This is not a goady post - does Putin really want to go after the rest of the former Soviet Union ?

[boombopbam]

I'm not trying to annoy posters by asking this question. It's just that I'm increasingly coming across a lot of people who are increasingly supporting the likes of Trump and the far right in general in other countries ( Germany, Italy ) and who genuinely believe Trump is doing the right thing by aligning with Putin ( messing over the Ukraine in the process ).

They believe that Russia will stop at Ukraine and there is no evidence that they'll go further than that and therefore we should stay the fuck out of it/ stop arming UK and get them to settle their conflict. Because carrying on supporting Ukraine will lead to WW3.

I'm trying to understand if Russia will continue and actually try to go further than Ukraine or not on one hand. On the other hand, should we just stand by and watch let Russia win ? It's also not right, but is it our business ?

Again, not trying to inflame the situation on here. I'm just trying to learn about different point of views as I'm bombarded with the far right thing in real life at the moment.

I don't get how pretty much everyone I know is being turned to support the far right.

With recent reports of Ukraine’s titanium deposits I am wondering if it’s all about this

Didn’t they have Hawaii at one point too or have I dreamed that?

Dougin's philosophy is where you want to look at OP.
Maybe it influenced or maybe it crystallised Putin's dreams.
But basically Putin wants to get back or have control of territories which used to be part of USSR plus countries which were under their direct influence (former Easter Block) then carry on with 're-building' the Empire. As far as he can, westward.
I know it sounds mad but he is not a sane individual.

No, it was an add on to the content of your comment, not to correct you.

Supported by the far right as well.

Agree. He wants his empire back. He still calls those countries the 'near abroad'.

He does but not all of it. He’s pushing out to the more easily defensible territory/borders. So he will want the Baltic states, half of Poland, etc.

Don't forget that Moscow had reach as far as East Berlin just over 30 years ago. I'm definitely not suggesting they're hoping to occupy or control Berlin again, but from Putin's warped viewpoint their sphere of influence control is dramatically diminished.

I think Estonia might be first on his list. Small population (minimal resistance), large Russian speaking minority (half the population speak Russian and there are many Russian speaking schools etc). Sudetenland anyone? Only fly in the ointment is their EU / NATO status. That’ll require Trump to perform even greater feats of doublespeak / rewriting history to achieve but who the hell knows with that man? Maybe he hopes Putin will turn a blind eye when he goes after Greenland or Canada.

I don’t really understand why he wants more land, when Russia is already HUGE!
Won’t more land and people mean Russian money has to stretch further?
Actually- what happens to a country’s money when it is invaded? I mean now that it’s all kind of digital and not bars of gold in a vault, surely it’s not something that can be ‘stolen’. If somebody attacked the UK and Rachel Reeves and the Bank of England did the equivalent of burning their password books, could anyone really ‘take over’ the money?

Finland is certainly worried. They moved up their plans and joined Nato almost as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine . Something they avoided for a long time as they preferred to follow a non aggression foreign policy . They changed their mind sharpish when Russia attacked Ukraine as they know there is a very real danger of Russian aggression spreading.

It's not just about land, it's about his warped vision, power (in general and over NATO/EU etc) and resources.

What do you think happens to a country when it’s taken over? How do you think Britain, a tiny island in the edge of Europe, became the richest nation on earth? By taxing / stealing / taking wealth from its empire?

The Russian economy is a basket case (war / sanctions / chaotic emergence from communism / mismanagement) and he wants Money.

But more than that he wants glory. For Russia and, even more importantly, for himself.

He definitely wants the Swedish island of Gotland. It would give him strategic control over the whole Baltic Sea. The Swedish air force is constantly being scrambled to see off Russian incursions over the island.

This 👆🏼 which is ironic as the border he should be watching is the one with China. There are parts of Russia that have 5 million Chinese and China could easily take back if it wants.

I was speaking to someone the other today who thought perhaps Putin actually wants to align more with the West against China who are really the ones we all need to watch.

Not the whole USSR/empire but probably the Baltics/Finland, possibly part of Poland to get land access to Kaliningrad

That's if he's successful in Ukraine which is definitely the most important country for him to recover, and why we should support them

Boggles the mind that people can look at that war and say its Ukraines fault or agree with Putins narrative, but social media has been rotting people's brains for a long time

Turning Point: The Bomb And The Cold War

I don't think that Putin personally and specifically wants the USSR back, but I think that he desires the level of power that the USSR had internationally, and I think that nostalgia for the USSR plays a part in Putin's support internationally in the former USSR and - to a lesser and much more contested degree - in the former Warsaw Pact (Soviet Bloc) countries. Just for example, read the works of Stanislav Asiyev, a journalist from a part of eastern Ukraine that was close to the DPR and LPR but not incorporated into them who ended up in a spot-Soviet but still proudly Soviet prison in Donesk in 2019.

I personally found it quite factual but I suppose it still is from a Western POV. It doesn’t present the Americans as blameless though (quite the opposite sometimes), and the Soviets are not the default bad guys - at least until Putin.

Putin has compared himself to Peter the Great and is influenced by Aleksandr Dugin who wants to create a new Russian empire and is aggressively anti Western. He's probably justifying his actions as being regaining Russia's rightful position as a superpower.

Having said that, Putin is also a criminal and Russia is a kleptocracy. And he might really just want to maintain his grip on power and expand his territory rather than be influenced by romantic historical idealism of recreating former glories. Who knows.

Of course it is. It was for Zelensky. I wondered if they should have considered peace deals at the start. Musk needs titanium. They are worth £5 billion. Zelensky needs a deal in place before the next election. It's been convenient for him to not call an election to concentrate on selling off the Ukraine. He can reclaim his money he's hidden and go back to TV.

I think I have watched it a while back - has it been there for a while? TBH I've watched and listened to a lot of cold war stuff and some is so incredibly biased toward the USA.

The late Dr Otto von Habsburg called out Putin as dangerous 20 years ago and was ignored by his fellow Austrians and quite frankly by most other European politicians who were convinced that Russia under him was no threat.

Putin is playing the long game which has involved cosying up to western politicians from many different parties. Read John Sweeney’s work on this. The section on Seumas Milne, Jeremy Corbyn’s PR person, is particularly enlightening… helps to explain Corbyn’s disgraceful comments in parliament on the Salisbury poisoning incident in which a British woman died.

And perhaps Trump voters in the US might want to think about how they’d respond if Russian agents spread Novichock in an American neighbourhood.

Yes well the areas that from the Russian empire that shall bring in money

He isn’t stupid he won’t touch Alaska

This became apart in 2014 but was largely ignored as he bought European countries with gas and oil

Straight out of the Kremlin's mis-information briefings. Спасибо.