Replies

Chad C. Mulligan: "Moscow strove to be an imperial power to compete with Spain, Britain and France.
Lacking a navy, they did it by over-running all their neighbors. "

rxh4n1: "Do you mean during WWII?
Yes, they did, because those countries were between The SU and Germany, or actively helping Germany.
Also, you neglect to mention they voluntarily left in 1991 so your claim is faulty."

Chad C. Mulligan: "The clock starts in 1547 with Ivan the Terrible.
Moscow has been expansionist ever since.
Which points up the problem with you Putin Pushers.
You don’t actually know any history, and to make matters worse you don’t even seem to care."

Right, Russia has always been an empire -- a prison of nations -- and when stronger it expands, conquering more, when weaker it loses territories.
Lately, Vlad the Invader was feeling stronger and so did what any Russian does when they can, he invaded his neighbors, starting with Georgia in 2008, then Ukraine in 2014... do you see the pattern here?

But years before that, Putin announced his intentions:

"In a 2005 Kremlin speech, Putin characterized the collapse of the Soviet Union as the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the Twentieth Century.' "

Russian propaganda today is all about showing Putin correcting that "catastrophe".

But years before that, Putin announced his intentions:

“In a 2005 Kremlin speech, Putin characterized the collapse of the Soviet Union as the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the Twentieth Century.’ “
Russian propaganda today is all about showing Putin correcting that “catastrophe”.
________________________

Only a catastrophe in his evil brain. Putin was the only one who wanted to invade Ukraine. Why? Because raw capitalism via wealthy oligarchs is what really runs Russia these days. Not dusty old Tsarist fantasies. And Putin is bad for business. Russia’s hydrocarbon exports business. Oligarchs need to kill / defenestrate this Putin, and they will.

The world had a very nice peaceful interlude for every other nation, while Russia was on the ropes. Example: The old KGB was a prime mischief-maker in the Middle East. Now with Putin, this is back with the Russia-Iran alliance. Putin loves to ally with Muslims such as Chechens and Iranians. He fancies he is using them. But his Muslim pets are using him much more. How? Because Muslims are united under the Muhammed cult of personality. Putin’s cult of personality is pathetic. Because he never founded a loony religion.

Look at L Ron Hubbard. He was smart enough to start his own religion. So Scientology endures. Hubbard said -— If you want to get rich, start a religion.

“he invaded his neighbors, starting with Georgia in 2008, then Ukraine in 2014... do you see the pattern here?”

Yes, they did invade Georgia, and they stopped. they could have easily conquered the whole region, but they didn’t. Why didn’t they? They didn’t because they didn’t want to. They could have given them the Chechen treatment, but it wasn’t worth the trouble. In Ukraine, they are now holding on to the parts they really want. They are not going to attack NATO; they know we could destroy them if we had to.