[lispm]

> This one was actually heard by a sizable audience?

So, the content is the same? An aggressor trying to justify his aggression by his version of history?

> The Russian take is: look, Crimea changes hands once every 100 or so years, and this is just the latest iteration.

Putin was not going after Crimea, he was going to "free" the whole Ukraine in a few days (the "special operation") and then beyond. That's what he sold the Russian people. Too bad, his troops were defeated while on their way to Kiev. Now his troops are fighting a bloody war and Russia is isolated in Europe. Countries are joining NATO instead. Putin has achieved to unite most of Europe, unfortunately without and against him.

The Russia public lives in the propaganda bubble of an aggressive regime. There are no flights to much of Europe, few trains, borders are closed, ...

There Russian take is that the evil West is responsible and the reason why its now hard to get all the good things..., but is it worth for them to die for an outdated version of an imperialistic history, where Putin is a czar?

Putin, the emperor with no clothes.

[khzw8yyy]

Come on, you don't actually believe in "and beyond", do you? That's just a scare tactic to feed more of your tax money to the military industrial complex.

[lispm]

Putin? Don't be naive. He is the "protector" of every Russian (or what he thinks is a Russian). Like Crimea, he will start with regions where people will russian background live.

If he has the opportunity, than he invades neighbour countries. Why do you think Finland is a NATO member now and Sweden is seeking NATO membership? It was clear to them that they would be easy and early targets for conflicts, if they were not in a more powerful union.

Other countries he would start a conflict with, are countries which are looking to be members of the EU.

Putin just said in the interview that he won't invade Poland, only when Poland attacks Russia. Just like he said before that he won't invade Ukraine, but then he had to, to defend Russia from the West (and then did not call it war, but "special operation).

Putin dreams of a larger Russia and he as said that the real enemy is the "west", which he now sees as weak, especially when Trump is President again and Trump and his republican party won't defend Europe.

Poland and Estland would be the first targets. It might not start with a war, but Putin also did start to destabilize the Ukraine long before the current war. The interviewer is a tool, just like Trump.

Putin's Russia is an imperialistic terror state.

[khzw8yyy]

What in the world would Putin do with a larger Russia?

[lispm]

Restore the former "glory", influence zones and importance of the Soviet Union / now called Russia. Defend his dictatorship against western influence of democracy and self determination of nations. Putin sits on a huge pile of natural resources and he wants to use that as a power instrument. It's the fate of many resource rich countries, that it leads to governments (and helping classes) enriching themselves.

[khzw8yyy]

But I don't think Putin is self-destructive / suicidal. There is no hope for controlling a hypothetical conquered European country for any length of time given Russia's present capabilities.

Realistically the only thing Russia can hope for is the preservation of the status quo - keeping Crimea and the land bridge to it.

[lispm]

> Realistically the only thing Russia can hope for is the preservation of the status quo - keeping Crimea and the land bridge to it.

That's not enough for him, it would be a huge defeat. He would not survive that, I would think.