Putin, strengthened by appeasement, reveals his true purpose in Ukraine

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, we have seen a wide variety of excuses to justify it.

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According to many pro-Russian propagandists in the West, Putin only wanted to protect the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine, as if those regions were threatened by someone other than the invaders themselves. Furthermore, we were told that Russia would be satisfied if Ukraine were not allowed to join NATO. Of course, it was all a lie. It was enough to read Russia's ultimatums to NATO and the US in December 2021, a blackmail with which Putin wanted a Europe subordinate to Moscow, as in the days of the Cold War.

In addition to the propagandists' lies, there was also no shortage of messages from supporters of appeasement, who, ignoring the repeated historical experiences of the consequences of appeasing mass criminals, sought to convince us that giving in to Putin would achieve peace, claiming that it would not be a just peace, but that an unjust peace was better than war. That is today the official position of the White House since Trump's return to power. A position that, unfortunately, has spread like the flu to much of the conservative ranks in many Western countries.

I've been warning for a while about the outcome of giving in to a bully, and he finally confirmed it. Yesterday, at an event in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin stated: "I have said many times that I consider the Russian and Ukrainian peoples to be one nation. In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours." After receiving applause from the entire court of sycophants surrounding him, the Russian dictator added: "There is an old rule: where a Russian soldier steps, it is ours"

It's no surprise to see the Russian dictator openly displaying his imperialist delusions, now without any dissimulation. Trump's policy of pleasing Putin has served to empower this mass criminal, to the point where he no longer feels the slightest qualms about ridiculing all the pro-Russian propagandists who claimed that Russia would settle for this or that concession. Once again, as happened with Hitler and Czechoslovakia in 1938, it has been demonstrated that giving in to a tyrant only makes the tyrant want more.

As already happened with Joe Biden, the weakness that Trump is exhibiting is being exploited by the enemies of the West (not only Russia, but also China and Iran, which has used its contacts with the US to buy time in the development of its nuclear weapons propaganda). But in addition, while Trump was shamefully courting Putin, he was dedicated to harshly attacking Europe, assuming a discourse that seems a carbon copy of the Kremlin's slogans.

These attacks have dangerously weakened ties between the United States and its European allies, furthering Russia's strategic plans. The worst part is that Trump doesn't even seem to realize his mistake: he remains absorbed in his plan to win over Putin, openly ignoring the facts. When will he open his eyes? When Russian soldiers invade the Baltic states?

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Photo: Reuters/Anton Vaganov.