Thread by @TarikCyrilAmar

1/x Finally got to read this from @nytimes. Shot through with seriously bad flaws: @27khv
a) If you mention the spoilt Russian 1996 elections, you really have to also mention that the #USA helped sabotage them (no, that's not optional; you know why)...
nytimes.com/2021/01/07/wor…

2/x .... b) It's, actually, misleading to describe #Putin's position as "joining the revanchists." In fact, he has *mostly* NOT done that. If he had, the world would look different and worse. What he has done is, at times but by no means always or w/o reason or warnings...

3/x ...c) violently re-asserted #Russia's geopolitical interests. That's different; yes, really.
d) The comparison with the genuine local uprisings-cum-Russian-interventions (yes, they are BOTH) in eastern #Ukraine is deeply flawed. Why? Because...

4/x ... while these uprisings in eastern #Ukraine featured Russian propaganda, intervention, criminals, and crazies (yes, all true), they ALSO featured genuine and, actually, reasonable/understandable resistance to what was an illegal (yes justifiable, but also illegal and...

5/x ... genuinely scary change of government in the capital Kyiv, made worse by Kyiv's hamfisted and brutal attempts at military reconquest).
e) The conflict in Moscow 1993 was also much more complex. It wasn't just "crazies" on one side, and reason on the other. Instead...

6/6 ... both Yeltsin and his opponents had some real arguments and both resorted to confrontation and violence. (Yes, it was THAT complicated; no, this is not "both-siding.") In sum: None of this makes for an enlightening comparison with the #USA, just more cheap Russia bashing.