Glad Europe sees the Putin play now.

[applegrove]

🤬 Putin appears to have teamed up with a Libyan warlord to trigger a fresh migrant crisis in the EU, - The Telegraph

The European Commission has tracked an increased number of flights between the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and Minsk.

— MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) 2025-08-09T20:54:50.479Z

Applegrove:

But is that why MAGA/Putin are against climate change mitigation? So climate refugees will overwhelm northern countries and change us all into racists? I don't think the ICE actions in the US has done much except create sympathy for the undocumented.

[Celerity]

1. We here in Europe have seen this for years. Take the 2021 Belarus sponsoring of another influx of refugees into Poland &

the Baltics for instance:

Belarus–European Union border crisis

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus%E2%80%93European_Union_border_crisis

In August 2021, the government of Belarus began sponsoring an influx of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa, to the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. Although Belarus denied involvement, both the European Union and independent observers viewed it as hybrid warfare undertaken in response to the deterioration in Belarus–European Union relations following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests.

Between August and December 2021, tens of thousands of unauthorized border crossing attempts were recorded, peaking in October. At least 20 migrants died in the following winter due to the harsh weather and abuse from border authorities. Attempted border crossings fell sharply the following year, but never returned to their pre-crisis levels. In the spring of 2024, numbers began rising again, although they remain well below those seen in the peak of the crisis in 2021.

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[applegrove]

2. Some people think Putin backed Assad in Syria because

Last edited Sun Aug 10, 2025, 12:54 AM - Edit history (2)

that was a way to increase the refugees to Europe. For sure Putin wanted Assad to succeed to build a bad axis of nations, but sending masses of refugees to Europe was a way to destabilize those European nations and grow the right wing networks. It partially worked.

At least the Europeans are on it this time.

[Celerity]

3. The Tartus naval base was the biggest reason Putin backed Assad.

The Tartus naval base was a leased military installation of the Russian Navy located on the northern edge of the sea port of the Syrian city of Tartus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartus_naval_base

Established in 1971, during the Cold War, by an agreement between the Soviet Union and Ba'athist Syria, the facility supported the Soviet Navy's 5th Operational Squadron, its Mediterranean fleet. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the facility remained in limited use by Russia's Black Sea Fleet. From 2009, the facility was upgraded and expanded, including to serve the Mediterranean Sea Task Force formed in 2013. From 2011, it was the only remaining Russian naval base outside the former Soviet Union. From 2015, the base supported the Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war. In 2017 Russia concluded an agreement with Syria, obtaining a free-of-charge 49-year lease, jurisdiction over the base, and the ability to store nuclear weapons aboard its ships.

In December 2024, following the fall of the Assad regime, the Russian Navy began withdrawing from the base, completing this by early March 2025. In January 2025, the Syrian caretaker government ended the treaty allowing Russian military presence in Syria, and a contract with Russian company Stroytransgaz to manage the commercial areas of the Tartus port. In February, the Syrian defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra stated that Russia would be allowed to maintain the base "if we get benefits for Syria out of this".

snip

btw, you said:

For sure Putin wanted Assad to succeed to built a bad axis of nations, but sending masses of refugees to Europe was a way to destabilize those European nations and grow the right wing networks. It partially worked.

The US did the same, but with even greater impact, via Bush's illegal Iraq War. (and before that multiple other CIA-led or aided murder wars and coups d'état, going back to at least Operation Ajax, the 1953 CIA/MI6 coup of the democratically elected Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran (and the re-centralisation of power under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's brutal regime, which ultimately led to the Iranian Islamic Revolution and the take-over by Ruhollah Khomeini). The 1973 CIA-greatly aided murder war/coup of Salvador Allende is another.

[applegrove]

4. There can be more than one major reason for something.

Why are you giving me the negative history of US Presidents in the 50s and 70s. That was 50 years ago? Why is that salient?

[Celerity]

5. I said 'biggest' which is singular. As for history, I posted events that led to large influxes of refugees, especially

Sweden, when viewed as percentages of our population (Syria did of course, but also the Bush et al Iraq war, the Allende Chilean coup signed off on by Nixon, and Operation Ajax, with Eisenhower caving into the UK's demands to stop the Iranian nationalisation of their petrol industry, which took control away from the Anglo Iranian Oil Company, now known as BP).