It's Europe's business when a European country launches a European war of conquest. See: WW2 for what can happen when you just ignore fascist wars of conquest.
Most countries are made in a way to not allow parts of their territory to secede, even if they "want to do it". Just look what happens in Spain with Catalonia, what would probably happen in Scotland, Texas or California. This is not fascist.
But, you are ignoring the fact that Crimea did not decide to secede but that Russian soldiers (without insignia) became little green men, they forced Ukrainian army to surrender their weapons and leave Crimea. After that Russia organized "a referendum" where Crimea voted to join.
How well these referendums work we can see in Kherson.
>But, you are ignoring the fact that Crimea did not decide to secede
It absolutely did. The 90% vote matched our subsequent polling taken a year later - almost exactly and the western pollsters certainly didn't use little green men.
Much like in Kosovo the presence of the superpower's troops simply allowed the vote to happen.
Ukraine makes no secret of the fact that it doesn't want a free and fair vote to be run (it's "unconstitutional" to have a vote, they argue North Korearly) and neither do we.
That, along with the public bitchslap Elon Musk got for suggesting a vote, highlights the dim view the west takes on allowing democracy in the south and east of Ukraine.
> But, you are ignoring the fact that Crimea did not decide to secede but that Russian soldiers
I’m not so desperate to pick a side here. It’s absolutely right that Crimean secession wouldn’t be possible without Russian military intervention. And yes, it’s illegal from Ukraine’s point of view. At the same time, it’s legal from Russian point of view. Who’s in the right?
Now, NATO member states have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to explain why it’s all right for Kosovo or Taiwan, but not for Crimea. You have to agree that Taiwanese de-facto independence wouldn’t be possible without the US involvement.
> Just look what happens in Spain with Catalonia, what would probably happen in Scotland, Texas or California. This is not fascist.
If Scotland votes to leave the UK it will. The UK isn’t like Spain. It doesn’t believe in itself. The US looks like it does so it would likely be willing to wage a war of occupation. The US is far more nationalist than the UK.
If Scotland becomes independent, it won't be because the UK doesn't believe in itself, it's because the UK believes it's a democratic and consensual union. Believing in democracy the way the UK does can only happen if it has consequences. (Other countries have other ideas about what democracy means; I don't mean to say they don't believe in democracy because they draw different conclusions.)
Even the Scottish and Catalonian referenda were different: The Scottish referendum happened with the toleration of the central government, whereas the Catalonian referendum was ruled unlawful and widely boycotted. This was precisely because the UK believed in itself. Spain had a different understanding of itself - equally strong - and didn't want to go to the polls for it.
Yes, and the Sudeten Germans loved the Nazi German annexation of the Sudetenland, but it was still a criminal and deplorable act that led to WW2 and innumerable crimes. Ethnic nationalism as an excuse for wars of conquest doesn't really fly any more, we've learned it's a dead end, and that's why Europe cares, especially as Russia is clearly a fascist state at this point! Hope that helps.
I think everyone is very confused with what “fascist” means. Some say not having a gender-neural bathroom is “fascist”. But anyway, it seems you’re very set on not liking someone, so it’s better to leave you alone.
Russia might not be fascist in the most exact technical political sense, but it's an autocratic government that is currently launching missiles at the civilian infrastructure of another country to directly and indirectly harm civilians. Not sure what else you want? Doesn't matter what any other country has done up to this point, they are doing that right now, not hitting military targets, civilian ones, by choice.
This is truly tragic, I feel for civilians. As an EU resident, I want the EU to take actionable steps and achieve peace. Alas, I don’t see it happening. Everything that’s been done only led to escalation.
P.S. destroying civilian power infrastructure was one of the first things US-led coalition did in the Gulf War. Yes, it’s horrible for civilians, but you can’t ignore the fact it has a military purpose. Disrupting the energy balancing will have direct consequences for Ukrainian armed forces as they use rail for shipping ammo, weapons and personnel.
Ceausescu was an autocrat too but regularly held huge demonstrations for world peace. So not all autocrats are also warlords. Although undeniably an external enemy helps propaganda...
I like Russian people, I work with many here in Germany where many live, in my experience they're much more friendly than the average German that's for sure. But no, I don't like your fascist state, and I can't imagine I would like anyone who would defend Russian imperial conquests.
