Opinion: What Putin gets wrong about Texas, and about Ukraine
Rebecca Adeline Johnston
Feb. 24, 2022
Updated: Feb. 24, 2022 6:55 p.m.
Texas comes up as a topic of discussion in the Kremlin more often than one might expect.
During a news conference in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin evoked the Lone Star State to defend his country’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. “Mexico and the U.S. never had territorial disputes? Who did California used to belong to? And Texas?” Although few people question that Texas is part of the United States, Putin said that most countries still recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine.
This war is an escalation from Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and partial occupation of eastern Ukraine that it has maintained, though denied, ever since. After massing an estimated 190,000 troops around three sides of Ukraine, Putin moved to recognize Russian-backed separatist regions — the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics — and green-lit military action “abroad.” And now, Russia has brought a full-fledged war of aggression to the European continent.
One of Putin’s main justifications for military action should give us particular pause. In an hour-long speech recently, he made a factually inaccurate historical argument claiming that Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin invented Ukraine and that the country has no right to exist within its internationally recognized borders. Russian state media have aired maps of Ukraine cut into pieces that it labeled as “gifts” from Russian czars and Soviet rulers.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Opinion-Why-Putin-loves-to-talk-about-Texas-and-16945383.php
( Excellent sense of history, Putin clearly draws/twists relevance to suit his insanely nationalistic ambitions. )
= new reply since forum marked as read
I hope his troops turn on him!
Someone in Russia needs to remove him from power!
