(no subject)
May. 9th, 2014 10:02 pmTo me, the most important outcome of the 2014 Russia-Ukraine war is the realization by Nato that Russia is an enemy of the West. Just like that: all of a sudden we find ourselves facing not just a corrupt, autocratic regime the size of 1/6 of the planet, but an aggressive enemy armed with nuclear and economic weapons on top of all that huge territory. In short, Russia has gone bad, but we totally missed it somehow. [In terms of the information theory, the situation produced 2 bits of information: new enemy found; early detection system not working].
Now the West has to reconfigure itself to address the challenge, which is much greater than a threat to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The biggest danger would be to have Russia turn into a massive North Korea, with its economy collapsing, while military ambitions grow. Suddenly, the world has become a lot riskier; all of that because of one crazy man - Putin.
Now the West has to reconfigure itself to address the challenge, which is much greater than a threat to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The biggest danger would be to have Russia turn into a massive North Korea, with its economy collapsing, while military ambitions grow. Suddenly, the world has become a lot riskier; all of that because of one crazy man - Putin.