The Coming World War

But it was Biden not Trump that carried it out, Roosevelt started the Manhattan project developed the atomic bomb but it was Truman that dropped the bomb not Roosevelt, therefore it is 100% Trumans responsibility. Its the same logic with Biden he was the president in charge, the taliban were not a sovereign government but a rag a tag band of rebels, Biden could have reversed out of it, re negotiated it or just ignored it like they have done in the past, Did the US abide by agreements they made with Saddam or Gadaffi ,No they did not, that argument does not stand up at all.

In any case this is not a Biden /Trump debate, Biden is the president and even though he has only been there barely a year his record is shambolic. It is precisely because of his miscalculations in Afghanistan that Putin is now threatening Ukraine but not just that his silly interference in the energy markets trying to reduce US domestic oil production to appease the "progressives" in the democrats has handed much more power to Russia and OPEC

Pity Russia collaborated with the Nazis first. And then occupied half of Europe after the war.

Looks like you've been watching a bit too much Sky news there buddy, sounds like you see Vladimir Putin as some sort of marvel villain, if anything it's the other way around.

Sounds like your opinion was formed after a 3 day binge of marvel movies and sky news over the Christmas.

I was just saying that if you look at the actual facts the USA has been doing far more evil things in the last 20 years or so than Russia has but when you listen to the media you would think the complete opposite.

I wasn't saying it as a bad thing. I am a big fan of Vlad. 6 months of chaos and the dissolution of the EU would suit me very much.

No, it's not. And no they weren't. The critical blows came in fact from the East - for example the Mongols which altered Russian history forever, caused demise of Kievian Rus and ascendancy of the Moscovites who let's say inherited Asian Mongolian ruling practices that prevail to this very day.

Russia's borders are 20,000 kms long, out of which only 1500 kms are NATO countries. The longest borders are with Kazachstan, China and Mongolia. The whole notion of "NATO encroaching Russia" is BS of the highest order, and manufactured in Kremlin propaganda department.

Russia (politically) is a disruptive and destructive anti-element in Europe and better be kept out of European civilisation sphere.

I know all this. Pretty pathetic attempt at justifying official Kremlin propaganda "we defend ourselves, the west attacks us". Pathetic, in fact.

So Mongols in 13th century then 350 years nothing. Then Ottomans which were their imperial expansionist Asian rivals, so again nothing to do with the "West".

So from the West we've got:

1. A successful Polish incursion of much smaller force resulting in modest territorial gains at the height of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and at the low of the Russian empire in the 17th century. In fact, the Russians were allied with the Swedes here (see #2 below).

2. After switching the sides, a successful Swedish incursion resulting in a minor territorial gains at the height of the Swedish Empire and at the low of Russian empire in the 17th century.

3. A failed Swedish invasion in the 18th century at the height of Swedish empire.

4. A failed French invasion at the height of the French imperial ambition in the 19th century when France invaded basically everyone in Europe. Pointless mentioning this really.

I won't count the 20th century world wars as it's that's irrelevant here from historical perspective. And, because they were, you know, world wars... Involving the whole world.

And that's it?

So let me get this straight - Russia afraid of:

1. Poland - a 54 times smaller NATO member with 204 km border with Russian exclave but no direct border otherwise

2. Sweden - a 38 times smaller neutral country, not a member of NATO, with no border with Russia at all 😁

3. France - a 26 times smaller NATO member with no border with Russia and 1000 kms away (kaliningrad) or 1500 kms away (Russia proper)

All of that on basis of successful or attempted invasion 400 years, 300 years and 200 years ago respectively. Right...

Well you've proven the point that "the eternal series of Western invasions" was always nonsense and it's all made up! 😎

Shall we do the reverse? Whom Russian Empire attacked. The list is long.

And don't test me from the Central and Eastern European history, I know it very well due to my roots.

It's an economic dwarf...

GDP that of Italy with half the population, none of the resources and 56 times smaller territory. Russia manages only Italian level of GDP but with astronomical amount of natural resources and largest territory on earth.

Totally irrelevant despotic backward country that doesn't contribute anything relevant to the European civilisation (in current state at least).

The only leading industries or niches worth mentioning in relation to Russia are - weaponry, including the WMDs, nuclear power (which is a byproduct of the WMD focus), space industry and rocketry (which is again the byproduct of the WMDs), drilling, oil and gas which are obviously based on the immense resources Russia has at disposal.

Yes maybe, but Italy doesn't have the geopolitical power it should have, the same as much of Europe, combined and focused yes Europe is an immense power, but that focus as of yet has not been realized. I think though we are coming to the end of that era , the era of Europe mainly being only of economic significance. I don't think that a European defence aligned with the EU will ever happen either though, a new defence organization to replace NATO will probably where things go