Why do they keep voting so fucking right wing and dancing to Vova’s tune then?
Because it’s a very conservative society. You still see loads of people go to church every Sunday, anti-immigration sentiments are growing and support for progressive policies is lagging behind Europe. Far-left and even left parties are basically non-existent while far-right is gaining momentum. They like taking money from EU and most of them realize the danger posed by Russia but it doesn’t change how they view immigrants, women or LGBT community.
Putin has his trolls trying to manipulate them
with 73% believing politicians exploit historical disputes for gain.
Considering that Putin asked to join forces with the EU in 2001 in a speech in the German parliament, doesn’t the entire conflict come down to politicians not overcoming historical disputes? If chancellor Kohl hadn’t objected a closer cooperation, would we have this war?
Yes, poor Putin. He wanted to be friends and bad EU spit in his face… Other than assassinating his opponents all over Europe what did Putin ever do to deserve this?
We don’t care about American extrajudicial killings, so yes, why not start from there?
Instead we are fighting and we are most likely going to fight a war with even more victims.
Of course, if Putin only had used it as an opportunity for abuse then it should be avoided. But since the EU is bigger, there was an opportunity to align Russia with European values and to become part of East Asia.
there was an opportunity to align Russia with European values and to become part of East Asia.
😂😂😂😂
Why do you think that it wouldn’t work?
It’s what the US fear most, apart from the Chinese Russian union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Chessboard
If the US work to avoid it then there is the possibility that it works.
Not sure if you’re just trolling or you really know nothing about Russia but I’ll bite…
Russia is about 50 years behind the most right wing EU nations on every possible metric you can check. It’s extremely corrupt, undemocratic and discriminatory. People there literally since hundredths of year love to be governed by a strongmen and associate fear with power. They don’t want nothing to do with European values, they want Europe, China, US and everyone else to fear them. EU did extend its arm to Russia and tried to normalize relations with them. German politicians got paid off and tried to convince everyone that you can actually trust Putin and he will not start a war if it’s not in his best economical interest. Turns out they got played and Putin used the money he got from Europe to start a war because he has some crazy dream of restoring Soviet Union. If EU offered them anything more they would see it as a sign of weakness and exploit it their favor. That’s it. There’s no aligning with Russia. The only way to deal with them is isolation. Maybe in 1000 years they will come to their senses and we’ll be able to treat them like a normal country. Now it’s not possible.
I haven’t met enough Russians to confidently object you with personal experience but it sounds too much like propaganda to me. Russians have fought for communism. You could as well argue that everybody else loves to be a capitalistic drone.
Have you checked the link? We are fighting the war that the US needs. To me that’s too much of a coincidence.
Is that the same speech where he said «I can say with absolute confidence that the key goal of Russia’s domestic policy is first and foremost to ensure democratic rights and freedoms […] for the people of the country.»?
That’s a good argument.
I am inclined to believe him. It was his goal, but he knew about the US influence, and knew that Russia at first needed the institutions to withstand that influence.
The audience must have known about the bombing of the appartment buildings and that Putin was not a full democrat and Putin must have been aware of that.
Altogether that makes his offer still questionable.
In 2001 the chancellor of Germany was Gerhard Schröder and not Kohl. Nobody in their right mind would argue that Schröder is anti Russian.
Not saying that I am in my right mind but that’s not my argument. In 2001, the opportunities were still there, as the speech shows but with the Nato expansion the West had already decided against it and Kohl’s notes show that he was one of those who argued against Russia while publicly signaling a joined future. Unfortunately I have never read what his motivations were.
Btw, it’s possible to argue that Schröder’s early engagement in Yugoslavia was anti Russian.
Germany bad
I can imagine that others have also objected, but that’s beyond my knowledge. Maybe somebody can add further references.
Not to say the historical dispute isn’t important, but is it more pressing than the threat of Russia? Imo totally not, the despite can be dealt with after Russia has been dealt with. Glad to see such a large percentage of Poles believe so too.
Also, it’s not like Poland has no historical grudges against Russia…
