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Europe
Europe will pay dearly for the death of the CFE Treaty
2023-05-31
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Dmitry Bavyrin

[RIA] Yesterday's decree by President Vladimir Putin to denounce the CFE Treaty, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, was the final nail in the coffin of the security architecture that we and the Americans built following the results of the First Cold War.
Posted by:badanov

#8  ...IF you had 'em, and IF they worked once you got them there, you might have a point.

Yes, yes. We've seen in Ukraine that the Bear is not so fearsome as we'd been led to believe. Why, then, do you still fear him so badly? Do you seriously believe Putin will move on Poland or the Baltic states where he would be met with NATO forces that have moved steadily east since the collapse of the Soviet Union?

And Sweden? The last time Russians fought Swedes was in 1706 when the Swedish Empire under Charles XII threatened Russia. The last time Russia fought Finland was 1939 when Stalin ruled the Soviet Union. Yes, the Soviets were aggressive, I didn't like them either, but they're gone now and Finland has been free since WWII.

Why look for trouble where there is none? Don't we have enough problems with the Middle East and China?

History shows Russia has been invaded from the West far more often than the West has been invaded by Russia. I wouldn't count Ukraine either because 1) Ukraine is not the West and 2) it's NATO and Joe Biden trying to expand into Ukraine that have caused all the trouble since the 2014 Maidan Coup, sponsored by Baraq Obama.

Posted by: Abu Uluque   2023-05-31 13:19  

#7  There being Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, not the Donbas.
Posted by: trailing wife   2023-05-31 08:56  

#6   the ethnic Russians

Many of those ethnic Russians settled there in the latter Soviet and post-Soviet years, as I recall, never bothering to learn the local language and customs, and fussing loudly when the natives demanded their children learn both in school.
Posted by: trailing wife   2023-05-31 08:55  

#5  The 'ethnic Russians' in the Donbas kinda started that one, DooDah.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2023-05-31 07:40  

#4  The Latvians, Estonians, and Lithuanians screw with the ethnic Russians but absolutely nothing like what Ukraine has been doing in Donbas for almost ten years.

What Putin needs is a Reagan-esque rescue of dental students like in Grenada, then it'll be o.k.
Posted by: DooDahMan   2023-05-31 07:35  

#3  Putin declared that where there is a Russian community it will be Russian once again. That's Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, all members of NATO. How expensive would a thermonuclear exchange be? It's far cheaper to drain the bear now than be force into that situation.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-05-31 07:29  

#2  I don't think there are any aspirations for the Russians to push further west (unlike NATO which has pushed further east despite the Cold War being over for 30 years).

But for those Putin haters out there, be careful for what you ask.
Posted by: DooDahMan   2023-05-31 07:12  

#1  Now we can concentrate weapons on our territory in such quantities and where we deem necessary,

...IF you had 'em, and IF they worked once you got them there, you might have a point.

Trouble is, the time for a CFE breakout was a couple years ago. (THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: what would have happened say, 3-4 years ago if Putin had said, "We'll recommit to the CFE, but you gotta back off on Ukraine." ?)

The Baltics and Poland are not playing around now, Finland is working hard to make up for centuries of being lorded over by your nation, and the Swedes just overturned a century or two of neutrality to make sure they aren't Putin's next target.

You're outnumbered, outgunned, and out-quality'd.

Lemme know how that works out for you.

Mike
Posted by: MikeKozlowski   2023-05-31 06:59  

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