*** Official Putin Started Shootin' Thread ***

[MadMojoMonkey]

Snowden took secrets off a gov't computer makes it sound like espionage.

The fact that Snowden revealed what he took without being caught by the authorities tends to make his case look more authentic, IMO.
The fact that what he exposed was legit crimes committed by the US gov't against US citizens also lends to his authenticity, IMO.

Whether he was put up to it by the Russians or not makes no difference to the evidence he made public.
If the Russian plan was to root out American corruption, then fine. Thanks, Russia.

But the result was not that. The result was that the people who were being crimed against couldn't care less.
It was an epic backfire on any level if the intent was to expose US corruption and show the world how dumb we are, as well. The world already knew that.

The fact that it ended up showing politicians just how much their constituents don't fucking care how corrupt they are, because we've just accepted it as an unsolvable problem, couldn't have realistically been foreseen by anyone in advance, I think. If that was the plot you're suggesting Russia was up to, well... I don't think they're that smart or that effective. That's very big brain thinking and a huge brain gamble.

I mean.. what do I know? This is all speculation on my part.

[OngBonga]

This Nord Stream thing is interesting. The volume of people lapping up the "Russia did it" narrative, it shouldn't surprise me but it does. Biden literally said 7 months ago that if Russia invades Ukraine then he'll shut down Nord Stream. When asked how, he just said "I promise you we will do it".

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FVbEoZXhCrM

There is no evidence whatsoever that Russia is responsible, and very little motivation. USA on the other hand, they have documented motivation and will, they had ships in the area at the time, a Polish MP has thanked USA on Twitter, but still people say it's Putin.

It's absolutely absurd. It feels like people know that Russia didn't do it but don't want to be seen in any way to support Putin. Nobody wants to face the reality that there's more than one bad actor in this game of war chess. People are afraid of critical thinking. They just want the nice and easy "Putin bad, West good" narrative so they can sleep easy. Cowards.

[CoccoBill]

There is no evidence whatsoever that Russia is responsible, and very little motivation.

Unless you consider it being a clear message that they can and will attack critical infrastructure of EU nations if they continue supporting Ukraine.

How exactly does the US benefit from this? Russia had already closed it up and EU is rushing to cut their dependence on RU oil and gas, which was US's motivation for closing it up in the first place.

[OngBonga]

Russia had already closed it up...

Temporarily. The Russians were using the pipe as leverage. By blowing up their own pipe, they are blowing up their own leverage. It makes no sense.