My good doode!OrthodoxEaster wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:15 pmFinland notwithstanding, Sweden is suddenly not in the Western EU anymore? You go south, you hit Germany. I guess Sweden joined NATO just for kicks, and not out of any post-Ukraine security concerns? Do the whole Nordics not count?Lu Zwei wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 2:08 pmOK, that was a lot of words to say nothing significantly different from what I said, so let us try again.OrthodoxEaster wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 1:32 pm
Yeah, I guess all the Ukrainians, Moldovans, and Georgians (ok, different region) living under occupation right now don't really count.
Never mind the general unease in places like Estonia, Latvia, and Finland (a very peaceful country in which even some of the staunchest leftists consider Russia to be a general menace, from border incursions to horrible pollution in the gulf).
Fuck, even my landlady in Belgrade said "The root of so many problems here is that our leaders are dumb enough to think that Russia gives a damn about us."
But never you mind all that. Keep on living in that Croat indie bubble.
Also, Russia occupies something like 20%, not 2% of Ukraine. And at one point, occupied far more during the attempts on Kyiv (which reached as far as the suburbs).
I can't think of one other country that has literally attempted to recolonize its former territory like so, at least not in the recent past. At least the US resorts only to craven, temporary occupations and China mostly builds artificial islands to steal fishing grounds and natural resources (unless you happen to be Uighur or Tibetan, in which case, hang on to your vital organs and keep an eye on your grandpa).
I said that no one in the western EU does fear Russia. That is a statement that you can confirm by googling yourself.
Of all the countries you mentioned, they are their own fault for bending the knee to the oppressor, not the other way around. Re Serbia, they really don't know where to pee or take a shit, so this mess is on them for sitting on two chairs at once. Put in the corrupt govt they have, it all makes sense.
Re the Ukrainian territory, you try and read and comprehend what I wrote, as I stated that the 2% was acquired after the war started. The 20% was done before the war, via annexation.
(Norway is not technically in the EU. But it remains Western Europe and there indeed has been anxiety along its Russian border.)
If you're talking about Iceland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy only as the "western EU," then ok, maybe. But even so, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, exactly, and how that remotely delegitimizes Russia's saber-rattling. That's like saying the US incursion into Venezuela was ok b/c nobody in Uruguay is too worried.
I'm also not sure how one can "Google" to gauge the whole of Western Europe's (or even the, um, western EU's) Russia-related anxiety or lack thereof. That's just strange.
--Of all the countries you mentioned, they are their own fault for bending the knee to the oppressor, not the other way around.
This one is just puzzling. We should somehow blame countries like Moldova and Georgia for Russia setting up fake "republics" there by force?
Sidebar: Russia's relationship w/Kazakhstan's (quasipuppet) government and energy sector seems strikingly similar to what Trump purportedly wants (for a minute, anyway) out of Venezuela's oil sector.
And the Russo-Ukrainian War actually started in February 2014, dude. For real! Even the damn Wiki page says that! I don't typically rely on Wiki, but this information is pretty much solid and well established. And Ukraine remains circa 20% occupied since that date. There has literally been a hot war going on in Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014.
It's also still well, well over 2%, even if you don't count Crimea.
And even if it were just 2%—which, since the true start date of the war, it has not been—that is somehow ok and makes Russia modest and benevolent? Strange logic.
Here's a headline from France 24 dated January 2: "Russia makes largest territorial gains in Ukraine since 2022 invasion." I guess those soldiers brought chocolates, flowers, and copies of Shellac's Japanese live album to the villages they destroyed or occupied. Or maybe they just advanced out of "desperation"? Dunno.
Too long, didn't read. Free Palestine.