Like? Is anyone who starts a war a “war criminal” now?
If it’s because Russia’s killed civilians (whether intentionally or just because they didn’t care enough in pursuit of their military objectives), then, like, isn’t basically every Western leader + Biden a “war criminal”? How would you ever create a standard that could include him but not others?
And if they are all “war criminals” then why would you support one over the other? I don’t get this conversation.
And even if you had to, like, in what world would it make sense to think that Putin is worse than Netanyahu or the Western leaders who arm and support him?
if we want to be strict enough to characterize western leaders as war criminals Russia does not pass muster, particularly invading Crimea.
Every poll, even ones conducted by Western orgs, showed that a strong majority of Crimeans wanted to join Russia after the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists took power in 2014. There was also a blowout election (which was predictably called illegitimate by the West). Annexing Crimea was one of the most defensible things Russia did.
Russia, nor Russian citizens were attacked in Crimea, therefore it does not reach the criteria for a defensive action. If we admit a possible future threat to a leased military base on foreign soil as a basis for legitimate invasion the US has much more valid excuses for its crimes
It was self determination by the people of Crimea actually.
international law is not complicated on this, it is forbidden to occupy another soverign territory without being attacked. Russia was not attacked! there are two rhetorical paths available, you can deny the rules of the UN et al as imperialist/whatever OR you can litigiously apply it to all actors in violation which 90% of the time is the west.
I think it's worth besmirching a neolib shithead like putin to be able to accuse the imperial powers of violating their own standards, but if you want to abandon those bases you can always try to argue that elections and referendums performed under military occupations are 100% legit i guess
Actually the people of Crimea didn’t want to be a part of Ukraine anymore, idk what this nonsense about the elections not being “legit” is, are you trying to imply that they didn’t want this? Or are you just against their self determination? The people of Crimea should have to live under a regime of Nazis that hate them and want to do ethnic repression because darn that’s just how we drew the border a few years ago when the USSR was illegally dissolved, tough luck guys.
Yeah, Russia is neoliberal. They aren't good guys. They are just the same as everyone else.