if everything else in decline, why would the military be an exception? and if crony capitalism and oligarchs and cronyism is how part of the economy and the society runs, why would the military be exempt from that? i want to play a little bit of putin, in an older interview, but goes to the mindset you may understand. this was with our own nbc colleague keir simmons where he tries to make the argument that he has to respond to nato, that russia is constantly on defense, as he puts it. take a look. what was the point of expanding nato to the east and bringing this infrastructure to our borders and all of this before saying that we re the ones who have been acting aggressively? why? did russia present any threat to the united states or any countries? we voluntarily withdrew our troops from eastern europe and what did we get in response?
Military
Everything
Part
Economy
Decline
Cronyism
Exception
Society-runs
Crony-capitalism-and-oligarchs
Vladimir-putin
Nato
Keir-simmons