Putin is in Kursk region to 'liberate'

X ^ | March 13 | @Megatron_ron

[RandFan]

Vladimir Putin from Kursk:

"Russia will treat Ukrainian soldiers captured in Kursk region as terrorists"

He also said "Foreign mercenaries are not covered by the Geneva Convention"

[libertylover]

Interesting comments on mercenaries” ... I’m guessing North Korean soldiers can be considered foreign mercenaries.

That doesn't seem quite the same. I think the nation of North Korea sent their troops to fight in Russia and they wear their uniforms, so they're not mercenaries. I'm open to corrections.

[ansel12]

See post 8.

[Locomotive Breath]

Fear of NATO was their true motivation to invade Ukraine, ...

There was nothing to fear. NATO was never ever noways nohow going to invade Russia. The whole point of NATO is to keep Russia from invading its members. By invading Ukraine, Russia justified the existence of NATO.

[Robert DeLong]

There was nothing to fear. NATO was never ever noways nohow going to invade Russia.

You mean like how they didn't execute an air campaign in Kosovo?

Pretty interesting considering it was not a NATO nation, and no NATO nation was attacked.

The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.

You Think that Russia didn't notice that NATO had no reins that kept it form involving itself in non NATO conflict?

So, yes Russia feared NATO who went outside of their designation when they got involved in Kosovo, especially after the CIA fomented a color revolution that ended in a coup d'état on the sitting Ukrainian President who was duly elected in an election that everyone observing the election stated it was a fair election.

[linMcHlp]

"Russia feared NATO who went outside of their designation when they got involved in Kosovo"

And, as a consequence, in 1999, Putin began planning to invade Georgia.

[Robert DeLong]

There is no evidence that Putin began planning to invade Georgia as early as 1999. However, tensions between Russia and Georgia increased significantly in the years leading up to the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Putin's aggressive stance towards Georgia intensified after the Rose Revolution in 2003, when a pro-Western government came to power in Georgia. In 2006, following an espionage controversy, Russia began staging increasingly elaborate military exercises in the North Caucasus Military District, and Putin admitted to ordering the Russian Armed Forces to draw up plans for an invasion of Georgia.

It was then that Putin stated that Russia would consider NATO expansion into either Georgia or Ukraine were considered by Russia to be red lines that Russia would not tolerate.

[Locomotive Breath]

That was at the time both Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union broke up and everything was re-aligning. And that’s lot of words to say that NATO is never going to attack Russia, but Russia has and is going to attack former Soviet territory trying to get it back.

Which means NATO continues to be a defensive alliance that would prevent Russia from attacking any member. Russia’s attack on Ukraine was a preemptive strike so Russia could go to war with Ukraine alone and not all of NATO.

[Robert DeLong]

No it was when part of Yugoslavia was trying to breakaway. Still it was an internal conflict, was not a NATO nation, and NATO was an invading force strictly exerting an air campaign, because they could, but under what authority? None.

You just view NATO from a difference lens than does Russia, because the Soviet Union was our enemy, before & after being our ally in WWII. Russia was honestly concerned that NATO no longer viewed itself as a strictly defensive alignment to protect Europe from invasion, by anyone, but the Soviet Union was their primary target they were defending against.

If NATO could attack Yugoslavia, they would most certainly attack Russia, this was especially true after the Soviet Union had fallen. After all, they were in a weakened state after that collapse and felt extremely vulnerable., because they knew that the west still viewed Russia as this aggressive communist nation.

[Locomotive Breath]

Yugoslavia <<< Russia
1989 ≠ 2025

I didn’t say that Russia was not completely paranoid. Always has been and always will be. BTW, they still owe us money for the support provided to them during WW II.

I am saying that paranoia is completely unjustified because NATO will never ever ever invade Russia. Russian paranoia does not give them the right to invade a neighbor country.

[MinorityRepublican]

[Robert DeLong]

You can say that their fears are unfounded, but that does not make it true. Because the rhetoric that has been heaped upon Russia for the Soviet Union's sins has been the reality. Instead of bringing them into the modern world like we did China, which was a big mistake because we never really understood just how much China hates the west, we pushed them away from us. The only place for them to go were the other enemies arrayed against us. We could have actually worked with Russia that had changed in significant ways from the former Soviet Union.

Even Billy Bob Clinton admitted that Russia & Putin never lied to him. That they honored their commitments that they made. Which contradicts the claims that Russia cannot be trusted.

Increasingly though, it was our country that exhibited bad faith in the negotiating process, and Ukraine was the perfect example.

The problem with you people supporting Ukraine, is that you really know nothing about them except what the lying Biden administration & the neo-cons have promoted, and neither are working for the best interests of this nation. You actually believe that they have real honest concerns for Ukraine. You also believe that Europe has real concerns for Ukraine as well. It's a production that you have bought without any questions whatsoever. The goal of that production is to once again get the U.S. involved in Europe's affairs, so that our blood & treasured are also used freeing up their treasures but committing their people to a war they too do not want.

The fact that our leaders not only allowed, but facilitated with our money we send to the treasury, 20 million military aged young men into the country that they are supposedly behind & supporting, still didn't awaken you to the reality.

In addition, you refuse to see how they have hollowed out this nation, destroyed the working class, removed the facilities that employed these people, sending them to our enemies, making us dependent for necessary goods such as medicines, along with destruction of Christianity which was the glue of this nation.

None so blind as those who will not see.

We can continue this discussion when you start to see reality, and not just have blind devotion for this nation believing yourself to be patriotic for doing so.

Patriots love this nation, but they also see that the nation is being destroyed from within by our leaders who are only about themselves period.

You are supporting that destruction of this nation by supporting wars that could have easily been avoided with honest diplomacy from a position of strength.

Our nation's leaders, from both political parties, have been blundering the treasury as if it were their own private savings account. Keep believing in the broken system to the determent of your loved ones who will be under the yoke of tyranny.

Do you not really see what they are doing to President Donald John Trump is the desperation to maintain control to keep the gravy train trough open & accessible to them & the power it affords them as well?

[Locomotive Breath]

Well that was a lot of word salad. Now explain to me why we supported Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek.

I’m not supporting Ukraine other than in opposition to Putin’s aggression. If Putin invaded Hell I’d stand with the Devil.