Which countries is Russia a threat to?

[Wobblylegs1]

National Service is back on the agenda in Germany and France and on R4 Any Questions this weekend it seemed to be taken for granted that there is a ‘growing threat from Russia’.

Obviously, there is a threat to the old soviet bloc be because Putin sees them as ‘Russian’. Surely he wouldn’t be interested in expanding into Western Europe though? Russia already owns a huge sprawling chunk of land and struggles to sustain its population. Putin is bonkers, but I haven’t seen any suggestion that he has 1930s-style ‘conquer the whole world’ delusions? I don’t really understand what sort of a threat he poses and to what end? Anyone care to share their thoughts?

Have you not read their latest US national security strategy report?

Europe is to blame for the Ukraine war, is preventing peace, Ukraine started it & no blame attached to Russia..... and the US seeing Europe as the enemy? is the assessment from both Karl Bildt and a former EU defence strategist.

Have you not listened to Vance and Trump on europe/nato/ukraine ?

Does it see europe as an enemy or just not a useful ally anymore as thats different.

I havent read it but ive seen its very negative about europe and says stuff like civilisation erasure and economic decline.

Farage and Trump are Russian assets. Brexit was meant to weaken the EU and sow division, get far right governments all over the continent who will blame the EU bureaucracy for not deporting them to give Putin an excuse to go to war in the interests of preventing cultural erasure in Europe.

Look at Trumps new national security plan, it talks about the EU splitting into individual sovereign nations, which will further weaken the EU and pave the way for a wider invasion. Putin would love to take over Europe, inc the U.K.

Putin has been facilitating migration into Europe, and since the U.K. has both left the Dublin convention and is a seperate entity from the EU, it means more migrants can come to the U.K. than before as there is no Dublin agreement for a deterrent and as we are treated as a separate entity, it means asylum claims denied in the EU can try here.

There are articles about Putin’s interference if you google it. Like this one, for example. https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/putin-illegal-migration-uk-border-defences-security-5HjcdpL2/

Brexit has been used as a tool and unfortunately, the masses have been duped. Farage is a traitor, he’s out for Russian money. That’s all. The U.K. is definitely under threat, IMO.

There’s a reason beyond migration as to why he wants us out of the ECHR. it’s all very sinister.

Trump and Vance are blaming the EU because they are on Putins side. Putin wants the EU to collapse so he is using migration strategy so that far right governments can come to power all over Europe and they can convince the electorate to pull out of the EU and become independent.

He can invade easier that way. He’s using migration as a smoke screen so he can claim to be fighting against cultural erasure. It’s glaringly obvious.

What’s it all for Mr.Putin ?
What a waste of so many lives.
So many dead, injured and suffering mental and physical pain.
On both sides.

For what ?
How can you sleep at night.
You’ll be dead soon.
What will your legacy be ?

Power. He’s a megalomaniac.

US stands with the UK as they always have?

I assume you don't know much about their involvement in WWII then?

They were "neutral" - tbf a rather biased neutral, but officially neutral until Pearl Harbor. It was only after they had been directly attacked that they came in. Yes, I know that's at odds with all the WWII films/books etc that come from the USA presenting a story that they did it all with a minor patch of help from a few insignificant places.

If the Japanese hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor, then they wouldn't have come in then.

So if we were attacked I'd expect something similar: Them to be sympathetic, but not stand up until they were attacked, or at severe threat warning, too.
Which tbf I think is a reasonable stand most of the time. Fighting another country's war when you are not under threat has to be considered very carefully as you are gambling with peoples' lives.

Don’t know if anyone’s seen this.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-threatens-strike-23-towns-33012743.amp

Bit of a weird list/weird headline, and just a bit alarmist.

it's a bit of a "who's who" of places /companies (some quite/really small) in the defence sector, that, OK, might be of interest to Russian spooks/ disruptors.

Makes almost zero sense in the context of a list of targets on a strike list for e.g. the Russian Air Force.

I thought that myself to be honest. Someone told me about it and said which towns were on there and I did chuckle, i won’t lie 😂

If the US is siding with Russia, which it is, no criticism of Russia, then what does Europe become to the US & what does the US become to Europe?

No longer an ally, no longer trusted, no longer useful etc etc Russia on the other hand is seen as their ally.

Trump has turned the world on its head, this isn't America First, this is America choosing to support our enemy.

But the real question is why?

The why is what I cant quite get.

Is europe fracturing and Russia gaining bits of europe useful to the US. Does it mean the us can justify taking Greenland or other bits of europe by force if we are all fighting.

It doesnt seem as negative about the uk.

Im very surprised by this turn of events.

Who knows what goes through Trumps head....

Is it business opportunities with Russia? or has Russia got a hold over Putin?

Trump certainly dislikes the EU, he can bully separate countries but cannot do that so easily to the EU.

The UK needs to side with Europe, not the US, it cannot ride both horses.

I'm not surprised, Trump wanted to do all this in his first term but his party was more moderate, hopefully should he lose the mid terms (and accept the defeat) he may be forced to be more moderate, though he will probably just act illegally and do what the fcuk he wants.

He was always going to be more bitter and twisted second time around and now we've his side kick muskrat advocating that Europe is abolished ,wouldn't be anyrhing to do with a £120 million pounds fine.
I'm sick of American politicians spouting about no free speech in the UK when their dept of war only allows pre approved articles.
The white house press office is big on censorship.
Trumps ice boot boys rounding up poc and the list goes on

Land of the free..aye right.

You all make some good points and it’s trying to understand they why’s of actions and the reasons for them.

Everyone has an opinion on him and that’s fine. He’s like marmite, you either love him or hate him and of course that’s the same with any President etc.. If you align with their promises and beliefs and you feel it will benefit you them you’ll love them, in the same way you’ll hate them if you don’t align with their beliefs etc and the don’t benefit you.

Having said that, you don’t get in to those positions without being elected so whether we like it or not he was elected so citizens wanted him in because of his promises. I think he feels disconnected to the UK and other European countries because he feels mass unskilled immigration is destroying Europe. Whether you agree what he says is true, that’s clearly what he thinks and he’s made it clear several times publicly.

He says we’re worrying about what Russia is up to, yet at the same time letting tens of thousands of undocumented people in to our country. I think he finds it ironic. The public don’t want such high numbers but the government/s don’t seem to care and it’s gone or for years obviously. So I imagine he feels we’re not helping ourselves and creating our own demise, so why should he bother.

I can also understand why he’s not as fussed on Ukraine because I don’t think the American pubic will be overly keen on money getting spent on something that has no relevance to them or is no risk to them so that’s probably part of the reason. There are millions of people in the US that are barely surviving there and living in severe poverty and their lack of universal healthcare, so it’s hardly surprising a country thousands of miles away from them isn’t a priority for many of their citizens. Though to be fair they have given Ukraine a lot of help and that was another one of his annoyances, that he felt the EU should pay more. There are plenty of people here who would prefer to see the money sent to help Ukraine, spent on our own military, NHS, housing or any number of other things.

The war needs to come to an end because there are so many people getting killed and we know it would be neon impossible to keep both parties happy, so what would the best option be? Keep it going to see who ‘wins’? It would drag out for years and years so something has to give.

Just to add, it’s really difficult for so many people here in the UK, barely any available affordable accommodation, can barely get to see a doctor, cost of living sky high, it’s absolutely bleak and there doesn’t see to be an end in sight. It’s not just a blip it’s going to affect the younger generation disproportionately, they’ll be lining with their parents in their 40’s! So millions are in survival mode and who gets what land thousands of miles away, isn’t of great importance. Should it be? Well that’s debatable, but realistically they don’t know how they’re going to feed their family and thats the priority for them.

That’s an objective view point as to some of the whys and reasons.

Musk is very upset about being fined by the EU as is Trump

Russia has lots of minerals. It is a very resource rich country. Prior to the conflict with Ukraine it was on the verge of setting up an international banking system with its own borrowing mechanism along with South Africa, Brazil, India and China. Russia and China are big players in the parts of the world that future wealth is going to come from - countries with overwhelmingly young populations who are also rich in minerals and natural resources.

Europe, with most of us over 40 and few minerals and resources, just isn't an attractive proposition. We've got a bit of money left for now, that we managed to scrape together in the aftermath of savagely ripping each other apart twice last century, but that's soon going to get eaten up in the costs of allowing our increasingly elderly population some comfort and dignity in their final years.

So the switch is basically europe is defunct so not worth being an ally with and it doesnt matter if russia gains ground in europe i terms of the US own defence strategy as they are now seeing a stronger russia is a better trading partner, rather than a threat?

Im not trying to be stupid! I could see the loss of interest in europe coming but hadn't seen not seeing russia as a threat anymore to US interest as a result.

EU is, unironically, best in regulations.

EU has GDPR, antimopoly laws, is doing something about Temu now, is trying to find a way how to tax US tech companies. Is trying to protect from Chinese espionage through Huawei and reevaluates dependency on Microsoft. EU has dangerous ideas like unified chargers, non toxic clothes and health supplements going through basic tests.

Neither US nor China want strong Europe. They want small "independent " countries they can dictate to.
UK isn't an ally to Trump, it is useful area to sell things to relatively easily.

Well, the Ukraine war started in 2022, the social problems in the USA and in UK were present long before this war.

Whilst the priority of the least well off may be their own survival now, they will suffer far far more should Russia win, not least because 10s of millions of refugees will come to Europe and then we will be faced with slashing social welfare programs to spend on Defence, we could see national service or worse, come back in and its usually the least well off who get called up to fight first.

The war is dragging on and will continue to drag on because Russia has not paid the proper price for what its done, what it has paid, Putin sees as a price worth paying.....
The US peace plan rewards Russia & allows them to come back for 2nd bite of the cherry, the plan has no security guarantee for Ukraine... so Putin can re arm and take the whole country, then Moldova, then the Baltic states....

Most of the aid given to Ukraine by the USA is in the form of loans and the sale of weapons, Biden did give more... but European countries have given far more, rightly so.
Trump is now pulling the rug out from under our feet, this wont be forgotten, the Americans are riding high now, that may not last & Europe wont help them, that may be denial of military bases, support in the UN, security sharing etc.

I agree with a lot of this. We have a more vested interest in seeing Ukraine do well of course and no one wants to see Putin get his way. Trump will do what he likes as per for his own reasons and gains.

The last paragraph regarding the EU getting the rug swept from beneath is true and was also the point I was trying to make in my earlier posts. I don’t think he’ll align with Britain, because we’re best pals (especially given the two polar opposites cabinets in power at the minute) but historically the UK and the US have stood together in situations such as the gulf war or Afghanistan etc…. So to completely disregard and be of no help to us or the EU could backfire significantly for them in the future. I also think that if Russia tried to attack Britain or Germany or France etc… I don’t think he would be as friendly to Putin then.

I don’t know why people are being sceptical about the post saying Ukraine is a corrupt country. It is a corrupt country and potentially getting more so. There’s a reason why it hadn’t been able to join the EU - but it was slowly inching its way forward - until the invasion.

Corruption is not an reason to invade a country or for appeasing the invader

Good thing I didn’t say that. After all, Russia is even more corrupt!

This.

People are still envisioning a 1940s style invasion of soldiers and tanks. While that's highly unlikely, there are many other modern ways to be attacked - financial (funding disruptors), digital (cyber attacks), random drones closing airports, jamming aviation GPS, and fucking about with undersea cables, to name a few..