In the interview, Merkel stated that Vladimir Putin, at the beginning of his presidency, had no intention of attacking Ukraine, and his plan gradually took shape over the years, partly due to the behaviour of the West.

Did he also have no intention of continuing to occupy Georgia and Moldova and the West forced him to continue the occupation and then invade Georgia in 2008?

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago

She is talking about the year 2000. It took 8years for the war in Ukraine and 14 until he took Crimea and 22 years until the full scale invasion. Is it really that hard to imagine that Putin is not some incredible mastermind, but does something big, when he believes there is a good chance of success or something else changes. In 2008 Georgia had made moves to join NATO, so Russia intervened. 2014 was the Orange Revolution and Ukraine was weak, so he attacked. If he wanted to take all of Ukraine all the time, that was actually also the perfect moment for that. However it took him until 2022, when he thought the West was weak due to Covid and a lot more propaganda, for him to attack. It might also very well be that he changed his mind on a lot of things, being in power for over two decades and yes the behavior of the West certainly was part of it.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So did the interviewer ask her this? Cause they should have.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago

Not directly, but she did say that the Bucarest Summit lead to the invasion of Georgia in 2008.

[–] Vivarevo@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Putins court ideogog wrote the book on russian empire path. They have followed it to the letter for decades. Even before ger reign. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔