re: #100 Dr Lizardo

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There’s no real way to escalate this any further than “full-blown war.” Vlad made it pretty clear yesterday in his speech that this is not simply a border dispute or a dispute over whether or not NATO is exercising undue influence over Eastern Europe. He does not recognize Ukraine’s right to exist, could really be argued that he doesn’t recognize any state carved out of the former SSSR as being a legitimate one (save those under Moscow’s thumb), and so views the land they sit upon as Russian land that he can do with as he likes.

There’s no diplomatic solution here other than Putin undoing everything he did yesterday by withdrawing the recognition of these “republics” and moving his troops out of Ukraine’s borders. Anything less than that is a defacto admission that Putin’s position is valid. And if the West does that, then Eastern Europe is going to fucking freak out. It also means that Taiwan is gonna start sweating bullets because Beijing is going to see that as a green light to start prepping an invasion force.