@stairway
Hi OP, my husband is from a none western country and believes there is a lot of hypocrisy from the west regarding Russia, many outside the west feel this is no different to the Cuban missile crisis and Russia have genuine concerns regarding NATO and the USA. Particularly given US history of invading and destroying countries on a whim. Do you feel there is a media bias in this country too or do you agree with how things are reported in this country. There doesn’t seem to be any attempt to understand the Russian position at all. Why are Europeans valued above people from the Middle East/Africa?
I have little shrift for this position unfortunately--there are a lot of criticisms of American foreign and defence policy that are absolutely justified, and that I share. But this type of commentary on NATO is the result of very successful and insidious Kremlin propaganda. It is worth seeing quite how much the Kremlin pumps into getting RT and similar channels into countries overseas, precisely for this purpose.
Firstly, NATO is a defensive alliance. The whole point of it is that if one country is attached, they will be defended by the others (Article 5)--essentially they treat it as an attack on them. NATO has not been expanding into post-soviet countries recently. They have however had post-soviet countries begging for their help because Russia has been repeatedly launching assaults on them. Think hacking attacks, little military adventures, assassinations, attempts to destabilise the state, etc alongside threats.
US foreign policy in the last 5? 10? years has basically been to not get involved. Look at their complete withdrawal from Afghanistan--letting it fall to the Taliban, who are more than friendly with Putin.
Ask your husband this: why has Russia seen fit to invade Ukraine at the time in history when it seemed most likely that the west were not interested in its fate, and most likely to let Putin away without even a slap on the wrist? Putin has been emboldened by a western foreign policy of non-intervention, perhaps the best demonstration of which is Germany's prioritisation under Merkel of trade over any defence at all. The west encouraged this to happen NOT be threatening Russia but the opposite--by giving a signal to Putin that he could get away with even more murder, this time on their doorstep.
In terms of understanding the Russian position: I do understand it, very well. Unfortunately that makes me utterly reject it, as it is imperialistic bravado that sees other states that seek to just get on with life as opportunities for chest beating. See the people who came out to protest FOR Russia in the last week--in Russia it was Neo Nazis, in Serbia it was people who perpetrated the genocide in Bosnia.
Look at what Putin has done in Syria and Eritrea if you want to talk about caring about people from the Middle East and Africa. Putin has done intentional mass slaughter of civilians in a way not seen since perhaps the Korean War or the Second World War (actually or the Bosnian genocide, which incidentally many of his commanders were involved in). Look at Chechnya and the people there who support him. I'm afraid it's not a controversial or clever point he's making, frankly it's ignorant.
I am yet to think of one example of Putin's foreign policy being either genuinely defensive or doing any sort of good. This is a man who uses chemical weapons on civilians, intentionally targets hospitals, utilises 'humanitarian ceasefires' as an opportunity to round up civilians and kill them.