Pretty childish tweet and indicative that NATO is an organization that lost its purpose with the end of the Cold War. Now, having failed to find a mission more appropriate for the times, NATO seems poised to blunder into pumping up a new geo-political conflict. Perhaps that is its only comfort zone but in doing so it could quickly produce profoundly painful consequences all around.
Like it or not Putin holds a lot of cards. EU countries like Germany, which itself depends on Russia for about a third of its gas, oil, and coal, ultimately understand that. No future fracking, diversion of world energy resources, or miracle renewables will sustainably make up that gap. It is fantasy to think otherwise. Russia surely depends on trade as well but it is a country with sizable natural resources and a cultural history of astounding resilience to hard times (evidence a lot of the 20th century).
While I have been big fan of TPM’s usually spot-on analysis for more than 10 years, I have been disappointed with its Ukraine coverage so far. I am not a Russia/Putin apologist but I don’t think TPM has fully grasped the deep, often subtle global and regional undercurrents in motion here. As a result, it has presented an incomplete perspective of the facts.