Ofcourse not and I have never said this war is justified no matter what these posters say, this is just their attempts at smearing me to discredit any points I make.
This is where I stand:
- I do not agree that all governments did their best to avert war, this includes Ukraine, USA, Russia.
- I do not agree we should be cheering the suffering of ordinary Russian people because of Putins war...ie cheering that they are out of food.
- I do not think people should ignore the suffering of the Ukrainian people just because it means more dead Russian soldiers.
- I do not agree with the rampant Russophobia that is going on
- I do not agree with all the lies that are spewed.
This is what I wrote previously, it has a link to a very good
Guardian article wrote around the start of the war definitely worth a read.
Some here might have more experiencing than I dealing with Russians, though from my own varied experience and perspective which includes:
- One of my closest friends being born in St Petersburg (same place Putin was brought up), living in Severomorsk, near the Murmansk naval base where his Dad worked.
- Me, for several years having a Russian girlfriend whose mother owned a bar in Soviet times and apparently used to inform for the KGB
- Being lucky not be killed by a Russian policeman, though still unlucky enough for him to dislocate and break my elbow for no other reason than he felt like doing it.
I understand your push back against what you perceive and refer to as Russophobia and I myself stating pretty much what was written in the Guardian article you linked.
Many years ago I had a conversation with my aforementioned Russian friend stating that a similar thing that happened in Georgia in 2008 might also happen in Ukraine. I was frankly surprised at the time it hadn't happened already and he presciently replied, "All in good time..." and here we are today.
Though from my own experience and perspective, Russians in this regards, are just the worst people ever and lack any kind of moral decency. They just do whatever they want and don't give a **** about anybody else. It's one of the reasons that corruption is normalised there. When you see it first hand coming from a western upbringing it does really make you sit up and pay attention.
There really was no need for Putin to go into Ukraine in the cavalier way that he did. Ukraine joining NATO was off the table as long as the problems in the east of Ukraine still existed.
The most at a push he 'needed' to do was officially support the separatists in the east, rather than pretend it had nothing to do with Russia. But to try and invade pretty much the whole of Ukraine like he has done is just... "Russian", I can't find another word for it!
So whatever you perceive the West being at fault for in this geopolitical game of chess, as far as I am concerned Russians deserve all the opprobrium they get and more.
![[FnG]magnolia](/styles/overclockers/avatars/9.png){kind=avatar}
www.theregister.com
