At 4/20/15 10:01 PM, FoAngel wrote:
Crimea has a very large russian population so i understand why they would want it. However the way Putin puffs his chest acting like Russia is entitled to have Crimea annoys me. I know there was a stage where the Russians believe Ukraine obtained Crimea illegitimately, but still there should be more peaceful ways to find a resolution.
I also believe Russia only wants the region for political reason, rather than making their country "whole".
Before anyone jumps down my neck, i realise this may not be the case, but they are the views that i have formed based on what i've read and heard through the media.
No. This is completely correct.
Putin just wants to show the world what a big dick he has by taking back territory that once belonged to the USSR. Russia doesn't actually 'need' Crimea.
Ideally, all of the countries which are threatened by Russia should band together for mutual protection, but we don't live in a world where that sort of cooperation is likely. They'll probably be picked off one by one whilst all unaffected countries ignore it to avoid the ire of Putin.
It's a shit situation because Russia is the ONLY country with which mutually assured destruction is a threat. They have enough nukes that simply launching them (only to be shot down fairly quickly) would produce enough radioactive contamination to turn the Earth into something like the Fallout universe.
It's a fun game of "Guess how batshit insane Putin is" where you only win if he isn't unstable enough to release the nukes. Which he might. As long as those nukes don't detonate over his country, he won't mind making a few European countries uninhabitable.