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The language of a single podcast of course isn't the sole hinge on which Putin's justifications turn. But it is a small piece. I think Putin's casus belli is made very slightly more valid if Zelensky speaks Russian. And very slightly less valid if he doesn't. Putin talked about the medieval history of Ukraine and Russia being one country to Tucker for so long because that type of thing does matter to Putin, and to many other Russians.
Hard disagree. Annexations to culturally unite a people are /so/ 1930s. We don't do that any more. If Olaf Scholz was to invade Austria, which shares a lot of cultural history with Germany, that fact would not make it better or worse than an invasion of the culturally more distinct Poland.
Want to unite your people in the 2020s? Let them vote to join you, don't invade.
Tell that to Putin then, cause that's exactly what he did
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For what it's worth, I recall literally zero episodes of anyone in my life going on about "actually Ukraine is just Russia" before the war. On my screen, people were perfectly fine having it as just a quaint almost-Russia, similar but separate, until the TV turned on the propaganda tap.
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