A brilliant thread by Sudsg5 thag you can read here.
With the #UkraineWillResist crisis heating up, here is a primer on why braindead US actions and foreign policy is responsible for this.
Thread.
America under Bill Clinton didn't care much for democracy and rigged the 1996 elections blatantly in which Putin was on the sure to win but eventually los. Many tactics were deployed including a till then record IMF handout, large portions of which were used to grease palms, provide liberal doles etc. All of $ 10bn of it. (https://t.co/kDJCyve6Tc)
Approved in the end of Mar 1996, the sum was $10bn, of which a no conditions attached payout of $1bn was made immediately. Which was unprecedented.
Quote "The fund's 24-member executive board approved the three-year loan despite misgivings about the future of economic reforms in Russia, following Yeltsin's decision to dismiss several leading reformers in his government. According to Western economists, Russia could receive initial payments of around $1 billion prior to the June election.
The IMF loan is widely viewed as the West's best chance of influencing the outcome of the June election, in which Yeltsin faces a strong challenge from Communists and nationalists. Failure to come through with the loan would have made it difficult for Yeltsin to keep his promise of paying a large backlog of wages due Russian workers, and might have cost him the election, in the view of many Russian political analysts. End quote.
Strong challenge is an understatement. In opinion polls leading up to the polls, Yeltsin scored an epic [6%](https://t.co/omfNDZabuO) But Murican money, Uncle Bill's own personal team of media wizards, IMF and World Bank money all rigged the elections so blatantly that it makes the 2016 Russian attempt seem like amateur hour.
Uncle Bill then gave out more loans to keep this regime going. https://t.co/TvIN0asDsY
Quote / this week, in a complete reversal, the I.M.F. and the Russian Government announced a bailout package that will inject $17.1 billion in new loans to the beleaguered nation over the next 18 months. The Clinton Administration was the driving force behind the reversal, impelled by the specter of Russia's financial collapse. United States Treasury officials were worried that while negotiations with the Russians dragged on over forcing real economic change, the political peril to the Government of President Boris N. Yeltsin was growing. They pressed the fund to double the amount of money it was willing to lend to Russia, even though it depleted the I.M.F.'s own resources for fighting the economic contagion that is spreading beyond Asia.
End quote
And then America decided that it will be fun to get Ukraine into the fucking Nato knowing full well that Russia will see this as a clear and present danger to its own stability. It's not like Ukrainians wanted this. In the mid 90's when Nato was aggressively moving towards The Ukraine, only 1/3rd of Ukranians supported this.
Funnily enough, Putin when he first took power was actually pro West. In an interview with the BBC in [2000, he even suggested that he saw nato as a positive force and Russia might even consider joining it
https://t.co/u5QfgCm4yt
Then America decided once again to shit the bed. It funded and aided revolutions aiming to topple pro Russian govts in Georgia and the Ukraine.
While Uncle Bill aka uncle Sam saw it kosher to blatantly rig elections in Russia. A similar attempt by the then Georgian president Eduard Shevarnadze (sp?) saw America fund outright revolution against him. Ditto Victor Yanukovich in the Ukraine.
And then it gets worse. America in 2005 accepted 3 Baltic States into the Nato.
Now Nato was not even a few 100 kms from the heart of European Russia (St Petersburg)
This is diabolical shit the US pulled off. Under the conventional forces in Europe- https://t.co/AzLcCNXNiy treaty of 1992.
There were mandates and restrictions on the amount of non wmd weapons and troops in European soil.
Except the Baltics were exempt. Which meant that technically America had the loophole to stock pile all this in the Baltic States. Russia then protested and wanted to add the Baltic States to the CFE but Uncle Sam said no, nothing doing.
Then comes Dubya . In 2006-7, the Dubya administration, bored with lying and starting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq decided to again rile up Russia. It announced a missile defence system in Poland and The Czech republic. Not a new idea, he was blabbering about it from 2001. [Dubya's spech](https://t.co/pxS9KHm0Sx) and was constantly warned against this. Russia itself issued several demarches saying this would upset the Balance of power.
At this stage Putin even suggested a joint US Russia radar monitoring site to monitor Iran (which the US claimed was the motive... Not)
This was the straw that broke the Russian bear's back.
From being conciliatory and seeing the Nato was a force of good in 2000, Putin in a televised address in 2007 openly declared Nato as public enemy number 1(in as many words but not literally)
Then in 2008, over the protests of France and Germany iirc, the US decided to offer Ukraine and Georgia would both be offered full nato status. [https://t.co/vDmQGK7Y3f](https://t.co/vDmQGK7Y3f)
After this Russia has constantly pushed back. It followed US operational tactics and whenever pro US govts were elected, just like the US did, it destabilized them.
As this foreign affairs article from 204 says https://t.co/qxbdC3PdEY, the US has deployed the Monroe doctrine zealously for 2 centuries. Yet it cries foul if other powers do the same? That's just blatant hypocrisy.
In essence Russian actions WERE conciliatory. The cold war did end but the USA acted as though it didn't, kept the fire going and now Russia is acting in kind.
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