US Pressed Dutch Gov over ASML Sale

If they were afraid of sanctions (which, even at this level are a complete joke,) they wouldn't be doing military adventures which would set them as a target for them.

> It's not that easy to make an objective opinion, Russia had way more to loose than any of us + 65% Russians in the country would have made it possible to make a democratic decision ( in theory)

This sound to me as a Russian a complete nonsense. An average Russian couldn't have hated Russia more for what it is, let alone opting to jump into the "warm embrace of the fatherland" once they got out.

For Russians, Russians who ended up with Ukrainian, Baltic states, or even a some joke Central Asian passport after the collapse of the Union are seen as somebody very lucky.

And the talk of ethnic Russians in the West, let alone US and Canada ever thinking of returning to Russia is a complete joke. Sorry, but you read to much Pravda, I'm afraid. I can't get other words for that.

You already mention 3 countries. You are forgetting Georgia and a lot of other countries.

Europe is a democracy and tries to influence with trade, not war. We do not force western opinions that much as America does.

PS. I'm aware of Europe's history, but we live in the present. The EU is still young ( 1999 was the Euro ) and people seem to forget this all the time. I'm pretty sure that almost everyone who reads this will be older.

Only in nominal terms. Russia's economy is 50% larger in PPP terms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)

We can argue about nominal vs PPP forever, but I think people should be aware of both.

> Denying a technology to Russia is effective because the relative price to Russia to work around technology restrictions is much higher.

Sanctions for countries like Russia and China are more of a nuisance than anything. It just means they have to pay a little bit more to buy/steal/access the technology.

For example, China had to pay extra to get israel to give them military tech denied to them by the US.

https://www.military.com/defensetech/2013/12/24/report-israe...

Countries like Russia and China have money, technology or political favors ( both are permanent security council members with veto power ) that they can trade with our enemies or our allies to gain access to tech.

Of course the US is unsanctionable. The US is the only country in the world where if another country placed sanctions on the US, it would hurt them and not the US.

In case there is misunderstanding on what I meant by duplication let me be more specific. The UK and France both have similar military command structures. Thus collectively both militaries are paying for the bureaucratic overhead of maintaining of two militaries whereas Russia pays for only one. Both militaries have personnel dedicated to HR, admin, police and other ancillary costs for maintaining a military. Since there is no Euro wide military the collective spending on defense is inefficient.

From my perspective The EU is militarily disjointed, fragmented, and overall weak. I'm speaking solely in terms of military might and force projection.

The USSR military wise, was 5 times as strong and still they collapsed. The Russian economy isn't strong enough to support a war this size in modern times and in the process losing their primary trade partner. The EU can easily spend more on financing a war than Russia, military spending is currently What you mean by fragmented is actually being solved by Russian threats through joint exercises.

A fragmented army ( multiple countries with different strategies) actually won in the past ( WW 2), so history doesn't seem to agree.

You are also forgetting that attacking 1 country is now attacking a continent. You don't know what the response will be or where the threat will come from. The EU also has a lot of allies because of its economic power.

While Russia would send it's army to the Western border, some other Asian countries with approval of the West ( and because they are under attack) would have no trouble seizing Russian land. I'm pretty sure that China would be quick to grab some too ( is the easiest quick win ever for them) and Russia wouldn't be able to stop them. Since their army would be in the West and immobile. Leaving the East open without much resistance or their army fragmented.

Multiple countries ( eg. Poland for one) are already on high alert because of Russian threats.

The power would actually be fragmentation. Russia is just one railroad to slow it's tanks ( transportation). European countries are only unsafe at the border of Russia and perhaps Turkey.

Russia is one HQ ( Moscow) within 80 km from the European border, we have never been this close.

I'm saying that if Russia would actually attack the EU ( which would be incredibly dumb). Russian infrastructure would be easily wiped out and their economy would probably collapse again.

They would also lose a lot of land in the East.

Since 47% of their trade is with the EU, it would cause further "unrest" among Russian population. Nobody would benefit.

Facts differ from propaganda.

I don't even think that actual war with 2 similar countries is possible anymore. The countries that are the most scared for actual war are the ones that censor things.

Eg. Unrest in China about pork prices.

Oh yeah, I forgot nuclear arms. Which would make an actual war very risky. Even with the EU's technical and numerical advantage ;)