Finland formally became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, officially ending the country’s post-World War II policy of neutrality and raising tensions between Helsinki and Moscow.
“Finland has today become a member of the defense alliance NATO. The era of military non-alignment in our history has come to an end. A new era begins,” the Finnish presidency said in a statement.
The ascension into NATO was completed during a ceremony attended by Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Finland joining NATO more than doubles the alliance’s territory that borders Russia. Moscow has said it will respond by beefing up its military presence in the region and will take more measures if other NATO countries deploy military assets to Finnish territory.
“The Kremlin believes that this is another aggravation of the situation. The expansion of NATO is an infringement on our security and Russia’s national interests,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to the news.
A major motive for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was NATO’s post-Cold War expansion and the alliance’s cooperation with Kyiv following the 2014 coup that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
At the ceremony, Blinken appeared to say he was thankful that Putin invaded Ukraine because it motivated Finland to apply for NATO membership.
“I’m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for because he once again here precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia’s aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense and to make sure that they can deter possible Russian aggression going forward,” Blinken said.
Leading up to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia presented a list of security guarantees it sought from the US. Chief among them was a guarantee that Ukraine would never join NATO, but the Biden administration refused to engage on the issue. After the invasion, Derek Chollet, a counselor to Blinken, admitted that the administration made no effort to address Putin’s concerns about Ukraine’s possible NATO membership.
Peskov said Tuesday that Finland joining NATO was not as provocative to them as Ukraine being granted membership. “The situation with Finland, of course, is radically different from the situation with Ukraine, because, firstly, Finland has never had anti-Russian rhetoric, and we have had no disputes with Finland. With Ukraine, the situation is the opposite and potentially much more dangerous,” he said.
Finland will regret joining NATO…!
Agree, Its strange rats that swim to the sinking ship.
LOL. That’s an insult to rats. Rats know better. (Sarcasm alert)
No they won’t. The only one regretting such action is Putin.
The Russian MOD is fighting a very successful war of attrition disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March 2022), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense. Russia now will fight NATO to the last European.
NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
405 Aircraft, 228 helicopters, 3651 UAV’s, 415 Anti Aircraft systems, 8534 tanks inc. APC’s, 1078 multiple rocket launchers, 4501 rocket launchers and 9292 military automotive equipment.
What the empire looses in the Ukraine, they loose for the final Russian attack on NATO. Remember Russia attacked Ukraine just as NATO was about to unleash in the Donbass. Russia has shown they will pre-emptively attack to defend the Motherland when the time is dictated by events on the ground.
Well said DS, well said.
Biden has created more NATO inside conflict by blowing up the pipelines with the help of other NATO members in order to destroy Germany and the EU economies. They cut each others throats doing the work for Putin. It will be the end of NATO we can be sure.
Your numbers seem quite off. Watching Russia commit slow national suicide is truly fascinating. They should go home.
you got the real numbers on speed dial i bet.
that’s why you posted them here.
Well no, Russia didn’t attack imperial-occupied Ukraine. Kremlin recognized DPR and LPR and these republics asked for military assistance against imperial puppet regime in Kiev. The preemptive strike to destroy imperial forces and Pentagon biolabs are actually secondary.
“Finland Formally Joins NATO, Doubling the Alliance’s Border With Russia Blinken says he wanted to ‘thank’ Putin for giving Finland a reason to join NATO by invading Ukraine”
Just a political sycophant of Biden and obama, Beta Boy Blinken will never measure up to the great diplomats in the history of the world.
In the dust bin of history Blinken will not amount to much.
maybe uncle sam shcould cut off russia’s oil supply to finland.
that would certainly teach russia a lesson.
Or, shove Uncle Sam’s prices down their throats for the gas. and oil.
Why would the Fins and Swedes want an alliance with people who cut each others throat? Biden just blew up the pipeline of the second biggest ally in NATO with the help of another NATO member. They want to deindustrialize Germany and with it destroying the EU and forcing the Germans to buy expensive energy from the US while they entice German industry to move to the US. Is that the kind of people the Fins and Swedes trust and be friends with? They know about the USA using illegal sanctions to blackmail nations forcing them to sanction Russia. The USA is destroying the global economy with illegal sanctions, bad politics and not to mention the moral and criminal aspects of their policies. The two governments are selling their nations to the highest bidder. The Swedes and Fins know all that, they also know it is not likely that NATO wins in Ukraine.
They give up their neutrality, peace and prosperity. What is it they expect to gain?
Well it seems the recent Russian attack on Ukraine caused a massive shift in public opinion vis a vis NATO. This is mostly a consequence of Russia attacking Ukraine.
As the philosopher said, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”
VP’s plan doesn’t look like it is going that great. Certainly if one of the goals was to keep NATO away from Russias borders we would have to score that one as a fail.
Debt and destruction lays in wait for the fools, who join the fight, poorly armed, on the weakest side.
Blinken talked on a schoolboy level not like a mature diplomate. What a disaster such diplomatic knuckleheads are for the nation.
The US Air Force announced that the Lockheed Martin hypersonic weapons program would be terminated due to test failures. The defense contractor also faces significant software delays for its stealth fighter jets.
Dont panic though they have already been showered with vast amounts of coin for their failures. It would appear that their ability to develop and produce cutting-edge weaponry is encountering difficulties.
I am sure Russia can sell them some. Oh wait…..maybe not.
China and Iran might be able to help out if needed.
wow. That’s significant news. Got any sources?
Excellent News.
Just tell the Fins, any Nato nukes that arrive on your soil will trigger a 2o megaton hypersonic greeting in Helsinki…
You sound just like Medvedev.
you say it like it’s bad thing. go choke on your don julio
That is what it takes to deal with bullies and threats. Strong well armed countries with sane well informed political leaders. Not senile fools trying to have full spectrum dominance of all the countries of the world.
Yep, Ukraine learned that and that’s why is giving Putin a run for his money.
The bully is getting bullied. The de-nazifier is getting de-nazified.
Ukraine is giving Putin a run for his money? Based on whose assessment?The pentagon and Western/Ukrainian propaganda?
And what is the measuring stick? That 20 NATO countries invaded and couldnot subjugate a ragtag army in Afghanistan?
Truth is that nobody knows how much run Putin got, but one thing is for sure, they control 20% of Ukrainian territory which a bit more than the fort we have in Iraq and the $7 billion in weapons we left in Afghanistan.
Just some perspective.
This is a great example of how Putin’s war was a mistake for Russia.
Putin is fighting the war that he went to war to prevent.
It reminds me of the absurdity when Nixon and Kissinger lamely said that the goal of the US war in Vietnam was to bring the war to an honorable end.
Putin traded a security threat on Russia’s southern border for a forever war.
On 2/22 Putin said he wanted to demilitarize Ukraine. Now Ukraine has a million men and women under arms fighting Russia.
Putin wanted to prevent Ukraine from becoming a base for NATO aggression. Now Ukraine is a NATO protectorate flooded with NATO weapons that are killing Russian soldiers.
18 months ago NATO was moribund with European members questioning the need for NATO and supporting decreasing defense budgets. Germany, France, Hungary and Turkey were opening to Russia arguing that engagement was better than a cold war.
Putin was concerned because fewer than 100 ethnic Russian civilians had been killed in the Donbas over the past three years. In a year of war tens of thousands of ethnic Russians have died including civilians and soldiers.
18 months ago the idea of Finland or Sweden joining NATO was unthinkable.
Fifteen months ago the world regarded the Russian military as one of the top three conventional forces in the world. Today the Russian military is material for comedians like Keystone Cops or the hapless Italian army that invaded Ethiopia.
I repeat for emphasis: Putin is fighting the war that Putin went to war to prevent. Absurd if it were not tragic.
Sic semper tyrannis.
Yes, good run down. Now tell us how the US/NATO was going to change their behavior towards Russia at any time in the future that would have made the avoidance of this war secure? The US/NATO dismissed negotiations out of hand in the beginning and then opposed any talk of a peace plan or a cease fire after the war started. At what point would Russia have expected anything different?
Wars, my short answer is that is would have been better for the Russian people if Putin had continued diplomacy and engagement with NATO/EU members 15 months ago. Instead of war, he should have engaged Germany, France, Hungary and Turkey and shown NATO that Russia was no threat to them, that peaceful trade was mutually beneficial and reinforced the growing belief among NATO countries that they were spending too much on defense. Putin threw that all away by starting an unwinnable war against Ukraine. The wrong choice.
Skywalker has his head in the clouds.
“Putin was concerned because fewer than 100 ethnic In a year of war tens of thousands of ethnic Russians have died including civilians and soldiers.”
Wikipedia: Casualties in the Russo-Ukrainian War included six deaths during the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, 14,200–14,400 military and civilian deaths during the war in Donbas (2014–2022).
Beyond his casual dismissal of the 14,200 o 14,400 who died in the constant bombardment by the Nazi Coup government, chosen by Victoria Nuland. most likely on orders from Clinton & Obama, he trivializes the hate the ethnocentricic-purity crazed Nazis hold for their Russian speaking fellow Ukraine citizens to be constantly shelling their families.
The Russians could no longer stomach seeing the death and destruction being foist upon them.
Interesting: You cited Wikipedia then doctored your own source. The kremlin does that too.
Please reread the Wikipedia article slowly:
1. “14,200 o 14,400 who died in the constant bombardment by the Nazi Coup government”
Not true. The Wikipedia article correctly says that that was the total deaths from all sources during the civil war, not exclusively from the bombing,
2. The Ukrainian government is not a Nazi government. Nazis made a lot of trouble in Ukraine, but they do not run the government. Almost every Ukrainian family has relatives who were among the seven million Ukrainians who fought the Nazis during WWII
3. Below is a link to a bar graph showing the annual civilian casualties in Ukraine from 2014 through 2022. There were over 3,000 civilian deaths in 2014 and 2015. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 there was an average of 26 civilian deaths annually. Since Putin invaded there have been about 8,400 civilian deaths once again proving that war is bad for civilians.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293409/civilian-deaths-related-to-russia-ukraine-conflict/
“if Putin had continued diplomacy and engagement with NATO/EU members 15 months ago.”
Where do you get that there was ongoing negotiations 15 months ago? And if the US wasn’t involved it would have been fruitless since NATO doesn’t exist without the US and the EU lackeys wouldn’t make a move without the US’ approval. So, your short answer is nonsense.
The US/UK attitude was not going to change. But Macron and Merkel/Scholz and Edrogan still preferred negotiations. Ever since the disastrous Libyan intervention NATO has been fracturing. Before Putin united NATO by invading Ukraine France, Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Scandanavian members wanted to cut their military budgets and were pushing back against the demands by the East European countries for permanent NATO bases on their territories. Fifteen months ago, much to Biden’s chagrin,it was inconceivable that NATO would admit Ukraine because admitting Ukraine to NATO while Russia occupied Crimea would put NATO at war with Russia under article 5. NATO doesn’t admit countries that have ongoing border disputes. Kinda like an insurance company denying coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions.
As a result of Putin’s invasion NATO is revitalized and more united than it has been in many years. Defense budgets are increasing. Russia is much worse off because Putin chose war. He fell into the trap Biden set for him and Russian imperialism is declining faster than it would have if Putin has continued to pursue diplomacy, as frustrating and unsatisfying as that option was.
Sometimes imperial powers have to accept their inevitable decline as the least bad option. Revanchism (i.e., attempting to reset geopolitical reverses through war) has always been disastrous. (e.g., Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, France in Algeria & Indochina, USA in Afghanistan, Vietnam and Iraq,Portugal and Spain in Africa, etc.
“The US/UK attitude was not going to change. But Macron and Merkel/Scholz and Edrogan still preferred negotiations.”
There were no negotiations. Basing an argument on someone preferring negotiations didn’t change the fact that there were no negotiations. So, you use something that didn’t happen as a reason why Putin shouldn’t have invaded. And you can’t possibly think that NATO was about to be fractured and Putin only had to wait it out while also saying that NATO wasn’t going to change its behavior towards Russia and the bait would continue. You’re arguing with yourself.
only after UNCONDITONAL SURRENDER. Nothing else will do for Biden/Nuland and the Kagans and others.
Don’t be silly, Russian forces back behind the 2000 border. War is over.
That would include Crimea and you know that isn’t happening.
You are very naïve, maybe you are still young and idealistic. When I was young I too was idealistic now I am older and know better.
And the USA/NATO can be trusted to sign a peace treaty and honor it? LOL You are joking, no one trusts the US, they break contracts all the time. I would like to point out that most of the global population is on the side of Russia and China and against the US/NATO countries. China and India alone have almost 3 trillion citizens. Almost all of Africa supports Russia.
But that would leave Russia exposed to NATO first strike missile placement on their border wirh Ukraine. That ship has sailed and will not return.
Oh is Ukraine part of NATO? Even prior to all this it was really unlikely that Ukraine would be part of NATO. Putin may have traded an imaginary fear for a real one. Good move
Correct. The military action to protect the Ukraine, Russian-speaking citizens in the Donbas, Russia has exposed what the EU thinks about Russia the past 30 years.
There was no way Putin could change NATO’s behavior. But the war made a bad situation worse for Russia.
Same as with Hitler with Poland and LBJ with Vietnam.
If Putin had kept the peace, Russia would be in a better situation today than it is now. The decision to go to war was perhaps the most stupid and self-destructive decision made by any leader since Bush decided to go to war with Iraq.
Putin had alternatives.
18 months ago Germany, France, Hungary and Turkey wanted to deescalate the tension with Russia.Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland were committed to neutrality.
So Putin chose to start a war that Russia can’t win that revitalized and expanded NATO, united the neutral European countries against Russia and exposed the Russian military as a paper tiger. So stupid. And so much like LBJ’s blunder in Vietnam.
War is almost always the wrong choice.
Putin made the wrong choice.
“There was no way Putin could change NATO’s behavior.”
“If Putin had kept the peace, Russia would be in a better situation today than it is now.”
So, you say Putin couldn’t have changed the US/NATO’s behavior (no US, no NATO) and then you talk about how better off the situation would be “now” if he had kept the peace. You never address what was going to happen in the future. You admit that NATO’s (minus the US for some reason) behavior wasn’t going to change so at what point was Russia supposed to take their encroachment as a threat to their existence? And talking about the lackeys wanting de-escalation with Russia as some kind of alternative is a pipe dream. They obviously weren’t allowed otherwise they would have grown some balls and stood up to the US.
So now the encirclement is tighter and tens of thousands of Russians have died for nothing but Putin and Kirill’s megalomaniac vision of a restored Russian empire.
I’ve never seen any reason to believe that Putin has a “megalomaniac vision of a restored Russian empire.” He seems to understand that the empire he inherited is in terminal decline, and to be trying to slow/stem, not reverse, that decline.
If his Ukraine gambit had been successful, the former satrapy would have been chastened and perhaps even fallen back into satrapy status.
Since it turned into a fiasco, other satrapies like Kazakhstan are getting uppity and asserting at least a measure of independence. Really the Russian empire’s only truly dedicated boot-licking satrap left is Lukashenko, who knows that without Russian assistance to keep his populace in line, he’d relatively quickly be smoking his last cigarette behind a blindfold.
Russia never had a chance to win in Ukraine. The dynamics of national resistance are not that hard to understand. But Putin is blinded by classic Great Russian chauvinism. He glorifies the White Russian royalists, like Anton Denikin. His 2/22 speech was classic Great Russian chauvinism reflecting a n attitude that Ukrainians have resented for centuries.
Like other double alpha males who rise to leadership in imperial countries,Putin advanced by using power ruthlessly and effectively to overcome obstacles by doubling down against opposition. Like other double alpha males, his emotional template is organized around the classical manifestations of power. Double alpha males like Putin, Hitler and Nixon emotionally cannot believe that the power of a popular resistance could possibly overcome their own power. Double alpha males like Putin can even recognize how wars of national liberation work out historically. But they believe they are exceptions.
Like Manifest Destiny, White Man’s Burden, the Chosen People, the Master Race, Great Russian Chauvinism has always been based on a racist religious notion that Russia is an extraordinary nation with a divine mission to bring its values to the world. I think it is a bit much for Xi to take. But the Chinese, who have had their nation for almost 4,000 years, have learned to be patient.
There was no way Putin could change NATO’s behavior. But e war made a bad situation worse for Russia.
Same as with Hitler with Poland and LBJ with Vietnam.
If Putin had kept the peace, Russia would be in a better situation today than it is now. The decision to go to war was perhaps the most stupidand self-destructive decision made by any leader since Bush decided togo to war with Iraq.
Putin had alternatives.
18 months ago Germany, France, Hungary and Turkey wanted to deescalate the tension with Russia.Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland were committed to neutrality.
So Putin chose to start a war that Russia can’t win that revitalized and expanded NATO, united the neutral European countries against Russia and exposed the Russian military as a paper tiger. So stupid. And so much like LBJ’s blunder in Vietnam.
War is almost always the wrong choice.
Putin made the wrong choice.
Biden made the wrong choice. He had no business in Ukraine at all, Ukraine is not a NATO member, and Russia is not. They share a border, the US does not. So what did the US/NATO HAVE TO DO IN UKRAINE???
The USA started it, Biden wants to be a unilateral hegemon in control of Russia’s resources. Putin is your scapegoat.
I don’t care about Biden or Putin or US or Russian imperialism. The Ukrainian people have demonstrated that they want independence from Russia and I support the right of any people to self determination within their own country.
lol the ukranian men ran away like little cowards from their country to the west. my friend is an ESL teacher at a local college in northern VA. his class is full of cowardly ukrianian men
The Ukrainians who stayed behind to fight seem to be kicking ass.
LOL ‘seem to be’. Cope harder
Lets review progress of the SMO to date.
How many Russian soldiers KIA?
How many US soldiers KIA
How many Russian tanks destroyed?
How many US tanks destroyed
Who miscalculated?
The Ukrainians miscalculated, they are proxies aka cannon fodder, next come the Europeans including the three Scandinavians. To be a friend of the US is fatal, Kissinger said it, and Biden and the neocons confirmed it with action, like the sabotage of the NS pipelines. The US has no boots on the ground in Ukraine just yet. As of now the war has been very profitable for the American war profiteers, that is why they put Biden in office.
War is big business, it has been very profitable for the American MIC and they will do all they can to keep it going. It has nothing at all to do with human rights, freedom, democracy and so on, that is BS, war is all about profits and power.
Very true Renate, very true.
So I was right, war is big business. It is the reason Putin went to war. Lots of natural gas, oil, and grain riched land in Eastern Ukraine hence Putin didn’t care about the human rights, freedom, democracy and so on of the Donbas separatists.
You really know nothing about Ukraine and Russia, your post made it clear.
Wars, my short answer is that is would have been better for the Russian people if Putin had continued diplomacy and engagement with NATO/EU members 15 months ago. Instead of war, he should have engaged Germany, France, Hungary and Turkey and shown NATO that Russia was no threat to them, that peaceful trade was mutually beneficial and reinforced the growing belief among NATO countries that they were spending too much on defense. Putin threw that all away by starting an unwinnable war against Ukraine.
The wrong choice.
The neocons like a Nuland are delusional people, you can not reason with such people. They are in charge not the demented Biden, he too is a war monger but not of a clear mind.
Wars, my short answer is that is would have been better for the Russian people if Putin had continued diplomacy and engagement with NATO/EU members 15 months ago. Instead of war, he should have engaged Germany, France, Hungary and Turkey and shown NATO that Russia was no threat to them, that peaceful trade was mutually beneficial and reinforced the growing belief among NATO countries that they were spending too much on defense. Putin threw that all away by starting an unwinnable war against Ukraine.
The wrong choice.
The Europeans did not want Ukraine in NATO, there was nothing to talk about. The USA wanted the NATO membership, the US did the regime change in 2014, the US funded and trained Ukrainian soldiers, the US pushed for NATO military exercises in Ukraine near the Russian border a non NATO member. You need some real history to understand the context of the issue. What reason did the USA have to push the NATO membership knowingly provoking Russia militarily?
Have you paid attention to the ascension process? Any one of the NATO allies could have objected to Ukraine and it wouldn’t have happened. If Russian had remained quiet no chance for Ukraine to get in, Hungary or Germany or France would have objected. The NATO membership was imminent idea is a lie or sheerest stupidity.
NATO members are sovereign states on paper only. Ukraine was sovereign until the Obama/Biden/Nuland regime change in Feb. 2014. The US is in the habit to blackmail member states to do as told, sanctions are one tool to use. NATO is now the most destructive force in Europe, it is sacrificing the European countries and economies for American interests, which are control over Russian mineral resources.
Or a chance Russia decided was an exitential threat & too risky to take. After losing 20 plus million fighting the same Nazis put in power by Obama/Nuland after Maidan, who could blame them.
Russia was no threat to the Europeans, the European enemy is the USA. The US opposed the Minsk agreements from the start, they did not participate in the negotiations, that is why they were not implemented.
The USA wanted war with Russia, using Ukraine as proxy.
So Putin made a bad situation worse. Very stupid.
He made a mistake, he trusted Merkel and Holland, but they turned out to be cowards.
But what could Biden have done to avoid this war? Offer diplomatic negotiations maybe? He is an adult with decades of experience does he have some responsibility? He was mentally in better shape a year ago, now he is fast going downhill.
How so? Don’t you think that Biden as president has responsibilities? What has Biden done to avoid this war? He was in it since the regime change in 2014. Are you saying he has no responsibility? Yes he could have stayed out of Ukraine then nothing would have happened, but he did not, he provoked the war, that is what he did do.
Biden wanted the war. Biden did everything he could to provoke the war.
Putin took the bait. Putin should have thought “why does my enemy want me to invade Ukraine?”
If he had not invaded Russia would be more secure and better off than it is today.
The Russian people don’t agree with you. Why is NATO involved? Ukraine and Russia are not NATO members. The USA is not even from the same continents. If the USA had not meddled in the affair of two countries on another continent, they would not have this war. Now Biden is doing all he can to keep the war going, that is really criminal.
It is hard to gauge public opinion in a closed society where the state controls the media and people are imprisoned for years for calling the war a war.
Also, even in an open society antiwar public opinion generally trails battlefield failures by several years.
Takes two to tango, Russia can leave and the war will end
And the belligerence would continue just like it would have if Russia hadn’t invaded. But we can all pretend that peace was just around the corner.
Wrong, Biden and NATO must leave, they have no business in Ukraine at all, many Ukrainians are Russian speaking Ukrainians, Ukraine has a common history with Russia not with the USA on another continent and less than 3 centuries of history. What do you know about Russian and Ukrainian history or European history from before WWII? For most Americans European history starts and ends with Hitler. They don’t know that in Russia two continents meet, Europe and Asia, and three continents meet in the ME.
All that history is the very reason Ukrainians want nothing to do with Russia and are fighting for their freedom and independence.
The U.S. & NATO set a trap for Russia…. NOW Russia is making them EAT their trap……
Comment did not originate from me. I saw it in a blog or comments months ago
Time will tell, but the country that could not defeat Afghanistan, or Viet Nam will not likely have their proxy defeat the most lethally armed state the world. Ukraine should have never provoked their top tier militry power neighbor.
Ukraine did not provoke its “top tier military neighbor.” I have not read anything about Ukraine provoking NATO.
And the bait would have stopped? And again with “today” and nothing about later this year or next year or the year after or,,. Would there have been war games on Russia’s borders in 2022 if Russia hadn’t invaded? Would there be war games on Russia’s borders in 2023? When exactly should Putin and Russia have felt or secure?
Please explain how Putin’s war serves the interest of the Russian people?
Would the Russian people be better off if Putin has not invaded Ukraine?
First tell me when the “bait” was going to stop. The only way I could answer your question(s) is if I could have seen into the future. You only want to talk about today without acknowledging that the US/NATO weren’t going to change their behavior. Actually, you already have admitted that, but I guess you don’t believe what you say.
US was not going to change its behavior willingly. US was having difficulty keeping West Europe in line.
But evening assuming US/NATO could never change its hostility toward Russia, the war in Ukraine made Russia’s situation worse. It was the wrong decision.
Russian imperialism would be stronger today than it is now if Putin had continued to pursue hopeless diplomacy.
The US obviously wasn’t keeping anyone in line enough, otherwise there would have been negotiations before Russia invaded and shortly after Russia invaded. So again, that was a pipe dream to think the “difficulty keeping western Europe in line” would be, or was, a factor.
I don’t even argue about Russia’s situation being worse now. This was about Putin taking the bait and whether the bait would have stopped or not. Putin has already invaded so we weren’t talking about his decision to invade.
No imperial regime ever feels secure. There’s always a threat, real or imagined, to it or to its satrapies. Such threats not only come with empire, but are indispensable to it.
I hear you. But Russia should be able to bitch about the same things the other top gangs bitch about when these turf wars break out. Especially the top gang.
When “Putin” finishes, Ukraine will no longer be threat to Russia, or just about any other one.,,,!!!!!!
Putin is likely to be finished before he finishes. Again,remember, asymmetric war is about hearts and minds.
Hey, get the Z avatar that Adolfo de Jesus has. You two make a great Pro Kremlin Team.
nice one.
Well Sweden and Finland seem to feel otherwise
Feelings are not facts.
Russia DID engage in diplomacy when the Minsk agreement was agreed to by Russia and Ukraine to end their fighting. But Ukraine never kept to the terms they sign onto and since Angela Merkel has admitted it was a rouse to stall for time to rearm Ukraine to enable it to defeat Russia. So deluded were the neocons that they thought they could enable Ukies to defeat The best armed country on then planet on the American dole. Somehow they never knew about their unstopable hypersonic missiles and nuclear bombs 4000 times more blast than any bomb ever detonated. They will be lucky if they get out of this war without being nuked.
As Napoleon said about the British cavalary “themost gallantcavaly in Europe, and the worst led.”
How do you explain the failure of the Russian superpower to subdue a small country fighting with obsolete Soviet era weapons and NATO hand-me-downs?
Hint: The answer is “hearts and minds.”
How do you explain that the country that fomented this war would have to sneak out of Afghanidtan in the middle of the night after decades, leaving billions in arms and their proxy puppet to flee only weeks later?
engage with the sociopathic west? delusional troll
One thing you overlooked, the USA has stabbed their NATO allies in the back, Biden wanted this war, it is his war. Americans opposed the Minsk agreements from the beginning. He wants another Yeltsin in the Kremlin, a broken up Russia, that is what the war is all about. The real deceit from the Americans, Sweden and Finland learned nothing, they trust the Americans, the suckers. They will find out, the USA can not be trusted, Kissinger told them, to be a friend with the USA is FATAL.
I would argue that NATO countries (the EU) stabbed their own citizens in the back.
I seem to recall that Russia is sitting on almost 20% of the territory claimed by the Kiev regime. Regardless of what CNN tells you, that ethno state wannbe regime has gutted their male population by stupidity. Ukraine is on life support provided by the US, the EU and others (in the order of whose taxpayers are footing the bill.
The NATO trained and armed AFU has maybe one last offensive left. Fact is that NATO surrogate can’t even defeat a mercenary force while in defensive positions prepared well in advance.
Note also, the Russians are defeating the NATO proxy AFU even though the Russians haven’t committed half the available combat troops they have.
Here’s the problem for NATO: the Ukrainian troops are likely BETTER than the majority of the NATO troops. And the Western countries no longer have the capacity to manufacture munitions to fight a conventional war.
Its becum a U.S. NATO Cluster F*ock…
Hmmmmm. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya ……. Indeed a cluster of cluster f*cks
cowardly ukranian men ran away from their country and now do day labor in northern VA. My two sheds were built with ukranian labor.
“Note also, the Russians are defeating the NATO proxy AFU even though the Russians haven’t committed half the available combat troops they have.”
I heard Russia has unlimited war funding, unlimited expendable troops, and unlimited supplies of weapons and equipment. I also heard they feed their troops 3 times a day and even pay their salaries sometimes. Lol
So, now Finland breathe easier…?! I don’t think so…!
If a war breaks out over Finland border, it would be Finland that pays the price…!
Just like the Ukraine. After the pipeline sabotage they still trust the US? Talking about real suckers. Finland is an EU member they will get to feel the consequences of the weaponized energy and the deindustrialization of Germany, the real power of the European economy.
Finland is once again on the side of the Nazi’s.
Nailed it!
Why are you so angry with Finland? Do you work for the Kremlin?
Finland made a national decision to join NATO and that should have zero impact on you.
My opinion should have zero impact on you. Why are you angry because I have a different opinion than you have? Do you work for the MIC and Biden?
In my opinion the Finnish people were thrown under the bus by their government. It is so obvious, one must wonder how much the officials were paid for it, like with seats on the boards of directors in the weapon industry.
No one here is angry at Finland. We just think it was stupid and a danger to its citizens to join a group that is aggitation against the largest and most well armed country on the planet. Or expect the country that could not prevail in Afghanistan to step up and be the protector of the weak in Europe.
All wars have negative world wide impact.
Because they have thrown away their neutrality.
Or maybe Finland will get a chance to prove their loyalty by sending troops for the upcoming US invasion of Iran?
That is considering that Kremlin will actually play that little proxy game like they are doing in Ukraine. Any attack on Russia from any territory “formally” occupied by Anglo-Americans means nuclear war and fully justify launch of Russian and Chinese nuclear warheads on Washington and London.
Helsinki could end up a smouldering cinder. It’s easy picking for Russian hypersonics.
The words Blinken and diplomat couldn’t be further apart. His appointment was yet another loss for American diplomacy.
Perhaps senility is contagious.
For the Europeans, “A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTED.” But the Finnish insist to go further for NATO, “A FOOL AND HIS COUNTRY ARE SOON PARTED.” (Sarcasm alert)
“‘I’m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for’…Blinken said.”
From the earth of Bakhmut – a thousand choking titters rise up at the American Secretary of State’s urbane witticism.
I think it’s unfortunate that Finns will be used as human shields by the Pentagon cowards but overall North American Terrorists Occupation of Finland is irrelevant. Finland was already subverted and taken over politically and economically by the imperial regime. This “formal” declaration of occupation is nothing but a PR show. A propaganda circus designed to lessen the blow of a complete collapse of imperial terrorism in Mideast and the collapse of Fed dollar.
More proof that a country’s leaders are no smarter than the average citizen. Assuming the average Finn goes along with this.
The so-called “leaders” in imperial-occupied countries don’t even deserve a figurative tag. It’s imperial puppets completely controlled by the empire.
As for the population, the Empire of Lies first take over independent media and start to broadcast own propaganda in order to brainwash the population with imperial ideology. Majority of population submit or it creates a civil war. In any case the empire benefits.
Seems a poor move based on fear or more likely some short term promise going on. Neutrality seems to have served those countries well over the past century or so.
Not sure how Finland joining NATO improves security in Europe. NATO and Russia will now stare at each other accross an 800 mile imaginary line. Frictions, intentional and non-intentional will begin to occur just like during the iron curtain times. It will be a matterof time before the usual suspects start incursions and it will be a matter of time before ABM systems and other system be stationed.
Finland joining NATO have increased the potential for a world war several fold.
NATO is not interested in peace but world domination. Just before the Ukraine invasion, they started to stick their nose in Asia.
If NATO was interested in peace (notwithstanding 20+ years of attacks on other nations), they would have allowed for buffer states between Russia and its members. What possible reason would they have to justify a shared border with a country that they consider its target?
Finland may have joined NATO for protection. But what they will likely get is an obligation to spend treasure and blood in wars that have nothing to do with their own national interests.