Senate Russia: its impact on the world, its invasion of Ukraine, and its future

I've always loved Moore's twist on "War of the Worlds" in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where British Intelligence has Dr. Moreau create a 'hybrid' of the worst infectious diseases to hit the Martians with via mortar shells in occupied London - and incidentally killing any humans left there as well, with the flippant response that "any people that died were killed by the Martians" and "officially, the Martians were killed by the common cold"

 

Sounds like Russia organized a counter offensive in Kursk. There will probably be heavy fighting there over the next few days if Ukraine really wants to hold on.

 

Putin is a desperate man, and that makes him dangerous. While I don't know if Kamala would be better than Biden on Palestine-Israel or not, I'm sure that she will respect and support NATO in its attempt to protect the Baltic states, Poland, and especially Ukraine.

I read a lot of Russian history over the years...and not by choice. But now that I now more about the history of Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine even more than I did a few years ago, I'm even more supportive of NATO's efforts to help out the misnamed "Eastern countries." I mostly knew Soviet history before, but now that I know that the Russian Empire bullied and abused many countries to its east for years just as much as the Soviets, yeah, this makes a lot of sense. Putin needs to be contained. NATO's a mixed bag, but it's the best chance against aggressive Putin with nukes.



Within Temptation released a great album last year about the anxiety of war, the desire for humanity and compassion, and the restless hope that war will end. Putin may not have killed as many people as, say, Stalin, but it's pretty fair to state after further reading that he's killed as many people as the czars. The Ukrainians did not ask for this. They deserve better.

 

I don't believe it was inevitable that Russia would relapse back into imperialism and authoritarianism. I don't think Putin wanted to do all this back when he first took power either. He just grew addicted to power over the years, refused to relinquish power, to the point where he couldn't tolerate critics or democracy anywhere.