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Monday, March 18, 2024 11:03:46 PM
Putin's irrationality meant no one could have prevented war: Canada's envoy to Ukraine
"Sweden Enters NATO, a Blow to Moscow and a Boost to the Baltic Nations
"Hungary approves Sweden’s NATO membership. The Alliance reaches 32 members
"Closer Ties to the West Don’t Mean Turkey Will Give Up On Russia""
Former Finnish PM says expansion of NATO is a 'win-win'
Christian Paas-Lang · CBC News · Posted: May 15, 2022 12:06 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 17, 2022
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Canada's Ambassador
to Ukraine Larisa Galadza and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raise the flag over the Canadian embassy
in Kyiv on May 8. (Murray Brewster/CBC)
As Canada's embassy in Ukraine adapts to a new normal in the country, Ambassador Larisa Galadza says nothing could have prevented Russian President Vladimir Putin from launching his war against Ukraine.
"He wasn't believing history. He wasn't logical. He wasn't rational. He isn't rational. So, I don't know how one prevents that," Galadza said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live .. https://gem.cbc.ca/media/rosemary-barton-live/s02 .. that aired Sunday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/putin-irrational-canada-ambassador-finland-nato-1.6454081
See also:
Chomsky: Let’s Focus on Preventing Nuclear War, Rather Than Debating “Just War”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168508337
Putin’s War in Ukraine Is a Watershed. Time for America to Get Real.
"Chomsky: Let’s Focus on Preventing Nuclear War, Rather Than Debating “Just War
[...]
Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine should provoke moral outrage in all of us, and, at least in principle, it warrants his removal from office. But Mr. Putin could well remain the leader of a major power into the next decade, and Washington will need to deal with him.
This friction between lofty goals and realpolitik is nothing new. The United States has since the founding era been an idealist power operating in a realist world — and has on balance succeeded in bending the arc of history toward justice. But geopolitical exigency at times takes precedence over ideals, with America playing power politics when it needs to.
During the Cold War, Washington promoted stability by tolerating a Soviet sphere of influence and cozying up to unsavory regimes willing to fight Communism. In contrast, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, America operated under conditions of geopolitical slack; great-power rivalry was muted, enabling Washington to put front and center its effort to promote democracy and expand a liberal, rules-based international order.
What, then, is the path forward? The war in Ukraine now confronts the United States with the need to tilt back toward the practice of realpolitik. Washington’s commitment to keeping NATO’s doors open to Ukraine was a laudable and principled stand against an autocratic Russia. Yet America’s idealist cause has run headlong into Russian tanks; Washington’s effort to do right by Ukraine has culminated in Russia’s ruthless effort to put the country back under Moscow’s sway.
Mr. Putin has just sent history into reverse. The United States should seek to foil and punish Moscow’s aggression, but Washington also needs to be pragmatic to navigate a world that, even if more unruly, is also irreversibly interdependent.
The Gap Between Means and Ends
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed a gap between America’s ideological aspirations and geopolitical realities that has been widening since the 1990s. During the heady decade after the end of the Cold War, Washington was confident that the triumph of American power and purpose cleared the way for the spread of democracy. A primary instrument for doing so was the enlargement of NATO.
But from early on, the American foreign policy establishment allowed principle to obscure the geopolitical downsides of NATO enlargement. Yes, NATO membership should be open to all countries that qualify, and all nations should be able to exercise their sovereign right to choose their alignments as they see fit. But geography and geopolitics still matter; major powers, regardless of their ideological bent, don’t like it when other major powers stray into their neighborhoods.
It’s true that Moscow’s dismay at the prospect of Ukraine’s membership in NATO most likely is fed in part by nostalgia for the geopolitical heft of the Soviet days, Mr. Putin’s paranoia about a “color revolution” arising in Russia, and mystical delusions about unbreakable civilizational links between Russia and Ukraine. But it is also true that the West erred in dismissing Russia’s legitimate security concerns about NATO setting up shop on the other side of its 1,000-mile-plus border with Ukraine.
All major powers desire strategic breathing room — which is precisely why Russia has objected to NATO’s eastern expansion since the end of the Cold War. NATO may be a defensive alliance, but it brings to bear aggregate military power that Russia understandably does not want parked near its territory.
April, 2022 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168521246
Why Superpower Crises Are a Good Thing
"China blocks some Taiwan imports but avoids chip disruptions
"Too concerned re Pelosi visit? -- China angered after Taiwan opens diplomatic office in Lithuania""
August, 2022 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169603820
a year ago - Russia could have joined NATO. But why didn't they do it?
[...]
Some experts believe it could have been real if the West had taken Russia’s membership prospects seriously back in 2000 or the 1990s when Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, and Russian Federation’s first President Boris Yeltsin also lobbied .. https://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/98-00/davydov.pdf .. for Moscow’s entrance to the alliance. Had it happened, the current Russian onslaught on Ukraine could have been prevented .. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/591036-invite-russia-to-join-nato .
“Because they thought that they had won the Cold War and could dictate all the terms as Russia was 'beaten'. They were high on the euphoria of a perceived victory rather than a massive opportunity for peace and security,” says Gregory Simons, an associate professor at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University.
“They did not regard Russia as an equal and probably thought to use the idea of membership as a means of compliance. Like the EU has done to Turkey for years,” Simons tells TRT World.
[...]
But other experts believe that if Russia is not a NATO member, it is not the fault of the Western alliance. “Yes. In the 1990s, Russia and NATO discussed whether or not Russia might want to become a member of NATO. I think Russia never wanted it, and it was never serious,” says Matthew Bryza, the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic.
June, 2023 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172149693
Putin debunks his own propaganda by disarming Russia’s NATO borders
February, 2024 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173915557
"Sweden Enters NATO, a Blow to Moscow and a Boost to the Baltic Nations
"Hungary approves Sweden’s NATO membership. The Alliance reaches 32 members
"Closer Ties to the West Don’t Mean Turkey Will Give Up On Russia""
Former Finnish PM says expansion of NATO is a 'win-win'
Christian Paas-Lang · CBC News · Posted: May 15, 2022 12:06 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 17, 2022
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Canada's Ambassador
to Ukraine Larisa Galadza and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raise the flag over the Canadian embassy
in Kyiv on May 8. (Murray Brewster/CBC)
As Canada's embassy in Ukraine adapts to a new normal in the country, Ambassador Larisa Galadza says nothing could have prevented Russian President Vladimir Putin from launching his war against Ukraine.
"He wasn't believing history. He wasn't logical. He wasn't rational. He isn't rational. So, I don't know how one prevents that," Galadza said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live .. https://gem.cbc.ca/media/rosemary-barton-live/s02 .. that aired Sunday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/putin-irrational-canada-ambassador-finland-nato-1.6454081
See also:
Chomsky: Let’s Focus on Preventing Nuclear War, Rather Than Debating “Just War”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168508337
Putin’s War in Ukraine Is a Watershed. Time for America to Get Real.
"Chomsky: Let’s Focus on Preventing Nuclear War, Rather Than Debating “Just War
[...]
Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine should provoke moral outrage in all of us, and, at least in principle, it warrants his removal from office. But Mr. Putin could well remain the leader of a major power into the next decade, and Washington will need to deal with him.
This friction between lofty goals and realpolitik is nothing new. The United States has since the founding era been an idealist power operating in a realist world — and has on balance succeeded in bending the arc of history toward justice. But geopolitical exigency at times takes precedence over ideals, with America playing power politics when it needs to.
During the Cold War, Washington promoted stability by tolerating a Soviet sphere of influence and cozying up to unsavory regimes willing to fight Communism. In contrast, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, America operated under conditions of geopolitical slack; great-power rivalry was muted, enabling Washington to put front and center its effort to promote democracy and expand a liberal, rules-based international order.
What, then, is the path forward? The war in Ukraine now confronts the United States with the need to tilt back toward the practice of realpolitik. Washington’s commitment to keeping NATO’s doors open to Ukraine was a laudable and principled stand against an autocratic Russia. Yet America’s idealist cause has run headlong into Russian tanks; Washington’s effort to do right by Ukraine has culminated in Russia’s ruthless effort to put the country back under Moscow’s sway.
Mr. Putin has just sent history into reverse. The United States should seek to foil and punish Moscow’s aggression, but Washington also needs to be pragmatic to navigate a world that, even if more unruly, is also irreversibly interdependent.
The Gap Between Means and Ends
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed a gap between America’s ideological aspirations and geopolitical realities that has been widening since the 1990s. During the heady decade after the end of the Cold War, Washington was confident that the triumph of American power and purpose cleared the way for the spread of democracy. A primary instrument for doing so was the enlargement of NATO.
But from early on, the American foreign policy establishment allowed principle to obscure the geopolitical downsides of NATO enlargement. Yes, NATO membership should be open to all countries that qualify, and all nations should be able to exercise their sovereign right to choose their alignments as they see fit. But geography and geopolitics still matter; major powers, regardless of their ideological bent, don’t like it when other major powers stray into their neighborhoods.
It’s true that Moscow’s dismay at the prospect of Ukraine’s membership in NATO most likely is fed in part by nostalgia for the geopolitical heft of the Soviet days, Mr. Putin’s paranoia about a “color revolution” arising in Russia, and mystical delusions about unbreakable civilizational links between Russia and Ukraine. But it is also true that the West erred in dismissing Russia’s legitimate security concerns about NATO setting up shop on the other side of its 1,000-mile-plus border with Ukraine.
All major powers desire strategic breathing room — which is precisely why Russia has objected to NATO’s eastern expansion since the end of the Cold War. NATO may be a defensive alliance, but it brings to bear aggregate military power that Russia understandably does not want parked near its territory.
April, 2022 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168521246
Why Superpower Crises Are a Good Thing
"China blocks some Taiwan imports but avoids chip disruptions
"Too concerned re Pelosi visit? -- China angered after Taiwan opens diplomatic office in Lithuania""
August, 2022 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169603820
a year ago - Russia could have joined NATO. But why didn't they do it?
[...]
Some experts believe it could have been real if the West had taken Russia’s membership prospects seriously back in 2000 or the 1990s when Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, and Russian Federation’s first President Boris Yeltsin also lobbied .. https://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/98-00/davydov.pdf .. for Moscow’s entrance to the alliance. Had it happened, the current Russian onslaught on Ukraine could have been prevented .. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/591036-invite-russia-to-join-nato .
“Because they thought that they had won the Cold War and could dictate all the terms as Russia was 'beaten'. They were high on the euphoria of a perceived victory rather than a massive opportunity for peace and security,” says Gregory Simons, an associate professor at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University.
“They did not regard Russia as an equal and probably thought to use the idea of membership as a means of compliance. Like the EU has done to Turkey for years,” Simons tells TRT World.
[...]
But other experts believe that if Russia is not a NATO member, it is not the fault of the Western alliance. “Yes. In the 1990s, Russia and NATO discussed whether or not Russia might want to become a member of NATO. I think Russia never wanted it, and it was never serious,” says Matthew Bryza, the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic.
June, 2023 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172149693
Putin debunks his own propaganda by disarming Russia’s NATO borders
February, 2024 -- https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173915557
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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