What's Wrong With 'getting Along' With Russia?

[Khandro]

Yesterday Donald Trump said at a press conference, “Putin probably assumes that he can't make a deal with me anymore because politically it's unpopular for a politician to make a deal
that’s a shame because if we could get along with Russia – and by the way, China and Japan and everyone…” Trump told reporters. “If Russia and the United States actually got together and got along — and don’t forget, we’re a very powerful nuclear country and so are they... If we have a good relationship with Russia, believe me, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing”.

[Garaman]

I don't think there is anything wrong with getting along with Russia et, but not everything Trump says is stupid. The problem for me is that his supporters don't seem to be able to tell when what he says is stupid.

[Khandro]

jno; You said, "if Trump decides he likes the USA, then he'll move Alaska way down past the Baltic states on his list of places to reconquer." Don't you mean Putin?

btw, Crimea was part of the Russian Empire since 1783, in 1954 it was transferred to the 'Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic' by Nikita Khrushchev (who came from that region) at an obscure meeting in Moscow (which was unminuted) and anyway it hardly mattered as it was all part of the then USSR.
The Crimea is essential to Russia's access to its naval fleet the Black Sea, and for Russia is non-negotiable, a referendum was held in which the majority wished to remain with Russia and it seems to me to to be a very small stick to beat Putin with.

[ichkeria]

(Another lap of the mulberry bush but heigh-ho)
The 'referendum' was held illegally and under the barrel of a gun. Previously the autonomous Crimean parliament was effectively hijacked by gunmen and a coup effectively carried out by small and unrepresentative party within that parliament. Rather as if a ukip mob had besieged parliament and expelled all but Douglas Carswell from the chamber and then got him to hold a vote on whether we should hold a referendum in EU membership. Or the Scottish nationalists had stormed the building and expelled all but the SNP members and held s vote on a Scottish referendum.
Tony Blair doesn't know he's living :-)

[ichkeria]

In fact what happened in Crimea (and indeed in parts of Donbas) was more or less exactly what the Russian - and ironically certain far right wing media - accused Ukraine of doing :-)

[ichkeria]

And of course Russia already had access to the Vlack Sea through Sevastopol which no jobe would argue is effectively a 'Russian' city and both Russian and Ukrainian navies and their families co-existed perfectly peacefully there until Putin's little green men moved in

[Khandro]

ichi; //And of course Russia already had access to the Vlack Sea through Sevastopol //

How do you think the Russians can get to their fleet at Sevastopol without crossing through Crimea?

[Khandro]

ichkeria; No answer to my question as yet, It's obvious you are as big a dunce at geography as you are at history, so I'll try again; Crimea is strategically important as a base for the Russian navy. The Black Sea Fleet has been based on the peninsula since it was founded by Prince Potemkin in 1783. The fleet’s strategic position helped Russia defeat Georgia in the South Ossetia war in 2008, and remains crucial to Russian security interests in the region.
Crimea still has a 60 per cent Russian population (total population under 2 million) and if the election, which I admit had to be done in haste, was unfair, why have there been no protests and cries to re-align themselves with Ukraine?

[Samjenko]

Even Ukraine itself had a, Russian friendly, democratically elected government overthrown in a bloody revolution fomented, no doubt, by EU and US agents. Didn't it?