The West don't truly understand Russia's ideology

[Verziro]

People calling Vladimir Putin a madman etc don't seem to understand that he has been very clear about his intentions from the start. He wants to reconstitute and reglorify the Soviet Empire - this is why he's made aggressive moves in Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine, Kazakhstan - he has said it over and over again.

By stating his intentions over and over again, he is revivifying the belief in the Russian people, because the fact is, ever since 'the end' of the Cold War, there has been a tremendous amount of nostalgia in the former Soviet Union for the era of the Soviet Union. However much we may not understand it as the 'West', Stalin remains extraordinarily popular in Russian polls. In the early 2000's, Russian civilian approval for Stalin's regimes was low, as it should be - people saw Stalin as the hallmark of a bloody past. Since Putin's inauguration however, the approval rating for Stalin shot up to 70% as of 2019, with only 19% citing disagreement with Stalin. 70% of Russian respondents believe(d) that Stalin had a POSITIVE impact on Russian history. Long story short, Putin has revived the 'weird' Soviet ideology and 'dream' that is 'Russian greatness'.

When you look at the big picture, these respondents who cite 'Russian greatness', what else do they have to substitute that for? A backwater economy? The entire GDP of Russia (~ 1.3trillion USD) is practically the same as the GDP of the State of Florida (~ 1.2trillion USD). Russia are not a major economic power. What do patriotic pro-Putin Russians actually have to dream about? Glory and the reconstitution of a Soviet Empire. The dependence on Russia for natural gas and oil is the fault of the EU and the US themselves. After the Cold War, the 'West' started shifting focus to renewable/green energy, and basically severed their own ties with natural gas and oil.

If you don't understand the intentions of evil, you won't know how to stop it. The West seems to be under the grave misimpression since the end of the Cold War that everybody wants the same as what the West does/has - freedom of speech, nice clothes, cars, etc. This is why the West has been dealing with Iran, we've made deals with China, we've made deals with Russia, we've made deals with the Taliban, and then we're surprised when those deals aren't adhered to. We spend all of our time blowing out the welfare state, destroying our own national energy independence, on behalf of Swedish teens who lecture us on how terrible we are for wanting a functional global economy.

The last 20 years have been a slow roll for what we've seen in the last few years. In 1997, we (The UK) turned over control of Hong Kong to China, and in 2020, China invaded, and now have their sights set on Taiwan. We handed Hong Kong over with the 'deal' that Hong Kong would be treated with autonomy, and then in 2020, China rolled right in, and there were no sanctions, or meaningful reaction. 2021, Biden turning over Afghanistan for no reason. Americans are still stuck there. And a few months later, Putin has rolled into the Donbass region, and set his sights on Kyiv.

A quote I heard a while ago seems appropriate here - along the lines of:

"The downfall of the 'West' and their so-called power over the world will deteriorate, not because of Russian & Chinese aggression, but because of the incompetence from within."

Biden withdrawing from Afghanistan for no reason, the EU/US severing energy ties in the search for green energy, the gullibility of the West when dealing with the 'East' - if these things did not happen, we would not be looking at Russia paratroopers gliding into Kyiv with no resistance at all.
 

[af_newbie]

 The West will realize sooner or later that the only way to stop Putin is to actually, physically stop him.

Capture him and his elite and execute them.

Sanctions will accomplish nothing but harden his (and his countrymens') resolve.
Money means nothing to him.

The West still does not understand the Soviet people.

I am amazed at how stupid and naive Western leaders are.

[coolcoinz]

Putin is like a wolf that attacks when he sees a weakness. Ukraine was submissive all the way and so was the EU. First Ukraine gave away its nuclear weapons, then got stuck between Russia and the EU, afraid to sever relations with East and West, even when Putin was cutting gas supply to Ukraine and threatening them.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-holds-back-exports-via-ukraine-pressing-case-nord-stream-2-analysts-2021-07-02/

I still feel like Putin is not completely sane. He's an egoist and a narcissist. He's getting old and it feels like he wants to have statues of himself all around Russia. He's forgetting one thing though. There were statues of Stalin all throughout the Soviet Union at one time and then people were taking them down and changing names of streets and squares so that there's no Stalin anywhere. Same thing with Hitler. How many people in Germany and Austria name their sons Adolf these days?
There's a really thin line between being a loved and hated leader. Between being remembered as a liberator and a murderer.

Also, the West may look weak, but it also was like that at the beginning of WW2. Remember how shocked the world was by the invasion of Poland and later by how little time it took before France fell.
I also hope that people in Russia will realize at some point that Putin taking over a foreign country will not directly turn into them having more money or better jobs. It will turn into them getting a letter that their husband, brother, or son died in battle, hearing the news that somebody detonated a car full of explosives next to their child's school, and so on. If there's any profits from this war it will go to Putin's friends and the great victory will be paid for with the blood of ordinary people who will lose either way.