This Is What Putin REALLY Wants (It's Not Ukraine*) Support me on Patreon: / oliverbahl Follow me on Twitter: / bahlfranke Link to sources: docs.google.com/document/d/13...
One of the reasons why Russia is picking fights in its neighbourhood is that NATO does not permit any members to join that have an active dispute with an opposing force. So they know it’s too risky to sign up Moldova, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia lest they open a war with Russia. I think that’s his goal. To create enough chaos that NATO doesn’t expand further.
Yeah but it still seems like shooting yourself in the leg to hit your neighbor in the neck so that your neighbors friend doesnt want to protect them in the future
Invading Kazakhstan will be super expensive, the sheer amount of land he have to cover will cost him even more than Ukraine. Also China have lot of financial investments there, i don't think China will let him ruin their business. I'm also skeptical that he will try anything on Azerbaijan because Turkey and Iran are there. Iran's population is 16% ethnic Azerbaijanis, there will be massive protests in support of Azerbaijan and Iran could possibly go in war. Kazakhstan doesn't recognize Luhansk and Donetsk regions, wow that surprised me since Putin "saved them" from the protests.
@@ristekostadinov2820 I think Kazakhstan will be targeted politically and economically instead of militarily by Russia. The same is probably true for Uzbek and Turkmenistan as the latter was also noted in the video. I also think that Putin was thinking of invading fully Georgia after Ukraine falls (which has become a big headache for him at the moment) and then "help" Armenia before slowly manipulate politically (e.g., backing Russian-positive policies and politicians) for Azerbaijan's transformation into Russia's puppet state.
@@KillSwitchGarage lmaof Soviet Union Number one in Military and Technology and they where living really good and i say this as an Chechen who hates both Communists and Capitalists everything from Education to Medicine was free now Russia and All Soviet States besides maybe 1 or 2 live in Shitholes
I recall a history lesson we had in grade school about the Soviet Union. In my mind, I drew a comparison as to how the British empire had expanded all across the world; whilst the Soviet Union (Russia, actually) had grown to the sides.
@davidzanre2180 yes sure.The british was much worse.700 years in Ireland.Couldn't speak your language and name your child irish name.Took all the food causing famines.Sure they were not on the same level.
The 0:30 quote is often used recently (understandably seeing the context). However, as my university teacher on the Russian sphere explained to me, we often forget the rest of the quote, to the effect of which where Putin states that any man with a heart regrets the Ussr, but any man with a brain would be foolish to bring it back. My teachers argues more for that Putin wants to unify the three historic “Russian people” : Biélorussians, Ukrainians and Russians If his goal and focus was to completely reunify the USSr, we would have it seen already . In Georgia, he did not try to put in place a pro Russian regime like he is trying now in Ukraine. And for Kazakhstan, there are no talks of “unification” like with Biélorussia I think an element of analysis that is missing in this picture (especially for Central Asia) is the role of China. With the BRI, China is investing amounts in these countries that Russia could never do. And I don’t think China would sit by as Russia engulfs these neighboring “partners”. It’s generally forgetten how much of these sort of decisions will depend on the goodwill of the Chinese, especially now that Russia as basically no other choice than to be economically dependent of China
When Georgia wanted to join NATO, Putin invaded. "Why did Putin invade Georgia when they wanted to join NATO?" you might wonder. I believe it is because Nato (America) intends to place atomic bombs in Georgia if given the opportunity. Fast forward 14 years, and Ukraine finds itself in a same situation.
To add to this at 0:35 "Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory" What he means by that is a lot of Russians citizens were "abroad" in neighbouring countries. My grandparents came to Uzbekistan as a working class to build up heavy industry. Later when USSR collapsed they couldn't just move because of currency collapse etc (at least what they said to me), so they were stuck there. Thats what Putin refers too, a lot of my friends had families split up (father/mother going to Russia in order to get a better paying job to bring family over) Context matters..
The quote from Putin is: "Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain." Also, weeks before the Ukraine invasion, there was a terrible state crisis in Kazakhstan. Russian forces stepped in, restored security and got out of the country. Putin could have annexed Kazakh territory (richer, twice bigger, and half population than Ukraine) in it's most vulnerable time, he did not. Putin has invaded as a last resort when all options have failed the reasons being: 1. Failure of Minsk agreements. A recent article from WSJ pointed out that Zelensky even at the last minute was not willing for a settlement hence the military operation. 2. No clarity where Russia stood in European security architecture. NATO aggression is certainly one of them and the Bucharest summit of 2008 where Ukraine and Georgia were looked at as next NATO members. The author of the video is either clearly biased towards a western viewpoint or has been not well informed on the historical/geopolitical/security context on why Russia had to invade Ukraine. The war is immoral but the decision to go to war is clearly rational in this case.
@@whatslifespurpose Ah yes, the aggression of maybe letting some countries join. Any intervention of the Russian state is purely self serving. The rebels in Donbass were losing, and rapidly. There was no reason to follow through with any such agreement, especially when Russia was ALREADY fighting there. Putin was quickly losing any whisper of a premise to formally intervene. I've heard arguments from all over, but the truth is Putin started expanding ever since he took power. If NATO did not expand, he would have just moved faster, installing authoritarian puppet regimes as he went. Such states could never ally with democracies if they valued their own stability. Any idea that we could all team up if we just stopped expanding NATO so we could stand a chance against China is naive and completely ignores the kind of leader Putin is.
This is great insight, thank you for bringing this to the top, and providing clarity on the quote. Actions speak louder than words, but this, along with the statements in response bring my understanding of the situation to a better level.
He's put himself into a position of where he's damned if he does, damned if he doesnt. The most damning part of the sanctions arent even the direct sanctions themselves, it's all the western companies that left Russia and theyre not coming back. Not to mention being isolated from global supply chains, which will take months if not years to get back to where they were in prewar condition (if ever). So economically, he's already gonna bear the cost. At home, it's essentially more politically palatable to drag the war on for months than to admit a strategic defeat and failure. His only option is securing the breakaway provinces by May 9 to declare some sort of victory. If not, he'll just continue the war until every city in Ukraine looks like Grozny and Aleppo and scenes like Bucha will become commonplace. Scary thought, but thats basically the corner he's backed himself into.
Ironically the sanctions are making putin more popular with the russian people as they see the sanctions quite rightly as an attack aimed a hurting the russian general population which backs what putin has been has been telling them for 20 years now that the west has always seen the russian people as an enemy to be damaged or destroyed at any opportunity......it would greatly surprise me if putin hadn't calculated the russian populations backlash against the inevitable western sanctions into the possible outcomes planning of attacking ukraine
"He's put himself into a position of where he's damned if he does, damned if he doesnt." Quite common place for authoritarian states, dictatorships and other forms of despotic countries. Manageable with enough blood and bodies, but now regime needs to choose whether blood is foreign, domestic or their own. "The most damning part of the sanctions... ...it's all the western companies that left Russia and theyre not coming back." And possibly largely irrelevant, state as big as Russia will not need most of them at all, however this may be severe blow concerning all the tech stuff modern war needs. Plus there is a proverb "the only useful thing Russian has ever invented is samovar - which has a tap stolen from Germans", which reflects the rather abysmal amount of inventions and innovations of Russians - meaning industry will likely not face any improvement anytime soon without help from abroad. "At home, it's essentially more politically palatable to drag the war on for months than to admit a strategic defeat and failure." Irrelevant, as quite many of Russians still do not know there is a war going on, and Russians who are aware about it do not have a clue about the goals (much like us here just quessing) nor the cost in figures, and even if not so, you as a head of the state could simply lie without much fear of any serious consequence. However you may have a point about May 9th, however, as a staunch pessimist, I think they just ignore the subject if Donbas is unsecured - proceed without a trophy and business as usual in that case.
lol in russia we have a lot of revelations that ukraine army shot civillians in bucha by mistake and now tries to cover it up, dont gorget that info war is going on and west and east just trying to point on each other and say "they are bad" its not the first time then ukrainians just lie to world to make russia look bad, we have proof but because of info war you will see it after operation is over
I only speak Ukrainian. I am using google translator. Therefore, please excuse me if the translation is bad! I am from Western Ukraine. I am a nurse and I save lives. I live now in Germany. I need a lawyer to file, with other disabled citizens of Ukraine, a lawsuit against Norway. My husband, a Ukrainian (oil worker, human rights activist) became disabled as a result of his defense of the rights of other people (Norwegian and Russian media for 9 years). My husband fought corruption in the Russian oil giant, which was headed by the founder of the 6th Directorate of the FSB and the ex-Chancellor of Germany. My husband defended the rights of disabled people and Ukrainians in Norway against Russian-speaking citizens of this NATO country. The Norwegians took my disabled husband to Moscow AFTER: anti-war pickets of my husband in the Russian Federation, his defense of the rights of Ukrainians in Norway, the issuance of documents to my husband by the Norwegian Red Cross for his close relatives (Polish servicemen repressed by the Russians), sentencing his defender to prison (in married to a citizen of Finland for 25 years) in Belarus, who reported the crime of the Norwegians against the Ukrainians and was recognized as a Political prisoner. My husband and his lawyer warned the Norwegians about the coming war, but they did not believe him. The husband was kidnapped and the war began. And after the war began, the Norwegians do NOT admit their mistakes! Unlike the Swedes, the Norwegians DO NOT LIKE to admit their mistakes even when the Chechen refugees deported by the Norwegians were killed in the Russian Federation (Norwegian media)....
The title page and a paragraph you said about Kazakhstan seemed to suggest an argument by Peter Zeihan: that he is interested in the gaps which prevent troops to be spread thin in conventional warfare. I was looking for more on this but the you analyze are also strong
Here's what I don't understand. Let's take this from a purely economic perspective. None of those nations you talked about have all that much value or power. Sure. they have natural resources and things like that, but none of them have anything that Russia doesn't already possess in larger quantities. Even if he somehow conquered all of those nations, it wouldn't add enough to Russia's GDP to make it worth it. Put it this way, Russia would gain far more by building trade relations with the EU and USA than he would by conquering Ukraine, Georgia, etc thus cutting Russia off from the rest of the world. The truth is, Russia stands to lose far more by conquering these nations than he stands to gain. So why does Putin persist? Is this really just a matter of ego?
You are completely right on the economic aspect. I think it is a combination between pride and the desire to write history, i also believe that it is the inhabitants that he is after. i mean just Ukrain alone had a population of 40 million people before the war. When the storm calms and the people of annexed Ukrain are used to living under Russia rule, those 40 million people aka 80 million hands can produce a lot.
Exactly the question I ask myself too. I think the only reason can be defence and buffer. The Ukrainians have been moving way to erratic and on top of that erratic, but westwards. Probably got to a point where Russia saw it as too much of a threat. There has to be stuff that was going on in Ukraine that we are not being told, or at least not told with the right perspective.
If you don't know of the the CZcams channel RealLifeLore yet, you should totally check it out! He made a video about the Ukraine and it might answer some of your questions.
Always remember: Actions speak louder than words. Don't trust what people say, trust what they do. That's when they show you what's really in their heart.
Excellent video! The thing that kills me, is the propaganda of “Poland, is next.“ You didn’t mention it; and I can’t think of any pertinent, recent mention from Putin, that Poland, is even significantly on the menu! If anything, Moldova, is next Followed by Belarus.
He won't go after a NATO country. He'll pick on the weak. If Putin attacked Poland the Poles would be only too happy to take on the Russians. The Poles hate the Russians. With very, very good reason.
I don't think Putin ever intends to fight NATO. I think his idea was, at least before the invasion, that NATO was going to leave Ukraine to dry but some NATO members wouldn't want that and others would. Therefore creating dissent within NATO and eventually collapsing it. Then gobbling up individual countries after that.
If the Ukraine had fallen within two to three days and the West had stood in shock aside doing nothing but some lukewarm sanctions - Germany wanted to go on with importing gas, calling Nordstream a private business matter (=> Bundeskanzler Scholz) - Putin might have very well played with the idea to help the Russian minority in these countries. It was the US, the UK, and the Eastern allies like Poland who saved the Ukraine. Germany did next to everything to sabotage the common efforts. Blocking, delaying, forbidding actions, deliveries etc. pp. In the above scenarios they had claimed that negotiations (=> Merkel/Minsk) would be the way while continuing to import Russian gas and selling German tech (Germany was the major source of semicondutors* before the war...) *=> enterprise/russia-chip-imports on protocol Links often lead to a deletion of a comment.
@東京市 The Kievan Rus disintegrated 1000 years ago. Part of the Kievan Rus became Novgorod into Muscuvy into Russia. Russia only conquered the territory of Ukraine in the 18th century. Before that it was part of Polan-Lithuania.
@東京市 Not true, you forget the Lithuanian-Polish kingdom, the era of Golden Horde, Hapsburg rule, Crimean Khaganate, and many more rules which have little to nothing to do with Russians per se. I'd say their history with Russians (Novgorod or Muscovy) is max 400-500 years - if we cease to argue it might have been other way around where in fact Ukraine is "mother" of modern Russia (nothing certain about that cannot be shown though). Genetically speaking I'd quess Ukrainians are or at least were before USSR, more of an European spawn (Ruthenians), but in Europe, generally much of ethnicities are somewhat mixed and "melt" together, Ukraine makes no exception - ethnicity here is generally more assimilation towards some group, not the homogenious group itself.
I think you have all forgotten that Russia was just a part of Kiev's great dominion that spanned from the White to the Black sea. Slava Ukraine! Give Russia back to Ukraine.
Turkmenistan not condemning the invasion doesn't say much. They never interfere with geopolitics in any way. From what I've heard and seen, a rebellion there is also highly unlikely. The country is kinda like North Korea, but then with a ton of natural resources. So it's far from a poor country. And since they keep to themselves, they haven't made many enemies globally, so they can always sell that oil to some other county. So it would be hard to make them dependent on Russia. Putin also has little to fear from Turkmenistan, so I'm guessing he'll just trade with them as much as possible and keep the status quo.
A prediction about events to come: On October 2nd 22, the Russians in Ukraine will fire on orders from Putin, a “tactical nuclear device” in an uninhabited part of Ukraine. N.A.T.O will convene a conference to threaten mobilisation; Putin will be arrested. On October 7th 22, Putin will be found dead, in St Petersburg.
i think all nations are wright to live independetly..like yakutia..those ppl are not russians..and that in only one ex..so mithy federation must dissapear
I think there are a number of factors that motivated Putin's invasion of Ukraine. One that never gets mentioned is natural gas. About a decade ago a massive gas field was discovered in central Ukraine. Ukraine currently taps into only about 2% of it. If they tapped all of it they would directly compete with Russian sales to Europe, and possibly Turkey. It's also thought that even more undiscovered gas reserves exist in Ukraine.
Yes. You are absolutely right. That's why it's very important for Europe to make sure Ukraine wins this fight over the Donbas. This will ensure the future of Ukraine and make Europe independent from Russia concerning natural gas. The Ukrainians are really fighting this war for us Europeans as well.
@@pjhgerlach no they aren't this is fucking the usual people like me while you enjog a rich life normal people or even worst homeless people suffer from the gas prices 😒
@@jfuxkzndurjenjxiwo7604 I can't afford these energy prices either. So I would fall in the category of people who suffer. But that pales in comparison by the suffering of the Ukrainians people that is brought on to them by Putin.
I agree 95%. You say there are a number of factors: no. I'm convinced oil/gas is the SOLE reason for Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Moscow would be bankrupt and the rest of Russia would be a failed state right now if Ukraine ever succeeded at extracting from their reserves. Oil/gas is both Putin's strength and his weakness.
@@jfuxkzndurjenjxiwo7604 Putin invaded Ukraine, not the other way around. Putin is the one fucking you. Gee, I wonder what the fuel mileage is for the vehicle you drive. Did you plan ahead? Oil is always a volatile market. Price jumps are inevitable.
For anyone over 50 who lived in and remembers a pre-1989 world (East/West Germany, non aligned countries -Albania, Romania, former Yugoslavia, etc etc,), the rapid balkanisation and re-alignment of Central and Eastern Europe (and now Scandinavia) has changed things in a way that even Reagan couldn't have dreamt of...the disappearance of non-aligned, independent nations in Europe is a huge backstory.
Soviet Union only existed through force and terror. The vast majority of people in eastern europe were not communists nor did they want to be under the russian boot. But the good guys lost WW2 and the soviets were able to subjugate all of eastern europe with the blessing of the UK and the US. So of course, these nations jumped at the chance for emancipation when the soviet union collapsed. The realignment is only due to these nations wanting protection from any future russian menace. That’s the only reason the balkan states and ukraine want to be in NATO too - they know that the russian bear only hibernates, it is never peaceful. It has been a shitty neighbour to have, even during tsarist times
It's an insight into the revisonist history that they teach in the schools and colleges. America is falling apart and fund some dude on a crazy scheme. The money could be spent on homelessness and infrastructure.
It always baffles me when I hear "NATO expands" as if NATO would be recruiting new countries to join it...One could ask why are so many countries that have borders with Russia wanting to join NATO? Every sovereign country has a right to choose their defensive policies.
I do the math... Putin was costing around $20 Billion per day on military & economic loss. You also failed to mention that Russia's reserved assets in foreign countries were already frozen and new developments in the countries that imposed sanctions they also putting more strict measures for not trading or honoring foreign currency that will come from Russia, they even refused to be paid by Russia on the bonds that Russia owed to them, accepting the loss. So Russia has little money to play with and fewer countries to trade with since besides China other countries it allied with were weak economically and have less power in military
Also it seems in the West many people forgot, that China simply has no friends. They are already using Russia a lot for their benefit, and with those sanctions they for sure will use it for their further advantage on Russia, buying land and resources for even lower prices (which were already ridiculously low for wood and land) . And they won't help Russia in return, because this mess in Ukraine-Belarus region is pretty inconvenient for them and trading with the West is much more profitable, then saving Russia. E.g. they recently have built a large logistics center in Belarus as one of the "windows to Europe", but now it is unusable because of logistics disruption in the region. They don't treat Russia as a partner, they treat them as a barbaric undeveloped state, which only purpose is to be squeezed out in the most profitable way possible for the wellbeing of CCP. If Russia will become weak - good for them, the cheaper everything they buy will be, the more expensive everything they sell will be
@@Blackwing2345635 west knows that khina has no friends. Dictatorships aren't really friends just people waiting to backstab each other. Both khina and ruzzia are seeking to become one and only ethnicity on this planet. Which is why both of them resort to genocide all the time.
Latvian here. The war in Ukraine has made the situation rather unstable in our nation. Due to the USSR occupation of our country from 1944-1991, we have A LOT of russians here, who, unfortunately, are not loyal to our state, and support the war in Ukraine. Another caveat is that one region, similarly to Donetsk/Luhansk, is Latgale, where the huge majority of pro-russians live, who might go the same route DPR/LPR did, despite unlikely, is a possible scenario. Our asses are saved only because we're in NATO and EU. If we weren't, we'd have the faith of Ukraine long ago, with us, and brother nations of Estonia and Lithuania, being "denazified" and "denationalised". I'm open for questions, if anyone wants to know things more specifically, since we're currently the border of the "Iron Curtain", and things are tense.
Isn't there any way to get rid of the Russians? And in the long term, why don't you try to 'latvianize' them maybe? Like enforce the use of Latvian as the first language and require proficiency in the language (not forbidding Russian, but forcing Latvian regardless)
@@vnolan633 Why don't Russia take these Russians back? In civilized manner? Have some repatriation program or something! It seems that where are Russians, there are problems!
As a Latvian myself aswell Anyone who supports The war in Ukraine should be deported to their motherland. If you want to live in western countries and benefit from their living standards then You shouldn't have them. Enough these time bombs. They are The threat to all of The democratic west. Just take a look at Germany. Russians are The third largest minority there and they also advovate for war and genocide. It's part of their mentality.
@@vnolan633 This. Also, it's important to note that there's no nazi battalions in the Latvian army like in Ukraine, so there's no need for denazification there.
When talking about the threat to the Baltic states you really need to mention Kaliningrad. Russia shares a border with all three states (although mainland Russia does not). The corresponding border between the Baltic states and the rest of Europe and/or NATO is tiny by comparison.
Before lifting any of the sanctions against Russia, NATO & Washington should demand Kaliningrad be demilitarized, aiming to end up removing the nuclear arms and missiles based there. Probably some of NATO missiles located in south east Europe will have to be relocated elsewhere in return, but that's worth it. Kaliningrad is closer to EU capitals than Cuba is to Florida, so the danger of missiles based in K is much graver. They should go, and NATO should act, now they got Moscow cornered with the sanctions. It's a strategic advantage that should be used instead of giving in easy and let those arms in place way too close. NATO and US have to deal with it now they have such great opportunity
@@reuireuiop0 But there is one problem. Even if Russia agrees to do it, it means nothing. Russia has broken promises, deals, treaties and has lied for centuries.
He he should imagine how american tax payer dollars fuel a war ,making war monger rich, and innocent women and children suffer while killing thousands . The elite want to weaken russia so Putin will be kicked out or killed. Sorry for russia because they are being forced to join china.
I have memories of my Ukrainian grandparents saying "Well that's the end" and something about him promising to "re-instate the soviet union to its former glory" during his election speech back in 2000 or I dreamt it as a child. I'm not really sure
In your budget calculations, you only seem to take military expenses into account. You also have to consider other economic losses. With all the western companies leaving, lots of people will loose their job. The roebel will likely take a plunge when the stock market reopens, so whatever money they have will be worth a lot less. Then there's the issue of technology. A lot of it comes from the west, with no good alternatives being available. There just aren't all that many companies producing chips, let alone the machines that make the chips. They could attempt to set up their own facilities, but that requires a ton of knowledge, time and money. They're short on all of that. Then there's the issue that everything is getting more expensive for the civilians. At some point people won't accept it anymore. Those prices can be kept relatively low with subsidies, but that costs a lot of money. Another problem is that a lot of people in ex-sovjet countries will never accept being part of Russia again. It'll be an endless guerrilla, probably financed by the west, that can't be won. That's extremely expensive. The main issue is that the sanctions from the west likely won't stop until Putin gives up. So if he goes forwards, he will get squeezed out. Playing the long game is almost a guaranteed loss for Russia.
Russian economy, Ruble, and Putin's domestic popularity have all bounced back and are strengthening. Sanctions have backfired - EU then US headed for recessions and USDollar fall.
@@skozzi2845 Lol he is hopelessly propping up the rouble with reserves, the economy is still screwed beyond belief it just has to wait until the gold runs dry. This was literally addressed in the video lmao
@@itsmederek1 Not to mention HUGE amounts of highly educated people leaving Russia. I'm talking hundreds of thousands of skilled Russians. This will truly cripple Russia in the long term.
@@skozzi2845 They are currently at 82.12 Rouble to the dollar (as of my last check). Yes is down from the high of the 140ish range but still up from 60ish range from the 2010s and way up from the 25-30ish range from the 2000s. Their economy does look better than a few weeks ago it is down from a few years ago and way down from a little over a decade ago. There are signs the US is headed for a recession, however, there are economists who debate this. I haven't found any economists that are not predicting a Russian recession in the next year. That is not to mention how many Texas Instruments, and Intel chips were found in critical components of downed Russian drones. I'll let you guess where those are made. The sanctions may turn out to backfire, I think it is too early to declare it as such. On the thought of Russia bouncing back... There are several reports of a large exodus of Russians from Russia (in most circles this is underreported) within the last few months. Most reports that I can find are these migrants are highly educated Russians, ie doctors, programmers, scientists. Food for thought.
Hmm...How do you get this vocabulary? or rather where did you?! Excuse me, could you help me plz, as im trying to enrich my vocabulary as a non-English speaker. Thanks.
He’s got Belorussia which already has been incorporated in Union, western Ukraine & soon all of Ukraine will be annexed. It’s about creating a buffer as far away from Moscow as possible
My initial thoughts on his motivation behind the invasion was to take control of resources. Namely, the main supplier to the world of raw materials to make semiconductors, like neon gas, gallium, and germanium.
A very large amount of Neon came from the Steelworks at Mariupol which as destroyed in the fighting. Germanium ? well, it is used in Infra Red Lenses, but it is not much used in semiconductors any more - principally because of its low melting point.
@@richardamullens Wow, didn't know about the destruction of Steelworks! Germanium is considered a "technology critical element," and although silicon took over as the principal material since Germanium's hay day, it is making a comeback when alloyed with silicon to speed up the chip-making process. Not to mention uses in fiber optics, solar panels, etc.
There are a few issues here. First off, Kazakhstan did side with the West condemning the invasion of Ukraine because they couldn't bear the burden of economic sanctions that would've been imposed otherwise. Also, Kazakhstan is believed to be increasingly influenced by China, which makes it even more unlikely to be taken by force. Thus, it currently is not a puppet-state like Belarus, and it is unlikely to become that any time soon. Also, during the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan war, russians did not seem too keen on sacrificing their relatively good relationship with Turkey to support Armenia in Karabakh, meaning that Azerbaijan is unlikely to become a puppet state (or be invaded) either. Russia has already pulled most of its troops from both Armenia and Georgia because they need those forces to achieve their military objectives in Ukraine, there even are rumors confirmed by OSINT of Armenia giving russian-made planes back to russia on putin's demand. Azerbaijan seems to be already taking advantage of these two facts by reclaiming its territory, showcasing russia's incapability of protecting it's spheres of influence militarily on multiple fronts. As to their gold reserve - as far as I'm concerned they have been banned from trading gold on the common international market, meaning if there is an actor (such as China) willing to buy from them, the price would likely be drastically lower than the market (make no mistake, Xi plays friends with putin, but Chinese interest has always been and always be above this "friendship"). With sanctions tightening and the war bill getting bigger it becomes more and more clear that putin has massively overestimated their wartime economic potential. Last but not the least: it's simply not true that russians make their own weapons using their own resources. They mostly do SKD production and very little RnD (particularly in mechanics and electronics). Without Taiwanese and American semiconductors/integrated circuits, German engines/transmissions, Japanese high-precision manufacturing tools etc. they are back to 1985 at best in terms of weaponry they can produce. Also, they will have to scale back their production volume significantly because all the major military contractors in russia have been equipped to work with western-made production lines and parts, to even returning them to state where they will be able to maintain reasonable degree of autonomy is not a simple task at all and it is unclear whether it is even possible for them to return back to full capacity any time soon even with inferior components and production tools.
Indeed a few issues as you mention. In addition to what you mention: Putin already flew in Russian `peace-keeping' troops into Azerbaijan, who will be there till at least 2025. But he does not seem to be willing to harm relations with Azerbaijan, as a day before the invasion he made a alliance-agreement with Aliyev. Also: your comment about Armenian planes. If it relates to the SU-30-SM jets, that was confirmed to be false rumors. EU and NATO defense attachés went to inspect and found all jets still in the Armenian airbase.
Very well put. Also, Xi might be unwilling to put his own neck out too far, because there may a a movement to oust him as Premier of China. He could be ousted at the Party Congress this fall. That might also change the dynamic between China and Russia as well.
@TheNextGamer21 It is possible he might be ousted. He has been making some rather oblique references to how he is holding onto power, but he has ticked off the majority of his military with his anti-corruption campaign, and many of the politicians linked to them. He sat through the 2-party Congress last month with two cups of tea in front of him, which was suggested is a statement by Xi that he will never be pushed out of power. But that could be a sign that his position is being threatened and he is trying to make a political statement to the contrary. Also, either his supplies of Grecian formula have run low, or he suddenly got a lot of grey hairs recently. It has been postulated that the recent crash of the 737 in China may have been politically motivated, the reasons being 1) the military got involved really quickly and pushed aside the civilian authorities and 2) they have yet to publish a list of the passengers on the plane. One video discussing this suggested that a politician who supports Xi might have died in the crash. If so, Xi's position may be more precarious than anyone realizes.
If you look @ the demographics of Russia, I don’t see how Putin can plan to take all these other countries. Putin and China want railroad access to Europe that’s why he wants Ukraine. China has already discussed with people in Belarus and was trying to talk to Ukraine about putting in a railroad direct from Russia Moscow to Europe. They both need to sell their products there there’s a lot of money to be made by Russia and China by doing so, I’ve studied Putin for 15 years, and to me, that’s his real game plan.
Your best video by far. I’m obsessed with the Soviet Union and how the ex Soviet states are still tied in somehow like how you explain. Feel like all this could very well happen soon!
It was a good video but he has greatly over estimated the capabilities of the Russian armed forces. With out Nukes & chemical weapons, they are but dancing bears waiting to be put down.
Check out Collapse by Vladislav Zubok for a great book about how the Soviet union collapsed and how the other Soviet republics handled or brought about the changes. It focuses a lot on how the power struggle between Gorbachev and Yeltsin was really about their abilities to get the other republics on their side.
I disagree. I have seen much better videos from this channel (Which is a compliment in my head, because this video was not bad). There are some very good points, and some interesting information presented, but I think the conclusions are way too confident. I am a european, who is very pro NATO and pro EU. But yes, in all fairness, this was a good video, but was leaning too much on emotion and visuals for my taste.
When talking about the idea that Russia could take controll over any country and keep it, enforcing the controll over the people without major conflict arising, which russia wouldn't be able to finance the end of, i think I speak for everyone when I recite the words of stunningly musical talent and disqualified Eurovision 2009 candidates: "We Don't Wanna Put In"
@@Cyktar Mongolia wasn't a literal part of the USSR but was tightly controlled. The Wehrmacht in ww2 recorded running into Mongolian troops in the red army.
I really have a hard time imagining what he sees as an ideal end outcome. Attacking NATO is the death not just of the Russian state because obviously NATO would win a conventional war, but it would potentially be the end of the Russian people if it went nuclear (hard to imagine it wouldn't, really). No one is gonna be a winner from a nuclear exchange, but I can't imagine Russia will come out of that exchange with less harm done to it.
@@vnolan633 much more people living in NATO countries. besides, the Russian regime never gave a fuck about its people. their chances of survival will be much lower in the end.
@@salahabdalla368 There would be no reason to invade Ukraine without also eventually invading the Baltic states, Romania, and eastern Poland. If you don't know what I am talking about then follow up on some geopolitical research about geographical barriers.
Russia is extremely influenced by geographic determinism, aka geography writes history. Russias heartland is located on the eastern side of the grand European Plain, which is mostly flat ad hard to defend. The lack of natural barriers such as mountains along with the view of NATO being an agreesive threat to Russia makes the need for geographic defenses a high priority. The closest geographic defenses at the European Plain is the Capathian moubtains surrounding Hungary, thry cut the plain and reduce the hard to defend areas to 2 parts, north around Germany, and south / east around Romania. This is the ideal defensive position on the European side seen from a Russian geographic determinist eyes in case of a full-blown war between the west and Russia.
Why don't we offer to build a huge tank proof ditch. Say 1km wide, 100 metres deep. Sheer sides. Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea. Fill it with millions of mines or even flood the thing. Yeah it's an expensive option but if it makes Russians feel safe and stops them getting at us why not?
How are Natoma the aggressors russia invaded ukrain and Nato still does nothing you would know if Natoma were involved this shit would have been done way before now
So let just put 40 millions ukrainians in dirt, destroy their country and use them as shield because of irrational fear of NATO. No way, nerds.) No excuses for putin.
the internet when I misclick on an ad: SUPREME CLARITY AND LIGHTSPEED SIGNAL FOR SHOWING YOU BURGER AND CANDY EAT AND BUY AND CONSUME the internet when I try to educate myself on anything about the world outside of America: slow and buffering and why aren't you watching more advertisements sir, you don't need to be smarter, you need to buy buy buy buy buy more things
Putin can produce "dumb" weapons like bullets, guns, unguided munitions but when it comes to missiles the sanctions makes that impossible to replace what they're wasting in Ukraine right now
@@salahabdalla368 They are an exporter but they are likely to face logistic issues manufacturing new weapons in the future. Unless those are low-tech weapons. We have found Intel and Texas Instrument chips in a lot of Russia's military equipment. That could be bad for business. Also, I am not sure the Ukraine conflict is a great commercial for them.
@@Kaizzer Not quite. Depending on computer chip quality, you may be limited to only 3 companies in the world namely Samsung (South Korea), TSMC (Taiwan), or Intel (US). Most other "chip" companies contract through TSMC. US is NATO, and South Korea and Taiwan are not. However, South Korea and Taiwan have really good relations with most of NATO and are also very leery of Russia and China. If you want to build the fab... Only KLA (US) has demonstrated that capability. If you want to work with a little less cutting edge then you can use SMIC (China), a downgrade but not something to dismiss either.
@@jefflane9002 remember one thing, never underestimate the Russians. Because when push comes to shove they have pulled off amazing technological feats with less resources and wealth than their western counterparts. The mig fighter jet is a prime example of this
A prediction about events to come: On October 2nd 22, the Russians in Ukraine will fire on orders from Putin, a “tactical nuclear device” in an uninhabited part of Ukraine. N.A.T.O will convene a conference to threaten mobilisation; Putin will be arrested. On October 7th 22, Putin will be found dead, in St Petersburg.
@11:10 I think part of Putin's ramping up in all the countries mentioned before (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) is in fact due to him having 'missed out' on the Baltic states, who are now too strong via NATO membership (and relatively healthy political economies) to fall to the same tactics; he doesn't want any of the 'weak' countries to go the same route as the Baltics and following their example
And it looks like he will continue following a policy of screwing and abusing them wherever possible, driving them into nato arms. Self fulfilling prophecy. Its sorta like a gf being paranoid her bf is cheating, sabotaging him in jealousy, then wondering why she got dumped...or vice versa.
A prediction about events to come: On October 2nd 22, the Russians in Ukraine will fire on orders from Putin, a “tactical nuclear device” in an uninhabited part of Ukraine. N.A.T.O will convene a conference to threaten mobilisation; Putin will be arrested. On October 7th 22, Putin will be found dead, in St Petersburg.
Some corrections: 1. "Belarus is, one could say, secretly influenced by Russia and only posing as an independent nation". Following this logic, you could say the same about e.g. Taiwan, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria etc. who are either heavily reliable on US support to exist (Taiwan) or have followed the US in wars that were not in their best interest (at all) and not mandated by their NATO member status either. In the case of Germany, Spain and Portugal there are countless examples for US meddling, and in the case of Germany a former Chancelor (Helmut Schmidt) has on camera admitted that the Americans "are our best friends if we do what they want, but if we dont, they bring up secret documents and threaten to leak them if we dont comply". 2. While there was public unrest in Kazakhstan due to price hikes, the violent escalation in the capital was enacted by foreign mercenaries, likely paid by the CIA or other US agencies (quo vadis?), to reenact a "democratic Maidan revolution" in Kazakhstan to make the country a pro Western/US proxy and hence gain control of central asia. This attempt failed due to Kazakhstan calling in troops from the military alliance (CSTO) they are part of, which is headed by Russia. However, Kazakhstan is not a pro Russian proxy since then, I would say. In my opinion, Kazakhstan is playing both sides, the West and Russia, to gain the most for themselves; similar to Turkey. This is actually a good thing cause it means Kazakhstan is doing what is best for their people, not for US or Russian interests.
Also the Baltics are pretty clearly not Russian. And being in the EU, they have less vulnerabilities than other ex-USSR members. Also there are no Russian separatist claims as far as I know of.
@@paulskronbergs3824 exactly, but still, even if you joined EU but not NATO, like Finland did, you would be safe because Russia is broke and it's not gonna waste money on people it doesnt consider Russian and especially when theres no one on the ground to back them up, like in the Donbas or in Georgia.
Azerbijani here, finally a person that explained putin in a geographically wider context . i dont think its about ussr, i think its about having controll over post-soviet countries. If it was forming ussr again, caucasus would be long gone. putin puts power hungry dictators that are loyal to him and job is done. he can benefit as much as he wants from those countries.
@@ivangalic4814 you might argue that but puting is willing to send troops to any country that opposes that "mutual cooperation" (kazakhistan, georgia and now ukraine). without western? russias borderline including all of the post soviet countries (not easter europe) might be the only place that west can control right now.
The same as tzar before 180 years war with Poland and new country after Ukraine hazard.When Napoleon lost Russiam army went to Paris.When Nazzi lost they are in Berlin.When Japan lost they are in Mongolia and part of China and Japan.
Russia lost control of Ukraine because they treated Ukrainians so badly in the past. It took us 7 presidents for one strong enough to break ties with the Moscow mafia. The Georgian government is either blackmailed or bribed or probably both to betray its own people, but I believe they will break free one day too
Unfortunately it's a fact that the world is a polarized mess. Smaller states are influence by one or a another power. Every regional power maintains a certain control over its neighborhood, or even beyond. That's true for US Russia China France (mostly over Africans) Iran...
"He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.” -Machiavelli
This war proved that Russia's army isn't built to fight the war it wants to fight. Regardless of the outcome, I doubt Russia will be engaging in any military adventures in the near term.
@@peterhalat913 the US took less casualties in the 20 years in Afghanistan than Russia did in the last two months in Ukraine. Russia is a country with an economy the size of Texas while paying for a navy and a massive nuclear arsenal. all i'm saying is that, they could've had better results if they spent that money instead on ground warfare (which aligns way more with their strategic goals).
The eastern nations of Europe never believed in Soviet Union, ask to Poland to how they see the URSS when they invaded they Territory together with Nazis in 1939
They really didn't though. It was nothing but mass Russian-centric corruption going on for nearly 70 years. Most of the Eastern European countries fixed this problem, same with the caucasian mountains, but not Central Asia.
На референдуме о судьбе СССР. Большинство людей проголосовали за сохранение СССР, но страну всё равно разорвали на куски. В течении 30 с лишнем лет Западные " очень независимые" СМИ лили народам бывших республик гнусную ложь о СССР, что у новых поколений сложилось ощущение что СССР было исчадием зла, а запад это эталон добра. Но теперь всё встаёт на места и многие люди(по всему миру) просыпаются и видят что Запад это не свобода и демократия, а наоборот навязчивая диктатура повесток глобалистов.
Brilliant, Well presented. Consuming presentations like this are good for the brain. Then reading the comments are likewise healthy for us. I still wonder if invading Ukraine was all about Putin.
Russia do not have 900.000 army personnel. They have active 360.000 and 180.000 of those in Ukraine. They have bolstered with 25.000 from elsewhere, other countries and militia but just as many of their own troops - and higher trained soldiers are out of action - either by KIA, wounded or taken prisoner in Ukraine.
Yeah I think we should all kind of expect by now that Russia's quoted "900k" army is likely at least somewhat inflated, given the massive amounts of corruption evident in the Russian military
This is a perfect time for Moldova to join Romania to avoid war in its borders. This is coming from a Moldovan born person who doesn't want to see Moldovans go through the same suffering as Ukrainians.
@thecazigan28 more so in Romania. A smaller percentage in Moldova would like to unify. Moldova and Romania have a long history. Much more so than Moldova and Russia, or USSR.
@@ghost21501 Wouldn't that also require EU approval? I doubt they'd be happy with admitting a nation with that kind of separatist activity, especially given Georgia got denied entry for having the same problem....
@@blanco7726 because they're not moldovan, dniestrians, or Ukrainians. thwyre Russian transplants and miss communism, forcefully deport them to Russia :)
Nice video and great thoughts. Though I wonder if Putin might be willing to concede getting "only" the former Russia back who is not currently in nato. Love the editing, animation, thoughts and music of this video. Well done. Who makes the music at the beginning until 2:00 and 12:00 to the end of this video?
don't forget that tsar alexander threw a fit over letting poland be a country at the congress of Viena in 1815 russia is still a country where conquest is a legitemate source of legitemisation of leadership
The people of Ukraine wanted to be in the EU, not slaves of Russia. It was not NATO but the people of Ukraine that wanted to be free of Russia. All this started when the russian puppet government declined to be part of the EU.
500b is nothing when it comes to a sustained war. The USA spent 14t in Afghanistan. When it comes to budgeting and resources Russia has next to nothing.
Keep in mind, that 14 trillion was inflated as much as possible to keep the US domestic manufacturing industry alive, as a sort of stimulus check after 2008. Still genuinely sad the Americans spent 14 trillion in Afghanistan, only for those litteral barbarians to squander all that money, and then cry about Western powers caring more for Ukraine than the middle east.
Exactly. If it were a straight up conventional war the US would steam roll Russia. Russia would need China. N. Korea and Pakistani to even compete. If the US just brings in 2 other allies it over imagine all of its allies?
@@Alexander-James that is an exaggeration but the point still remains that we spend 5x what the Russians spend and end up with way better tech. Also Putin and Co. Pocket half their military money.
As an AI language model, I don't have real-time information or the ability to provide up-to-date statements from specific individuals or governments. However, I can provide information based on historical knowledge up until September 2021. Following the 2011 uprising in Libya that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, the situation in the country became unstable, and various armed groups emerged. It is worth noting that different nations and governments had different perspectives on the events and their consequences. Regarding Israel's stance on the toppling of Libya and the subsequent flow of weapons to terrorists, I don't have access to specific statements or official positions from Israeli authorities up to September 2021. It is essential to consult reliable sources, such as official government statements or reputable news outlets, for the most accurate and up-to-date information on Israel's perspectives on this matter.
I don't really think he cares about the Baltics, there is no real reason he would want them at any cost; they are hostile to Russia, they don't have that big of a population and they are part of nato. reforming the USSR doesn't mean he has to annex all ex soviet states.
You're also assuming Russia actually spent like 70B on their military. I've heard from a reliable military source that as little as 20-30% of budgeted military spending actually got spent... the rest got pocketed along the way
I mean, we can also speculate on how much money are being laundered in the US or China's military budget. Nobody really calculates the corruption, so the raw numbers of spendings are all we have.
One of the reasons why Russia is picking fights in its neighbourhood is that NATO does not permit any members to join that have an active dispute with an opposing force. So they know it’s too risky to sign up Moldova, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia lest they open a war with Russia. I think that’s his goal. To create enough chaos that NATO doesn’t expand further.
Mmmm, interesting
Yeah but it still seems like shooting yourself in the leg to hit your neighbor in the neck so that your neighbors friend doesnt want to protect them in the future
@@Rytoast99 you’re are right but I guess (and hope) Putin has factored all this in. Otherwise it’s a very reckless gamble.
Invading Kazakhstan will be super expensive, the sheer amount of land he have to cover will cost him even more than Ukraine. Also China have lot of financial investments there, i don't think China will let him ruin their business. I'm also skeptical that he will try anything on Azerbaijan because Turkey and Iran are there. Iran's population is 16% ethnic Azerbaijanis, there will be massive protests in support of Azerbaijan and Iran could possibly go in war.
Kazakhstan doesn't recognize Luhansk and Donetsk regions, wow that surprised me since Putin "saved them" from the protests.
@@ristekostadinov2820 I think Kazakhstan will be targeted politically and economically instead of militarily by Russia. The same is probably true for Uzbek and Turkmenistan as the latter was also noted in the video. I also think that Putin was thinking of invading fully Georgia after Ukraine falls (which has become a big headache for him at the moment) and then "help" Armenia before slowly manipulate politically (e.g., backing Russian-positive policies and politicians) for Azerbaijan's transformation into Russia's puppet state.
"Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain."
- Vladimir Putin
He himself has no brain....I think he's actually getting "sick in the head" if you know what I mean.
Seriously? He said that? When? Where?
@@theunfortunateguy8348 no wonder you called yourself "The Unfortunate guy" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@SonaliGurpur It's been around a very long time. He means the communist element.
@@KillSwitchGarage lmaof Soviet Union Number one in Military and Technology and they where living really good and i say this as an Chechen who hates both Communists and Capitalists everything from Education to Medicine was free now Russia and All Soviet States besides maybe 1 or 2 live in Shitholes
I recall a history lesson we had in grade school about the Soviet Union. In my mind, I drew a comparison as to how the British empire had expanded all across the world; whilst the Soviet Union (Russia, actually) had grown to the sides.
How dare people compare British empire tò evil soviet empire
Britain brought advancements but they were genocidal to first nations people.
its the other way around, also the USSR was not an empire@@davidzanre2180
@davidzanre2180 yes sure.The british was much worse.700 years in Ireland.Couldn't speak your language and name your child irish name.Took all the food causing famines.Sure they were not on the same level.
@@davidzanre2180 Both were evil
Worst. Chicken Fight. Ever.
- Comic Book Guy
The 0:30 quote is often used recently (understandably seeing the context). However, as my university teacher on the Russian sphere explained to me, we often forget the rest of the quote, to the effect of which where Putin states that any man with a heart regrets the Ussr, but any man with a brain would be foolish to bring it back. My teachers argues more for that Putin wants to unify the three historic “Russian people” : Biélorussians, Ukrainians and Russians
If his goal and focus was to completely reunify the USSr, we would have it seen already . In Georgia, he did not try to put in place a pro Russian regime like he is trying now in Ukraine. And for Kazakhstan, there are no talks of “unification” like with Biélorussia
I think an element of analysis that is missing in this picture (especially for Central Asia) is the role of China. With the BRI, China is investing amounts in these countries that Russia could never do. And I don’t think China would sit by as Russia engulfs these neighboring “partners”. It’s generally forgetten how much of these sort of decisions will depend on the goodwill of the Chinese, especially now that Russia as basically no other choice than to be economically dependent of China
When Georgia wanted to join NATO, Putin invaded. "Why did Putin invade Georgia when they wanted to join NATO?" you might wonder. I believe it is because Nato (America) intends to place atomic bombs in Georgia if given the opportunity. Fast forward 14 years, and Ukraine finds itself in a same situation.
To add to this at 0:35 "Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory" What he means by that is a lot of Russians citizens were "abroad" in neighbouring countries.
My grandparents came to Uzbekistan as a working class to build up heavy industry. Later when USSR collapsed they couldn't just move because of currency collapse etc (at least what they said to me), so they were stuck there. Thats what Putin refers too, a lot of my friends had families split up (father/mother going to Russia in order to get a better paying job to bring family over)
Context matters..
The quote from Putin is: "Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain."
Also, weeks before the Ukraine invasion, there was a terrible state crisis in Kazakhstan. Russian forces stepped in, restored security and got out of the country.
Putin could have annexed Kazakh territory (richer, twice bigger, and half population than Ukraine) in it's most vulnerable time, he did not.
Putin has invaded as a last resort when all options have failed the reasons being:
1. Failure of Minsk agreements. A recent article from WSJ pointed out that Zelensky even at the last minute was not willing for a settlement hence the military operation.
2. No clarity where Russia stood in European security architecture. NATO aggression is certainly one of them and the Bucharest summit of 2008 where Ukraine and Georgia were looked at as next NATO members.
The author of the video is either clearly biased towards a western viewpoint or has been not well informed on the historical/geopolitical/security context on why Russia had to invade Ukraine. The war is immoral but the decision to go to war is clearly rational in this case.
@@whatslifespurpose Ah yes, the aggression of maybe letting some countries join. Any intervention of the Russian state is purely self serving. The rebels in Donbass were losing, and rapidly. There was no reason to follow through with any such agreement, especially when Russia was ALREADY fighting there. Putin was quickly losing any whisper of a premise to formally intervene. I've heard arguments from all over, but the truth is Putin started expanding ever since he took power. If NATO did not expand, he would have just moved faster, installing authoritarian puppet regimes as he went. Such states could never ally with democracies if they valued their own stability. Any idea that we could all team up if we just stopped expanding NATO so we could stand a chance against China is naive and completely ignores the kind of leader Putin is.
This is great insight, thank you for bringing this to the top, and providing clarity on the quote. Actions speak louder than words, but this, along with the statements in response bring my understanding of the situation to a better level.
He's put himself into a position of where he's damned if he does, damned if he doesnt. The most damning part of the sanctions arent even the direct sanctions themselves, it's all the western companies that left Russia and theyre not coming back. Not to mention being isolated from global supply chains, which will take months if not years to get back to where they were in prewar condition (if ever). So economically, he's already gonna bear the cost.
At home, it's essentially more politically palatable to drag the war on for months than to admit a strategic defeat and failure. His only option is securing the breakaway provinces by May 9 to declare some sort of victory. If not, he'll just continue the war until every city in Ukraine looks like Grozny and Aleppo and scenes like Bucha will become commonplace. Scary thought, but thats basically the corner he's backed himself into.
Ironically the sanctions are making putin more popular with the russian people as they see the sanctions quite rightly as an attack aimed a hurting the russian general population which backs what putin has been has been telling them for 20 years now that the west has always seen the russian people as an enemy to be damaged or destroyed at any opportunity......it would greatly surprise me if putin hadn't calculated the russian populations backlash against the inevitable western sanctions into the possible outcomes planning of attacking ukraine
putin : I have batter idea how about Russia empire.
"He's put himself into a position of where he's damned if he does, damned if he doesnt." Quite common place for authoritarian states, dictatorships and other forms of despotic countries. Manageable with enough blood and bodies, but now regime needs to choose whether blood is foreign, domestic or their own.
"The most damning part of the sanctions... ...it's all the western companies that left Russia and theyre not coming back." And possibly largely irrelevant, state as big as Russia will not need most of them at all, however this may be severe blow concerning all the tech stuff modern war needs. Plus there is a proverb "the only useful thing Russian has ever invented is samovar - which has a tap stolen from Germans", which reflects the rather abysmal amount of inventions and innovations of Russians - meaning industry will likely not face any improvement anytime soon without help from abroad.
"At home, it's essentially more politically palatable to drag the war on for months than to admit a strategic defeat and failure." Irrelevant, as quite many of Russians still do not know there is a war going on, and Russians who are aware about it do not have a clue about the goals (much like us here just quessing) nor the cost in figures, and even if not so, you as a head of the state could simply lie without much fear of any serious consequence. However you may have a point about May 9th, however, as a staunch pessimist, I think they just ignore the subject if Donbas is unsecured - proceed without a trophy and business as usual in that case.
lol in russia we have a lot of revelations that ukraine army shot civillians in bucha by mistake and now tries to cover it up, dont gorget that info war is going on and west and east just trying to point on each other and say "they are bad"
its not the first time then ukrainians just lie to world to make russia look bad, we have proof but because of info war you will see it after operation is over
Their alliance with China is all the supply chain they need unfortunately.
I only speak Ukrainian. I am using google translator. Therefore, please excuse me if the translation is bad! I am from Western Ukraine. I am a nurse and I save lives. I live now in Germany. I need a lawyer to file, with other disabled citizens of Ukraine, a lawsuit against Norway. My husband, a Ukrainian (oil worker, human rights activist) became disabled as a result of his defense of the rights of other people (Norwegian and Russian media for 9 years). My husband fought corruption in the Russian oil giant, which was headed by the founder of the 6th Directorate of the FSB and the ex-Chancellor of Germany. My husband defended the rights of disabled people and Ukrainians in Norway against Russian-speaking citizens of this NATO country. The Norwegians took my disabled husband to Moscow AFTER: anti-war pickets of my husband in the Russian Federation, his defense of the rights of Ukrainians in Norway, the issuance of documents to my husband by the Norwegian Red Cross for his close relatives (Polish servicemen repressed by the Russians), sentencing his defender to prison (in married to a citizen of Finland for 25 years) in Belarus, who reported the crime of the Norwegians against the Ukrainians and was recognized as a Political prisoner. My husband and his lawyer warned the Norwegians about the coming war, but they did not believe him. The husband was kidnapped and the war began. And after the war began, the Norwegians do NOT admit their mistakes! Unlike the Swedes, the Norwegians DO NOT LIKE to admit their mistakes even when the Chechen refugees deported by the Norwegians were killed in the Russian Federation (Norwegian media)....
Німецька мова прекрасна!
[Дойче Шпрахе шöн] !
The title page and a paragraph you said about Kazakhstan seemed to suggest an argument by Peter Zeihan: that he is interested in the gaps which prevent troops to be spread thin in conventional warfare. I was looking for more on this but the you analyze are also strong
Here's what I don't understand. Let's take this from a purely economic perspective. None of those nations you talked about have all that much value or power. Sure. they have natural resources and things like that, but none of them have anything that Russia doesn't already possess in larger quantities. Even if he somehow conquered all of those nations, it wouldn't add enough to Russia's GDP to make it worth it. Put it this way, Russia would gain far more by building trade relations with the EU and USA than he would by conquering Ukraine, Georgia, etc thus cutting Russia off from the rest of the world. The truth is, Russia stands to lose far more by conquering these nations than he stands to gain. So why does Putin persist? Is this really just a matter of ego?
You are completely right on the economic aspect. I think it is a combination between pride and the desire to write history, i also believe that it is the inhabitants that he is after. i mean just Ukrain alone had a population of 40 million people before the war. When the storm calms and the people of annexed Ukrain are used to living under Russia rule, those 40 million people aka 80 million hands can produce a lot.
@@ADN076 the problem is he can never realy annex it bec the people dont want to, and he cannot shut the mdown completly
Exactly the question I ask myself too. I think the only reason can be defence and buffer. The Ukrainians have been moving way to erratic and on top of that erratic, but westwards. Probably got to a point where Russia saw it as too much of a threat. There has to be stuff that was going on in Ukraine that we are not being told, or at least not told with the right perspective.
If you don't know of the the CZcams channel RealLifeLore yet, you should totally check it out! He made a video about the Ukraine and it might answer some of your questions.
its a libra thing, they never wanna hear the bad news.
Always remember: Actions speak louder than words. Don't trust what people say, trust what they do. That's when they show you what's really in their heart.
So true
My man.
Russian actions followed the words they've been warning for the last decade
Joe Biden:
INFLATION BE LIKE GAS GAS GAS IM GONNA STEP ON THE GAA
@@Blitz_maniac I hope your thoughts are more coherent than your sentences are, or you must be a very confused person.
Excellent video! The thing that kills me, is the propaganda of “Poland, is next.“ You didn’t mention it; and I can’t think of any pertinent, recent mention from Putin, that Poland, is even significantly on the menu! If anything, Moldova, is next Followed by Belarus.
He won't go after a NATO country. He'll pick on the weak. If Putin attacked Poland the Poles would be only too happy to take on the Russians. The Poles hate the Russians. With very, very good reason.
I don't think Putin ever intends to fight NATO. I think his idea was, at least before the invasion, that NATO was going to leave Ukraine to dry but some NATO members wouldn't want that and others would. Therefore creating dissent within NATO and eventually collapsing it. Then gobbling up individual countries after that.
If the Ukraine had fallen within two to three days and the West had stood in shock aside doing nothing but some lukewarm sanctions - Germany wanted to go on with importing gas, calling Nordstream a private business matter (=> Bundeskanzler Scholz) - Putin might have very well played with the idea to help the Russian minority in these countries.
It was the US, the UK, and the Eastern allies like Poland who saved the Ukraine. Germany did next to everything to sabotage the common efforts. Blocking, delaying, forbidding actions, deliveries etc. pp.
In the above scenarios they had claimed that negotiations (=> Merkel/Minsk) would be the way while continuing to import Russian gas and selling German tech (Germany was the major source of semicondutors* before the war...)
*=> enterprise/russia-chip-imports
on protocol
Links often lead to a deletion of a comment.
as a Georgian, No thank you. Georgia's history dates way before Russia was a thing. not to mention what Russians did to Georgians in Abkhazia.
And, in fact, so does history of Ukraine and many other ex-USSR state.
@東京市 The Kievan Rus disintegrated 1000 years ago. Part of the Kievan Rus became Novgorod into Muscuvy into Russia. Russia only conquered the territory of Ukraine in the 18th century. Before that it was part of Polan-Lithuania.
@東京市 Not true, you forget the Lithuanian-Polish kingdom, the era of Golden Horde, Hapsburg rule, Crimean Khaganate, and many more rules which have little to nothing to do with Russians per se. I'd say their history with Russians (Novgorod or Muscovy) is max 400-500 years - if we cease to argue it might have been other way around where in fact Ukraine is "mother" of modern Russia (nothing certain about that cannot be shown though). Genetically speaking I'd quess Ukrainians are or at least were before USSR, more of an European spawn (Ruthenians), but in Europe, generally much of ethnicities are somewhat mixed and "melt" together, Ukraine makes no exception - ethnicity here is generally more assimilation towards some group, not the homogenious group itself.
And canada is a baby 🇨🇦 🍁
I think you have all forgotten that Russia was just a part of Kiev's great dominion that spanned from the White to the Black sea. Slava Ukraine! Give Russia back to Ukraine.
Turkmenistan not condemning the invasion doesn't say much. They never interfere with geopolitics in any way. From what I've heard and seen, a rebellion there is also highly unlikely. The country is kinda like North Korea, but then with a ton of natural resources. So it's far from a poor country. And since they keep to themselves, they haven't made many enemies globally, so they can always sell that oil to some other county. So it would be hard to make them dependent on Russia.
Putin also has little to fear from Turkmenistan, so I'm guessing he'll just trade with them as much as possible and keep the status quo.
Another difference to North Korea is the weird things their leader does in public
Turkmenistan wouldn't be influential in this war either way.
Best to lay low and say nothing. After the war, they can say how awful it was.
A prediction about events to come: On October 2nd 22, the Russians in Ukraine will fire on orders from Putin, a “tactical nuclear device” in an uninhabited part of Ukraine. N.A.T.O will convene a conference to threaten mobilisation; Putin will be arrested. On October 7th 22, Putin will be found dead, in St Petersburg.
You’ll never stop at one
- Optimus Prime
i think all nations are wright to live independetly..like yakutia..those ppl are not russians..and that in only one ex..so mithy federation must dissapear
I think there are a number of factors that motivated Putin's invasion of Ukraine. One that never gets mentioned is natural gas. About a decade ago a massive gas field was discovered in central Ukraine. Ukraine currently taps into only about 2% of it. If they tapped all of it they would directly compete with Russian sales to Europe, and possibly Turkey. It's also thought that even more undiscovered gas reserves exist in Ukraine.
Yes. You are absolutely right. That's why it's very important for Europe to make sure Ukraine wins this fight over the Donbas. This will ensure the future of Ukraine and make Europe independent from Russia concerning natural gas. The Ukrainians are really fighting this war for us Europeans as well.
@@pjhgerlach no they aren't this is fucking the usual people like me while you enjog a rich life normal people or even worst homeless people suffer from the gas prices 😒
@@jfuxkzndurjenjxiwo7604 I can't afford these energy prices either. So I would fall in the category of people who suffer. But that pales in comparison by the suffering of the Ukrainians people that is brought on to them by Putin.
I agree 95%. You say there are a number of factors: no. I'm convinced oil/gas is the SOLE reason for Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Moscow would be bankrupt and the rest of Russia would be a failed state right now if Ukraine ever succeeded at extracting from their reserves.
Oil/gas is both Putin's strength and his weakness.
@@jfuxkzndurjenjxiwo7604 Putin invaded Ukraine, not the other way around. Putin is the one fucking you.
Gee, I wonder what the fuel mileage is for the vehicle you drive. Did you plan ahead? Oil is always a volatile market. Price jumps are inevitable.
For anyone over 50 who lived in and remembers a pre-1989 world (East/West Germany, non aligned countries -Albania, Romania, former Yugoslavia, etc etc,), the rapid balkanisation and re-alignment of Central and Eastern Europe (and now Scandinavia) has changed things in a way that even Reagan couldn't have dreamt of...the disappearance of non-aligned, independent nations in Europe is a huge backstory.
Soviet Union only existed through force and terror. The vast majority of people in eastern europe were not communists nor did they want to be under the russian boot. But the good guys lost WW2 and the soviets were able to subjugate all of eastern europe with the blessing of the UK and the US.
So of course, these nations jumped at the chance for emancipation when the soviet union collapsed. The realignment is only due to these nations wanting protection from any future russian menace. That’s the only reason the balkan states and ukraine want to be in NATO too - they know that the russian bear only hibernates, it is never peaceful. It has been a shitty neighbour to have, even during tsarist times
Stop killing
The lack of buffer states in between Russia and US client states is an existential concern, as we see playing out in Ukraine.
@@thorkushari4027and from buffer states keep expanding the real estate to...where does it end for Sputin. Policy of appeasement much?
It's an insight into the revisonist history that they teach in the schools and colleges. America is falling apart and fund some dude on a crazy scheme. The money could be spent on homelessness and infrastructure.
This is what Russia wants is for the United States to stay out of Ukraine with those military bases
and nato
LOL put down the wine flask. 🍷🍸🍾
It always baffles me when I hear "NATO expands" as if NATO would be recruiting new countries to join it...One could ask why are so many countries that have borders with Russia wanting to join NATO? Every sovereign country has a right to choose their defensive policies.
nato promised they wouldn't let any new members in
putin : I have batter idea how about Russia empire.
it's almost like every single tiny nation that recently joined NATO has leadership whose claim to power was aided by US alphabet agencies. whoops
putin fears nato
usa can attak irak
I do the math... Putin was costing around $20 Billion per day on military & economic loss. You also failed to mention that Russia's reserved assets in foreign countries were already frozen and new developments in the countries that imposed sanctions they also putting more strict measures for not trading or honoring foreign currency that will come from Russia, they even refused to be paid by Russia on the bonds that Russia owed to them, accepting the loss. So Russia has little money to play with and fewer countries to trade with since besides China other countries it allied with were weak economically and have less power in military
Also it seems in the West many people forgot, that China simply has no friends. They are already using Russia a lot for their benefit, and with those sanctions they for sure will use it for their further advantage on Russia, buying land and resources for even lower prices (which were already ridiculously low for wood and land) . And they won't help Russia in return, because this mess in Ukraine-Belarus region is pretty inconvenient for them and trading with the West is much more profitable, then saving Russia. E.g. they recently have built a large logistics center in Belarus as one of the "windows to Europe", but now it is unusable because of logistics disruption in the region.
They don't treat Russia as a partner, they treat them as a barbaric undeveloped state, which only purpose is to be squeezed out in the most profitable way possible for the wellbeing of CCP. If Russia will become weak - good for them, the cheaper everything they buy will be, the more expensive everything they sell will be
Depends, Donbass riches may offset that.
@@Blackwing2345635 west knows that khina has no friends. Dictatorships aren't really friends just people waiting to backstab each other. Both khina and ruzzia are seeking to become one and only ethnicity on this planet. Which is why both of them resort to genocide all the time.
Russia is doing just fine with the wests worthless sanctions. These sanctions has made it worse for us living in the west than it is for the russians.
doesnt that belarusian presidant look like adolf hitler in his seventies?
OBF is a fellow country man, always nice when what surprise unexpectedly occurs
Latvian here.
The war in Ukraine has made the situation rather unstable in our nation. Due to the USSR occupation of our country from 1944-1991, we have A LOT of russians here, who, unfortunately, are not loyal to our state, and support the war in Ukraine. Another caveat is that one region, similarly to Donetsk/Luhansk, is Latgale, where the huge majority of pro-russians live, who might go the same route DPR/LPR did, despite unlikely, is a possible scenario. Our asses are saved only because we're in NATO and EU. If we weren't, we'd have the faith of Ukraine long ago, with us, and brother nations of Estonia and Lithuania, being "denazified" and "denationalised". I'm open for questions, if anyone wants to know things more specifically, since we're currently the border of the "Iron Curtain", and things are tense.
Isn't there any way to get rid of the Russians? And in the long term, why don't you try to 'latvianize' them maybe? Like enforce the use of Latvian as the first language and require proficiency in the language (not forbidding Russian, but forcing Latvian regardless)
@@vnolan633 Why don't Russia take these Russians back? In civilized manner? Have some repatriation program or something! It seems that where are Russians, there are problems!
As a Latvian myself aswell Anyone who supports The war in Ukraine should be deported to their motherland. If you want to live in western countries and benefit from their living standards then You shouldn't have them. Enough these time bombs. They are The threat to all of The democratic west. Just take a look at Germany. Russians are The third largest minority there and they also advovate for war and genocide. It's part of their mentality.
@@vnolan633 This. Also, it's important to note that there's no nazi battalions in the Latvian army like in Ukraine, so there's no need for denazification there.
Hi Piikachu, how big are these Russian minorities in Latvia? As a percentage of total Latvian population I mean
When talking about the threat to the Baltic states you really need to mention Kaliningrad. Russia shares a border with all three states (although mainland Russia does not). The corresponding border between the Baltic states and the rest of Europe and/or NATO is tiny by comparison.
Not to mention Kaliningrad is heavily militarized.
@@shemica16 They just all gone in 🇺🇦
Before lifting any of the sanctions against Russia, NATO & Washington should demand Kaliningrad be demilitarized, aiming to end up removing the nuclear arms and missiles based there.
Probably some of NATO missiles located in south east Europe will have to be relocated elsewhere in return, but that's worth it. Kaliningrad is closer to EU capitals than Cuba is to Florida, so the danger of missiles based in K is much graver.
They should go, and NATO should act, now they got Moscow cornered with the sanctions. It's a strategic advantage that should be used instead of giving in easy and let those arms in place way too close. NATO and US have to deal with it now they have such great opportunity
@@reuireuiop0 But there is one problem. Even if Russia agrees to do it, it means nothing. Russia has broken promises, deals, treaties and has lied for centuries.
You could als say that Kaliningrad is surrounded. In as war comoletely deprived of supply
This guy should go to Hollywood, what a imagination.
He he should imagine how american tax payer dollars fuel a war ,making war monger rich, and innocent women and children suffer while killing thousands . The elite want to weaken russia so Putin will be kicked out or killed. Sorry for russia because they are being forced to join china.
?????
He is giving all the facts most of us already knows.
LMAO, Putin troll….
I have memories of my Ukrainian grandparents saying "Well that's the end" and something about him promising to "re-instate the soviet union to its former glory" during his election speech back in 2000 or I dreamt it as a child. I'm not really sure
In your budget calculations, you only seem to take military expenses into account. You also have to consider other economic losses. With all the western companies leaving, lots of people will loose their job. The roebel will likely take a plunge when the stock market reopens, so whatever money they have will be worth a lot less.
Then there's the issue of technology. A lot of it comes from the west, with no good alternatives being available. There just aren't all that many companies producing chips, let alone the machines that make the chips. They could attempt to set up their own facilities, but that requires a ton of knowledge, time and money. They're short on all of that.
Then there's the issue that everything is getting more expensive for the civilians. At some point people won't accept it anymore. Those prices can be kept relatively low with subsidies, but that costs a lot of money.
Another problem is that a lot of people in ex-sovjet countries will never accept being part of Russia again. It'll be an endless guerrilla, probably financed by the west, that can't be won. That's extremely expensive.
The main issue is that the sanctions from the west likely won't stop until Putin gives up. So if he goes forwards, he will get squeezed out. Playing the long game is almost a guaranteed loss for Russia.
Okay, Great! Go tell this to psychopath Putin!
Russian economy, Ruble, and Putin's domestic popularity have all bounced back and are strengthening. Sanctions have backfired - EU then US headed for recessions and USDollar fall.
@@skozzi2845 Lol he is hopelessly propping up the rouble with reserves, the economy is still screwed beyond belief it just has to wait until the gold runs dry. This was literally addressed in the video lmao
@@itsmederek1 Not to mention HUGE amounts of highly educated people leaving Russia. I'm talking hundreds of thousands of skilled Russians. This will truly cripple Russia in the long term.
@@skozzi2845 They are currently at 82.12 Rouble to the dollar (as of my last check). Yes is down from the high of the 140ish range but still up from 60ish range from the 2010s and way up from the 25-30ish range from the 2000s. Their economy does look better than a few weeks ago it is down from a few years ago and way down from a little over a decade ago.
There are signs the US is headed for a recession, however, there are economists who debate this.
I haven't found any economists that are not predicting a Russian recession in the next year.
That is not to mention how many Texas Instruments, and Intel chips were found in critical components of downed Russian drones. I'll let you guess where those are made. The sanctions may turn out to backfire, I think it is too early to declare it as such.
On the thought of Russia bouncing back... There are several reports of a large exodus of Russians from Russia (in most circles this is underreported) within the last few months. Most reports that I can find are these migrants are highly educated Russians, ie doctors, programmers, scientists. Food for thought.
Soft annexation. I think the word you are looking for is "vassalization". That's basically what has happened to Belarus.
Hmm...How do you get this vocabulary? or rather where did you?! Excuse me, could you help me plz, as im trying to enrich my vocabulary as a non-English speaker.
Thanks.
Not really, or else Belarus would be in the war at Putin’s command. They have lost sovereignty but is still an independent state
Canada is usa vassal then.
@@ramboog2654videogames
Hoi 4
AOC2
…
A vassal state, a client state,a puppet state, a protectorates, a colony
@@Alexander-James that's what a puppet state mean
He’s got Belorussia which already has been incorporated in Union, western Ukraine & soon all of Ukraine will be annexed. It’s about creating a buffer as far away from Moscow as possible
My initial thoughts on his motivation behind the invasion was to take control of resources. Namely, the main supplier to the world of raw materials to make semiconductors, like neon gas, gallium, and germanium.
It’s allways About raw materials human rights are windowdressing . As long as the homo sapiens excists............
A very large amount of Neon came from the Steelworks at Mariupol which as destroyed in the fighting. Germanium ? well, it is used in Infra Red Lenses, but it is not much used in semiconductors any more - principally because of its low melting point.
@@richardamullens Wow, didn't know about the destruction of Steelworks!
Germanium is considered a "technology critical element," and although silicon took over as the principal material since Germanium's hay day, it is making a comeback when alloyed with silicon to speed up the chip-making process. Not to mention uses in fiber optics, solar panels, etc.
Its kinda werd to see many people really believe the main reason for invasion were the natural resources, as if Russia doesnt have enough of it lol
There are a few issues here. First off, Kazakhstan did side with the West condemning the invasion of Ukraine because they couldn't bear the burden of economic sanctions that would've been imposed otherwise. Also, Kazakhstan is believed to be increasingly influenced by China, which makes it even more unlikely to be taken by force. Thus, it currently is not a puppet-state like Belarus, and it is unlikely to become that any time soon. Also, during the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan war, russians did not seem too keen on sacrificing their relatively good relationship with Turkey to support Armenia in Karabakh, meaning that Azerbaijan is unlikely to become a puppet state (or be invaded) either. Russia has already pulled most of its troops from both Armenia and Georgia because they need those forces to achieve their military objectives in Ukraine, there even are rumors confirmed by OSINT of Armenia giving russian-made planes back to russia on putin's demand. Azerbaijan seems to be already taking advantage of these two facts by reclaiming its territory, showcasing russia's incapability of protecting it's spheres of influence militarily on multiple fronts.
As to their gold reserve - as far as I'm concerned they have been banned from trading gold on the common international market, meaning if there is an actor (such as China) willing to buy from them, the price would likely be drastically lower than the market (make no mistake, Xi plays friends with putin, but Chinese interest has always been and always be above this "friendship"). With sanctions tightening and the war bill getting bigger it becomes more and more clear that putin has massively overestimated their wartime economic potential.
Last but not the least: it's simply not true that russians make their own weapons using their own resources. They mostly do SKD production and very little RnD (particularly in mechanics and electronics). Without Taiwanese and American semiconductors/integrated circuits, German engines/transmissions, Japanese high-precision manufacturing tools etc. they are back to 1985 at best in terms of weaponry they can produce. Also, they will have to scale back their production volume significantly because all the major military contractors in russia have been equipped to work with western-made production lines and parts, to even returning them to state where they will be able to maintain reasonable degree of autonomy is not a simple task at all and it is unclear whether it is even possible for them to return back to full capacity any time soon even with inferior components and production tools.
Indeed a few issues as you mention. In addition to what you mention: Putin already flew in Russian `peace-keeping' troops into Azerbaijan, who will be there till at least 2025. But he does not seem to be willing to harm relations with Azerbaijan, as a day before the invasion he made a alliance-agreement with Aliyev.
Also: your comment about Armenian planes. If it relates to the SU-30-SM jets, that was confirmed to be false rumors. EU and NATO defense attachés went to inspect and found all jets still in the Armenian airbase.
Very well put. Also, Xi might be unwilling to put his own neck out too far, because there may a a movement to oust him as Premier of China. He could be ousted at the Party Congress this fall. That might also change the dynamic between China and Russia as well.
@TheNextGamer21 It is possible he might be ousted. He has been making some rather oblique references to how he is holding onto power, but he has ticked off the majority of his military with his anti-corruption campaign, and many of the politicians linked to them. He sat through the 2-party Congress last month with two cups of tea in front of him, which was suggested is a statement by Xi that he will never be pushed out of power. But that could be a sign that his position is being threatened and he is trying to make a political statement to the contrary. Also, either his supplies of Grecian formula have run low, or he suddenly got a lot of grey hairs recently.
It has been postulated that the recent crash of the 737 in China may have been politically motivated, the reasons being 1) the military got involved really quickly and pushed aside the civilian authorities and 2) they have yet to publish a list of the passengers on the plane. One video discussing this suggested that a politician who supports Xi might have died in the crash. If so, Xi's position may be more precarious than anyone realizes.
This one comment worth a part 2 of this video. Well done
We'll see what happens
I remember the days where you had 300 subscribers and just made a few Nikola videos, now you're almost at 300K!
Whaaaat, have you been here since the Nikola days?! Crazy... Thank you so much for the support!
@@OBFYT putin : I have batter idea how about Russia empire.
If you look @ the demographics of Russia, I don’t see how Putin can plan to take all these other countries. Putin and China want railroad access to Europe that’s why he wants Ukraine. China has already discussed with people in Belarus and was trying to talk to Ukraine about putting in a railroad direct from Russia Moscow to Europe. They both need to sell their products there there’s a lot of money to be made by Russia and China by doing so, I’ve studied Putin for 15 years, and to me, that’s his real game plan.
It's not what he wants, it what he's about to get.
Your best video by far. I’m obsessed with the Soviet Union and how the ex Soviet states are still tied in somehow like how you explain. Feel like all this could very well happen soon!
It was a good video but he has greatly over estimated the capabilities of the Russian armed forces.
With out Nukes & chemical weapons, they are but dancing bears waiting to be put down.
Check out Collapse by Vladislav Zubok for a great book about how the Soviet union collapsed and how the other Soviet republics handled or brought about the changes. It focuses a lot on how the power struggle between Gorbachev and Yeltsin was really about their abilities to get the other republics on their side.
I disagree. I have seen much better videos from this channel (Which is a compliment in my head, because this video was not bad). There are some very good points, and some interesting information presented, but I think the conclusions are way too confident.
I am a european, who is very pro NATO and pro EU. But yes, in all fairness, this was a good video, but was leaning too much on emotion and visuals for my taste.
@@chrisedrev9519 agreed, too much sensationalising
Just watch Bald & Bankrupts videos
When talking about the idea that Russia could take controll over any country and keep it, enforcing the controll over the people without major conflict arising, which russia wouldn't be able to finance the end of, i think I speak for everyone when I recite the words of stunningly musical talent and disqualified Eurovision 2009 candidates: "We Don't Wanna Put In"
I'd personally be happy if Soviet union is formed again. Even though I'd not like to live in a communist country, communism sure does fascinates me :)
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 it wasn't that great though, and it would be an extended russian empire
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 speak for yourself no one who lived under communism wants it back expect russian who want to satisfy their imperialist ambitions
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 would be a far stretch to call it communism.
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 exactly every russian for some reason
He forgot to retract Mongolia from Soviet Union collapse map
He didnt and mongolia wasnt a part of the soviet union???
@@Cyktar Mongolia wasn't a literal part of the USSR but was tightly controlled. The Wehrmacht in ww2 recorded running into Mongolian troops in the red army.
3:38 - I heard Borat saying 'Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and asshole Uzbekistan' 😂
I really have a hard time imagining what he sees as an ideal end outcome.
Attacking NATO is the death not just of the Russian state because obviously NATO would win a conventional war, but it would potentially be the end of the Russian people if it went nuclear (hard to imagine it wouldn't, really). No one is gonna be a winner from a nuclear exchange, but I can't imagine Russia will come out of that exchange with less harm done to it.
@@vnolan633 much more people living in NATO countries. besides, the Russian regime never gave a fuck about its people. their chances of survival will be much lower in the end.
@@RM-el3gw are you for real?
its funny you think that Putin will invade NATO😂
@@vnolan633 If you read what I said, you'd see that I don't think that.
@@salahabdalla368 There would be no reason to invade Ukraine without also eventually invading the Baltic states, Romania, and eastern Poland. If you don't know what I am talking about then follow up on some geopolitical research about geographical barriers.
Russia is extremely influenced by geographic determinism, aka geography writes history. Russias heartland is located on the eastern side of the grand European Plain, which is mostly flat ad hard to defend. The lack of natural barriers such as mountains along with the view of NATO being an agreesive threat to Russia makes the need for geographic defenses a high priority. The closest geographic defenses at the European Plain is the Capathian moubtains surrounding Hungary, thry cut the plain and reduce the hard to defend areas to 2 parts, north around Germany, and south / east around Romania. This is the ideal defensive position on the European side seen from a Russian geographic determinist eyes in case of a full-blown war between the west and Russia.
We could make them a hard boarder with anthrax. No one would bother them then for a few hundred years
Why don't we offer to build a huge tank proof ditch. Say 1km wide, 100 metres deep. Sheer sides. Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea. Fill it with millions of mines or even flood the thing. Yeah it's an expensive option but if it makes Russians feel safe and stops them getting at us why not?
@Sam Pem, ukraine invade us in 24 febraury -_-
How are Natoma the aggressors russia invaded ukrain and Nato still does nothing you would know if Natoma were involved this shit would have been done way before now
So let just put 40 millions ukrainians in dirt, destroy their country and use them as shield because of irrational fear of NATO. No way, nerds.)
No excuses for putin.
the internet when I misclick on an ad:
SUPREME CLARITY AND LIGHTSPEED SIGNAL FOR SHOWING YOU BURGER AND CANDY EAT AND BUY AND CONSUME
the internet when I try to educate myself on anything about the world outside of America:
slow and buffering and why aren't you watching more advertisements sir, you don't need to be smarter, you need to buy buy buy buy buy more things
Also don't forget that he mentioned Alaska.
Putin can produce "dumb" weapons like bullets, guns, unguided munitions but when it comes to missiles the sanctions makes that impossible to replace what they're wasting in Ukraine right now
They are an arm exporter smarty pants
@@salahabdalla368 They are an exporter but they are likely to face logistic issues manufacturing new weapons in the future. Unless those are low-tech weapons. We have found Intel and Texas Instrument chips in a lot of Russia's military equipment. That could be bad for business. Also, I am not sure the Ukraine conflict is a great commercial for them.
@@jefflane9002 They have close relationships with China, that's enough to be on par with NATO technology wise
@@Kaizzer Not quite. Depending on computer chip quality, you may be limited to only 3 companies in the world namely Samsung (South Korea), TSMC (Taiwan), or Intel (US). Most other "chip" companies contract through TSMC. US is NATO, and South Korea and Taiwan are not. However, South Korea and Taiwan have really good relations with most of NATO and are also very leery of Russia and China.
If you want to build the fab... Only KLA (US) has demonstrated that capability.
If you want to work with a little less cutting edge then you can use SMIC (China), a downgrade but not something to dismiss either.
@@jefflane9002 remember one thing, never underestimate the Russians. Because when push comes to shove they have pulled off amazing technological feats with less resources and wealth than their western counterparts. The mig fighter jet is a prime example of this
Russia #2 strongest army in Ukraine
Ukraine isnt an army anymore
its a group of militias most notably the Nazis
Dreaming much
@@jozefmak984 Bomb Moscow. NOW
This is not GEORGIA the real name is GRUZIA!
'Putin, solver of issues'. That's one way to put it 🤔
dissolver of tissues
I really hope that Transnistria gets resolved before the end of this. Both Transnistria and Moldova are being fucked by that dispute.
Yes I'm from Moldova and we got btfo'd
A prediction about events to come: On October 2nd 22, the Russians in Ukraine will fire on orders from Putin, a “tactical nuclear device” in an uninhabited part of Ukraine. N.A.T.O will convene a conference to threaten mobilisation; Putin will be arrested. On October 7th 22, Putin will be found dead, in St Petersburg.
@11:10 I think part of Putin's ramping up in all the countries mentioned before (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) is in fact due to him having 'missed out' on the Baltic states, who are now too strong via NATO membership (and relatively healthy political economies) to fall to the same tactics; he doesn't want any of the 'weak' countries to go the same route as the Baltics and following their example
what he didn't expect was for Ukraine to be not be a pushover
And it looks like he will continue following a policy of screwing and abusing them wherever possible, driving them into nato arms. Self fulfilling prophecy. Its sorta like a gf being paranoid her bf is cheating, sabotaging him in jealousy, then wondering why she got dumped...or vice versa.
A prediction about events to come: On October 2nd 22, the Russians in Ukraine will fire on orders from Putin, a “tactical nuclear device” in an uninhabited part of Ukraine. N.A.T.O will convene a conference to threaten mobilisation; Putin will be arrested. On October 7th 22, Putin will be found dead, in St Petersburg.
Putin already have lost he was hungry for power
Bottom line is that putin afraid of nato
Some corrections:
1. "Belarus is, one could say, secretly influenced by Russia and only posing as an independent nation". Following this logic, you could say the same about e.g. Taiwan, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria etc. who are either heavily reliable on US support to exist (Taiwan) or have followed the US in wars that were not in their best interest (at all) and not mandated by their NATO member status either. In the case of Germany, Spain and Portugal there are countless examples for US meddling, and in the case of Germany a former Chancelor (Helmut Schmidt) has on camera admitted that the Americans "are our best friends if we do what they want, but if we dont, they bring up secret documents and threaten to leak them if we dont comply".
2. While there was public unrest in Kazakhstan due to price hikes, the violent escalation in the capital was enacted by foreign mercenaries, likely paid by the CIA or other US agencies (quo vadis?), to reenact a "democratic Maidan revolution" in Kazakhstan to make the country a pro Western/US proxy and hence gain control of central asia. This attempt failed due to Kazakhstan calling in troops from the military alliance (CSTO) they are part of, which is headed by Russia. However, Kazakhstan is not a pro Russian proxy since then, I would say. In my opinion, Kazakhstan is playing both sides, the West and Russia, to gain the most for themselves; similar to Turkey. This is actually a good thing cause it means Kazakhstan is doing what is best for their people, not for US or Russian interests.
Is the a source for the statement by Schmidt about the US?
Ok buddy👌
When we have nothing to say we should be allowed to be silent
Also the Baltics are pretty clearly not Russian. And being in the EU, they have less vulnerabilities than other ex-USSR members. Also there are no Russian separatist claims as far as I know of.
Also Baltics are in NATO, thats why we are safe from Russia
@@paulskronbergs3824 exactly, but still, even if you joined EU but not NATO, like Finland did, you would be safe because Russia is broke and it's not gonna waste money on people it doesnt consider Russian and especially when theres no one on the ground to back them up, like in the Donbas or in Georgia.
@@blanco7726 true, we are out of their reach
@@paulskronbergs3824 yeah luckily your country’s leaders made some decent moves in the past
@@paulskronbergs3824 you are safe from Russia because you have no natural resources.
Azerbijani here, finally a person that explained putin in a geographically wider context . i dont think its about ussr, i think its about having controll over post-soviet countries. If it was forming ussr again, caucasus would be long gone. putin puts power hungry dictators that are loyal to him and job is done. he can benefit as much as he wants from those countries.
I do not think he wants to control..He wants mutual cooperation...You in Asia need to be as much sovereign as possible without western influence
@@ivangalic4814 you might argue that but puting is willing to send troops to any country that opposes that "mutual cooperation" (kazakhistan, georgia and now ukraine). without western? russias
borderline including all of the post soviet countries (not easter europe) might be the only place that west can control right now.
The same as tzar before 180 years war with Poland and new country after Ukraine hazard.When Napoleon lost Russiam army went to Paris.When Nazzi lost they are in Berlin.When Japan lost they are in Mongolia and part of China and Japan.
that what US does... what is the difference? our mass murderers and their..
Russia lost control of Ukraine because they treated Ukrainians so badly in the past. It took us 7 presidents for one strong enough to break ties with the Moscow mafia. The Georgian government is either blackmailed or bribed or probably both to betray its own people, but I believe they will break free one day too
Unfortunately it's a fact that the world is a polarized mess. Smaller states are influence by one or a another power. Every regional power maintains a certain control over its neighborhood, or even beyond. That's true for US Russia China France (mostly over Africans) Iran...
Even if all Soviet and all Slavic nations unite as the Soviet United Russian Federation makes this the new European and Asian superpower nation.
"He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.”
-Machiavelli
A neolib would quote Machiavelli.
Nice username
@@RustyShackelford1554
as would I.
This war proved that Russia's army isn't built to fight the war it wants to fight. Regardless of the outcome, I doubt Russia will be engaging in any military adventures in the near term.
ye, ye, ye. u.s. army is "surely" built for fighting: recently Afganistan(20 years), some time ago Vietnam
Its easier to defend that it is to attack.
@@peterhalat913 considering we were winning in Afghanistan and Vietnam but people weren’t supportive of the war that isn’t a great example.
Sure. Man sure you guys definitely thought that throwing money into the problem would solve it sure. Just tell it the US lost
@@peterhalat913 the US took less casualties in the 20 years in Afghanistan than Russia did in the last two months in Ukraine. Russia is a country with an economy the size of Texas while paying for a navy and a massive nuclear arsenal. all i'm saying is that, they could've had better results if they spent that money instead on ground warfare (which aligns way more with their strategic goals).
Thanks, enjoyed listening to your Channel.
The problem is that the Soviet Union had an ideology that millions inside the former Soviet Republics believed in!
Current Russia has no such appeal!
The eastern nations of Europe never believed in Soviet Union, ask to Poland to how they see the URSS when they invaded they Territory together with Nazis in 1939
They really didn't though. It was nothing but mass Russian-centric corruption going on for nearly 70 years. Most of the Eastern European countries fixed this problem, same with the caucasian mountains, but not Central Asia.
They have more appeal and influence than most realize most of the world outside of the west loves Russia 33 nations at least
7:10 Karabakh IS a part of Azerbaijan. Internationally recognized by all countries
0:38 that no means suggests that he wants Soviet territory back. You are simply telling what people want to hear.
На референдуме о судьбе СССР. Большинство людей проголосовали за сохранение СССР, но страну всё равно разорвали на куски. В течении 30 с лишнем лет Западные
" очень независимые" СМИ лили народам бывших республик гнусную ложь о СССР, что у новых поколений сложилось ощущение что СССР было исчадием зла, а запад это эталон добра. Но теперь всё встаёт на места и многие люди(по всему миру) просыпаются и видят что Запад это не свобода и демократия, а наоборот навязчивая диктатура повесток глобалистов.
это правда, но сам факт что союз развалился означает что в СССР чего-то не хватало
@@alexandrdostoevski Да, не хватало волевых и честных людей в руководстве... Уже после Сталина пошёл медленный развал союза.
its a shame, the world hasn't been fine since we lost the Soviet Union, America keeps destroying the Global South. It's frustrating and vile.
You call the USSR a nation. It was in the sense of sovereign. But it was a union of republics and regarded as having many ethnicities/nationalities .
It wasn't a union. It was essentially a Russian empire ruling a bunch of vassal states.
Honestly, the same is still true of Russia today. It has semi-autonomous republics with their own ethnicities / nationalities.
@@PiousMoltar the difference is that its under Russian rule
As I read in reddit " I don't fear nuclear war, I fear not being centre of the blast"
I mean, would be cool to see it from 100 km distance ...
Brilliant, Well presented. Consuming presentations like this are good for the brain. Then reading the comments are likewise healthy for us. I still wonder if invading Ukraine was all about Putin.
When he said that many fellow are now at the fringe of Russian territory he aknowledges the limits of the Russian territory.
Russia do not have 900.000 army personnel. They have active 360.000 and 180.000 of those in Ukraine. They have bolstered with 25.000 from elsewhere, other countries and militia but just as many of their own troops - and higher trained soldiers are out of action - either by KIA, wounded or taken prisoner in Ukraine.
And USA has sent 100.000 soldiers to border countries. So.. More than 200.000 high tech ground troops ready. With Air power from another world..
180,000 minus about 30,000 and counting.
Yeah I think we should all kind of expect by now that Russia's quoted "900k" army is likely at least somewhat inflated, given the massive amounts of corruption evident in the Russian military
Ross has around 1 million active duty personnel and 2 million reserves. What are you sources?
@@skygge1006 Source : Trust me Broo.
Can we stop and pay respect to the editor of this video?
He wants his youth back and bigger joystick.
TOP SECRET. Putins plans is to invade Mars. So he need capture Florida spaceport ... :D
This is a perfect time for Moldova to join Romania to avoid war in its borders. This is coming from a Moldovan born person who doesn't want to see Moldovans go through the same suffering as Ukrainians.
That is how you start a war hahaha, why would Transnistrians agree to that
@thecazigan28 more so in Romania. A smaller percentage in Moldova would like to unify. Moldova and Romania have a long history. Much more so than Moldova and Russia, or USSR.
@@ghost21501 Wouldn't that also require EU approval? I doubt they'd be happy with admitting a nation with that kind of separatist activity, especially given Georgia got denied entry for having the same problem....
@thecazigan28 Moldovans are Romanians separated by Stalin, there should be support except for transnistria.
@@blanco7726 because they're not moldovan, dniestrians, or Ukrainians. thwyre Russian transplants and miss communism, forcefully deport them to Russia :)
Nice video and great thoughts. Though I wonder if Putin might be willing to concede getting "only" the former Russia back who is not currently in nato. Love the editing, animation, thoughts and music of this video. Well done.
Who makes the music at the beginning until 2:00 and 12:00 to the end of this video?
And, as of today - what's the answer to the title's question?
OBF: Who is piloting and paying you to tell such BS?
When you mentioned Turkmenistan, John Oliver’s piece came to mind 🤣
Finland and Sweden probably signing next month a NATO pact will change a lot of things.
don t sighn if you love peace and don t want your peaple killed, Nato country killer , history shows
My country of Sweden and neighbouring Finland has allready sent in our applicaions to join Nato.
@@MegaWunna My condolences,, we used to respect Sweden.
@@roki5941 ?
@@MegaWunna Do you remember the Northern War of 1700-1721 and the Finnish War of 1808-1809?) 😉
100% certified kosher baloney, period.
Why that noise in the background?
"But then Putin invaded Ukraine and everything changed forever", gotta respect that Last Airbender reference, despite the grim topic!
That's rough buddy
changed for the west, they realised they arent the world
don't forget that tsar alexander threw a fit over letting poland be a country at the congress of Viena in 1815
russia is still a country where conquest is a legitemate source of legitemisation of leadership
So what of those predictions in this video came true?
It didnt start at 2022...it already started in 2014...after nato meddled with the politics in ukraine
The people of Ukraine wanted to be in the EU, not slaves of Russia. It was not NATO but the people of Ukraine that wanted to be free of Russia. All this started when the russian puppet government declined to be part of the EU.
500b is nothing when it comes to a sustained war. The USA spent 14t in Afghanistan. When it comes to budgeting and resources Russia has next to nothing.
Keep in mind, that 14 trillion was inflated as much as possible to keep the US domestic manufacturing industry alive, as a sort of stimulus check after 2008. Still genuinely sad the Americans spent 14 trillion in Afghanistan, only for those litteral barbarians to squander all that money, and then cry about Western powers caring more for Ukraine than the middle east.
Exactly. If it were a straight up conventional war the US would steam roll Russia. Russia would need China. N. Korea and Pakistani to even compete. If the US just brings in 2 other allies it over imagine all of its allies?
You made up the Humber of 14T. They spent no where near that and that is a complete lie.
@@Alexander-James that is an exaggeration but the point still remains that we spend 5x what the Russians spend and end up with way better tech. Also Putin and Co. Pocket half their military money.
Putin: write that down, WRITE THAT DOWN!
we're waiting for Putin at the Hague trial.
isnt't his how the soviet union functioned.
Man, your videos are always so high quality, but this one, it's just amazing. keep it up 🤠
The soviet reunion
As an AI language model, I don't have real-time information or the ability to provide up-to-date statements from specific individuals or governments. However, I can provide information based on historical knowledge up until September 2021.
Following the 2011 uprising in Libya that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, the situation in the country became unstable, and various armed groups emerged. It is worth noting that different nations and governments had different perspectives on the events and their consequences.
Regarding Israel's stance on the toppling of Libya and the subsequent flow of weapons to terrorists, I don't have access to specific statements or official positions from Israeli authorities up to September 2021. It is essential to consult reliable sources, such as official government statements or reputable news outlets, for the most accurate and up-to-date information on Israel's perspectives on this matter.
He has also made comments about the future of Finland as an independent state
I don't really think he cares about the Baltics, there is no real reason he would want them at any cost; they are hostile to Russia, they don't have that big of a population and they are part of nato. reforming the USSR doesn't mean he has to annex all ex soviet states.
He would care about increased access to the Baltic, but you're right, PoooTin is scared pooopless of NATO.
There is: he's insane
Who puts puzzle and leave couple pieces out?
He consider the collapse of the Soviet Union the worst catastrophe in this century. So WW2 mean shit. That's is telling you who selfish this guy is.
And WW1 also
In history NOTHING is forever - as this video demonstrates
I like how all of that has been known for years
as a lithuanian i really hope none of this happens :(
Can you East Europeans lay off the vodka and behave for 5 minutes?
@@yurichtube1162 don't embarrass yourself
@@youeatthemtheydie might as well speak out. This war influences my life too, thanks to our dear leaders dumb sanctions.
@@yurichtube1162 i dont even like alcohol
And what could Russia get from Lithuania? Rain?
The only way to end it is to make Putin go away the classical way… charred.
Or something suitably medieval.
You miss completely the Giant Panda in the room.
Complete the dissolution now.
You're also assuming Russia actually spent like 70B on their military. I've heard from a reliable military source that as little as 20-30% of budgeted military spending actually got spent... the rest got pocketed along the way
I mean, we can also speculate on how much money are being laundered in the US or China's military budget. Nobody really calculates the corruption, so the raw numbers of spendings are all we have.
‘Reliable military source’ aka my ass