Russia's "spheres of influence" openly discussing Russia's expected loss of its spheres of influence

[Beastly Boy]

Ukrainska Pravda
Wed, November 23, 2022, 5:29 PM

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lukashenko-possible-dissolution-collective-security-222917201.html

Lukashenko on possible dissolution of Collective Security Treaty Organization

Aleksandr Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of the Republic of Belarus, has said that the idea that the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) might dissolve if Russia loses the war in Ukraine is growing increasingly popular.

Source: Belta, a Belarusian news outlet, quoting from Lukashenko at the CSTO summit

Quote from Lukashenko: "You know, [the idea that] the existence and the fate of the CSTO are dependent on the success of the Russian Federation’s operation in Ukraine [meaning Russia’s war against Ukraine - ed.] has lately become popularised by the media. If Russia wins, the CSTO will keep going, but if, god forbid, it doesn’t win, the CSTO will dissolve. Many hotheads in our countries are also discussing this issue.

I think that we’ve reached a shared conclusion that if, god forbid, Russia collapses, then we will be rightfully buried under the rubble."

Lukashenko is Putin's staunchest ally and collaborator. CSTO is the last vestige of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire before it. Prior to Russia's war with Ukraine, such talk would have been unheard of. Russia's justification for the war was to retain and expand its spheres of influence and prevent further expansion of NATO. Instead, Putin is accelerating the inevitable further disintegration of the Russian Empire whose manifest greatness he is so fond of promoting. He is proving that all the talk among Russian nationalists and certain Western pundits of NATO's expansion unfairly undermining Russia's security and disrupting the balance of power between Russia and the West, is pure baloney. The Russian Empire has been slowly collapsing from within since at least 1914, irrespective of all the regime changes it underwent or NATO's role, simply because it has been too large and incompetently governed for over a century. The process cannot be stopped, it can only be accelerated.

[Emrys]

1. No idea whether they'll be able to patch things up,

but when the Armenian prime minister refused to sign the final declaration, after being left hanging when Azerbaijan attacked, it seemed to surprise Putin and Lukashenko:

Link to tweet

Anton Gerashchenko
@Gerashchenko_en

Nikol Pashinyan refused to sign a declaration following the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit.

In fact, it means that the CSTO has collapsed completely.

Putin dropped his pen, Lukashenko is shocked.

[Twitter video]

[Beastly Boy]

3. The impending collapse of CSTO is not surprising.

What is surprising is how openly Lucashenko is anticipating it and how obviously, if diplomatically, he blames Putin for it.

[Lovie777]

2. NATO needs to drop Hungary so they can join Putin's F'ed alliance.......