There are already wars in the Russian caucuses.

I cannot prove or disprove a negative, so I’m not going to touch your second point.

Georgian nationalism was so fervent at the fall of the USSR because of Russian oppression. They haven’t done anything to clean up the mess they created because frozen conflict on their borders is beneficial to Russia.

I believe in self determination, so I don’t have a problem with any group deciding they want to be Russian in a free and fair election. That said, I find that Russia’s involvement in the Caucuses has been wholly self serving.

Which time? When the Bolsheviks ousted a democratic government in 1921? When the Red Army crushed protests in 1989?

I get your implied point that Ossetians and Abkhazians did not feel included in the Georgian nationalist government that took over after independence, but I also think that Russia crafted the conditions that created this problem in the first place and intervention from them was not the solution.

the “balkanisation of Russia”, like actual balkanisation, will be associated with a series of conflicts and death

Again, this is already status quo from Russia at the moment.

Also, genocidal is an overstatement.

A few days after the recapture, on 2 April 2022, news reports and videos emerged showing streets in Bucha covered with the bodies of men dressed in civilian clothes. Some of those found had their hands tied.[14][15] Among those killed were women and children. According to first estimations at least 280 bodies were found.[16] There was also evidence that Russian soldiers had systemically tortured, mutilated and executed many Ukrainians in the basement of a summer camp.[17] The event caused the Ukrainian government to call on the ICC to investigate whether or not Russia had committed war crimes.[18] On 7 April, the mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, reported that almost 90% of the dead residents had bullet wounds, not shrapnel wounds.

In August 2023, the Institute for the Study of Warreported that the Ukrainian Resistance Center had claimed to have gained access to documents detailing Russian plans to conduct a decade-long ethnic cleansing campaign in occupied Mariupol. The ISW reported that the depopulation of Ukrainians through deportation and Russian efforts to attract Russian citizens to move to the city is likely to be an ethnic cleansing campaign in addition to being apparent violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.[83]

Russia has forcibly transferred almost 20 thousand Ukrainian children to areas under its control, assigned them Russian citizenship, forcibly adopted them into Russian families, and created obstacles for their reunification with their parents and homeland.[7][8]

These are genocidal actions, plain and simple. If you have a problem with me characterizing it as such I really don’t have anything else to say to you.

Correcting historic injustice is usually pretty messy. I’m not looking for Russia to be hurt, I’m looking for it to be broken up so it can no longer wage the wars of conquest it has consistently engaged in as well as giving the ethnic minorities that imperial Russia and the USSR oppressed the self determination they deserve. There would have been no wars in the caucuses in the 90’s if not for Russian imperialism.

You said the balkans aren’t doing well; they largely are now. Those wars were a generation ago. Corruption is the biggest problem in the balkans right now as far as I can tell.

As for Russia, they’re already a genocidal state constantly engaged in war.

There are so many disputes between the nations, that we would likely see a few wars.

Since the break up of the USSR, Russia has fought two wars in Chechnya and invaded both Georgia and Ukraine. I’m failing to see how the prospect of perennial future wars is something to worry about when they’re already engaging in what you’re worried about.

Also, Russia is partially to blame for the Armenian-Azeri war as they have failed to uphold their CTSO obligations to Armenia.

Serbia is definitely having issues right now with protests for sure. I’d argue that it’s not exactly surprising that a Russian aligned government has significant issues with corruption. In my view, a Balkanized Russia would be less capable of exporting their toxic politics around the world.

Other than that, most of the Balkan nations are on the higher end of the human development index, are all tending upwards for GDP (with PPP factored in), and are improving their infrastructure. Definitely a mixed bag when you look at specific areas, but they’re largely doing objectively better than they were 30 years ago.

Balkanized

His interview on Letterman’s Netflix show was it for me. He kept whipping up these meaningless word salads that may sound profound to some but it just came across as mania to me

It’s more the bagel sandwiches and the pizza that keeps us from straying too far. Boardwalk pizza is definitely a delicacy

Great song, great album

Their space program sure isn’t something

For the curious

I just tested it on Bing too, for shits and giggles

you can’t butter the whole world’s bread meaning

The phrase “you can’t butter the whole world’s bread” means that one cannot have everything

They still turned a profit thanks to tax credits despite all the down sales numbers and it’s a meme stock

Big bada boom

AI slop advertising… great.

Still annoying as fuck

woman is only complete when she’s beautiful

What a horrible sentiment.