Think it’s very hard to see this war in straightforward left and right terms. Having grown up thinking that the Cold War was a case of left versus right, I find it impossible to place such simplistic definitions this time and was, almost certainly, wrong to do so thirty and forty years ago. It seems to me that those most sympathetic to Putin and anti NATO can be found on the extremes of the political right and left and, whatever the merits of the various claims about Russian influence in Brexit and the 2016 American election, I think it’s safe to say that Putin favoured the more right wing option. Conversely, especially given Trump’s comments on the situation just before the Russian invasion began, it would not surprise me in the least if many of the “patriots” that overran the White House last year are pro Putin and Russia in the current situation.Originally Posted by jon1959
It was probably ever so, but, for me, this in a conflict between two sides with plenty of blood on their hands, plenty of decisions made against what I’ll naively call the public good and with flawed people at the head of them - the difference for me is that I see only one leader who comes across as a psychopath who I could easily imagine pressing the nuclear button.
It seems to me that “the West” have allowed this situation to develop through a combination of complacency and a desire for a “quiet life” - I make no great claims regarding my insight when it comes to Putin, but I fail to see how any Western leader could not see this coming, the signs that it was were pretty clear after all. The only surprise for me has been how quickly we’ve come to this and the degree to which Putin has gambled his future on Ukraine - it almost makes me believe those claims that he may be seriously ill or dying.
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