> The problem of EU as I see it is that it is comprised of "normal" European countries - meaning, for all of their economic development, small-ish and not having direct military ambitions, or requirement to have those.
If Russia were a member of the EU, it would not even make it to the top 3 of largest economies in the union. Nor will the military be anything remarkable after Soviet stockpiles run out or rot away without leaving any more T-72 bodies to refurbish. You are living in the final days of a colonial empire that hasn't yet come to terms with the fact that the world has changed. Spain, France, the UK, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and others all had "military ambitions" and empires once, several of them much more impressive than Russia ever was. The war against Ukraine perfectly mirrors the pointless wars that European colonial powers were waging in the middle of the previous century in Malaysia, Algeria, Angola, Indochina and elsewhere. Desperately clinging to the past won't change anything and only prolongs the pain of inevitable transformation.
> There is some discrepancy: you are telling that Russians can only blame themselves for being worse off, but in fact Russians aren't complaining, and it is fellow Europeans who all the time blame Russia and also complain about their political and economic conditions.
Why are you killing people in Ukraine every day if you are happy with your lives?
The entire war seems like a giant temper tantrum over the fact that a nation that you've seen as one of the closest to you sees you as the inferior option and has chosen the EU as their partner instead. And what fuels the incredible inferiority complex, jealousy and resentment is knowing how it's all true: European integration is a better option for Ukraine, and that despite all the "jewrope" and "gayropa" garbage on the telly and in the newspapers, people really do live better, happier, safer and more fulfilling lives in Europe.
You act like creeps who think that you have a special relationship with that woman down the street, and viciously attack when she dares to have a relationship with anyone but you, while she has time and time again made it clear that she is not interested in you. Beating and raping her won't make her love you either.
I agree that these large military actions of two industrially developed nations against each other is mostly an echo of the days past. But here it goes by happening to Russia, where I live. I have no way to interact with that inevitable transformation of yours, and the people who are promising this transformation are very unsympathetic at the moment; but either way it's I can't do much here.
The problem is that we were promised this "inevitable transformation" by various parties in 1994 and in 1999 and in 2004 and in 2009 and in 2014 (with more hysterical undertones) and in 2019. Here we are in 2024 and instead of that inevitable transformation we are in the midst of a big war, and not only ones at that.
> people really do live better, happier, safer and more fulfilling lives in Europe.
I don't think anybody ever argued with it; much like how living in LA or Barcelona is a vastly more superior option than living in North Dakota or Bucharest.
But the main question here is whether the EU magic dust can make life in Ukraine any better, in the amounts supplied and administred by Ukraine. Crimea bet against that and Donetsk/Lugansk population also bet against that. I do believe people live better, happier, safer and more fulfilling lives in Sevastopol these days than they do in Odessa on the other side of the front.
"Beating and raping her" applies to Ukraine's treatment of Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea before you can apply it to Russia. Ukraine should realize they will have to part with those relations which now only exist in their heads.
And before you say most people in Crimea didn't really choose to be overrun by little green men: Most people in Ukraine didn't really choose to get rid of their president by the means of Maidan coup either. Sometimes we play the cards which were dealt.
If Russia were a member of the EU, it would not even make it to the top 3 of largest economies in the union. Nor will the military be anything remarkable after Soviet stockpiles run out or rot away without leaving any more T-72 bodies to refurbish. You are living in the final days of a colonial empire that hasn't yet come to terms with the fact that the world has changed. Spain, France, the UK, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and others all had "military ambitions" and empires once, several of them much more impressive than Russia ever was. The war against Ukraine perfectly mirrors the pointless wars that European colonial powers were waging in the middle of the previous century in Malaysia, Algeria, Angola, Indochina and elsewhere. Desperately clinging to the past won't change anything and only prolongs the pain of inevitable transformation.
> There is some discrepancy: you are telling that Russians can only blame themselves for being worse off, but in fact Russians aren't complaining, and it is fellow Europeans who all the time blame Russia and also complain about their political and economic conditions.
Why are you killing people in Ukraine every day if you are happy with your lives?
The entire war seems like a giant temper tantrum over the fact that a nation that you've seen as one of the closest to you sees you as the inferior option and has chosen the EU as their partner instead. And what fuels the incredible inferiority complex, jealousy and resentment is knowing how it's all true: European integration is a better option for Ukraine, and that despite all the "jewrope" and "gayropa" garbage on the telly and in the newspapers, people really do live better, happier, safer and more fulfilling lives in Europe.
You act like creeps who think that you have a special relationship with that woman down the street, and viciously attack when she dares to have a relationship with anyone but you, while she has time and time again made it clear that she is not interested in you. Beating and raping her won't make her love you either.