New Seats in European Parliament?

[Love365]

Democracy and communication is the best way.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

 

[Desk trauma]

Democracy and communication is the best way.

The Russians should try that.

 

[helmut]

Democracy and communication is the best way.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

Generally speaking, this is true. But there are persons you cannot communicate reasonably to. Hitler was definitely one, AFAIK Idi Amin another one, and there is plenty of evidence Putin is also one.

EDIT: There are certainly more persons of this type (maybe Trump?), I don't claim to know every prominent egoist.

 

[Love365]

NATO was getting too close to the Russian border.
Causing Russia to take Crimea out of fear.
NATO has large dangerous weapons.

The European Union is democracy,
That is why Russia and Ukraine need seats to vote.

 

[Hans Blaster]

NATO was getting too close to the Russian border.
Causing Russia to take Crimea out of fear.
NATO has large dangerous weapons.

And now Ukraine has NATO weapons and hits Russian troops with them hundreds of times each day. Good work Vladimir Vladimirovich.

The European Union is democracy,
That is why Russia and Ukraine need seats to vote.

The EU is an association of democracies. They are too chicken to become a proper federal state. Russia is not a democracy. They are neither welcome nor want in. Ukraine is on the fast track to membership.

 

[Love365]

Russia has 3 branches of government.

Executive, Legislative, and Judicial

 

[helmut]

Russia has 3 branches of government.

Executive, Legislative, and Judicial

So does every state.

The executive in Russia controls the legislative by tampering into elections. Any real opposition is smashed before it can get dangerous to Putin. Sometimes even murder is used to silence unwanted voices.

Ant the judicative? Independent from Putin?

 

[Love365]

If you want to stop the fear and paranoia.

The Russians and other Europeans need to be in the same room,
working together in the European Parliament.

They will both see the other side is just normal human beings.

 

[helmut]

If you want to stop the fear and paranoia.

Do you think it was a mistake to let Churchill air a lot of paranoia (fear of Nazi Germany)?

They will both see the other side is just normal human beings.

Was it a mistake to deny the German Nazi Party seats in the English parliament, so both sides could see they were just normal beings?

 

[Love365]

At the end of World War One,
many countries were to blame for the war.

But all the blame was put on one country, Germany.
They tried to pay the war debt,
but that caused hyperinflation in Germany.
Then Germany was starving to death.
That led to Nazi Germany and WWII.

We should have forgiven Germany after World War One.

World War 2 would have never happened.

 

[helmut]

We should have forgiven Germany after World War One.

Yes. Especially since Germany became a republic at the end of WW1.

But to forgive a beaten country (France got the same borders in 1815 as in 1789, despite Napoleons aggression and defeat) is not the same than to concede to an aggressor: Hitler was forgiven to march into the Rhineland, well, ok, he was forgiven for swallowing Austria, he was forgiven to get the German-inhabited parts of Czechoslovakia, and all that did not appease him, but rather fired his aggression.

Russia has been forgiven to occupy parts of Moldova (the damage could have been worse, but some self declared »half democrat« Russian helped to ease the situation), Russia (now under Putin) has been forgiven to smash the Chechens, forgiven to occupy parts of Georgia, there was a rather mild reaction to Russia's occupation and annexation of the Krim, same with the occupation of so called »New Russia« in Eastern Ukraine - forgiving does not help if the forgiven one interpret this as cowardice and commits greater crimes than before.

 

[Love365]

We should have forgiven Russia in 1993.

Made Russia a full member of the European Union.

 

[helmut]

We should have forgiven Russia in 1993.

Well, we did.

Made Russia a full member of the European Union.

Forcing Russia to enter what she does not want to enter is forgiveness? Not in my lexicon.

 

[Love365]

Why was the World’s Fair never in Russia?

 

[Hans Blaster]

Why was the World’s Fair never in Russia?

Because Russia lacks cities of the international stature of Knoxville.

 

[Love365]

Because Russia lacks cities of the international stature of Knoxville.

Moscow or St Petersburg could host the World’s Fair.

Why were they never picked to host?

 

[helmut]

Why was the World’s Fair never in Russia?

The Word's Fair (aka EXPO) is a »capitalist« show (the first ones were even colonialistic), so the USSR never wanted to participate in it.

After the fall of the Soviet Empire, the economic crisis of Russia deepened, so Russia had not the power to host an EXPO. Later Russia was under some sanctions because of those aggressions that let Eastern Europe seek NATO membership.

Putin does not understand that power without justice always creates counter-movement, such as countries joining the NATO (Finland and Sweden are the most recent example). Or the impositon of sanctions.

What about the time between Russia as a land in crisis and Russia under sanction, I'm not sure. Sheer coincidence that no EXPO was given into Russia?

PS: Putin is not the only one who does not understand. A great deal of anti-Americanism (especially in the global south) also stems from the misuse of power by the USA. But unlike Russia, there is also much benefit from the USA and their allies.

 

[helmut]

Because Russia lacks cities of the international stature of Knoxville.

What's Knoxville? Never heard of it. Is this the city of Fort Knox?

 

[Hans Blaster]

What's Knoxville? Never heard of it. Is this the city of Fort Knox?

Home of the 1982 World's Fair in Tennessee. (Take that Russia, I mean USSR.) I believe that like Fort Knox in Kentucky it is named for (Henry?) Knox, Geo. Washington's self-taught chief of artillery.

 

[helmut]

Home of the 1982 World's Fair in Tennessee. (Take that Russia, I mean USSR.)

That's a little bit unfair.

The USSR never wanted to participate in a World's fair. There was a cold war, as you know (at least I hope you know it).

There is no need to be unfair to Russia, we have tons of reasons to blame Russia for bad things: agression against Georgia, murder of Litvinenko, blatant lying on the Krim invasion (»I don't know where these soldiers are from«), … just haphazardly picked out from memory, and I could certainly add more of this stuff.