We have been played for fools.

[Guno צְבִי]

We're on the same side, though it is revealing you consider me an enemy.

Reagan had almost nothing to do with the downfall of the USSR, although he did continue the containment strategy of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy .


Mikhail Gorbachev engineered, unwittingly, the downfall of the USSR.

Reagan boosting defense spending Pentagon spending by 15 percent, or grabbing the island of Grenada would not have been nearly enough to cause Soviets to run up the white flag of surrender. These are the people who ate rats and sawdust rather than surrender to the Nazi hordes at the gates of Saint Petersburg.

Yes Mikhail Gorbachev finished it off although the seeds were sown earlier, post Stalin in Khrushchev's era. Ignorant people thought reagan did it, but the USSR polit bureau was not monolithic, they removed Khrushchev then lurched left , then lurched right until Gorbachev became subservient to the west being sold a bill of goods and empty promises All can be found in the russian archives after the fall

Gorbachev isn't very popular in the former SU as you know

 

[Cypress]

I dont have that attitude and never did. War is all or nothing IMO. Do the job or dont go at all.

You have been demanding Ukraine surrender and submit almost since day one. Ronald Reagan would be shocked at your weakness towards the Kremlin. I never have seen you start a thread before today demanding we send NATO armies into Donbass.

 

[Cypress]

Yes Mikhail Gorbachev finished it off although the seeds were sown earlier, post Stalin in Khrushchev's era. Ignorant people thought reagan did it, but the USSR polit bureau was not monolithic, they removed Khrushchev then lurched left , then lurched right until Gorbachev became subservient to the west being sold a bill of goods and empty promises All can be found in the russian archives after the fall

Gorbachev isn't very popular in the former SU as you know

I agree, there were structural weaknesses woven into Soviet Communism which contributed to it's demise.

Gorbachev's inept and flawed efforts to establish a form of democratic socialism destabilized the system, and unleashed nationalist forces he did not know how to control.

The final nail in the coffin was when Yelstin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus agreed to dissolve the union. There was no widespread groundswell of popular sentiment for doing this. It was basically a coup engineered by Yelstin to render Gorbachev powerless. Bedtime for Bozo had nothing to do with that.

 

[Guno צְבִי]

I agree, there were structural weaknesses woven into Soviet Communism which contributed to it's demise.

Gorbachev's inept and flawed efforts to establish a form of democratic socialism destabilized the system, and unleashed nationalist forces he did not know how to control.

The final nail in the coffin was when Yelstin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus agreed to dissolve the union. There was no widespread groundswell of popular sentiment for doing this. It was basically a coup engineered by Yelstin to render Gorbachev powerless. Bedtime for Bozo had nothing to do with that.

And Yelstin picked Putin

 

[Lightbringer]

And Yelstin picked Putin

No, he didn't. I'm pretty sure the oligharchs picked Putin.

 

[Cypress]

BIG WINNERS so far? China and Russia. China has been buying up as much Russian oil as they could get their hands on, and AT A DISCOUNT. And Russia is Rolling in money.

The Russian military will take years to rebuild after the beating it took.

A second rate European nation has fought a world military superpower to a standstill.

Europe is terminating relationships with Russia. They won't need Russian gas or energy in a couple years.

NATO is bigger, stronger, and more united than ever. New member states are joining NATO.

There is no net economic or geopolitical benefit to Russia in holding the Donbass region and a sliver of land along the Sea of Azov.

^^ All this for a strip of land along the Sea of Azov, that is the most terrible fucking trade I've ever heard of

A strip of land along the Sea of Azov at most it counts as a door prize, a booby prize to latent 19th century Russian imperialism.