I really see NATO as the aggressor here running up and down their eastern border taunting Putin incessantly and without provocation, NATO is the bully who keeps poking the bear and won't leave it alone. Putin is a very clever man and I doubt he can be tricked into making any drastic mistake that would allow the west to claim the high ground for an invasion, which is what they've been attempting since Boris Yeltsin kicked the bucket and Putin threw the western hordes of carpetbaggers out of his country.
Speculatively I see Belarus as more of a geographic weak spot than Ukraine. Belarus is the wide buffer zone between Russia and Europe and sparsely populated. Lukashenko is a wild card, old, corrupt, and he had to lock up the last guy who beat him in an election in order to stay in power. When Lukashenko goes after 30+ years I would place no bets on what happens after that.
But I think this current brouhaha over Ukraine is a distraction to keep the western masses in fear and not noticing how much they have been ripped off, imprisoned, manipulated, and bankrupted by their own western leadership over the last 25 years, and particularly as a distraction from the consequences of the coof lockdowns and medical tyranny.
The EU is the real evil here and NATO is their army.
Putin is continuously invading and occupying Ukraine for nearly a decade now. Some 15,000 people have died so far, including a thousand in just one week-long offensive by Russian regulars back in 2015 (featuring the "Indians", Asian soldiers from Buryatia actually quite genetically related to the American Indians).
Further to my previous point: if Slovakia and the Czech Republic split over economic policy, and very little else, and now, 30 years later, have essentially the same economic policy, but have not rejoined..?
I don’t think the people of Belarus are exactly going to allow themselves to be annexed, willingly…
And nor will, or should, Ukraine.
Russia is Russia. Ukraine is Ukraine. Belarus is Belarus. The fucking USSR/Russian Empire is dead, and should stay dead…
Slovakia is a funny case, they became so irrelevant since the split that even in Poland we don't think of Slovakia or the Slovaks. They were really always only an addition to Czechia.
Really?? That’s interesting, because politically, and religiously, you guys have way more in common than you do with the Czechs…
Yes, yes, I’m simplifying. I know there’s a Polish community in “Czechia”, and I know about Silesia…
But in the 21st century, you guys and the Slovaks are more alike, in many ways, than you might think… 🤷🏻♂️
It’s interesting you say that, though, because I probably think of Bratislava more than I think of say… Wrocław. But it’s me, and I’m obviously not Polish, so…
I’ve also been very close to Bratislava (Vienna), so that has probably made me think about it more, since then. Maybe. 🤷🏻♂️
But also my favourite James Bond movie (and probably Bond girl, even if the actress was not Slovak), lol. As lame as that is!!
Belarus is marshlands and forests, rather than plains. This is why it was a "Bandit Country" for the Germans during WWII, with all the Partisan Republics in the swamps and the woods. This is also why they killed or deported all these villagers in the huge Anti-Bandit operations (Hitler's Bandit Hunters is a pretty good book).
You're confused and you really think of Ukraine and the great steppe. Where even a small hill is incredibly strategic, like the manmade Savur Mohyla where they just fought for it for months and during WWII they have even fought for it for even longer, something ridicalous like over 1 year.
Bravo, very very well said, thanks for posting.
I really see NATO as the aggressor here running up and down their eastern border taunting Putin incessantly and without provocation, NATO is the bully who keeps poking the bear and won't leave it alone. Putin is a very clever man and I doubt he can be tricked into making any drastic mistake that would allow the west to claim the high ground for an invasion, which is what they've been attempting since Boris Yeltsin kicked the bucket and Putin threw the western hordes of carpetbaggers out of his country.
Speculatively I see Belarus as more of a geographic weak spot than Ukraine. Belarus is the wide buffer zone between Russia and Europe and sparsely populated. Lukashenko is a wild card, old, corrupt, and he had to lock up the last guy who beat him in an election in order to stay in power. When Lukashenko goes after 30+ years I would place no bets on what happens after that.
But I think this current brouhaha over Ukraine is a distraction to keep the western masses in fear and not noticing how much they have been ripped off, imprisoned, manipulated, and bankrupted by their own western leadership over the last 25 years, and particularly as a distraction from the consequences of the coof lockdowns and medical tyranny.
The EU is the real evil here and NATO is their army.
Putin is continuously invading and occupying Ukraine for nearly a decade now. Some 15,000 people have died so far, including a thousand in just one week-long offensive by Russian regulars back in 2015 (featuring the "Indians", Asian soldiers from Buryatia actually quite genetically related to the American Indians).
Further to my previous point: if Slovakia and the Czech Republic split over economic policy, and very little else, and now, 30 years later, have essentially the same economic policy, but have not rejoined..?
I don’t think the people of Belarus are exactly going to allow themselves to be annexed, willingly…
And nor will, or should, Ukraine.
Russia is Russia. Ukraine is Ukraine. Belarus is Belarus. The fucking USSR/Russian Empire is dead, and should stay dead…
Slovakia is a funny case, they became so irrelevant since the split that even in Poland we don't think of Slovakia or the Slovaks. They were really always only an addition to Czechia.
Really?? That’s interesting, because politically, and religiously, you guys have way more in common than you do with the Czechs…
Yes, yes, I’m simplifying. I know there’s a Polish community in “Czechia”, and I know about Silesia…
But in the 21st century, you guys and the Slovaks are more alike, in many ways, than you might think… 🤷🏻♂️
It’s interesting you say that, though, because I probably think of Bratislava more than I think of say… Wrocław. But it’s me, and I’m obviously not Polish, so…
I’ve also been very close to Bratislava (Vienna), so that has probably made me think about it more, since then. Maybe. 🤷🏻♂️
But also my favourite James Bond movie (and probably Bond girl, even if the actress was not Slovak), lol. As lame as that is!!
Belarus is marshlands and forests, rather than plains. This is why it was a "Bandit Country" for the Germans during WWII, with all the Partisan Republics in the swamps and the woods. This is also why they killed or deported all these villagers in the huge Anti-Bandit operations (Hitler's Bandit Hunters is a pretty good book).
You're confused and you really think of Ukraine and the great steppe. Where even a small hill is incredibly strategic, like the manmade Savur Mohyla where they just fought for it for months and during WWII they have even fought for it for even longer, something ridicalous like over 1 year.
Also Kazakhstan, but that isn’t so relevant to WW2, or “Europe” per se…
But it’s more what OP is thinking of, re “great plains”… 🤷🏻♂️
If and when Lukashenko is overthrown, the people of Belarus are absolutely not going to tolerate being annexed, lol…
They might like Russia, but they do not see themselves as Russian.
It’s not bloody Russian Texas, and nor is Ukraine. I hate that people are simplifying this into purely American terms.
Europe is not America. Countries are not US states. It doesn’t work like that… 🤦🏻♂️