Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

"The imperial formula is officially adopted: Russia does not end anywhere" A few days before the invasion, sociologist Grigory Yudin described exactly what the war would be like. Medusa talked to him about how it will end
Meduza ^ | 10: 00, February 24, 2023 | Margarita Lyutova

Posted on 02/25/2023 1:04:06 AM PST by Zhang Fei

— You have repeatedly said that, in your opinion, Putin will not stop in Ukraine. What exactly do you have in mind? Moldova, the Baltic States, or a self-destructive war with the United States?

— In principle, such a worldview has no boundaries. This formula has been adopted almost officially: Russia doesn't end anywhere. This is the standard definition of an empire, because an empire doesn't recognize any borders.

Borders in Europe appear in 1648, when the Westphalian system was formed, which later gradually ends with empires. There is an idea that there are borders between countries: "Here we are, and here you are." The Empire does not recognize this idea: "We are where we managed to reach. And you — where we just didn't have time to go. When we get there, you won't be there, we'll be there."

This logic, in principle, does not accept any borders, and it is no coincidence that we do not hear from Russian officials any recognition of the legitimacy of at least someone else's borders. The maximum that we can hear [about where the borders are] is a situational feeling that there is a certain West, and this is probably something alien to us. Not that it's not ours at all, but there is already a zone that will be very difficult to get there. The West is understood, of course, in the [ideological] sense that existed in the Soviet Union.

I remind everyone about [Putin's ultimatum to the United States and NATO] in December 2021 — it is extremely serious, it says in plain text that all of Eastern Europe is Vladimir Putin's sphere of influence. How it will be formalized, with the loss of formal sovereignty or not-what difference does it make? In addition, this zone undoubtedly includes East Germany-simply

(Excerpt) Read more at meduza.io ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: kickback; putin; russia; ukraine
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
To: Alberta's Child

Interestingly, the “US occupation” was reduced massively post-1991, and in all that time it was the “occupied” asking for more US troops.

You have a precisely opposite view of what actually transpired.


21 posted on 02/25/2023 4:33:37 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: NorseViking

Yes, invasions of the past were bad and wrong. But Russia alone is to blame now -its stupidity and arrogance in invading Ukraine have earned it the global equivalent of a Darwin Award.

Not genocide here, but suicide.


22 posted on 02/25/2023 4:35:30 AM PST by Apparatchik (If you find yourself in a confusing situation, simply laugh knowingly and walk away - Jim Ignatowski)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: popdonnelly
The Russia fans here can’t accept the truth of what the article states.

Because the article is BS. The 2019 Rand Report totally contradicts it. Why didn’t Putin take ALL of Georgia in the 2008 war? Because he was only intervening to help settle ethnic border issues
23 posted on 02/25/2023 4:40:16 AM PST by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Fred Nerks

Glimpse into the future PING!


24 posted on 02/25/2023 5:13:03 AM PST by Candor7 ( ( Ask not for whom THE Trump trolls...He trolls for thee!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lump in the melting pot
NATO expansion began in earnest in 1991 precisely because all of russia’s former colonies instinctively knew there was a brief respite before russia once again became a threat …

That might explain why these countries wanted to join NATO. It doesn’t explain the more important question from my perspective as an American:

Why did the United States want them to join?

If you haven’t figured this out by now, the U.S. never does these things for altruistic reasons. We didn’t allow Poland (for example) to join NATO because we want to protect them. We added them to NATO to control them.

Unlike the Warsaw Pact or the Soviet Union, no nation is forced to join or stay in NATO at gunpoint.

Most European countries have little or no leverage in these matters simply because they are smaller than some U.S. states. France is the lone exception to this. They’ve never seen themselves as a full-fledged member of NATO — which is a luxury they could afford because they are a nuclear power themselves.

25 posted on 02/25/2023 5:30:47 AM PST by Alberta's Child
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: buwaya
I don’t know how you’re measuring “occupation.” 1991 is not a good point in time for measuring this sort of thing based on raw numbers of military personnel, since the U.S. was still in the process of repositioning hardware and hundreds of thousands of personnel after the Gulf War.

I would ask one simple question: How many U.S. military installations are there in Europe today, compared to 1990?

… it was the “occupied” asking for more US troops.

Did they want them there for protection, or to support their economies — sort of like American tourists in fatigues?

26 posted on 02/25/2023 5:38:35 AM PST by Alberta's Child
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: lump in the melting pot

You mean like Hungary in 1956, or East Germany in 1961, or Czechoslovakia in 1968, or Poland in 1982 when their hopes for freedom were brutally crushed?


27 posted on 02/25/2023 5:39:15 AM PST by Alas Babylon! (Gov't declaring misinformation is tyranny: “Who determines what false information is?” )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei

Putin’s Russia has been around for 30yrs, some major imperialism by Russia in that time frame! S/

Is he self reflecting for the US?


28 posted on 02/25/2023 5:40:19 AM PST by foundedonpurpose (Praise Hashem, for his restoration of all things!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

Wrong. I got to Europe in 1991 precisely to CLOSE most of those bases. I did a presentation at ESC/AFIC Headquarters on all the places we vacated in 1995. The US military presence in Europe went from 3000K in 1990 to 75K when I left in 1997.

Many of those places were emptied due to Desert Shield, with multi-divisions and wings went to Saudi Arabia never to return to Europe after 1991.

I went to practically every place that had an Air Force Intelligence presence to help shut it down (my job was classified circuit management). This included MANY Army bases and kasernes.

The planning to close them were all based on the Soviet’s demise but the actual evacuation in the 1990s took a couple of years to implement.

I spent so many TDYs in all over the UK, Berlin, all over Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and the Netherlands—I can converse (simple) in each language. I can order beer, wine and spirits easily!


29 posted on 02/25/2023 5:48:44 AM PST by Alas Babylon! (Gov't declaring misinformation is tyranny: “Who determines what false information is?” )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

The bulk of those units sent to the Gulf returned to the US or were disbanded, as were many units in Europe and the US throughout the 1990s.

In the end only a small fraction of the US forces permanently stationed in Europe in the last years of the Cold War remained by the 2010s. I would count noses between, say, 1991 and 2016, or 1989 and 2016 if you like.

The demand for troops mainly came from the Eastern Euros, such as the Poles. They have wanted and been calling for more US units permanently stationed for decades.


30 posted on 02/25/2023 5:59:46 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

https://www.europeafrica.army.mil/Mission-History/#:~:text=The%20command%20shrank%20from%20213%2C000,close%20in%20the%20years%20ahead.


31 posted on 02/25/2023 6:04:13 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: buwaya

Don’t we currently have about 30,000 in Italy?


32 posted on 02/25/2023 6:06:15 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

“In 1992 alone, about 70,000 Soldiers redeployed to the U.S. with about 90,000 family members. The command shrank from 213,000 Soldiers in 1990 to 122,000 in 1992. From 858 installations in 1990, U.S. Army Europe went down to only 415 in 1993 with more scheduled to close in the years ahead.”

Just a start. You can fill out the rest of the story.


33 posted on 02/25/2023 6:07:01 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: bert

I don’t know. You could research it.


34 posted on 02/25/2023 6:19:19 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: bert

I don’t know. You could research it.


35 posted on 02/25/2023 6:19:20 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: buwaya

I think I did


36 posted on 02/25/2023 6:19:51 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Alas Babylon!

Precisely. People at that time had it in living memory what russia’s “brotherly assistance” looks like. Therefore any opportunity to join a military alliance with the civilized West was snapped up as soon as it was offered.


37 posted on 02/25/2023 6:38:10 AM PST by lump in the melting pot (Believe nothing until it is denied by the Kremlin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Right_Wing_Madman

Then the Empire expanded into the British Isles, Judea, Central Europe (Dalmatia & Marcomanni campaigns, etc.), finished going across North Africa, Mesopotamia (200 years or so of wars with various incarnations of the Persians). Also, archeologists are showing Roman influence and control extended far beyond the Rhine. Rome expanded until it couldn’t, couldn’t for military, logistics, communication, cost, etc. reasons. Laters Emperors acknowledged that fact by building walls (Hadrian, Antonius Pius, etc.) and reorganizing the army into a more defensive posture. (Which was also thought too decrease the possibility of commanders organizing and challenging the central government. It had some effect.)


38 posted on 02/25/2023 6:43:01 AM PST by Reily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Right_Wing_Madman

“This BS is repeated often.”

Actually it is repeated daily and incessantly. Propaganda for breakfast. Propaganda for lunch. Propaganda for dinner.

Russia and Putin are the new boogie man now that the COVID hoax is over.

Got to keep the idiots obsessed about something.


39 posted on 02/25/2023 6:44:59 AM PST by Four of Six
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: tlozo
Unfortunately, Putin and Russians have not lost their imperial ambitions, unlike Germany and Japan.

Nor have we. But "the Russians" is a generalization. Russia isn't anywhere near as united and determined as the Germans or the Japanese were.

40 posted on 02/25/2023 6:52:02 AM PST by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson