Obviously Russia borders Europe. How do you do a land invasion of Europe without bordering Europe?
But Russia isn’t Germany whose borders are completely dominated by Europe.
Putin obviously thinks Russia should still be a superpower. People get that mentality when they see the past and think they deserve it again. Holy shit people love the “glory days.”
There are conflicts that have been going on for millennia like in the Middle East and they fight today because their ancestors fought.
People have a hard on for the past.
You’ll teach someone command line Git starting out and they love it and they will never bother with a GUI because they value their experience more than practicality.
Geopolitics are an interesting thing. It's also interesting how 2 regimes with totally different ideologies ended having similar borders (Imperial Russia and the USSR).
> Russia isn't threatening anybody in western Europe
Those poor schmucks not in Western Europe can just be thrown under the bus like the last 2 times, right? :-)
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.
Not sure what people don't like in your answer, probably the truth. Bordering with Russia always includes some tragic history - occupation of the Baltic States and Romania, Winter War, occupation of Poland, occupation of the whole Eastern Europe, brutal oppression of Hungary's revolution 1959 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Moldova 1992, Georgia 2008, and now Ukraine. At this moment Russia evolved into a completely totalitarian fascist state, while the West still plays Appeasement Policy with it, just like with Germany in 1938-39.
Which brings us to my original point again: noone cares where the landmass is.
Russia does not identify with Europe by choice. On Russian TV there is nothing but mocking Europe and all it stands for; majority of Russians poll as actively hostile to Europe. Russians can't freely travel across Europe (nor can Europeans to Russia). Russia conducts military exercises simulating attacks on European capitals, and actively works to undermine and disintegrate European institutions.
Why do you people insist Russia has to be on the list is beyond me.
I am Swedish and I believe most Swedes consider Russia to be part of Europe. Making generalizations about Europe or even Western Europe (something which did not exist before the cold war) is dangerous.
Russia is a gigantic country with vast resources that isn’t bordered by Europe, and more than once it was a superpower and it was a superpower against another gigantic country. On the other hand, Europe consists of small countries trying to fit in with their neighbors.
It’s like thinking the scooter kids are gonna be hanging with the skater kids. It’s not that they are inherently that different, but they have such different mindsets that it means they see their positions in the world differently.
Where do you got that info. Most Russians want to be part of Europe. Its not that Russian people dont have a way to think freely. They all watch youtube and other social media. And they all love to ski in Austria or to visit Italy for a holiday. I don't know one russian person who is not pro Europe. Even Putin himself is pro europe.
Are you actually citing all the wars Russia was involved in since IX century? I don’t even know where to start with this, but maybe consider that “Russia” is not some thousand year old unchanging state, it has been morphing and changing drastically. Even reasoning about USSR and modern Russia as equivalent entities is just plain wrong - different economies, different basis, different system of government, ownership and decision making, vastly different territories even.
So I would stick comparing modern states between each other, not some small feudal entities from IX century
Because none of those plan on taking over europe. Russia still has the goal to directly control all slavic countries and indirectly control the rest of Europe. Most europeans remember the USSR.
Russia is in a geographical position where it will always have pretensions on Eastern Europe. Communism was a veneer for imperialism, and if it weren't for NATO and the EU, the same would happen today.
- They just don't accept thoughts, that other nations have right to make their choice.
To be honest, they divide all nations to great and not great. Rule is simple - Russians had wars with near every nation in Europe, and after WW2 in other parts of world, and who had before in well know history kicked them in the teeth, considered great nation, all others are not great, victims.
But Russia isn’t Germany whose borders are completely dominated by Europe.
Putin obviously thinks Russia should still be a superpower. People get that mentality when they see the past and think they deserve it again. Holy shit people love the “glory days.”
There are conflicts that have been going on for millennia like in the Middle East and they fight today because their ancestors fought.
People have a hard on for the past.
You’ll teach someone command line Git starting out and they love it and they will never bother with a GUI because they value their experience more than practicality.
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