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From the Tsars to the Bolsheviks, Putin is just the latest incarnation of Russia's lust to dominate its borderlands with bloodshed
dailymail ^ | May 15 | By ANTONY BEEVOR FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

Posted on 05/14/2022 4:47:01 PM PDT by RandFan

No country is as much a prisoner of its past as Russia. And no leader has become as much a victim of his own obsessive lies as Vladimir Putin. But where did this tragedy for the Russian people as well as Ukraine begin? And why did we not see this coming after the unspeakable brutality of Putin's conduct of war in Chechnya and Syria, deliberately using barrel bombs and nerve gas against civilian populations?

I certainly cannot claim to be one of the very few who had foreseen Putin's reckless gamble of invading Ukraine. I also underestimated the lingering resentment against the West among the majority of largely older Russians who get all their news from Kremlin-controlled media.

Putin is famous for his pronouncement that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geo-political disaster of the 20th Century. This was backed by a widespread conviction in Russia that the Cold War had been lost through a dirty trick after the US under Ronald Reagan deliberately outspent them on armaments.

The consequence of that collapse was war veterans and widows begging in the Metro, after their pensions became worth less than £4 a week.

Mikhail Gorbachev was blamed bitterly, partly because of the rapturous welcome he had received in the West, but also for his wife Raisa's conspicuous spending on their trips. In the Russian Ministry of Defence archives at Podolsk, my researcher and I overheard a conversation between cleaning women viciously welcoming the news that Mrs Gorbachev she had cancer. 'I hope she dies in agony', said one. 'It would serve them right'.

.......

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 05/14/2022 4:47:01 PM PDT by RandFan
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To: RandFan

DailyMail = DailyGlobalistPuke.


2 posted on 05/14/2022 4:50:57 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Plugs the Pedo - The Shart Heard 'Round The World)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

In before the ... never mind. Too late ...


3 posted on 05/14/2022 4:53:33 PM PDT by 11th_VA (I can still remember an America where dissent was the highest form of patriotism.)
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To: RandFan

Like I said on the other thread:

Two powerful Empires want the Ukraine to be their own.

The Russian Empire and the EU’s Fourth Reich.

Let them fight for it. The USA needs to walk away from the Urkaine as fast as possible.


4 posted on 05/14/2022 4:54:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin ((The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.))
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To: RandFan

I see Xi of China in a similar way.

He represents the latest of China’s dynasties - the latest emperor.

After thousands of years the Chinese are used to living under dynasties.


5 posted on 05/14/2022 4:58:10 PM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: RandFan
Seems a good article.

Gives the Russian point of view which many here have claimed gave Russia the reason to invade Ukraine.

6 posted on 05/14/2022 5:09:58 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Our idiot leaders have gotten us neck deep in this cesspool.

And they did it on purpose.

L


7 posted on 05/14/2022 5:13:21 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is)
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To: RandFan


Yeah, that darn Reagan "Peace through Strength" doctrine. How dare he.
8 posted on 05/14/2022 5:28:26 PM PDT by RedMonqey (Fu%k the Ballot box. Now the Cartridge Box)
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To: RandFan
backed by a widespread conviction in Russia that the Cold War had been lost through a dirty trick after the US under Ronald Reagan deliberately outspent them on armaments.

Yeah, that darn Reagan "Peace through Strength" doctrine. How dare he.
9 posted on 05/14/2022 5:29:32 PM PDT by RedMonqey (Fu%k the Ballot box. Now the Cartridge Box)
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To: RandFan

We need to dominate our borderlands, too.

So what?


10 posted on 05/14/2022 5:32:24 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Love's redeeming work is done)
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To: Lurker

Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.


11 posted on 05/14/2022 5:34:39 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Love's redeeming work is done)
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To: RandFan

I wouldn’t expect a fan of Rand Paul to join in with warmongers.


12 posted on 05/14/2022 5:40:28 PM PDT by enumerated
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To: RandFan
Murdering revanchist thought he had a right to secure boarders and to hold the March of Democracy at bay as another border state succumbed to the desire to live in peace and freedom under the enlightened leadership of the WEF, Schwab and his colleagues in Europe and the US.

Bloody murderous barbarian. How dare he!

13 posted on 05/14/2022 5:41:54 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: RandFan
Putin, suffering from a similar atavistic paranoia which goes all the way back to the 13th Century Mongol invasions of Russia, is even more fixated with the idea of a conspiracy to encircle Russia.

There you have it. Atavistic paranoia at the self-evident encirclement of Russia. He might as well put on a bear skin, pick up a spear and go hunting wooly mastodons. Geo-politics, spheres of influence etc. is old-think.

This stuff is written by idiots to be read by fools. Geopolitics is reality. Anyone the least bit aware of what was going on knew that a smashup was coming and it wasn't going to be pretty, and we all knew that Putin had tactical nukes and had developed use doctrine to isolate theaters of operations from Western involvment. There is nothing surprising here other than no one in the West took it seriously - and they all ought to hang for it - every last one of them.

14 posted on 05/14/2022 5:47:30 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: enumerated

For what it’s worth i’m neutral on this conflict and have posted articles on both sides


15 posted on 05/14/2022 5:59:42 PM PDT by RandFan (For some reason I'm interested in politics, particularly the U.S. Senate)
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To: RandFan

What about the Lithuanian, Polish, and Polish/Lithuanian Empires that ruled over vast parts of that land for long periods of time?


16 posted on 05/14/2022 6:48:22 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: Fred Nerks

The anti-Russia propaganda from Globalists is so ripe that it is composting!


17 posted on 05/14/2022 7:27:03 PM PDT by Candor7 (ObamaFascism:https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

What is a reliable news source?


18 posted on 05/14/2022 11:00:50 PM PDT by Reynoldo (BurnLootMurder)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

The big difference is that the Polish do not want to rule over the Ukrainians, the Belarusians and the Lithuanians anymore just like the British abandoned their imperial past. Russia, on the other hand, still believes that it can subjugate its neighboring countries and expand its territory.


19 posted on 05/14/2022 11:06:17 PM PDT by Czech_Occidentalist
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To: Reynoldo

https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4063064/posts?page=120#120


20 posted on 05/14/2022 11:15:39 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Plugs the Pedo - The Shart Heard 'Round The World)
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