Quote ( https://x.com/leonidragozin/status/1853706205471936715)
From the East European viewpoint, the most important thing about the US election is that Biden administration goes.
The year-long brinkmanship that eventually resulted in Russia’s full-out aggression began with with Biden’s arrival in the White House and Zelensky’s simultaneous - and very obviously coordinated - U-turn on peace talks with Russia. The attack on Medvedchuk, loud campaigns for NATO membership and for the derailing of Nord Stream, the law on the de-occupation of Crimean - all of that happened in Jan-Feb 2021 and resulted in Putin deploying troops on Ukranian border in March the same year.
This policy of confronting Russia and crossing its strategic red lines instead of helping Russians confront Putin’s regime and upholding democratic values and human rights in both Russia and Ukraine resulted in:
- Immense suffering for Ukraine and a military defeat looming on the horizon, both of which were entirely avoidable at different stages in the conflict
- The empowerment of the once shaky Putin’s regime and the demise of Russian
opposition
- Putin’s army becoming the world’s most experienced and combat ready force. If the status quo is not frozen now through negotiation, it may eventually incorporate parts of the other highly experienced force, the Ukrainian army.
- Massive human rights violations in Ukraine what with the press gang violence, the rights of Russian speakers and religious freedoms. The number of Ukrainians serving sentence for “collaboration” and other political “crimes” by far exceeds the number of political prisoners in Russia.
What the future holds whether Trump or Harris win is anyone’s guess - this is why so many Russians and Ukrainians on both sides of the barricade are agnostic about the outcome.
Trump is a wild card. His unconventional methods and the power of the war lobby in the GOP can lead to a massive escalation as much as they can result in peace settlement.
Harris is an example of mindless and hypocritical virtue signalling typical of the liberal wing today which - as we know - often leads to more bloodshed than a far right government can possibly foment.
The best outcome of the US elections for Eastern Europe is that the new administration doesn’t create even more mess than Biden and other administrations have already created.
To good not to be posted in full.