Huckleberry

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@ClarkeMicah @Mollie_Whuppie "To explain is not to excuse" is a useful maxim to keep in mind here.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@ClarkeMicah @mikegalsworthy But in 2008 Russia vowed to recognize breakaway regions in Georgia in response to Western recognition of Kosovo, and in 2007 it conducted the first cyberattack in history against Estonians for their removal of a Soviet war memorial. Neither had anything to do with NATO expansion.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@ClarkeMicah Had NATO policy during the 90s been based on mollifying Russian chauvinists à la Zhirinovsky, it would have had to let the Serbs shell Sarajevo to rubble during the Bosnian War, which is exactly what Yeltsin proposed to Clinton. https://t.co/C8v2mHPsWy

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@llggeorgia No more obscure than Hungary.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@DanielDiMartino No, they would be considered refugees.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@lieven_anatol Either Russia's pursuit of its interests is legitimate or it is not. Undermining the sovereignty of a non-belligerent neighbouring country through military occupation and destabilization is actually against international law, unjustified by opposition to NATO expansion.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@owenmatth and @michaeldweiss examine how the West’s doom-casting on Ukraine is hurting the country it purports to help — and giving an unintended assist to the dictator seeking to do it the most harm. https://t.co/RdLvHq400W

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@ClarkeMicah @StueyPhooey A territorial dispute that could have been placated, if not solved, within the framework of the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the NATO-Russia Council. Russia instead resorted straight to force by invading and annexing a part of Ukraine’s internationally recognised territory.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@ClarkeMicah @StueyPhooey Yanukovych's government was undermined at Yalta in 2013, when Russia threatened it would not recognise Ukraine's borders if he agreed to the EaP, which he had the right to do as Ukraine's elected leader. That and later Russian sanctions created the conditions for Maidan.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@ClarkeMicah George Kennan's view invited the US to risk another power tussle between Russia and Germany in the no man's land that would have been Eastern Europe, in the hope that Russian democrats would prevail over the chauvinists. That would have been far more reckless.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@EnglishRadical Today Iraq is a constitutional democracy without nuclear and aggressive ambitions towards its neighbours. Excellent.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@lieven_anatol The removal of Saddam destroyed fascism and helped create constitutional democracy in Iraq. Were it for the "progressive"/nationalist camps, Iraq would have imploded into a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, to be fought over by rival theocracies. Much less reckless.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@jamesmacpherson Frivolous.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@jejune2016 @DanielDiMartino Yanukovich's legitimacy as Ukraine's elected leader was violated in 2013 when, after he had expressed willingness to join EaP, Russia blackmailed him by threatening a trade war and military support for Russian separatists. That was the humiliating event that provoked Maidan.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@jefferymyers @DanielDiMartino Yes he was. Always too little, too late.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@jejune2016 @DanielDiMartino Doesn't justify the invasion and annexation of the internationally recognised territory of a neighbouring sovereign state with which Russia was not at war.

[Huckleberry @TimothySanton]

@ClarkeMicah @Strategyjane Though in the case of Ukraine, there is a difference between the EU offering subsidies in exchange for a deal, and Russia threatening sanctions to sabotage it. The one is inducement, the other blackmail.