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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s odd to me that if Trump was Putin’s Puppet, as we’re constantly told, then why does Putin only seem to invade other countries when Dems are president? First time with Obama, and now this time with Biden. When Trump was in office, Putin didn’t invade anything.

Can someone explain that to me? [/quote]

Why does that seem odd?  It makes complete sense.  Trump was not a threat.[/quote]

That makes ZERO sense. None.

If Trump was no threat, Putin should’ve been running rampant through Ukraine and possibly other places, knowing that he’d be unchallenged in doing so since “he had his puppet in the whitehouse”.

That’s what you do if you’re a Putin. You make your moves when you know you won’t be challenged. Because that’s the path of least resistance. Waiting - as you suggest - until you have a perceived threat in your opposition would be stupid. Wouldn’t you rather time your invasion for when you won’t experience any pushback?

Your answer is cognitively implausible. Putin is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. He, like all bullies, will always choose a time of vulnerability to strike. It is completely absurd to imagine that he’d wait until the times when his chief adversary is stronger to make a move.

So again, explain it to me. [/quote]

1.  He didn't need to do much while Trump was in office.  Trump gave him our bases in Syria, tried to get the sanctions lifted, exposed some of our intelligence, accepted the Crimea grab and put pressue on Ukraine himself.  But most importantly Trump damaged NATO and the European Alliance.  There was no need for Putin to do anything when Trump was doing it for him.  Had there been a second term the job would have been complete.

2.  Putin's goal isn't territorial expansion, Crimea excepted, it's the weakening/destruction of NATO and the Western alliance.  What Putin wants from Ukraine is compliance.  It is quite happy with Ukraine and Belarus as client states.  In fact that is his preferred outcome.  The cost and lack of defensible ground make Belarus and Ukraine hard to defend.  A much better solution for him is that he controls them without being in day to day control.  As our dear cross cultural communication Russophile friend keeps pointing out, invasion is not Putin's goal for the troop buildup. Crimea though was different.  That was about Ukraine's Black Sea energy deposits which further solidified Russian control of the European gas market.

3.  You are right though that he views Biden and the US as weak though.  He knows the divisions that have been sowed.  He knows how toxic our internal dynamic is.  Meanwhile Germany has a new government, Turkey has Erdogan, France will always be French, and Poland/Romania/Baltics have questions about NATO resolve.  He knows that NATO was on the brink under Trump and that Ukraine has the potential to irreparably destroy the alliance.  
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+1[/quote]

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