From the Obozrevatel:
"The West that knew how to put dictators and terrorists in their place no longer exists
Garry Kasparov, November 19, 2025
Decades of experience in the free world's interactions with terrorist dictatorships demonstrates that any weakness in their face almost certainly leads to defeat. A show of force at the earliest stages almost certainly forces dictators to retreat.
If America had made it clear to the Kremlin from the outset that a full-scale invasion of Ukraine was unthinkable—and that such an attempt would result in an immediate response—the war simply would not have happened. Putin would not have risked a direct confrontation with NATO at that point.
The West's cowardly, shameful, and immoral decision not to close the skies over Ukraine was a signal to Putin that it was time to move on. Had Biden said then that the appearance of even one Russian aircraft in Ukrainian skies would mean the destruction of Russian airfields, everything would have been over.
Understanding the mood in Russia at the time, it's safe to say that if Russian pilots had seen NATO aircraft in the skies over Ukraine, they simply wouldn't have flown there. It's one thing to bomb Mariupol and shelters full of children with impunity. It's quite another to collide in mid-air with an F-35 that's about to shoot you down.
Today's escalation is a direct result of the West's weakness and impotence. Putin's arrogance, his refusal to accept even Trump's favorable terms, is a consequence of the conviction that the West is weak, confused, and will cave in anyway. The West that knew how to put dictators and terrorists in their place no longer exists."
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