Sometimes you have to stand up. He's already invaded Ukraine, he's not going to do anything re the Court.
History suggests that while some Dictators die abed, many don't. We can but hope :-)
My ex wife was part of a human shield the day AFTER the Red Army shot 20 civilians. Lukashenko killed an acquaintance of mine, one of the most impressive people I ever knew - Anatoly Krasovsky
the problem is: I dont buy zelensky as well, let alone NATO that did everything it could to provoke the russian lunatic. so there are no innocents on this story. all staged, nasty interests from all sides. as always, who pays the price are the civilians. great article by mearsheimer about the responsabilities of this war, from euromaidan up to our days: https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis
Countries have the right to decide which other countries they want to align with. Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and others all fled the warm embrace of Russia as fast as rhey possibly could.
As sovereign countries they can join any alliances they like. If you want them to join yours, you win them by being nice.
Russia, in seeing countries all want to join NATO is reaping the results of it's own policies over the past decades.
If you support people being free, it's simple. Russia INVADED. After promising not to.
Once war starts, it gets messy. There are no angels in a war, and you are always choosing to side with one or the other. Trying bto sit out is to side with the strongest. Sometimes you have no choice - the West couldn't help Tibet when China invaded, but Ukraine, we can. The supply lines work, the logistics work, we can help.
WRT Ukraine, we can help Ukraine or we can accept a Russian win for aggression. Only you can know where your consience lies.
Me, I've sent money. I'd have hosted a refugee family as well, but my boat only has one bedroom.
The tragic story here is that I genuinely believe that Russia belongs IN Europe. They're a European country.
And despite all the massive problems they had during the 90's, with the piratization of the soviet monopolies and the rise of the oligarchy, it seemed possible for a few years.
I think the younger generation can see it and aspire to it. The old generation longing for the Soviet Union are irredeemable and we will have to wait for their natural demise, as we will have to wait for Putin's more likely than not natural death to maybe see some change.
Russia does belong in Europe. Except perhaps for the poor bastard Siberians they steamrollered and of course the large chunk of China they stole when China was weak.
But Europe, TBH has never been an oasis of love. It's always been a battleground, and pretty much between blocks from Lithuanian Empire blocking the Mongols onwards, until finally after WW2 we agreed we had had enough. Well, all the bits outside the Iron Curtian. They jumped over in 89/90.
Hopefully a future Russian leadership will give a damn about their people and become decent too. But this leadership, isn't.
Is stealing from a thief stealing though...?
More seriously, my personal believe as a market anarchist with a georgist heart is that the nation-state is evil by nature and that any polity that goes beyond a few hundred thousand people is a hellish aberration that can only be upheld by massive violence.
Sorry to say, but that's a false equivalence. No "provocation" justifies invading a country and starting a hot war.
And this is coming from someone who believes that Russian-majority areas and Crimea should just be integrated into Russia.
Because I don't believe in the "principle of territoriality and the inviolability of borders" as far as internal segregationist movements are concerned (that's the doctrine that justified Kosovo's independence).
Putin is a war criminal and a piece of shit dictator, and those facts are not diminished by anybody else being the same.
that’s exactly my point, one part doesnt justify the other. not even azov and the ukrainian nazis. neither nord stream. nor even euromaidan, pratically an invasion of usa (country which, btw, along with nato have invaded like 50 countries or so since ww2). putin is a piece of shit. so are the others. gm!
