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As American example shows us in real time, it's not something you just "figure out" once. Democracy requires society to always win in eternal struggle against human nature.

"and then it got worse"

Not to be thát person, but Archduke Franz Ferdinand was not a Serb, he was Austrian. Even though Austria-Hungary did annex Bosnia and Herzegovina in the late 19th century, Franz Ferdinand was not born there - in fact he was born before the annexation.

Unless you mean his killer, but then your wording is a little off and I would say "murder BY a Serbian." Even so, the ethnicity of the murderer wasn't really as important as his target. ;)

Thats how the murder of a Serbian devolved into a world war

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was Austrian.

They also were figthing and got defeated by Japan right before that - did contribute to the downfall a little

China is still bankrolling RU and the EU is still purchasing RU energy, so there are still funds to be had

Taco/fElon are Russia's friends/assets. They and their gop/maga supporters need to be kicked out of the usa government. Hopefully then, usa will return to Ukraine's side.

The whole mineral rights stuff is going to be interesting to see play out. Because Zelenskyy, and Ukrainians in general, should very much beware Yankees bearing “gifts” at this point, because we are not the same country we were 6 months ago.

He’ll try to stop/derail it ~~if he can’t claim ownership of the results.~~

Trump never gave a shit about peace to begin with; he just wanted to fellate Putin.

Nothing makes a US President feel better after a bad day like bombing the middle east

Americans are going to have to make the same choice in the next few years. I hope they don't make the same mistake.

Yeltsin brought a lot of democractic traits into Russia

No. The democratic mechanisms started working a bit earlier than the USSR stopped existing.

People like Sakharov, Galina Starovoitova, have your heard of such names?

The democratic reforms happened before USSR's collapse.

Yeltsin used that to come to power in 1991, and then kicked the ladder in 1993, and in 1999 named Putin as the next president on television. Oh, of course Putin "won" an election after that.

And that process was actively supported by western governments, especially in 1996, with the justification that an honest democracy in Russia will lead to scary-scary communists coming back to power.

Should they kept going on that direction they’d be a global superpower on pretty much all fronts by now, surpassing US and even China.

Yeltsin was a dying alcoholic living uncritically and without shame by the motto "to my friends everything, to everyone else the law". They have kept going on that exact direction. That's the bloody point.

Yeltsin usurped power in 1993. If that didn't happen and the conflict between Yeltsin and the parliament was resolved peacefully and legally (by having snap parliament and presidential elections simultaneously, so - replacing both sides of the conflict, in other words, Yeltsin would have to back the democratic claims with the democratic action of leaving the post ; that was the constitutional court's decision), then maybe. But instead Yeltsin used tanks to resolve the dispute.

Anyway, no, even if 1993 conflict would end differently, I think surpassing Germany is possible.

Soviet Union was an interesting part of the planet, the older generation from there can "know" and teach you all the right things, but not live by them. Talk about bravery and honor, and very correctly, but act dishonorably and be completely blind to that, talk about science and logic and critical mind and very correctly, but go to fortunetellers and believe in energies. Talk about principle, but not follow it. Never use the "thought experiment" tool freely. And so on.

They needed lots of time to fix that - through pain. It's not been 40 years yet, if we take biblical timespans. Maybe in year 2031 Russia will finally be ready.

But they had also pretty big internal problems and a ton of people who desired old soviet times and whatever, so we ended up with what we have today. Wikipedia has way more info and links to study it further.

In 1991 nobody desired "old times" back. People saw how it all was degrading until falling apart. Don't you give me Wikipedia links, lol. Something should have happened for a lot of people to wish a "restoration", don't you think so? Like what I've described. And that "restoration" was provided by the same people, Yeltsin's people, with the figure of Putin and his image of a "former Soviet intelligence operative".

How would Russia have surpassed the US and China? What did they have that would have contributed to that superiority? I realize that is a massive question, but to a a casual observer, that seems curious.

Russians like strong men, it’s a weakness in their society.

No, it's not any more a Russian weakness than an American one, even less than a Japanese or a Chinese one.

Especially unwise to judge Russians by American stereotypes of Russians.

Everyone outside Russia wanted it to continue to be a democracy

How's that compatible with supporting Yeltsin in his 1993 coup and in stealing 1996 elections?

Russia even had a brief association with NATO while it was.

No it didn't. Yeltsin wanted that, yes, and Putin wanted that too. Both wanted to be a big, scary country accepted to NATO and with NATO weaponry. Like Turkey, but with nukes. What both didn't want is dropping the bullshit about spheres of influence and being an equal of the USA, apparently got told by NATO that beggars are not choosers. Also wanting an association with NATO has plainly nothing to do with being a democracy or not.

But Yeltsin drank too much (alcoholism being another weakness in Russian society) and that allowed a guy like Putin to make himself a Czar.

I think you skipped the part where I was educating you that Yeltsin made himself Czar in 1993 and just passed it on to Putin.

I don't really care that it breaks your narrative. Putin is a natural continuation of the western-supported and consulted regime in Russia installed in 1993. That Yeltsin presented himself as some liberator and Putin presented himself as ex Soviet intelligence are campaign pictures that mean nothing. All the trusted people around Putin are the same that Yeltsin had even before 1991. Including Putin himself.

Alcoholism is not a bigger weakness in the Russian society than in British ones or in Sweden or in Finland.

I know that's sarcasm, but your comment made me think. I strongly disagree with those kinds of remarks. :)

This war isn't like a game of Poker, where everyone is dealt from the same deck. It's more like MTG, where the real game is about who can make better strategic use of their card-buying budget.