(I should’ve answered to this too, sorry, rude)
I think it’s very important to be clear that none of what Putin is saying makes sense. I have no idea how we’re going to negotiate with someone who doesn’t live in the real world, but that seems to be what we’re facing.
There is not, and has not been, any threat of NATO invading Russia. It’s purely imaginary. We haven’t lived in that world since the Second World War. We have certainly played violent geopolitical games, but we have long since stopped wars of conquest, and ruled them illegal by international law.
There is so much that has changed since before the Second World War, which seems to be where Putin lives. We have increased global trade ties, which (and I’m saying this as a socialist) are arguably the most reliable peacekeeping mechanism we have.
It makes it more important for us to maintain our diplomatic ties, to use our wits and words, to care about our economies, and forge actual friendships with each other, and it makes using our military to get things completely counterproductive.
Where it starts to get uncomfortable for the Russians is that it also confers a huge advantage to the worlds biggest economies, with the most savvy diplomatic corps, and increasingly also intelligence agencies, who engage in industrial espionage in support of national corporations.
The Russians are seemingly not very good at any of those things, but I think most people would agree that wars of wit, and words, and money are better, and far more productive than lobbing bombs at someone so you can own the ruins, and a completely uncertain future.
The rational thing would’ve been for Russian regime to take a break from robbing their own people, and try to build an actual country for once. Instead they’re lobbing bombs again. There’s not a shred of logic there to respect or acknowledge. It is complete madness.
The fact that Putin is actually trying to defend the Soviet Unions invalidation of Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Kazakh and Ukrainian nationhood is pure madness. It has no basis in reality, nor did it in the early 20th century. It’s a repeat and a doubling down on something that was a crime even when the Soviets did it.
