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Everything you wrote makes sense and in fact is a common sense - what boils my blood is western politician speaking about security assurances for an aggressor.
An aggressor who, for no reason, invaded a neighbouring country, ruined lives of hundreds of thousands people, keep terrorising the rest bombing them daily and we gotta speak about security assurances for this aggressor?
Nobody would've been attacked Russia in the first place so why talk about security assurances? It is peak Russian diplomacy to initiate pointless, nonsense, whataboutism filled discussions.
I hope they don't forget reparations if they start asking for some security assurances. But I doubt they'll pay anything themselves (sans the funds that have been frozen).
dau-
I totally understand where you are coming from.
Over the summer I fell into a rabbit hole learning about how the German surrender in WW2 came about.
At least he high level, the instrument of surrender and the Berlin Declaration that followed it was a complete capitulation and unconditional surrender.
The thing that suprised me was how much individual negotiation, by spies,POWs and defectors went into starting the cascade of events that led to the end of the war. So even in the case of the surrender of Nazi Germany, there was a huge amount of statecraft and negotiation behind the scenes. Even if the overall surrender was unconditional, quite a few people were offered an "opportunity" or some level of "out" to make it happen. It will be the same with Russia.
The thing that worries me most is sanctions. If Russia gets to withdraw in return for sanctions being relaxed, it would be a massive fuck you to Ukraine. Surely this is a line that cannot be crossed.
Stonehedge
Sure, but that is irrelevant here. The detail of Russia's withdrawal will be decided by convention, precedent and law rather than strategising over what happens next in Russia's domestic politics. As I mentioned, I'd expect assurances of Russian sovereignty and self determination will be part of the deal. Why wouldn't it be? Given that Russia hasn't been invaded, its irrelevant anyway.