Although I wouldn't call the 2014 coup, an American coup, there was a heavy American involvement in it. The rebellion in Donbas was also a genuine one. Russia of course was going to support it. Most also accept that Crimeans supported the takeover there.
What is also quickly forgotten is the Minsk agreements where Angela Merkel have admitted that they never intended Ukraine to fulfil them, they only did it to allow Ukraine to rearm. Col MacGregor, a former US official have also said the US state department have always wanted a breakup of Russia. NATO expansion was part of the pressure they hoped could trigger that. US supposedly also supported Chechen rebels according to some and this was also part of this same US goal.
So there is no doubt Russia has a reason not to trust the west.
The west stealing Russian assets in Euroclear ads to that. During WW2 Britain and USA protected German gold assets they held. They knew the war would one day be over and world finance would need to continue then. This is no longer the case. China and the rest of the world also see this. The consequences for weak Western European economies could be server going forward.
In any case Farage have done the right thing in promoting what could become an avenue towards peace. Just hope more people in Europe can adopt it.
"If you don't want war, be prepared for it". Who said that? Don't know, maybe Machiavelli. What I would add, however, is "And make energetic diplomatic efforts to avoid it". The West, especially Britain has done exactly the opposite. It has allowed its military effectiveness to drop so far that ex-Generals and even serving generals are saying the UK is in no position to fight a war, let alone against Russia. It's utterly ridiculous to go sabre-rattling when your sabre is made of plywood. At the same time, there has definitely been a failure of diplomacy towards Russia and Putin. The current war is undoubtedly 'Putin's fault' but the West could have handled him in a subtler way -- he doesn't deserve that but that's not the point . Now we have gung-ho armchair British warriors howling for blood and shouting from the touchlines in a war that doesn't concern us directly (although we have some industrial interests in the Donbas region). Ukraine can't win this war without a collapse of Putin's popularity and there's little sign of that, any more than there was even in 1945 much of a collapse in Hitler's popularity with the German people. Third parties not directly involved in this war should push for a negotiated 'solution', otherwise this war will go on for the next ten years like the Syrian war and whoever is finally said to have 'won', there will be hardly any Ukraine left. Wars these days last decades, witness Syria, Mali, Sudan, the Middle East... "If you don't want war, be prepared for it and engage diplomatically to prevent it going on until mutual exhaustion by both sides."
Although I wouldn't call the 2014 coup, an American coup, there was a heavy American involvement in it. The rebellion in Donbas was also a genuine one. Russia of course was going to support it. Most also accept that Crimeans supported the takeover there.
What is also quickly forgotten is the Minsk agreements where Angela Merkel have admitted that they never intended Ukraine to fulfil them, they only did it to allow Ukraine to rearm. Col MacGregor, a former US official have also said the US state department have always wanted a breakup of Russia. NATO expansion was part of the pressure they hoped could trigger that. US supposedly also supported Chechen rebels according to some and this was also part of this same US goal.
So there is no doubt Russia has a reason not to trust the west.
The west stealing Russian assets in Euroclear ads to that. During WW2 Britain and USA protected German gold assets they held. They knew the war would one day be over and world finance would need to continue then. This is no longer the case. China and the rest of the world also see this. The consequences for weak Western European economies could be server going forward.
In any case Farage have done the right thing in promoting what could become an avenue towards peace. Just hope more people in Europe can adopt it.
"If you don't want war, be prepared for it". Who said that? Don't know, maybe Machiavelli. What I would add, however, is "And make energetic diplomatic efforts to avoid it". The West, especially Britain has done exactly the opposite. It has allowed its military effectiveness to drop so far that ex-Generals and even serving generals are saying the UK is in no position to fight a war, let alone against Russia. It's utterly ridiculous to go sabre-rattling when your sabre is made of plywood. At the same time, there has definitely been a failure of diplomacy towards Russia and Putin. The current war is undoubtedly 'Putin's fault' but the West could have handled him in a subtler way -- he doesn't deserve that but that's not the point . Now we have gung-ho armchair British warriors howling for blood and shouting from the touchlines in a war that doesn't concern us directly (although we have some industrial interests in the Donbas region). Ukraine can't win this war without a collapse of Putin's popularity and there's little sign of that, any more than there was even in 1945 much of a collapse in Hitler's popularity with the German people. Third parties not directly involved in this war should push for a negotiated 'solution', otherwise this war will go on for the next ten years like the Syrian war and whoever is finally said to have 'won', there will be hardly any Ukraine left. Wars these days last decades, witness Syria, Mali, Sudan, the Middle East... "If you don't want war, be prepared for it and engage diplomatically to prevent it going on until mutual exhaustion by both sides."