Thread by @GicAriana

If Putin wanted peace, he wouldn’t wage war

If he wanted friendship, he wouldn’t invade peaceful neighbours or launch terrorist attacks on foreign soil

If he cared about human rights, his regime wouldn’t be repressive

If he wanted transparency, he wouldn’t run a mafia state

If Putin wanted Ukraine to exist as a sovereign independent nation, and enjoy peaceful coexist with his neighbour, he wouldn’t be doing everything to destroy the country.

If Putin believed he couldn’t get away with it, he wouldn’t continue.

The Western world pretends Russia isn’t a rogue terrorist authoritarian mafia regime, and can be reasoned with.

One would think that after all these years of trying the same unsuccessful approach with spectacular failure, the West would try a different way.

One would think that after a failed reset, that no one would be foolish enough to try the same dangerous and unethical approach twice.

One would think we would see that Putin has grown more confident he can get away with ever increasingly criminality under the current approach.

One would think we would prize stability, peace, territorial integrity, sovereignty of nations, democracy, freedom, life, the rule of law, and so on enough to try to secure and protect them, rather than destroy and degrade them.

One would think that there would be ONE - just ONE - leader of a powerful western democratic country that would have enough integrity to pursue Justice and peace.

We KNOW that with Putin, the mere absence of war does not mean peace. It does not mean Justice. It does not mean respect for democracy or the rule of law. It will not be a success if Putin is agreeable to terms of “peace”.

Whatever Putin is willing to accept is calculated. Moscow will not make any “concessions” it will not accept without a smile.

Unless Russia is coerced through the power of law and moral authority, we will not see any palatable change, even if it brings so called “peace”.