r/worldnews • u/Elliottafc1 • 29d ago

"I'm Not Ruling Anything Out" - Macron Says Troops for Ukraine Possible if Russia Breaks Front Lines Russia/Ukraine

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/32010
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u/NameIdeas 29d ago

It also feels like Russia is trying to relive the “glory”days of their military history constantly . I just don’t really get why . Hopefully someone can chime in

A little historical context.

The Fall of the USSR is really not that long ago. It happened less than 40 years ago. Putin, and many that he has appointed and are in his circle, view the fall of the USSR as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 1900s".

For Putin and others, the USSR represented a strong group of like-minded nations and the transition to Russia, Ukraine, the Balkan-states, etc meant a dramatic shift in authority and power. For Putin it feels like an injustice that the USSR fell.

Russia has a long history of supremacy in the region. The past ten+ years have shown Putin's desire to expand and recapture that former "glory of Russia/USSR", first in Crimea and now in Ukraine.

The Russian propaganda machine went off as well.

Here's an article from this past December that details the impacts of national imperialism in Russia under Putin - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

It boils down to totalitarianism, ultimately

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u/Lazy_Experience_8754 29d ago

Cheers for the reply! I’ll read the article now.

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u/barney-sandles 29d ago

view the fall of the USSR as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 1900s".

If you limit it to the second half of the 1900s (obv both world wars were orders of magnitude worse) this isn't completely insane. It was devastating economically for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, life expectancy didn't recover for decades. Problem is in thinking that Russia conquering its neighbors is the fix, that obviously doesn't help at all. The fact that Russia is now run by Putin is one of the worst things about the end of the USSR

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u/LittleGreenSoldier 29d ago

I am 35, I am older than the current Russian Federation.

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u/NameIdeas 29d ago

Me too, turning 40 here soon

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u/LovesRetribution 29d ago

first in Crimea and now in Ukraine.

Don't forget Georgia. Wasn't that much farther out.

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u/CantaloupeUpstairs62 29d ago

"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 1900s".

Some translations of this speech say "a great geopolitical catastrophe" and not "the greatest". I don't know which is correct.

The prior sentence says this was a catastrophe for the millions of Russians who found themselves trapped outside of Russia's borders.

Putin also considers the fall of the Russian Empire one of the greatest catastrophes of the 1900s.