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How should west respond to potential (likely) Russian invasion of Ukraine?

You are making the hidden assumption that Ukraine is part of Russia. The Ukrainians don't agree with you.
No, I don't. My assumption or rather (correct) claim is that opinion of Ukrainians does not matter either way.
And also some Ukrainians behave like some of the "Ukraine" is actually Russia.
 

It is possible that Barbos is answering this way because he does not know what a red line is. So let’s just explain that.
While subsequent discussion says he did understand you have a good point here--just because someone writes English well doesn't mean they're going to understand the more subtle bits.
 
What red line would you say Putin ought not cross? What creates the shapes of such lines?
What is this?

It is possible that Barbos is answering this way because he does not know what a red line is. So let’s just explain that.

A “Red Line” means any threshhold in an argument or action that the person acting will STOP before saying or doing. Also called “A Line in the Sand.”
I know what the red line is. I just don't understand how can Putin cross the red line he himself set. Is Putin a head of NATO?
[removed] Because the question was where you think the line is, not what line Putin might have set. [removed]

Rephrased: What would you consider as Putin going too far?
 
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It is possible that Barbos is answering this way because he does not know what a red line is. So let’s just explain that.
While subsequent discussion says he did understand you have a good point here--just because someone writes English well doesn't mean they're going to understand the more subtle bits.
[insult removed]
There were no red lines drown by NATO. There was however red line drown by Russia, and NATO crossed it.
 
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Why did he ever invade? Why did Hitler leave France?
Hitler did not leave France, he was kicked out, remember D-Day? What are they teaching in american schools these days?

So I repeat my question, why did Putin leave after "invading" Georgia?
 
Why did he ever invade? Why did Hitler leave France?
Hitler did not leave France, he was kicked out, remember D-Day? What are they teaching in american schools these days?

So I repeat my question, why did Putin leave after "invading" Georgia?
You answered my question. It's unfortunate that you are unable to see the answer yourself. The answer to your question is because Putin and Russia were kicked out. Putin could not maintain his stay, same as Hitler. Try to see the larger global picture. Stop thinking in terms of imperialist empires such as the planet has known.

To bring your question full circle, Why did Russia leave after "invading" those former Soviet Republics? Understand? Was Russia kicked out militarily? In one sense they were kicked out militarily, though not directly, because Russia could not maintain military control, Russia lost the Cold War.

So the answer to your question, "Why did Putin leave after "invading" Georgia? is easily answered by "Why did Soviet Russia leave after invading those former Soviet republics?" When did D-Day occur to cause that event?
 
Why did he ever invade? Why did Hitler leave France?
Hitler did not leave France, he was kicked out, remember D-Day? What are they teaching in american schools these days?

So I repeat my question, why did Putin leave after "invading" Georgia?
Like why doesn't Putin invade Belarus instead of Ukraine?
Answer my question
Your question has been answered and the answer is quite clear. That you cannot comprehend or understand the answer or refuse to acknowledge the answer is nothing we can affect.
 
Why did he ever invade? Why did Hitler leave France?
Hitler did not leave France, he was kicked out, remember D-Day? What are they teaching in american schools these days?

So I repeat my question, why did Putin leave after "invading" Georgia?
Like why doesn't Putin invade Belarus instead of Ukraine?
Answer my question
Your question has been answered and the answer is quite clear. That you cannot comprehend or understand the answer or refuse to acknowledge the answer is nothing we can affect.
No, my questions was not answered at all.
So, why did Putin leave Georgia in 2008?
 
Why did he ever invade? Why did Hitler leave France?
Hitler did not leave France, he was kicked out, remember D-Day? What are they teaching in american schools these days?

So I repeat my question, why did Putin leave after "invading" Georgia?
Like why doesn't Putin invade Belarus instead of Ukraine?
Answer my question
Your question has been answered and the answer is quite clear. That you cannot comprehend or understand the answer or refuse to acknowledge the answer is nothing we can affect.
No, my questions was not answered at all.
So, why did Putin leave Georgia in 2008?
Okay, for the sake of discussion please enlighten me with your answer.
 
Maybe he was just bummed about losing the eyebrow contest?



brows.jpg
 
I assumed this picture was photoshopped.
So I went to his wiki page to compare.

I stand corrected.

And laughed at this quote:
Brezhnev's main passion was driving foreign cars given to him by leaders of state from across the world. He usually drove these between his dacha and the Kremlin with, according to historian Robert Service, flagrant disregard for public safety.[141] When visiting the United States for a summit with Nixon in 1973, he expressed a wish to drive around Washington in a Lincoln Continental that Nixon had just given him; upon being told that the Secret Service would not allow him to do this, he said "I will take the flag off the car, put on dark glasses, so they can't see my eyebrows and drive like any American would" to which Henry Kissinger replied "I have driven with you and I don't think you drive like an American!"[142]
 
Why is it okay for the US to unilaterally say "Sudan, we don't give a shit about your opinion, South Sudan is now a separate country", but if Russia takes any action with regards to eastern Ukraine that is the most morally reprehensible act committed by any country in the last 200 years?

Note that we didn't annex South Sudan. We attempted to put a stop to genocide by separating the attackers from the victims, but it didn't work too well.

Note that Luhansk and Donetsk voted to secede, but are still considered by the US sphere of influence to be part of Ukraine. In fact, I am pretty sure you will reply that their secession votes were corrupted by Russian influence.

Those two provinces actually were willing to vote to join Russia, but Russia's government said "no." That doesn't fit in to your "everything Russia does is evil" world view.
 
It's worth returning to the thread topic, which isn't really about a talk given by an American political scientist in 2015. Nor is it about the Russo-Georgian war in 2008. It is about the current crisis in 2021, where Russia is poised to invade Ukraine again. Maybe Professor Mearsheimer holds the same views that he did in 2015, well before the COVID crisis reshaped the global economy, although he may have a different idea of the threats that China and Russia play in the current year. He isn't the only political expert out there, and he is but one of many political pundits in academia who have informed opinions about US-Russia relations.

The latest news seems to be that, despite Putin's denials that he is planning another unprovoked invasion of Ukrainian territory, he has now listed the terms under which he will refrain from doing so. Hopefully, these are just initial demands that he has put out there to try to leverage some concessions from the Western Alliance. He needs some kind of concession to save himself from losing face over a crisis that he himself has manufactured out of whole cloth. Nobody is threatening Russia with an invasion, and he isn't going to get veto power over who can join the EU or NATO. Those are non-starters for any serious negotiation. It would be foolish for the West to try to give either Georgia or Ukraine membership at this point, but Putin likely knows that nobody is really threatening to do that. The US is refusing bilateral talks with Russia for now, but it is willing to meet with other nations that have a stake in the outcome of such negotiations--major EU countries, Ukraine, Russia, and perhaps some Baltic states that Putin has added to his list of demands.

See: Russia Ukraine: Moscow lists demands for defusing Ukraine tensions
 
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