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.

Putin wants more than former USSR republics back - he wants Eastern Europe to be back to his area of influence, so Poland, Baltics, Czechia, Hungary etc. He personally wants to be equal to POTUS.

are you russian? that's exactly what their propaganda booklets say

It is from 2024. As I said, I’m sure it is biased to some extend but after watching it I felt I understood the Russian POV better.
Good reviews https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/turning_point_the_bomb_and_the_cold_war

How would he call an election practically? Or are you going to leave the front line empty while all the soldiers tootle off to the voting booths?

Russians tend to use their own people as cannon fodder and a lot of the most eligible soldiers have already been killed in Ukraine and putin has been using released prisoners and north Koreans to fight in Ukraine. He is also quite old (as is trump) so it depends a lot who comes after them as to future danger

I have friends and relatives in Finland and Estonia and they are concerned. Particularly in Estonia. The children of my dual nationality British/ Finnish relative are applying for British passports.... just to keep options open should they need to move fast.....

It doesn't take a genius to figure it out especially if you know your history.

I think the war in Ukraine has humiliated Russia by showing the world how weak their military is. Putin had expected a quick win in a matter of weeks, and yet, despite the almost limitless manpower of Russia, here they are, three years on and the war continues.

Russia’s goal is to find the most face saving way to exit this failed conquest attempt, not to start more humiliating wars it cannot win.

lots of conspiracy theorists support Putin, and dictators in general. As well denying atrocities. It’s part of their whole ‘rejecting the mainstream’ mentality.

Russian submarines have been in the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic Sea and Kattegat for decades. Growing up in the 70s and 80s there was endless military surveillance and press reports of transgressions.

I don't think his (or his successor's) next target will be a NATO member. It will be an old USSR country. His mistake with Ukraine was not ensuring he had a puppet government in place, so for his next target look at where Russians are destabilising a current government (eg Moldova).

Putin can regroup, rearm and look long term just like China can. That's the beauty of a dictatorship and if he gets too old he will have ensured that the replacement he has lined up will be of the same mind as him or worse.

I don’t think he wants more land as such, Russia has a lot of land, he just doesn’t want nato nukes parked on his doorstep so wants a buffer

I agree with @Withoutuse putin has been humiliated but he also knows he's not fighting Ukraine he is fighting a coalition. The only thing keeping him safe is nukes and the shady backing of China.

However I did wonder if the world is becoming more aligned on Christianity and Islam lines in which case putin and trump would be friends.

Putin has made lots of threats but at the same time has been careful not to hit nato targets.
I don't think he wants further engagement.

I think the opposite it true. It has all been about the minerals and titanium for Trump. He has shafted Zelensky and the Ukrainuan people. He has left them with no choice but to give him 500 billion deal of minerals etc. or to be annihilated. It is hard to believe he didn't plan this all along with Putin's sudden invasion of Ukraine. Trump seems to have a very unhealthy respect and like for Putin and a real disregard for democracy and freedom. The only thing I agree with him on is that Europe and NATO generally have been very lax in making the USA the peacekeeper of the world whilst running our own defences into the ground so that we cannot stand up for ourselves.

Well - not a goady answer, but yes, I would think so!
It was far better as a whole Soviet Union, btw.
Visited many times.
How are these countries doing now?
💩

Russian submarines or farting herring? 😁

My Estonian friend thinks so. She gew up with this. Ask a few people who lived through this as a child.

A lot of Russian is pretty much uninhabitable and cannot readily be defended should that be necessary. They have oil - but in frozen tundra areas that mean production is hard. They have some other natural resources but they are not fantastic. They also have poor growing land.

Overall, it’s big but a bit rubbish
from a world domination perspective.

Thanks everyone for your insights.

I will defo check out the documentary on Netflix as well.

I'm concerned so many people have been ' tuned ' by trump / the far right. I mean, people I know.

The way it's looking, they'll make a deal to end the war somehow. What happens next, remains to be seen.

Interesting post. I recall at one point discussion around giving an off ramp

This sounds like that and I hope you are right, you may well be

I'm sure that in his ideal world the USSR would be whole again, but he won't spend as much time, money and lives on other states as he has on Ukraine as they don't have as much natural resources for Russia to plunder.

I think the war in Ukraine has humiliated Russia by showing the world how weak their military is. Putin had expected a quick win in a matter of weeks, and yet, despite the almost limitless manpower of Russia, here they are, three years on and the war continues.

Russia’s goal is to find the most face saving way to exit this failed conquest attempt, not to start more humiliating wars it cannot win

This is in fact a really good point.. how is Russia going to take over Moldova/ Estonia etc etc when they've not managed to win in 3 years...

By attacking Ukraine he doubled the length of NATO's border with Russia. That worked!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65173043

He's just a tyrannical piece of crud and it's so pathetic seeing people actually be on his side, parroting the 'reasons' why it's happened.

If Russia eventually does take Ukraine through the lack of support from European countries and America becoming more isolationist and more 'Trumpian', then he will rebuild, force Ukrainians into his now larger army and proceed onto his next target. It will just become more expensive and more difficult for the West to stop them.

We need to support Ukraine more now and provide them with what they need to force Russia to proper peace negotiations.

Yes, there were reasons Russian created the USSR in the first place, and most of those reasons remain today, so, yes, nothing Russia would like more than to regain the "lost" countries of the past few decades and reform the old USSR.

If he succeeds in Ukraine it'll be Moldova next I reckon. Not so sure he'd invade Finland as Finland has never stopped preparing for Russia's next attack, never reduced military like Western Europe did and is a difficult land to invade from the East, due to the lakes, forests and bogs. The Baltics are likely on the short list for further invasions though.