Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the presidential nomination from the Republican Party of the USA, who is in the top three in terms of popularity among Republican supporters, promises to recognize the Russian occupation of Ukraine and block its path to NATO if elected president.

Sorry for the headline. I don’t know why they don’t just say it’s Vivek Ramaswamy.

To that end, I will accept Russian control of the occupied territories and pledge to block Ukraine’s candidacy for NATO in exchange for Russia exiting its military alliance with China. I will end sanctions and bring Russia back into the world market. In this way, I will elevate Russia as a strategic check on China’s designs in East Asia.

  • mycorrhiza they/them
    24·
    1 year ago

    Vivek Ramaswamy is a fucking ghoul, and so is Putin, but if — like some commenters in this thread — you are concerned about WW3, then Vivek’s position here is less bellicose than the official American “Push NATO right up to Russia’s border, plant missiles five minutes from Moscow, deny Russian access to the warm water port at Crimea” position. It is also the position most likely to end a war that has already killed half a million people. What Vivek offers is what Putin started the war to obtain.

    There is some evidence — various polls, and also the fact that a civil war raged for eight years — indicating that a sizable portion of the population in the contested regions of eastern Ukraine is either ambivalent about or would prefer Russian rather than Kyiv rule. Granting them this would probably not be worse than killing another half million people in Ukraine.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      71·
      1 year ago

      So why not have a vote in the matter without the goons with guns standing over.

      Russia last all credibility when they invaded. That’s their problem.

      • mycorrhiza they/them
        12·
        1 year ago

        There were multiple polls before the invasion, and some probably contradict each other, but before we go off on an internet argument digging through polls, my main point is that the war is killing hundreds of thousands of people, half a million already, and nudging us toward world war 3, and since Putin probably won’t back down for security and economic reasons, it’s either compromise or drag this out to the last Ukrainian. At minimum, if you want to end this shit, a binding guarantee to not join NATO should be on the table, and Russian access to Sevastopol. I would wager that the main reason Russia wants to retain some of eastern Ukraine is to maintain a border buffer against NATO.

        *For an example, this 2015 survey polled Ukrainians on a range of topics and broke down the results by region. On page 18, residents of Donbas are asked the question, “How do you evaluate your attitude toward each of the following countries?” For Russia, the breakdown is as follows: 5% very warm, 39% warm, 42% neutral, 5% cold, 1% very cold, 9% difficult to answer or no answer.

        **To clarify, the survey does not show the Donbas wanting to join Russia (see page 22: 75% want to remain part of Ukraine in some form) or welcoming an invasion (page 27, surprise most people do not want war), but it does show that a plurality preferred economic ties to Russia (33%) over economic ties to the EU (21%) (page 41), and that only 16% in the Donbas wanted to join NATO (page 43).