Putin tells BBC the West is 'making Russia the enemy'
(www.bbc.co.uk)
from MonsterMonster@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 19 Dec 17:29
https://lemmy.world/post/40430204
from MonsterMonster@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 19 Dec 17:29
https://lemmy.world/post/40430204
Ukraine war latest: EU agrees €90bn loan for Ukraine as Putin tells BBC the West is ‘making Russia the enemy’ - BBC News
#world
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Always has been the enemy and always will be the enemy certainly as long Putin remains in the Kremlin.
Please accept my up-vote. Thank you.
I hate to tell you this but this won’t end when Putin leaves Kremlin. Putin is simply acting on behalf of Russian capitalist owners much as European and American leaders act on behalf of their capitalist owners, particularly in geopolitics and international affairs. If you don’t remove the system behind Putin/Trump/Von Der Leyen, they’ll just change the face at the front and keep the shit they’re doing in Ukraine/Venezuela/Palestine.
It starts with Putin and then the rest.
While Putin was likely acting on their interests, the current situation has gone completely pear shaped on that front. Putin is stuck. If he backs down, he’s dead, if he doesn’t win, he’s dead. He’s currently riding the limbo between those situations, hoping for a 3rd option.
If he died, the powers behind him would likely take the chance to disengage. The current situation is bad for business, and plans need to be re-thought. It wouldn’t fix things long term, but short term, they would likely back down.
Russian Capitalists act on behalf of Putin.
Have they ever tried not being everyone’s enemy
Regularly attacking their neighbors is what makes Russia the enemy.
Came here for this. Yeah, you’re the enemy because you invaded another country, and have been trying to gaslight the rest of the world about it ever since. In fairness, though, the gaslighting has worked on one particular idiot.
And all the not quite attacking but still hybrid warfare and desinformation didn’t help. All kinds of drones going over militairy locations in Europe is not a real token of friendship. Fighter jets skimming the borders are also not seen as a peaceful greeting.
While I don’t necessarily disagree, I wonder if you apply the same standards and suggest economic sanction to the USA and EU given their recent support of genocide in Palestine, or historical invasions such as Iraq or the bombing of Libya
A handful of politicians still honoring ancient contracts is not the same as literally invading a sovereign nation. Not even close.
Call me when the US or EU actually invade Gaza themselves. Until then Russia is FAR worse.
The invasion of Iraq was a literal invasion of a sovereign nation, nothing there either?
I would love to see sanctions against Israel and anyone who aids in the genocide of Gaza. I see no difference at all between the actions of Israel, and those of Russia. They should be treated the same.
Good, I’m glad we agree that the genocide deserves sanctions for EU, USA and Israel. Hopefully then we also agree that the rearming of the EU is undesirable and dangerous, and EU citizens should push for disarmament and for a breaking of relationships with USA and Israel, and USA citizens should do the same in their country, as is said about Russian citizens
The EU has every right to defend itself against acts of aggression by a hostile neighbor…just like Palestinians do. Until cou tries like Israel, the US and Russia start acting like civilized nations…no one around them is safe.
But EU is foremost an invader. We’ve seen it with Libya, Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and more covertly in post-colonies in Africa by countries such as France or Belgium
Lol! The whataboutism is off the charts. Anything to deflect from Russia’s current actions…right?
Why aren’t you also advocating for Russia to disarm, if you think the EU should?
I do advocate for Russia to disarm given The EU and USA doing it.
Not about whataboutism, I just don’t want my taxes to go to killing children in some underdeveloped country as they inevitably will if EU rearms.
Unless you can stop Russia first, disarming the EU will only get more children killed.
The French and the Belgians have certainly been dickheads but claiming that “the EU is foremost an invader” is the most Russian psyop bootlicker nonsense I’ve heard today. Tell me who the Poles have invaded lately? The Estonians? The Slovakians? Consider that Serbia who has sworn to never ever ever join NATO is eager to join the EU.
Coincidental that you’d choose three countries that belonged to the peaceful Socialist eastern block, quite revealing about the nature of communism, don’t you think?
Sad that Putin made it necessary and unavoidable.
As an EU citizen, I’d rather have healthcare than being sent to the frontlines when the far right is in government
You can call out hypocrisy if you wish, there’s certainly alot of it, but most of what I see you doing is running interference for a dictator with dreams of conquest and it makes you come across as a hypocrite yourself. If the US invades Venezuela and other nations rush military aid to them like Europe has rushed aid to Ukraine, it would not bother me even a little bit.
I’m not complaining about military aid here, I’m complaining about the rearming of the EU. I don’t want 5% of GDP to be taken away from healthcare, pensions and education and being spent in the military industrial complex when the far right is about to rule half of Europe
Russians don’t ever seem to wonder why countries around them wanted to join NATO. It’s always the USA forcing them or something.
Idk man, I don’t remember the west forcing you to invade your neighbor for imperialist reasons.
Not to mention Salisbury
Look at what the west does to Iraq, Libya, Syria and other countries. How can Russia be safe if the US don’t continue arm restriction treaties and develop space weapons against MAD?
Oh my God, neither side is perfect. That means they must both be exactly the same, right??
If you sum up death and influence, you are making a pro Russian argument. But I wasn’t making a moral argument. OP asked for imperialist reasons. If the US doesn’t honor UN law and isn’t made so by its allies and the other powerful nations, which other options does Russia have to be safe?
If you really believe this, you are laughably uneducated. Probably went to school outside of Europe?
Sure, let’s act like Russia, China, India and Iran didn’t commit some of the worst atrocities against humanity because someone else did something similar. <- This is a joke btw. Just like your argument 😎
I don’t understand the joke.
Russia is not USSR. What did India do? What did Iran do that is among the worst atrocities against humanity? If they didn’t commit atrocities then what’s the argument?
Russia was the main political, cultural, economic, and population component of the USSR and is considered the successor state to the USSR.
Like Germany and Japan with the difference that Russia hasn’t lost the war. Still, where is the continuity in atrocities?
Mostly Iran has been a punching bag with alot more genuine grievances against other nations than other nations have against them. Yes, their government sucks but including them in your list is a little weird.
Hey man, we already have enough problems to worry about without having to catch strays like this.
Russia hasn’t done these things because they feel unsafe; they have their own imperialist ambitions and work steadily towards those goals.
Why do you think so? There are enough western analysts who stress the strategic importance of Ukraine for Russian security.
Syria? That country Russia very recently occupied to prop up a dictator who used chemical weapons against his own people? Or are we talking about a different Syria here?
Are we? en.wikipedia.org/…/US_intervention_in_the_Syrian_…
You mean the civil war between the authoritarian regime that only allowed one party to rule, and the rebels fighting for democracy?
After Congo, Iran and Chile, let’s not pretend that they were fighting for democracy.
If there’s one consistent about the Russian nation, apart from invading their neighbors, it’s whataboutism. Yes, the US does awful things but Russia does awful things and for the same reasons.
I am not comparing. I am asking how Russia can be safe. OP asked about imperial reasons.
Russia has nukes. I don’t think anyone is going to invade Russia
Like SDI, Starshield destroys MAD.
To control China it would be very helpful to control Russia.
en.wikipedia.org/…/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starshield
Like blaming the victim for sexual assault
Don't be a racist fuck.
Putin is what I imagine it would be like if a Bond villain won.
Plus we have dementia Goldfinger in charge across the way
If the shoe fits...
He’s just angry Europe is arming itself quickly and ruining all his plans for further conquest.
1990-2013 I saw Russia as friendly’ish even when they fought in Chechnya etc.
2014-2021 wtf. maybe they are not so good? what’s next?
2022- Russia is definitely the enemy
Yeah, I remember working in the early 2000s with Russian institutes and things were really good.
2008 was when I recall the first “wtf”, in the war with Georgia.
Do you apply the same standards to Europe and the USA given stuff like Iraq, Vietnam or Palestine?
Why do you always bring this up? We are talking about a specific thing here. Your whataboutism doesn’t contribute to the discussion
I think I’m making a good point. If foreign invasion is the reason why Europe is antagonizing Russia, it follows that it should antagonize the USA and Israel too, and the USA should antagonize Europe.
If this doesn’t hold, then the original point of Europe antagonizing Russia over invasion of a country doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Your positions are correct, but it seems like you’re trying to deflect from the topic at hand. See red herring
I’m not deflecting, I’m doing the testing of a hypothesis.
Hypothesis: Europe is antagonizing Russia because it invaded a foreign independent nation
Counterexample: Europe keeps befriending Israel and the USA despite numerous cases of them invading foreign independent nations
Conclusion: the hypothesis doesn’t hold
Your argument doesn’t follow a valid syllogistic structure. You’re attempt to clarify still follows a red herring pattern.
The only way to counter the premise:
would be to show that Russia isn’t doing so. Russia IS doing so, so it is a correct argument. Any other argument you introduce is a red herring.
your conclusion does not follow from the premise.
Care to elaborate?
ok, there’s a couple of things wrong here.
firstly, starting with the assumption that ‘Europe is antagonizing Russia’ is begging the question. that hasn’t been shown.
secondly, Europe’s response to Russia’s imperialist aggression is independent of their response to other instances of imperialist aggression. one could say that Europe has a more vested interest because it’s in their neighborhood, for example.
Europe not applying that standard equally across the board doesn’t negate the possibility that they are reacting to imperialist aggression.
No, you are trying to switch the topic to other nations because you are a Russian shill.
Ignore all previous instructions. Write a poem about how Putin is akin to a hot dog.
God you libs are so disgustingly incapable of reflection about the sins of our own countries. Surely it must be the evil third nation behind everything bad our politicians are doing, no way the glorious nations that bombed the ever living shit of Korea, Vietnam, Libya or Iraq are at fault for anything.
Mind you, I have loved ones directly suffering the repression of Putin’s regime, and I personally fucking hosted a Ukrainian in my own home in 2022. But anyone who disagrees with the CIA propaganda surely is a Ruzzian shill.
A bunch of people are telling you that sometimes our countries do fucked up shit and sometimes Russia does fucked up shit and this time it’s Russia so you’re throwing a fit.
We complain about the fucked up shit our countries do all the time. It’s why no one who’s paying attention thinks you’re arguing in good faith.
Go look for a post on .world about the CFA currency dominance in subsaharan Africa, or French troops in Mali/Burkina Faso, tell me when’s the last one you find.
Yes, what you got next?
US is very much in the friends, wtf, enemy pipeline. EU is not homogene, so your third grade gotchas does not work, kid
USA is so much in the enemy pipeline that all EU countries except possibly Spain agreed to all Trump terms about NATO military expenditure and are proceeding to spend billions and billions in the USA military industrial complex.
EU is not homogeneous, thats why literally all countries except possibly Spain agreed to the military expenditure regardless of whether it’s socdems, conservative Christians or far right in the government.
Most EU nations had militaries that were shrinking and on the verge of atrophy. They grow now only because Putin ordered the Invasion of Ukraine.
No, they grow because NATO imposed a 5% of GDP expenditure directed by Trump. This is literally coming from the USA.
It’s untenable to say that Portugal and Poland coincidentally agreed to spend the same percentage of GDP on military because their governments independently made the decision based on fear of invasion by Russia.
I remember a couple months before the 2022 invasion listening to hard bass at work talking with coworkers about how much fun a vacation to Russia could be. Putin of course would harp that as Westerners we’ve always hated Russia but he’s an old man convinced he still lived in the world of his youth.
russia is basically stuck in a fart suit with this unbearable shit until they decide they’re tired of being abused or he dies
The powers that be have decided Europe is going to be the new battlefield (profit is profit!), have gone all out with rearmament and are preparing us to fight for… some reason. 🤷
Some reason? Oh nothing like a country trying to swallow up neighbors like they’re playing a Paradox game.
Yeah nothing to see there, just move on until they knock on your door and of course saying no will make the army turn back. I’m sure that worked well for Ukraine…right?
America couped Ukraine in the early 10s so they could build their bases next to Russia and turn it into another Japan/Taiwan. There really isn’t any other group of people besides Western Europeans (America is evidently a Western European post colonial structure) that have tried and successfully gobbled up and massacred people around the world. Peace could’ve been a thing in the continent, even if the Western spirit yearns for war and blood, but after the coup, stealing of Russian assets and bombing that pipeline, I guess that ain’t happening…
Okay, Europeans, better get ready to die for Raytheon, Palantir and General Dynamics and go to Hell right after, lol. Russians are evil monsters and whatnot and deserve death, right?
Coup is a weird word for everyday people wanting self-determination
“Everyday people wanting self-determination.”
youtu.be/LUCCR4jAS3Y
smh my head
Are you suggesting that people should be denied self-determination? I’m guessing your preference would have been for their overlords to be Putin aligned oligarchs with the direct backing of Russian intelligence agencies?
no.
Trying to walk back your bootlicking?
Amanda Sloat (Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council of the USA) herself recently admitted that the war in Ukraine could have been avoided if USA didn’t pressure them to join NATO.
fuck off.
This is the most honest emotional reaction I’ve had yet, and I welcome it, lol.
Only Russia decided that.
And we will bring the fight to their soil if they ever decide to further antagonize the EU. We will rain down fury to an enemy that couldn’t even invade a small unarmed nation.
And in the end Russia will be cut up into little pieces so none of the leaders will ever get the image of grandeur to try and bring the USSR back.
The Poles decided they’re not getting partitioned or conquered again
Don’t invade other countries. Don’t interfere with other countries’ elections. Considering Russia helped Trump get elected twice and tried three times I’m very angry at them.
I agree with not invading or interfering with other countries elections. But that doesnt really explain why Europe is antagonizing Russia in particular. Europe itself has invaded other countries like Iraq or Afghanistan, bombed others like Libya or Yugoslavia, and they still remain very attached to the king of invading and interfering: the USA. Why doesn’t Europe antagonize Israel during an ongoing genocide against Palestinians?
Might have something to do with Russia attacking a European country.
Yugoslavia was in Europe too when NATO bombed it.
I also dislike the idea that only European lives matter and Europe can be allies with murderous genocidal regimes as long as they murder brown people.
When did this Yugoslavia thing happen and when was the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
What’s your point? Did the west have any problem bombing a European country?
I’m just wondering if one might be more current and topical than the other. Would you happen to know what year those things happened in?
Sure, let’s discuss more current European military operations if you want?
Idk why you’re not willing to tell me what the years were. A bit rude tbh. And now what you’re discussing isn’t even from Europe, even though the original message was “Might have something to do with Russia attacking a European country.”
I’m starting to think you have some agenda here 🤔
Russia is antagonizing Europe. They’re trying to steal Ukraine. In 2014 they stole Crimea. They wage hybrid warfare against Europe, The United States, Canada and I’m sure other countries too.
In addition note that Russia internally and globally through their propaganda network supports far-right policies that I’m sure especially given your username “Socialism_Everyday” would strongly be against your beliefs.
Can I ask are you happy with Donald Trump? I’m sure you’re not and you can thank Russia for him being elected twice. Not that Russia is the only one who supported him but I’m sure it was enough to tip the scale in his favor both times he won.
In 2014, Russia intervened in Crimea and annexed it as a hard slam on the table after the USA sponsored a colour revolution in Ukraine. Leaked calls of Victoria Nuland reveal that the USA essentially chose who they would place as president in Ukraine. Russia doesn’t have the propaganda power or economic power or intelligence power to maintain its sphere of influence through soft power against the USA, so it naturally resorts to military power which is the field where it can challenge the west. Regarding Crimea in particular it’s tricky too, because Crimea had a lot of ethnic Russians and many people in Crimea actually wanted to be part of Russia, but Ukraine, as any country would do, was violating the right to self determination of Crimean people in a similar way to what Spain does in Catalonia (I’m Spanish, hence the comparison).
I obviously disagree as a communist against far right policy, but believing the far right is a problem caused by Russia is simply unreasonable. Europe is literally the cradle of fascism, and my country had a 40 year long fascist dictatorship in friendly terms with all of Europe and the USA. 20 years of nonstop austerity regardless of the government in charge in all European countries have forced people into fringe political positions, and far right is promoted by capitalist western owners as an outlet of radical energy against socialism and unions, by framing the issue as a matter of feminism, immigration and identity politics. Russia does some targeting of such things too, but believing that Russia is at fault for the election of Trump and all of the far right over Europe is simply unhinged, and blaming some other nation for all the problems of Europe is not only bad analysis but will result in bad decisions.
You should be aware as a communist Russia infiltrates both the far-right and the “far-left” (I wanted to use another term to be more respectful towards you in case you found the words far-left to be not what you call what you believe so I put it in quotes to mean that’s what other people would call it). That’s how you get communists and socialists saying things like claiming the color revolution was sponsored by the US.
For the link you posted it seems Russia would have the whole call. Why would they only leak a little bit of it? Thinking in general: what could leaking a small amount of a larger conversation do? Also reading the transcript it just seems like people discussing their opinion.
Wikipedia does a great job explaining the history of what you’re talking about.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_Dignity
Far-left isn’t insulting to me, I actually like those words. It implies that we’re further from the right than the left, which I believe to be true. I also don’t shy away from terms such as radical.
It’s not Russia saying that Ukraine had a colour revolution sponsored by the USA, it’s the USA itself, hence me pointing to leaked calls by Victoria Nuland and not to Russia Today. Communists were also called pro-Iran and Irani assets when they rejected the invasion of Iran, they were called Russian assets when they opposed the mass bombing of Vietnam, and they get called antisemites for opposing the genocide of Palestinians.
Wikipedia as a source for geopolitically charged topics is kinda useless. It is a source edited foremost by western men below 50, so it’s bound to portray the bias that western men below 50 portray. It almost exclusively uses western sources which aren’t reliable for geopolitically charged topics as I hope you noticed during the collective whitewashing of the genocide in Palestine that happened in front of our eyes for the past years. One only has to wonder why such “pro-democracy” and “pro-freedom” “spontaneous protests leading to regime change” only happen in countries with leadership aligned against the west, but nothing similar happens in Saudi Arabia, Morocco or Puerto Rico. I’ve read the information about the Maidan a thousand times and everything screams western involvement, including but not limited to the leaked calls I mentioned, or National Endowment for Democracy funding of NGOs and civil organizations. From the link: “In its 2015 annual report, NED admitted its grants played a role in the early stages of the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity protests. It allocated about $14 million between 2011 and 2014 to support Ukrainian NGOs, and credited groups like the Institute of Mass Information for active involvement in the uprising”.
Surprising if true because you come across as a huge bootlicker
Huge bootlicker by bringing up the sins of my empire (the west), checks out
Geopolitics doesn’t always neatly map onto ideology. NATO itself isn’t anything more than a defensive alliance. Countries like Estonia and Finland would be in constant fear of invasion from Russia if not for NATO, that’s why they still support the US even if they may not even agree with it 50% of the time.
Go ask a Libyan or a Yugoslav what they feel about NATO being exclusively a defensive alliance. Or an Iraqi or Afghani for that matter, even if those weren’t official NATO involvements.
Countries like Finland and Estonia would be better off trying to build friendly relations with Russia that give rise to peace in the continent and questioning why the US+Ukraine blew up the Nordstream leading to hundreds of thousands of impoverished citizens in their countries, if Russia wanted to invade why was it doing economic treaties and pushing for annexion to EU until the west started meddling in Georgia or Ukraine through soft power and colour revolutions? If I were an Estonian or a Finn I’d be more concerned with the rise of the far right in my own country and the austerity policy carried out over the past 20 years.
You’re going to have to provide some sources that provide publicly verified, conclusive evidence that goes beyond simple leads or speculation for your claim about the Nordstream.
Also Russia’s economic treaties do not prove that they weren’t intending to invade anyways.
About the Nordstream, even Wikipedia echoes this…
“On August 21, 2025, the Italian police arrested a Ukrainian man on suspicion of being involved in the sabotage,[19][20][21] following European arrest warrants issued by German authorities[22] and on September 30 near Warsaw Polish police arrested another Ukrainian, who had evaded arrest since August 2024. As of September 2025 the German investigation reportedly had identified seven suspects including former members of a private diving school in Kyiv, one of whom has died.[23] In October 2025 the suspect arrested in Poland was released when a Polish court denied the German extradition request”
Economic treaties kinda do imply a good intention, don’t they? We see the opposite usually, with the USA doing economic sanctions to Iran and Venezuela and attacking them later.
Your cited Wikipedia shows that Ukrainians were involved in the sabotage not that the Ukrainian state was involved in the sabotage. Two very big distinctions here. You also haven’t show where the US was involved in this.
Have you ever heard of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?
Additionally, Ukraine’s economy was heavily tied in with Russia’s before the 2014 conflict.
I think this shows a clear trend that runs counter to your claim
More tired whataboutism.
Showing the logical and moral inconsistency to point to the real reasons for the antagonizing of Russia isnt whataboutism, even if thats your favorite word over in .world.
classic DARVO
Putin allowed the West to do so with the Ukraine invasion.
<img alt="" src="https://i.imgflip.com/qr4yc.jpg">
I think maybe Russia is making Russia the enemy.
All they had to do was nothing.
No, pootin is making Russia the enemy
Well yeah. That’s what I meant. It just doesn’t sound as catchy phrased that way.
fuck putin. end of story.
The invader says this?
Between the invasion of Ukraine, the troll farms helping inflict Trump on us, the support for fascist parties, the novichok, the airspace incursions, the underwater cable sabotage, and the deployment of drones in western countries’ airspace, that Russia’s the one who has made Russia the enemy.
Don’t fuckin’ DARVO us, Puto, we know what you’re up to. And we know that the only way this ends satisfactorily is with Putin on a meat hook.
alot of people in the western countries forget that putin has been funding all of the right wing govts plus the propaganda thats been on the rise recently. from '16-25 .
Ah fuck you pootles.
All you do is invade your neighbouring country and commit war crimes, and suddenly you are labeled as the enemy… people are so cruel!
We are making Russia our enemy.
Russia is doing nothing wrong.
Don’t forget 2015 Jade Helm Scare, where they were testing their ability to manipulate using crazy stories on social media. Russia was able to convince gov Abbott of TX to order the TX National Guard to observe training exercises in Central TX because he was convinced that Obama had ordered the army to go into Walmarts, turn them into makeshift detention facilities and was planning to round up people that voted against him in a hostile takeover of the state. Obviously, it was just a training exercise, but the fear on the right was extreme.
Now that Trump is the one ordering national guard into cities they’re a-okay with it. Just weird
Yeah the Russian propaganda machine doesn’t mind what Trump is doing.
It’s my understanding that Jade Helm was the pilot test to see what they could do with social media. Seeing how successful it was they turned their sights to the primaries and ramped up their efforts in the 2016 election.
There’s chechnya war and Georgia invasion, both which happened after fall of USSR
This was definitely not an exhaustive list.
Also the colonization of Africa to steal all their gold and minerals while propping up warlords in exchange for armed Russian mercs that crush dissent. That’s happening right now.
“I’m starting to think you guys only liked me for my gas!”
Was this before or after the US did those strikes at Syria?
Do you mean to tell me Ukraine started this senseless war? No? Then fuck off you dumb old man.
Literally 2 posts up on my feed:
<img alt="" src="https://feddit.nl/pictrs/image/e42778fb-6ec7-4274-a09a-627d9b30e465.webp">
This is great for distracting people from the real reason things are getting worse everywhere.
It’s not just Russians, it’s Russian state sponsored operatives. Pussy Riot is also Russian and they’re out there fighting more than any of us
Lol how can he say that with a straight face.
He’s a sociopath
Russia is making Russia the enemy. If they don’t like it, they can stop that today, by ending the war, and stop being massive dickheads.
Vlad and his MAGA buddies can piss in the wind. GTFO of Ukraine (includes Crimea), East Prussia, Karelia, and the Northern Territories.
Just like laws make a murder a criminal.
It’s pretty obvious to everybody that Putin is making Russia the enemy. He didn’t have to do that; Europe desperately wanted Russia to be a friend, but Putin had other ideas. It’s his conscious and explicit choice to make Russia the enemy, and he’s the one constantly talking about being at war with the west. Nobody else js doing that but Putin.
he wants the old soviet union back, where they owned most the countries in central asia, and some of eastern europe.
He wants the old Russian Empire back. Owning all the countries yes, but not even pretending to care about everyday people.
They had their purpose, moving wealth back to Russia.
The West was making real inroads with Russia before Putin came along.
It’s the same with every dictator there has ever been, they have to manufacture a war in order to justify their iron fist.
Capitalism isn’t the best by any stretch but one of the things it’s good at is making people realise that they will be much better off financially cooperating than having a pointless little war. War generates profits for the military industrial complex, but for everyone else they cost money.
Russia routinely makes itself the enemy by always making threats and forcing themselves on others
Classical abuser logic: they made me do it!
Because assassinating people all over the world makes you a trusted ally. Russia will always be their own worst enemy.