Board Of Directors..

a revolving door of death and destruction and corruption and profiteering..

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Putin invaded and annexed Crimea years before he invaded and is attempting to annex Ukraine. NATO accepted formerly neutral nations that fear they are next in line. If Putin feared NATO expansion he should have stayed home.

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A good clue to propagandising is to see people personalising the entire Russian nation of several tens of millions of people as...."Putin".

What - "Putin" personally climbed in a tank and took over Crimea? "Putin" is the only person in Russia who assesses NATO to be an aggressive military threat? "Putin" is presently sitting in Crimea. The name seems to be some kind of bogeyman certain people invoke to try and stimulate irrational paranoia and stymie any rational discussion of the concept of what different nations and peoples could or could not find reasonable in a search for peace and security.

Please......

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sorry, the Russian people do not run Russia, PUTIN does. Putin orders his people to sign up for military service and they either go and die or they flee in large enough numbers that now North Korea has sent THEIR troops to Russia for training and then on to Ukraine. Putin is an authoritarian dictator who assassinates those who displease him.

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Yeah - me too - wtf about "Russians extreme aggression in the Ukraine."?

Steven, you are smarter than that. That was an utterly provoked war.

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Russia embedded their own extremists in Eastern Ukraine to foment a conflict as a pretext to invasion. Putin isn't stupid but his apologists are ignorant.

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And in 2014, the US staged a coup to overthrow the leader of Ukraine and then started sending ‘advisors.’ That’s not apologia, it’s recent US / Russian history. As to Russia ‘embedding extremists’ - you can say shit, but you need to back it up.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA how about learning actual history first

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

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You get your historical knowledge from Wikipedia?

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I get my historical knowledge from the historians who contribute to it. Where do you get YOURS, from Putin himself?

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especially THIS part: "A prolonged political crisis began on 21 November 2013, when president Viktor Yanukovych suspended preparations for the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union, instead choosing to seek closer ties with Russia. This decision resulted in the Euromaidan protests and later, the Revolution of Dignity. Yanukovych was then impeached by the Ukrainian parliament in February 2014. On 20 February, the Russo-Ukrainian War began when Russian forces entered Crimea. Soon after, pro-Russian unrest enveloped the largely Russophone eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, from where Yanukovych had drawn most of his support. An internationally unrecognized referendum in the largely ethnic Russian Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea was held and Crimea was de facto annexed by Russia on 18 March 2014. The War in Donbas began in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine involving the Russian military. The war continued until 24 February 2022, when Russia launched a major invasion of much of the country."

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more: "In November 2013, President Yanukovych did not sign the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement and instead pursued closer ties with Russia.[165][166] This move sparked protests on the streets of Kyiv and, ultimately, the Revolution of Dignity. Protesters set up camps in Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square),[167] and in December 2013 and January 2014 protesters started taking over various government buildings, first in Kyiv, and later in Western Ukraine.[168] Battles between protesters and police resulted in about 80 deaths in February 2014.[169][170]

Following the violence, the Ukrainian parliament on 22 February voted to remove Yanukovych from power (on the grounds that his whereabouts were unknown and he thus could not fulfil his duties), and to free Yulia Tymoshenko from prison. On the same day, Yanukovych supporter Volodymyr Rybak resigned as speaker of the Parliament, and was replaced by Tymoshenko loyalist Oleksandr Turchynov, who was subsequently installed as interim President.[171] Yanukovych had fled Kyiv, and subsequently gave a press conference in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.[172]

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"In March 2014, the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation occurred. Although official results of a referendum on Crimean reunification with Russia were reported as showing a large majority in favor of the proposition, the vote was organized under Russian military occupation and was denounced by the European Union and the United States as illegal.[187]

The Crimean crisis was followed by pro-Russian unrest in east Ukraine and south Ukraine.[188] In April 2014 Ukrainian separatists self-proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic and held referendums on 11 May 2014; the separatists claimed nearly 90% voted in favor of independence.[189][188] Later in April 2014, fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Ukrainian volunteer battalions on one side, and forces supporting the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics on the other side, escalated into the war in Donbas.[188][190] By December 2014, more than 6,400 people had died in this conflict, and according to United Nations figures it led to over half a million people becoming internally displaced within Ukraine and two hundred thousand refugees to flee to (mostly) Russia and other neighboring countries.[191][192][193][194] During the same period, political (including adoption of the law on lustration and the law on decommunization) and economic reforms started.[195] On 25 May 2014, Petro Poroshenko was elected president[196] in the first round of the presidential election. By the second half of 2015, independent observers noted that reforms in Ukraine had considerably slowed down, corruption did not subside, and the economy of Ukraine was still in a deep crisis.[195][197][198][199] By December 2015, more than 9,100 people had died (largely civilians) in the war in Donbas,[200] according to United Nations figures.[201]"

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What the f..k are you talking about.

"Russians extreme aggression in the Ukraine."

Put weapons of 'mass destruction' on the Mexican border..........what would the USA do?

Just another Russian/propagandized mind while the USA creates carnage throughout the world!

Go away.

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"....Why are these critically important questions not being addressed in the presidential campaign? Why were they not asked in the debates?....."

The "debates" (actually a joint TV ad for the GOP and Dems) are conducted by commercial media interests and involve two corporations masquerading as popular political parties.

No sugar they didn't ask those questions. Just like a Coke-Pepsi "challenge" would never involve questions about diabetes or obesity!

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