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Brooklyn Justice's avatar

Of course the Russian people have to remove Putin on their own, however difficult a prospect that may be. When we progressives in the US talk about negotiating with Putin, we're desperately trying to head off the regime-change policies of our government, whose foreign policy is very much dominated by the weapons manufacturing oligarchy. These policies have led to chaos and repression everywhere they've been applied. Speech has never felt less free here. To speak out against the excessive militarism the US is applying in Ukraine (basically, a huge transfer of public monies into the hands of bloated military corporations, with a significant chunk of purchased munitions possibly ending up in the black market), is to be branded a Trump/Putin lover.Our criminal court system? Ask any member of the poor majority and/or Black or Hispanic person how different it is from what you describe.

Yes, Putin and his class are horrors. But they're your problem and shouldn't be used as a US excuse to sow chaos in the world.

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memento mori's avatar

"Meeting Putin halfway" does not exonerate Putin or imply he's an okay guy. The progressives aren't making ambiguous or conciliatory statements about Putin. Rather, it is realpolitik response to an intractable situation. Two things are also true: 1) Putin has a legitimate concern about Nato's creeping expansion and 2) What is the solution besides a negotiated settlement (by definition, meeting Putin halfway or somewhere in-between)? WWIII? If you think it is the progressive types who are conflating Putin with Russia, you fail to understand, that it is, in fact, the "progressive" wing (not neoliberal, not neocon, not Democrats, not Republicans) in the U.S. more than any other that recognizes that the Russians aren't the bad guys and the Russians aren't Putin.

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