TankieTanuki

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Some NK Rule 1 censoring today in c/[email protected]
[โ€“] [email protected] -3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Thanks for the reply.

The author's thesis is based on the speech that Putin gave upon assuming office in 1999-08-16, specifically the "zones of interest" phrase. Here it is with a couple paragraphs of context:

Context

The task of our foreign policy is to raise Russia's prestige.

Without that, we will be unable to either protect our citizens or help our exporters.

So we will continue to take the most active part possible in peacekeeping operations and in the major international and regional organizations.

Russia has been a great power for centuries, and remains so.

It has always had and still has legitimate zones of interest abroad in both the former Soviet lands and elsewhere.

We should not drop our guard in this respect, neither should we allow our opinion to be ignored.

Russia has no need to be ashamed of its interests.

It should not descend to that.

source

IMO, hearing a head-of-state swear to pursue their nation's national interests is pretty banal stuff. Russia was part of an active interstate alliance in 1999.

Has he said anything more "mask off" in the past 26 years?

Some NK Rule 1 censoring today in c/[email protected]
[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago (5 children)

[Putin] has been publicly discussing reclaiming [the Soviet] empire for decades now.

I wasn't aware of this. Can you provide me with some examples?