I've heard someone even claim that Putin is very humanitarian in his bombing.
It's quite simple - NATO did not threaten Russia with violence, let alone invade. The boots of Russian soldiers crossed the border. So it is very clear who is the attacker. Talking yourself out of this simple fact leads to cognitive dissonance.
They also keep telling me that Crimea held a referendum.
Yeah, _after_ the Russian military annexed the island, so that the Russians were the only poll observers. And the referendum had no option for simply remaining part of Ukraine. They left the choice of "do nothing, we like it this way" off of the ballot!
The Russians reported a record turnout of 83-89%, with a mind-boggling 97% choosing to join the Russian Federation. 🥴
In Putin's Russia, ballot mark *you*!
Before Crimea annexation percentage of russian friendly and western friendly were almost equal as it seemed by the elections. After that, the russian friendly side had minus two million russian friendly voters
For clarification:
There is no valid election with two choices, where the second choice is selected at a rate _nearthe margin of error_. That is statistical nonsense. Absolutely everyone voting would have had to have had the same opinion, because 3% would tend to mark the other box by accident, and that would cover all of the votes for that selection.
This is maths.
So why did Russia invade? What do you think?
Because Putin is a psycho and wants more power. He's mourning the loss of the glory of soviet empire and wants to be remembered as a great leader.
There's no sane way to justify lost of life on both sides, spending almost a third of state budget, 5% of GDP on war effort because Ukraine might join NATO which thus might threaten Russia with war.
So instead, let's go to war for sure, get under international sanctions, impoverish the citizens and risk their lives and well being. Oh, what a great leader.
My guess - small penis, daddy issues, possibly both.
