A part of me suspects that the proxy war the US is waging against Russia to decimate the Russian military and force a regime change is motivated by getting Russia under the control of western IP, financial, and other regulation.
The united coalition of Lizardmen and Freemasons, funded by George Soros. Bill Gates declined to invest.
It's possible to participate in proxy war when you didn't start it. Might even have better optics.
I don't think it's a wild conspiracy theory because Russia has been labeled a rogue state for some time and the US has an interest in regime change. It's not official policy but enough people have warned the US that regime change is a bad idea, including the NYT, that I don't think it's easily dismissed. I think it's quite possible there are western corporate and regulatory interests in having a Russian regime that cooperates with their interests more. But I can see how this is an extremely cynical take and I didn't mean to suggest that was the only reason for a war.
The US didn't put boots on the ground to help the UK in the Falklands even when it would have made things much easier. That doesn't mean the US and the UK were not allies or that the US did not help in other ways.
True, but...
> The US didn't put boots on the ground to help the UK in the Falklands
The UK is, and was, a NATO member. (Indeed, a major factor that led Argentina to think that they could take the Falklands was the reorganization of the UK Navy around its role in NATO which compromised it's capacity for independent operations.)
Nobody said they were however NATO member does mean ally and we're pretty lukewarm on that prospect. There could certainly be another alliance made outside of NATO that would make them an ally, there could be, but there isn't. We have friendly relations with Ukraine and support a faction of their government but we're pretty cagey with our military support.
US allies frequently are involved in wars that don't get US boots on the ground. This is pretty much constant for Israel, for instance.
who will fund the election campaigns and favorable media coverage for the agreeable candidates and parties?
whose arms will they buy and whose military bases will they build to defend themselves against each other and/or what little is left of Russia and/or China?
whose companies will get contracts for resource extraction and favorable conditions to operate there?
...
the collapse of Russia would be a greater boon to the US than the WWII was, and had Russia been a benevolent democracy, it would've been at least halfway there by now
And for the people in Russia.
I hope there's a chance that'll happen if indeed Putin has an illness and is dead soon
> the US wants Russia broken down into two dozen irrelevant ethnostates
That's delusional and was what I was replying to.
When it comes to actual real power, economic, soft, military, or whatever, Russia has a smaller GDP than Italy. If you imagine Italy trying to push the US 'out of the picture' so they could have 'free reign' in Europe, you can see how ridiculous Russia's 'geopolitics' is.
What's really happening is that Putin's domestic power and legitimacy stems from his ability to be a plausible cosplay Bismark while keeping the kleptocrats that are robbing the Russian people happy.
If push comes to anything close to a shove, there's simply no way Russia can contend with any of its neighbors, all of whom are just way more powerful (India, China, Japan, South Korea) or in actual world-leading blocs (EU members, NATO members, etc). That won't change until the Russian economy and society itself changes, and that's impossible without substantial reassessment and reorganization that would undoubtedly include the end of Putin's regime.
You mean the war of aggression that Russia is waging against Ukraine?
To the extent that it is approximately accurate to describe such a war as existing, it is motivated not arouns looping Russia into Western IP, financial, etc., regulatory regimes, but around dealing with the security threat represented by actions like the Russian invasion of Moldova (1990-present), Georgia (2008-present), and Ukraine (2014-present), and, most particularly, the massive escalation of the last that occurred this year.
Russia's independence from and defiance of the western law enforcement agencies, in things like money laundering, building a SWIFT alternative, cybercrime, piracy, and digital interference, among many others, are things that I think the US would like to do away with. Those aren't strictly security concerns but could still be defined that way. It would not surprise me at all if the US saw an opportunity for regime change that is more friendly to its own interests. Regime change seems to be a goal at present but has not been made official.
I stated in another post that I felt that a centralized internet under more or less the same western laws globally, with exceptions like China, was not good for the internet which is why I agreed with the parent comment. That was my main point: Russian defiance of copyright laws is good for the internet. I believe that is not a view shared by most governments. I am less interested in war specifics.
Russia is waging war against Ukraine.
Ukraine is defending itself against Russia.
These facts are very straightforward.
It'd be like if someone made a million dollars, and you accused them that its all a front to launder ten dollars. It doesn't make sense.
>Why would you assume secret copyright interests
I did not. I said "western IP, financial, and other regulation.". That includes a lot but in all amounts to essentially geopolitical control.
However, this being a thread about copyright and this being a technology website I mentioned copyright and I think copyright laws and regulations are vastly more important than you are implying. The article mentions trade agreements that can force ISPs to block web pages. As it stands right now, the internet is decentralized but single government control of the internet is increasingly becoming apparent. Western nations share copyright laws which ultimately centralizes the internet across many different people and countries. So, for example, ISP web site blocking can be performed across many different ISPs globally with similar regulation and controls in all these different jurisdictions. (edit: especially at the behest of US based corporations)
I think this is ultimately harmful for internet users especially because it can be associated with censorship. Previously, the decentralized nature of the internet made it harder for any single entity to control it, however, it is looking increasingly feasible to do so. So I agree with the parent commenter and add that it is actually beneficial for the internet if Russia enables pirating and is not under US/western internet regulations. Having alternatives is good for the internet and I think that's a very important point.
However on a scale of things that maintain usa's geopolitical position, copyright is kind of minor comparatively. Copyright is the long game soft power sort of thing. Ukraine is the short game. USA needs to show the world that if bad things happen to a country because they are friendly to usa, america wont let it go unremarked. If they don't, other countries will take note, and america loses its pax americana position. The ukraine thing is a rather direct challenge of america's hegemonic position. America is responding to it because its either that, or they lose their world position (or a step in that direction).
Im not saying america is above the type of long term power games you suggest, just that in this case they have a much more pressing reason to be involved, and i don't think secret conspiracy reasons make sense when their hand is basically being forced by direct means.
Imagine a world where Chinese, Russian, Indian and Japanese companies get to sell their goods worldwide without a single care about American patents? If that happened tomorrow, just for one example, BYD would probably become the largest car company in the world (because they have the cheapest and most reliable batteries, but only in China due to IP laws around the chemistry). It would be a direct and immediate challenge to the American hegemony.