Hacker News Reader

Comment by turdit | Hacker News Reader

the information i got from rt was that putin says he’s invading bc the us is putting missiles in ukraine, which take a certain amount of minutes to hit moscow, which putin claimed was unacceptable to russian national security. from the west the only info you get is that he’s crazy and there was no reason at all for the invasion. so without even getting into details of is it actually true or not, it was nice to at least hear putin’s rationale, because the west’s explanation that he’s doing this for no reason except that he’s crazy is really insulting to the intelligence of everyone who is not a complete moron. but unfortunately that is 99% of people.

View on HN

“the us is putting missiles in ukraine” — first time I’m hearing that explanation. Didn’t he invade because Ukraine is “full of nazis”? Or was it due to the “nukes Ukraine was planning to get”? Or to “return Ukraine to Russia”?

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putin-adm...

First it was freeing people of Donbass. Then it was NATO rockets. Then they started war and Nazi hoax come to be. Then they made a story that if they didn’t strike first, Kyiv would attack them soon. Then bald man compared himself to Peter The Great and thinks that he’s returning grounds to historic Russian empire.

You’re oversimplifying - there were also biolabs and the pigeons genetically engineered to detect and target racially pure Russians.

Sticking to Putin’a versions here. Extended universe is even crazier, indeed.

See, that's the problem when "news" like RT hits on people that have no critical thinking ability. No one needs to put missiles physically closer for half a century now; they just launch from nuclear subs. Even Israel can do this.

(And this isn't even the stated reason! You can just watch Putins faux-historical speech!)

It is one of the stated reasons, actually. There have been many, not necessarily coherent, even coming just from Putin himself.

I don't think we can put aside the details of whether it is true or not (it's not), because Putin has full info about the fact that it's nonsense, so it's extremely relevant to his mindset (ie, it's a fabrication aimed at a completely unrelated objective).

If ukraine joined nato, do you honestly believe, that americans wouldn't install missles there, that could reach moscow?

The US has not put any nuclear weapons (or long-range missiles) in Latvia or Estonia, which are already part of NATO and closer to Moscow... so no.

There's already a perfectly close place to put them, which the US hasn't bothered doing, because it's unnecessary.

So, for example, if russia became more friendly and cooparetive with eg. Cuba, that wouldn't be problematic to USA, because proximity doesn't matter that much?

You're shifting goalposts because you don't have any rebuttal to my point.

In the many years that Cuba was friendly and cooperative with the USSR, the US never made any more than a joke attempt at a military intervention. The US was obviously not thrilled, but never did anything comparable to the current invasion of Ukraine. Not sure your point.

Except destroying Cuban economy with sanctions, which continue to this day.

There is a difference though: we can’t punish US, because it’s a superpower. USSR was a superpower too. But Russia isn’t.

I mean.. let's be honest.. if it's a cold winter this year, Russia will be punishing all of us. I live in slovenia, we're tiny, we have only a handful of soldiers, and we're still a part of occupying forces in countries like syria... so maybe we deserve it... but i prefer watching "punishments" on tv, and not by being cold and hungry in my own home, because a few politicians are in a dick-size competition, while they're stealing a bunch of our money and helping their pals in the weapons industry.

Most of the gas is used for industry, not heating. And even the industry seems to be able to lower the usage quite drastically. It’ll be tough for economy of course.

Also, everyone has just realized Russian army was all bluff. Every single country bordering with them will take advantage of this. Which means there will be multiple parties we can buy the formerly Russian gas from.

Yeah...

https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-gas-crisis-landlords...

> Germany starts rationing hot water and turning down the heating in case Russia cuts off its natural gas supplies

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/economics/germans-told-t...

> Germans told to wear a sweater to cope with soaring energy prices

Yeah...

Ok? Russia didn't sanction Ukraine; they invaded and have killed tens of thousands of people (so far). There's no equivalence here.

Sanctions cost lives too. And sure, there is no equivalence between them and the literal ethnic genocide Russia has been perpetrating for the past five months, but you can’t really claim US isn’t actively hostile towards Cuba: it literally destroyed the country and is forcibly keeping it like that purely to keep votes of Cuban diaspora.

But that’s besides the point, which is: like it or not, in politics might makes right, and Russia very obviously lacks the might.

Russians should’ve tried destroying Ukraine’s economy then.

They’ve been sabotaging Ukrainian politics - and thus economy - for the past two decades.

Maybe, how is that relevant to Ukraine?

Can't modern ICBMs launched from within the US already reach Moscow?

yes, but it's easier to intercept them if they're launched from further away

Russia can’t intercept ICBMs. Distance doesn’t matter.

That’s irrelevant, Ukraine is a sovereign country and can do as it pleases.

Yep... and if true or not (and let's be fair, if Ukraine joined NATO, there would actually be missles located there), the west used even worse propaganda, even twice in a row ([0] and [1]).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony

[1] "iraq has weapons of mass destruction"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com