[sinyug]

> is there any connection between these events, or am i just taking the simulation hypothesis too seriously.

While I don't know about the rest, Russia has been a neocon project for a long time. If Trump hadn't given them the shock of their lives by winning and then spent the next four years sucking all the oxygen out of Washington, Hillary would have granted their wish in 2017-18.

Putin is no saint. But I think he is vastly superior to his drunkard predecessor who let the country be looted by oligarchs.

It is also possible that this is a Wag the Dog situation.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wag_the_Dog

[saiya-jin]

Putin is smart as hell, most probably sociopath on top. You don't get to be long term successful KGB apparatchik for nothing. The problem is, nobody who wants all that juicy freedom, democracy and other perks of good western life wants strong Russia, these things are exact opposites. Its by far the biggest actual threat to European democracy.

I come from country who was invaded by them in 1968 when we showed we may head towards democracy, and the Russian mentality remained the same since then.

Its sad germans as a nation are still heavily traumatized by what their ancestors did during WWII, and probably hell will freeze sooner than german army fighting, well anything. This leaves Europe severely weakened in eyes of nearby machos like Putin or Erdogan.

He could have built a fine prosperous empire that people are actually happy to live in. Instead, everything is worse and he just siphons tens of billions to same banks as discussed here via his buddies (UBS cough cough). It may be the Wag the Dog situation, but all above is still valid.