• Polaris@jlai.lu
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    8 hours ago

    Like, they can’t even handle Ukraine alone currently, what are they going to do in the Baltic States ?

  • VibeSurgeon@piefed.social
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    21 hours ago

    Putin’s insistence on doing frequent airspace violations over Gotland is like half the reason we pursued joining Nato in the first place. That started way back. Ukraine just tipped the scales over enough to cause us to take action on it.

    Sweden used to pride itself on wanting to stay neutral, but that’s quite a bit harder to sustain when someone with significantly higher military power keeps harassing you.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      9 hours ago

      Putin likely gets 2nd hand info. if he had stuck to his troll farm/propaganda machine and fun far right only. ukraine would be theirs eventually. i think he got nervous when the last president fled ukraine.

      • ivan@piefed.social
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        9 hours ago

        That’s not unique to him. China would’ve eventually had Taiwan without a fuss if not for how they dealt with Hong Kong.

        But alas, authoritarian inflexibility and insecurity force morons at the helms of modern empires to do dumbest shit to pursue ephemeral glories.

        • doben@lemmy.ml
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          7 hours ago

          But alas, authoritarian inflexibility and insecurity force morons at the helms of modern empires to do dumbest shit to pursue ephemeral glories.

          I‘m confused, you talking about Trump, Starmer, Merz, Meloni and Macron?

          • jumjummy@lemmy.world
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            3 hours ago

            Oh look, an ml user coming in to deflect off someone mentioning China in a bad light. Shocking.

            • doben@lemmy.ml
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              1 hour ago

              If you’d had some reading comprehension, you’d realize that I did no such thing.

              • jumjummy@lemmy.world
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                12 minutes ago

                Thread above mentions China and Taiwan, which probably triggered your keyword search and you jumped in with “are you talking about these western leaders?”

                How exactly did I not comprehend what you were saying?

          • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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            2 hours ago

            It’s dubious that they would’ve eventually got what they wanted. Trump never had a chance of conquering Iran and knew it - he dodged the draft for Vietnam.

  • oats@piefed.zip
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    24 hours ago

    Clickbaity article title, they are talking about Gotland

      • oats@piefed.zip
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        4 hours ago

        Yeah, good thing there are just about 250 thousand Swedish islands in the Baltic.

        Makes it much clearer than just stating which of those.

        Joking aside, a good title would just include “the Swedish Baltic island Gotland …”

        But then people wouldn’t need to click, as everyone knew the Russians pull the same shit they did during the cold war, again.

    • Goldholz @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 hours ago

      The fact that russia supposedly has more nukes than the USA but spends only 1/12 of the budget of the US on their nuclear war heads maintainance, and seeing in what state the Moskova Flagship, was in, and their army, i am more frightened of the state of their nukes than their nukes themself

    • ruuster13@lemmy.zip
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      22 hours ago

      No. That would make Putin an instant pariah. He wants his little toy army to fight NATO’s little toy army before he dies.

        • variaatio@nord.pub
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          18 hours ago

          Whatever desperation Putin has before using Nukes it is nothing compared to how desperate his situation would be after. It is not west he needs to be concerned then. It is India and China. Both have made clear Nukes are not to be used.

          Russian economy would collapse, if China and India cut ties. Not to mention China might just walk over the eastern border and come clean house with and in Russia for their insolence of not heeding Peking. It’s 140 million person country vs. 1 billion person country and PLA isn’t any more the “every third guy gets actual rifle” people’s resistance army.

          He would put himself and most likely his family and children at risk. Since using nukes like that is the level of thing where ruthless country like China absolutely would come for the culprit and their family. Since “you might not care about your life anymore old man, but we are pretty sure you care about your children and grand children”.

          Medieval (quite literally). “Yeah, we snatched your grand child as hostage.” You behave now and they might life.

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            Since using nukes like that is the level of thing where ruthless country like China absolutely would come for the culprit and their family. Since “you might not care about your life anymore old man, but we are pretty sure you care about your children and grand children”.

            Brutal? Yes. Morally right? No. Morally right to pretend you would do the whole time, but you wouldn’t actually do it? Absolutely, yes.

        • ruuster13@lemmy.zip
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          21 hours ago

          Russia is not under threat from the West. Only its government is. Putin knows this. Starting a nuclear war would not help him; it would expedite his downfall.

      • plyth@feddit.org
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        22 hours ago

        With which fleet should they be able to conquer it? How can they maintain a supply line to hold it?

          • plyth@feddit.org
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            22 hours ago

            Sorry but that’s propaganda. Even Trump will be reasonable when the cameras are off.

            But even if Russians are pure emotional irrationality, they still have to obey physiks and have to handle Nato or EU explosives. They can’t protect their refineries. How should they protect a fleet in the baltic sea when Nato controls all shores and the entrance and Nato has three times more submarines there?

            • Wrufieotnak@feddit.org
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              21 hours ago

              Trump, reasonable? Have you not heard any of the stuff that was leaked by his white house staffers?

              Attacking Ukraine itself was not a reasonable decision and as you say: they are currently loosing that war. So likely losing a war seems not be a factor that stops the Russian government from its decision if they are high enough on their own fumes.

                • tabarnaski@sh.itjust.works
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                  19 hours ago

                  China has said that they cannot afford Russia to lose.

                  I fail to see why that would be the case. I feel they would actually benefit from a beaten and isolated Russia.

                • Wrufieotnak@feddit.org
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                  20 hours ago

                  While it certainly could be that the people surrounding him do apply the madman theory at times, his behaviour can be pretty well explained by narcissism and dementia alone. It’s not like Trump is a particular smart individual with long term planning. He is as stupid as he appears, the problem is just that apparently that’s exactly on the level of a third of the USA population.

                  And regarding Chinese support: that applies to your own doubts in your earlier comment regarding supply lines as well. So either you think China is supporting Russia no matter what or you don’t. But please stop jumping around.