Hacker News Reader

This is scary. What has dissuaded Putin from this kind of thing in the past (if anything)?

A more confident America and Europe.

Keep in mind that Russia has a history of corrupting Western politicians, on a strategic and multi-decade basis, for example Gerhard Shroder, ex-Chancellor of Germany. He initiated the nuclear shutdown, and now serves as Chairman of Rosneft:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/gerhard-schr%C3...

The message to Europe is presumably: intervene in Ukraine this time, and we'll completely shut off your Winter gas.

That makes no sense. Russia is building a pipeline directly to Germany and the ones opposed to it is the US.

Russia doesn't want to support the Ukraine with gas but it want to sell it to Europe.

The purpose of the pipeline is precisely to bypass Ukraine and connect into Germany directly. That way Russia can declare war on Ukraine whilst gas connectivity is maintained. Nordstream also avoids going through Polish territory.

Its basically the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact all over again.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com