Interesting I guess I had it backwards

yeah that's a running theme in FSU politics

one group of oligarchs gets expelled and another one gets in

Russia is just like a poorer America

massive multiethnic republic

everything owned by oligarchs

native people getting fucked, no birthrates

committing suicide

I tried to explain this to Americans who ask why Poland/Hungary don't leave the E.U.

Eastern Euro states can't go it alone, they need allies

and for the past 200 years the main players in Eastern Europe are Germany and Russia

everyone picks Germany if they have a choice

the Germans are obnoxious but they didn't send troops in to rape every woman between the age of 16 and 60 like the Russians did

no Germans just get the Moslems to do it for them

lol

lmao

but yeah Eastern Euro states in a really bad position

both options pure shit

dissident right Russophilia is embarrassing

I have lived in Russian majority places for a long time

Do they have minerals or natural resources to exploit? Cheaper labor to compete with? Any way out of this?

@Right_Honourable Poland is emerging as a power because of their population and economy

they're one of the few countries in the world that didn't get whacked during the recession ten years ago

of course they also have poz seeping in from the edges

no amount of economic activity is going to make any eastern european country not need western allies

if they don't want to be part of the russian federation

and almost anything is better for these countries than being a part of the russian federation

especially ukraine and poland, putin would march as many dagestanis and chechens and azeri in there

that was already happening under yanukovich, and was a source of huge resentment

yeah that's what I try to explain to people; the E.U. isn't good but the E.U. also hasn't significantly harmed its Eastern Euro members in the way that Putin would

mostly they just sit around and whine about Orban and Kacynski but they don't do shit

it's a matter of geography

all these countries are small, flat, and have small populations

can't go it alone in that kind of scenario

I spent 6 months in Afghanistan about 10 years ago for work. The “goal” there was to exploit the minerals to try to get self sustainable. Of course this area has so much tribal conflict or will never amount to anything. The west uses them for military bases that’s about it. I assume Georgia is thought of as an afterthought by Russia

absolutely not, Georgia is on Russia's border

every power has a vested interest in keeping control over their neighboring countries

Bad choice of words, as someone they can push over any time they want, is what I meant

it'd be like if Mexico suddenly decided to align with Russia and China

that is true

Russia did flatten Georgia in the war ten years ago