Hmm, Russia Today is reporting about celebrations in Donetsk and Lugansk because of this decision: https://www.rt.com/russia/550172-donetsk-lugansk-recognition-celebrations/ meanwhile western media and leaders as well as other parts of Ukraine are condemning this move.

From what I understand Putins' decision is not too surprising. Ukraine has cut off the separatist controlled regions. This means for example it does not provide any pensions and apparently it'd be pretty hard to even get into other parts of Ukraine from these areas even if you wanted to. That's why Russia recently started handing out passports. The percentage of ethnic Russians in this regions is pretty high, so a lot of Russian citizens live there now. With growing tensions and more and more armed conflicts this put Putin into a bad spot. After his previous decisions he hardly had a choice but to protect his citizens. So the first thing they tried was to evacuate them. But only few people actually left for Russia. Thus the current decision.

This is not meant to apologize for any transgressions but merely to state that this was somewhat predictable and I can understand why Putin would act like this.

Something that is being brought up even more frequently now is a full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. I do not see the point in that. What's in it for Russia? I think Putin would be much happier with Ukraine as neutral buffer to other NATO members like Poland. Does the Ukraine have any natural resources? War is very expensive and Russia spends relatively little money on its military.

[–] ArchimedesTesseract@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ukraine was a neutral buffer before Russia invaded. Seeing Russia dishonor Ukraine's sovereignty will push what's left of Ukraine into NATO. So Russia has basically forced NATO encroachment even closer than it was before. And that's not even counting Finland.

[–] sasalzig@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Calling Ukraine neutral after the Western-backed coup of 2014, in which the US candidate became PM and Russian-hating Neonazis got into government is some twisting of facts. The whole Maidan (which was supported massively by Western governments, press and NGOs) was about aligning with the West for fuck's sake! The invasion only happened after that.

[–] ArchimedesTesseract@lemmy.ml -2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They'll surely love Russia after getting invaded a second time. If alignment or invasion are their choices, Russia is really pushing them into NATO.

[–] sasalzig@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm not disagreeing there. Care to revise your statement that Ukraine was neutral prior to the invasion or are you just going to ignore that?

[–] ArchimedesTesseract@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago

Neutral in what regard? Russia violated their sovereignty in annexing parts of their territory and in supporting militarily separatist movements. They've been forced into opposition by Russia's aggression.

[+] ahtoms@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Russia's economy isn't doing poorly, but you might think that when you guzzle propaganda all day. Russia also gains absolutely nothing by invading Ukraine.

[–] DPUGT2@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Is it ever true that an "invader gains nothing"? Or are you just (strangely) saying that there is more to lose than to gain?

Everyone on reddit is ranting about how it will be another Afghanistan... but what if it were merely another Chechnya? If Putin believes it to be that, he might well decide to invade/annex.

[–] uthredii@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ukraine will have strong western support so it won't be as easy as Chechnya. Although Putin might decide to annex anyway.

[–] DPUGT2@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

"Strong" support? What's that mean? Sure, the bullies are beating up the nerd, but the nerd will win because you intend to cheer him on from the sidelines?

Should have kept their nukes. Now they're fucked.

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Russia's economy never recovered from being slapped with sanctions following the theft of Crimea. You can see that both in a dip in their nominal GDP and in a dip in the Big Mac index. As that page explains, a lower index value implies that McDonald's is pricing their burgers lower to match what local people can pay. The ruble fell against the dollar, so the price of a Big Mac relative to a US dollar fell.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's utter nonsense as the article I linked above very clearly shows. If anything, the sanctions forced Russia to start developing its domestic industry making its economy far more robust than it was previously. Russia now also has an open alliance with China meaning that anything Russia can't produce domestically can be sourced from China. Meanwhile, BRI is creating a huge economic bloc in Eurasia that Russia is an active member of.

I'm also not sure whom you're claiming Crimea was stolen from given that people of Crimea are ethnically Russian and have overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining Russia after the 2014 coup. Once again, you don't appear to care about people's right for self determination in the slightest. It doesn't matter to you what people who actually live in Crimea want, all you care about NATO's geopolitical goals. Really telling on yourself there bud.

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That’s utter nonsense as the article I linked above very clearly shows.

The article shows Russia's currency sliding in value. It dipped sharply following the annexation of Crimea, began a recovery, and then dipped sharply with the pandemic. So yes, the sanctions absolutely hurt their economy.

If anything, the sanctions forced Russia to start developing its domestic industry making its economy far more robust than it was previously.

This is true, the sanctions did have that effect, at least regarding making it resilient to sanctions. This is an effect we've seen in other economies under a heavy sanctions regime (Cuba, Iran) where they've developed a more internally resilient economy at the cost of overall efficiency. All that said, there are plenty of levers that the West has left to pull. If Russian oligarchs start having their London real estate confiscated, you can bet words will be had with President Putin.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

The article shows Russia’s currency sliding in value. It dipped sharply following the annexation of Crimea, began a recovery, and then dipped sharply with the pandemic. So yes, the sanctions absolutely hurt their economy.

Wait till you find out what happened to the rest of the economies in the world after the pandemic. Sanctions created a temporary inconvenience for Russia, but the long term effect is clearly positive since re-industrialization and self reliance will serve Russia much better going forward.

l that said, there are plenty of levers that the West has left to pull. If Russian oligarchs start having their London real estate confiscated, you can bet words will be had with President Putin.

You're once again showing your lack of understanding of the subject you're discussing. London confiscating the wealth of Russian oligarchs directly helps Putin since it forces the oligarchs to keep wealth in Russia where it's subject to Russian laws. What the west would be doing is helping Russia ensure that the wealth isn't being siphoned out.