Conscription = Slavery ?

[Dill]

(12-06-2016, 03:14 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: But the one thing that really light's Putin's anger is NATO. In the Russian mind, the only purpose of NATO is to hate on Russia. Russian media refers to it as an "aggressive, permanent organization". After all, once the Warsaw Pact shut down, shouldn't NATO have shut down also? Instead NATO has added new nations. Some of them former Warsaw Pact countries. The reason why the Russians have been a pain in the West's ass the past few years is because NATO permitted the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, and Lithunania) to join and has been considering Ukraine and Georgia. That is just not acceptable to the Russians. Putin calls the Baltic States "traitor states" to begin with (this is because many from these countries and from Ukraine fought alongside the Germans during WWII against the Russians... half of the troops fighting for Germany in WWII weren't from Germany).

This leads us to why Putin favored Trump during the election. Trump has made remarks about re-evaluating and lessening U.S. commitment to NATO. Without the U.S., NATO is a shell of itself. If NATO is a shell of itself, then Russia can do what it likes to keep neighbors in line. With its neighbors towing the line, the Russians can keep their military small and feel free to do other things (like rebuilding their navy or bombing civilians in Syria).

So sensible. I enjoyed reading this.   It also explains why talk of including the Ukraine in NATO sets the Russians hair on fire.  Quite understandable. 

Russia has not been an expansionist power since 1917. The Soviets always thought defensively. They occupied Eastern Europe for decades, but that was also defensive. No country suffered in WWII they way they did--a massive national trauma--the politburo was going to make sure they were never invaded again. They were dragged kicking and screaming into Afghanistan.