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.

Alaska has an iron dome type of strategic missile defense system over it, not to mention constant air and sea patrol. Any by sea patrol I mean the type that makes a BIIIIG boom. The American homeland is constantly protected by a myriad of coordinating offensive and defensive systems ultimately controlled by people who work way underground under a mountain in Colorado. He's not getting Alaska nor any part of the US and he and we Americans know it.

no

Isn't Putin getting on a bit now ? Wouldn't he be past it in years to come ? So who would take over his mission?

No, it is personal with Trump. Zelensky made the same mistake Labour/Starmer did. He read the media polls (big mistake, only 3 pollsters know how to poll MAGA and the media don't use any of the 3) decided Kamala had it in the bag, and went to the US to campaign for her in Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state, in October right before the election. Great plan until Trump won.

Read a bit of history OP, both about him taking over Crimea in 2014 and the comments made to justify invading Ukraine.
Then maybe reflect on WW2.
Anybody who doesn’t see that putin wants complete domination is extremely naive.
Add to that musk and trump want to be on the same path.
Ideally half the world will eventually be part of russia and the other half america. Then they can turn on each other and nuke the entire planet.

Yes I think so. Just my view.

Absentee ballots, like the US military does. And it's a lot more complex for the US, because each county in the US issues its own ballots and military members come from all over, and our military is currently deployed to 170 countries worldwide.
The way the system works is that each unit (yes, even on the front lines) has a voting officer which is a second job for someone) who has the info to order ballots from every voting jurisdiction in the US. The member gives him/her their official domicile, ballots are ordered, sent to the members through the military postal system which then makes sure they get back to the country elections offices on time.

Of course that's what h wants and he thinks he's entitled to do it.Ukraine should have been allowed to join Nato. Now they can't. It's a mess

A loaded question.

Ideologically and in a perfect situation, yes Putin would likely want the previous Soviet countries back.

Realistically, no it won't happen.

Russia no longer have the capacity or capability to do it.

The Ukraine war has shown that their ground forces and air forces
have come stuck and undone against Ukraine fighters.
The FLOT/FLET has not changed for a long period of time and the current conflict shows no sign of a win for anyone and really has just been reduced to a war of attrition.

This is an interesting link that gives detail of the Russian losses:
https://index.minfin.com.ua/en/russian-invading/casualties/

A bit of Google searching will give you an idea of the current Russian military ORBAT.
What these ORBATS don't necessarily indicate is the current readiness states. Not all the equipment etc will be operational and serviceable. If a military has about 70% of its ORBAT ready to go, then that in itself is really good going.

Russia cannot maintain its current losses. The fact they have been reconstituting legacy aircraft and air defence systems to avoid losing more modern capabilities.

Additionally right now Russia cannot maintain multi-axis, multi-conflict war.
It left Assad/Syria defenceless to the HTS takeover. Important to note that they did this with Bassel Al Assad AB technically being sovereign Russian territory.

It will take years, if not decades for Russia to regroup and get its kit and equipment levels back to an adequate standard.

This is without considering the fact that Ukraine's defenses were not prepared or ready.
The ex-Soviet states who are currently NATO members will have a stronger air defense laydown, stronger posture and increased readiness to deal with any "threat".

In reality, the main threat Russia now pose would be it's long range strike capability from surface to surface missiles, air to surface missiles (think long range bombers) and surface to air missiles (think Sa-21).

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/how-europe-forgot-its-history-and-sleepwalked-into-crisis-5f727zlm8

I don't know if this is still behind a paywall but this article in the Sunday Times raises some very interesting ( and worrying) points.

I think "the front line" was the key phrase? Ukraine actually fighting for it's life currently.

Putin will end up as a vegetable wheeled out occasionally to wave to the adoring masses from Lenin's Mausoleum. There is no "crown prince" waiting in the wings, he wouldn't tolerate that, and his acolytes are too afraid to make a move against him.

I too fear Estonia may be first on the list. But just because a population is small doesn't mean there will be minimal resistance (they have been preparing to be invaded again since freedom in 1991) or that whatever can be defined as a minimal resistance won't be effective (see the Winter War in Finland and the Forest Brothers in Estonia). I also think a large number of Estonians living outside of Estonia will return to fight.

Whilst the number of Russian speakers in Estonia is substantial, they are still in the minority (less than 30% according to the 2021 census). And it is a reflection of the long term effects of Russia's standard invasion tactics, which have never changed and which we saw in Ukraine in 2014 and again during the full-scale invasion in 2022 - deportation/mass murder of locals, mass transfer of Russians to the newly occupied State to 'outnumber' the locals and try to undermine the country from within, kidnapping of children and attempting to brainwash them etc., etc.

Will the other NATO nations come to our aid? I honestly don't know. I fear not.

He'll have more land, resources, greater access to the Baltic sea (all of which provide greater opprtunities for increasing Russian wealth/power) etc., but history tells us he'll kill many of the locals - those in power or with policitical backgrounds, the intelligentsia, the sick/disabled, the elderly and anyone perceived to be a potential threat.

Yes, of course money can still be stolen - it's even easier to do now because of the very fact it's all online and few people can sew jewels into the hems of their clothes or bury some gold in the back garden in the hope that both will still be there when they return.

The US isn't occupied or being regularly hit with airstrikes. It's not just about soldiers voting, it's also about all the people voting, including those in the occupied areas - how can they vote? Do you think the occupying Russians will allow them to vote or send in postal votes? And polling stations would be a major target for air strikes so who would risk their lives to vote?

Exactly.

Plus the Ukraine opposition parties don't want an election and Zelensky still has a high approval rating despite what Putin (a known supporter of democracy... ahem...) says.

People shouldn't drink the Russian kool-aid. We didn't have an election in the Second World War. That didn't suddenly mean Churchill was a dictator.

People shouldn't drink the Russian kool-aid. We didn't have an election in the Second World War. That didn't suddenly mean Churchill was a dictator

Trump is so disgusting for saying that, just winding everyone up.

Yes, at the moment his western border is very long, flat and vulnerable. He'd like to shorten the flat bit to around 400 miles between the natural defences of the Baltic Sea and the Carpathian Mountains. That 400 miles is Poland.

@BigDecisionWorthIt appreciate your posts and insight

What's the range on the things you mention in the last paragraph? I mean it's an awful thought

Trump is just repeating Putin's propaganda, attempting to delegitimise Zelensky. It's appalling.

Putin wants whatever he thinks he can get.

He won't necessarily go after all of it, but yes, Putin would absolutely go after regions with resources and/or that border Europe so he can basically seem more threatening. My dad worked in Russia for 20 years post Communism and understands the situation there better than most people, and he's sure sure Russia will expand if it can. The main problem is that it's broke as hell, also that its population is dropping, meaning that what the Red Army always relied on - sheer numbers - is not necessarily something Russia has any more.

I think it's more than that. He may want to get out of a long, damaging war with Ukraine (i don't think he does, I think he thinks he can win), but he also wants to destabalise the West, so even if the open war with Ukraine ends, he will continue his more subtle acts of war against the West.

apnews.com/article/russia-estonia-baltics-sabotage-spying-kallas-62835b00fdb31f648ebe2259908ca2a1

This

But I'm wondering why the pressure isn't being put on him to end this. Only on UKraine.

Oh and @Ponoka7 2/10

He doesn't have NATO nukes on his border though.

Although he already had NATO countries bordering russia. And now he has more