I don’t really understand why people are fighting when both things can be true simultaneously. Like, I don’t get why people insist in treating this as a black or white geopolitical situation like they were in a Marvel movie.
A) Russia is an expansionist and military power which has the mindset that respect is conquered through wars and land grabbing.
B) Russia has been marginalized after the collapse of Soviet Union. It had a brief attempt towards liberalism and was still humiliated by the West, never treated as part of the same club.
Combine those two things and you have the current scenario. If someone wanted to provoke a psychopath, the psycho will stay being a psycho, but can you say the person who provoked a reaction out of them was all that innocent? Course not.
1. Maybe Russia should stop being so awful then.
2. Ukraine did nothing to "provoke" Russia.
And I know you're going to respond with blah blah global south blah blah third world blah, but maybe the "global south" should simply stop sucking so bad.
Well, if you happen to think everyone sucks outside USA + Europe + White Anglos, don’t be surprised when people don’t want to hang around you as much lol
This attitude is why so many people understand Russia’s position and have some level of sympathy towards it even if they don’t really agree with what they’re doing.
The geopolitical marginalization of Russia since the 90s (way before 2014) is something that the ~global south~ can inherently identify with on a visceral level. That’s the CORE sentiment that facilitates somewhat of an identification with Russia, the fact that just like us they’re not welcomed into the club, even if the reasons for that are different.
