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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
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Both the EU and NATO require unaminous approval of existing members to add new members. Both organisations contain several members that have been under Russian domination within living memory. Given Russia's frequent aggression towards its neighbours in the post-Soviet period, why would the likes of the Baltic countries trust Russia to be a reliable ally?
Additionally, Russia just straight up does not meet the Copenhagen criteria to join the EU and doesn't have any measure of the pre-accession integration that every other applicant does
Yeah colonialism and military conquest is only bad when it's done to you, not when it's done by you.
And as for the Copenhagen criteria are there any metrics that can be used to determine whether a country is a functioning market economy or politically stable enough, or is it just a set of vague guidelines to keep the membership limited to whoever they like?
Who said anything about colonialism and conquest not being bad? Countries seek to defend themselves. Russia has consistently been a threat to several EU and NATO states, therefore they seek defences against it
They don't need guidelines to do that. Any member state can just say no
My comment on colonialism was in response to you mentioning Russia's historical conquest of Eastern Europe. European countries were busy colonising other parts of the world during the same time so they're not better than Russia.
That doesn't mean that I said anything about colonialism being okay. Don't put words in my mouth, and especially not those words
The countries I mentioned were not, in general, colonial powers (there is an exception here for part of Latvia)
It is still entirely rational behaviour for a colonial power to defend itself against colonisation. Even if they actually were colonial powers then seeking defence against Russia would be a perfectly sensible thing for them to do.
For an outsider, it seems like Russia gets punished for the same crimes that other western nations have committed and continue to commit even today. Europe and America still continue to support invasions and occupations in the middle east and hence these sanctions seems especially hipocritical.
Not being welcomed into an alliance or supranational union is not a sanction. Not being in them is the default state for a country.
At no point have I made the argument that the countries Russia has invaded and controlled want to keep Russia out of these organisations as a matter of moral principals. I explicitly said it was a matter of self interest. They are not telling Russia off, they are making themselves safe from Russia.
That's fair i guess.