this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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Russian officials welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on NATO allies over Greenland, with Kremlin economic negotiator Kirill Dmitriev claiming on Jan. 17 that the move signals the "collapse" of the transatlantic alliance.

Trump earlier said that Washington would impose 10% tariffs on NATO allies — France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland — until the U.S. reaches a deal to buy Greenland. He has threatened to acquire the island "one way or the other."

"The transatlantic alliance is over," Dmitriev wrote on X, mocking European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and urging European leaders not to "provoke" Trump.

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[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 66 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Volodymyr Zelensky did an interview with David Letterman in 2022 and told a joke.

“Two Jewish guys from Odesa meet up,” Zelensky says. “One asks the other: ‘So what’s the situation? What are people saying?'” And he goes, ‘What are people saying? They are saying it’s a war.'”

“What kind of war?”

“Russia is fighting NATO.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO.”

“So how’s it going?”

“Well, 70,000 Russian soldiers are dead. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up.”

“And what about NATO?”

“What about NATO? NATO hasn’t arrived yet.”

It's going to be super embarrassing for Russia when NATO disbands entirely and Russia still loses.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 16 points 2 days ago

Russia is the crazy guy cutting himself with a knife and screaming at everyone. Their goal is not to "win", they just want everyone to be afraid of them.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

While the US was the big stick of NATO, NATO sans the US is still a very potent force. With the existing spending it was more than enough to hold back Russia. With the additional military spending it is more than enough to hold back the US too.

The greatest weakness of NATO sans US is the ability to act quickly and decisively at scale. The petty bickering between countries over the economics of defense spending slows everything down way too much. The EU will have to evolve quickly to overcome this.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The problem, as I understand it, is that the NATO treaty has some stuff in it that is specifically and explicitly the responsibility of the US and having the US abruptly drop out makes the whole thing kind of broken. So a new NATO treaty will need to be quickly organized among those who remain interested.

I have proposed calling it NATWO, we'll see if they take my advice I suppose.

North Atlantic Treaty W/O (the USA)?

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

... Why are the two guys described as Jewish?

[–] Klear@quokk.au 4 points 1 day ago

Because it's a Jewish anecdote.