“Russia didn’t want Ukraine as a client state (as it indeed was, just as it was a client state of other countries); it wanted Ukraine as a captive state.”
A distinction without a difference.
Just as a bunch of European countries are clients of the US. If one tried to peel off (either as the result of a coup, color revolution or general change in population sentiment) the US would not allow it.
If we shared a border (like Canada) we’d go to war over it.
Nonsense. By that logic we should invade Cuba and Venezuela. Your post shows the fundamental moral disparity between Russians and the rest of the world.
“A distinction without a difference.”
Au contraire, mon amie. There is a great distinction.
“Just as a bunch of European countries are clients of the US. If one tried to peel off (either as the result of a coup, color revolution or general change in population sentiment) the US would not allow it.”
Yeah? Like France; which for sixty years has been distancing itself from the US? Or Hungary? Or Ireland? Or Turkey (well, only the extreme northwest of Turkey is in Europe; but you get the picture)?