[jiqiren]

From the opening paragraph this is extremely dated.

Recently, in so many words, Putin himself said he wanted the rebuilding of the old Soviet empire. This might have seemed like a plausible explanation during Crimea. But this is all garbage when hearing straight from Putin a couple of days ago.

[Synaesthesia]

I've collected the speeches on my website. He didn't say that. http://pauleccles.co.za/

[mcguire]

He's quite critical of the Soviet Union.

"Lenin criticised this plan and suggested making concessions to the nationalists, whom he called “independents” at that time. Lenin’s ideas of what amounted in essence to a confederative state arrangement and a slogan about the right of nations to self-determination, up to secession, were laid in the foundation of Soviet statehood. Initially they were confirmed in the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR in 1922, and later on, after Lenin’s death, were enshrined in the 1924 Soviet Constitution.

"This immediately raises many questions. The first is really the main one: why was it necessary to appease the nationalists, to satisfy the ceaselessly growing nationalist ambitions on the outskirts of the former empire? What was the point of transferring to the newly, often arbitrarily formed administrative units – the union republics – vast territories that had nothing to do with them? Let me repeat that these territories were transferred along with the population of what was historically Russia.

...

"When it comes to the historical destiny of Russia and its peoples, Lenin’s principles of state development were not just a mistake; they were worse than a mistake, as the saying goes. This became patently clear after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

...

"In fact, what Stalin fully implemented was not Lenin’s but his own principles of government. But he did not make the relevant amendments to the cornerstone documents, to the Constitution, and he did not formally revise Lenin’s principles underlying the Soviet Union. From the look of it, there seemed to be no need for that, because everything seemed to be working well in conditions of the totalitarian regime, and outwardly it looked wonderful, attractive and even super-democratic.

"And yet, it is a great pity that the fundamental and formally legal foundations of our state were not promptly cleansed of the odious and utopian fantasies inspired by the revolution, which are absolutely destructive for any normal state. As it often happened in our country before, nobody gave any thought to the future.

...

"I would like to repeat that today such a centre has already been deployed in Ochakov. In the 18th century, soldiers of Alexander Suvorov fought for this city. Owing to their courage, it became part of Russia. Also in the 18th century, the lands of the Black Sea littoral, incorporated in Russia as a result of wars with the Ottoman Empire, were given the name of Novorossiya (New Russia). Now attempts are being made to condemn these landmarks of history to oblivion, along with the names of state and military figures of the Russian Empire without whose efforts modern Ukraine would not have many big cities or even access to the Black Sea."

[pasabagi]

Is this surprising? He's a right wing guy - he doesn't like "the odious and utopian fantasies" of socialism, and his read of Stalin (and how Stalinism worked) is pretty standard.

It's actually a common understanding of what went so horribly wrong in the USSR: the party formed a sort of parallel administrative structure that basically undermined and supplanted all the actual laws and institutions of state.

[ukrthrowaway]

He also said that he wanted to negotiate a peace agreement which excludes NATO from Ukraine. Why not take that statement at face value too?

[rich_sasha]

Russia has already guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in 1994. Oops then helped itself to Crimea and the “people’s republics”.

Now “don’t arm Ukraine and we pinky promise not to attack it further”? Hmm...

[ukrthrowaway]

If you take as an assumption that you can't negotiate with them then it's you who isn't willing to negotiate not them.

[boardwaalk]

He said he wanting negotiations and then attacked days later. Suggesting we take that statement face value is patently absurd.

[ukrthrowaway]

It was many weeks and the US basically said they would not even consider the main points at issue.

[AnimalMuppet]

When the abusive ex-husband tells you that dating his ex-wife is crossing his "red line", do you carefully consider his position? Or do you refuse to consider it, because that's none of his business?

Putin's demand was none of his business, and was completely unacceptable. It wasn't going to be considered, not in days, not in weeks, and not in decades.

[ranqet]

Then why does the West give him reason for "expansion" through aggressive expansion of NATO?

[dTal]

Maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't take Putin's word at face value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory

[988747]

Or maybe we should take Putin's words more seriously? He was planning to invade Ukraine for at least a decade now, and was quite openly talking about it - all those times when he claimed that "The fall of Soviet Union was a great tragedy" it was quite obvious that he'll try to rebuild it, in its former borders. Western leaders chose to ignore all warning signs because of they greed (looking at you, Germany, with your Nord Stream 2), and that's how we end up in this mess today.

[pasabagi]

I think for many people in the former USSR, that the fall of the USSR was a tragedy is kind of obvious. Living standards dropped precipitously, whole industries closed overnight, and the state was basically stolen from under the citizen's feet. Even in east germany, probably best served by decomunization, you live amongst the carcasses of all the workplaces that closed down.

It doesn't mean that you can reverse that tragedy by lobbing missiles around. That's absurd.