347
·1 min
- Blowout:
- Russia tried hard and won a chance to host winter Olympics in 2014 or something. As usual, there was rampant corruption in how money was spent to prepare for the event. The end result though was good except. Towards the end, Putin got another thing to worry about: riots/rebellion in Ukraine.
- Ukraine:
- Stuck uncomfortably between western democracy ideas and Russian influence from its USSR days.
- Ukraine was heavily dependent on Russia through natural gas: it consumed a lot and revenue from Russia’s natural gas pipeline that went through Ukraine.
- Russia was incentivized to sow corruption and crime in a neighboring country like Ukraine: makes it easy to make more money, mobsters can get rid of someone you don’t like etc.
- Stuck uncomfortably between western democracy ideas and Russian influence from its USSR days.