Quote Originally Posted by cocco
Both Poland and Ukraine geographically have been contested so many time over the centuries that I'd say it's pretty hard for anyone to call dibs. Slavs have inhabited Poland periodically since 450BC and Ukraine since 600somethingBC. Go back enough, and no country can claim any piece of land their "own", it's always just what current consensus says. Russia has/had no legitimate claim on Crimea or Donbas.
I agree with all this except the last sentence. Russia totally have a legitimate claim on these regions. The people want it. We can argue about where these people should have self determination or not, but I firmly believe they should. They are culturally different to the people they share a country with. They want to be part of a country they are culturally closer to. Who are we to say they can't have that? Ukraine was never going to let them have a referendum, and in the case of Crimea, where Russia basically took it without going to war, I can get behind that. Granted, it started a war in the east, perhaps Russia should just have occupied these regions at the same time in the hope it prevents a future war.

Hm has Canada? I don't recall. Anyhoo, I for one strongly condemn (and have done so for decades) what the Israeli are doing. Stop the whataboutism.
I mean people seem to say "whataboutism" in an attempt to not discuss the awkward truths. How we behave on the world stage has relevance. And how we morally respond to world events should be related to our own behaviour. We can't ignore the Iraq and Syria situations. They are relevant. Especially Syria, since it was Putin who basically came along and stopped us doing the same to Syria what we did to Iraq and Libya... get their leaders killed.

I read somewhere that when Putin saw footage of Gadaffi being assraped by a gun after the French captured him, he was actually shocked. Imagine shocking a man like Putin, a former KGB mafia thug. This was Western regime change in action. And the West dare to take moral high ground in geopolitical affairs.

And now we're arming crucifiers in an attempt to stop him from claiming land occupied by Russian speaking people.

This is why I can't take sides when it comes to Russia vs the West. We're both as bad as each other. We just go about things differently. Both sides are ruled by psychopaths. And frankly I feel like Putin is the more intelligent out of the world leaders of great powers. I dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

What moves exactly have you seen NATO make to achieve these goals?
Watch that video mojo linked above. NATO have acted in bad faith when it comes to Russia.

Politicians aren't a different breed, they're just people.
Maybe in Finland those in power are just normal people who want to live in a world of happiness and peace. Stay out of NATO for your own sanity, because the company you'll be keeping is psychopaths.