After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the security pattern in Europe has changed dramatically, and most of the Eastern European countries that were previously controlled by the Soviet Union have made new friends, that is, they have integrated into the circle of friends in Europe and the United States.
The buffer zone that the Soviet Union once had at the strategic level was almost completely lost here in Great Russia.
Fortunately, Belarus and Ukraine did not have time to join the circle of friends in Europe and the United States, so they were included in the scope of their strategic interests by Great Russia.
For Russia, Ukraine is not only "its own people" with a common historical origin, but also an extremely important economic partner, which is more directly related to Russia's strategic interests.
In particular, Ukraine's geopolitical location is particularly critical, as the Russian gas and oil pipelines to Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe pass through here.
As we all know, at present, Great Russia is surviving on the export of oil and gas.
This means that Ukraine has mastered the "lifeblood" of Great Russia to a certain extent.
If Russia wants to maintain its presence and influence in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, it must seek cooperation with Ukraine.
Good relations between the two countries will help Great Russia achieve its strategic goals, and vice versa, it will cause damage to its important interests.
Since the tsarist era, the long-term occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, connecting the two regions, and thus controlling the Sea of Azov and the entire Black Sea region, has been the number one strategic goal of Great Russia.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Great Russia, which had fallen into a second- or third-rate country, has been eager to restore its glory as a great power, and the first step is to regain its dominance in the Black Sea region.
Because since ancient times, Maozi has firmly believed that he cannot do without access to the sea, otherwise he will be reduced to a landlocked nomadic country like Kazakhstan and even Mongolia.
And the reason why the Crimean peninsula is valued by Great Russia is, naturally, because of its unique geographical location.
This place is bordered by the Black Sea in the south and the Sea of Azov in the east, with an area of about 270,000 square kilometers, for the Great Russia, it is not only an important sea passage, but also an important strategic support point, known as the "unsinkable aircraft carrier".
During the period of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, Maozi established a complete set of strategic systems in Crimea, with a number of natural harbors such as Kerch and Sevastopol.
The city of Sevastopol was home to the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, one of the four major fleets of the Soviet Union, which ensured the security of the Soviet Union's sea lanes to Europe and the rest of the world.
In this way, the strategic assets of the Soviet era have become a "bombing point" between Russia and Ukraine.
So is Xiao Wu's desire to make new friends the fundamental reason why Big Russia beat him?
Of course not, the world has underestimated the enthusiasm of the "soil-loving" Maozi for the land, and the idea of grabbing land is far greater than preventing NATO's eastward expansion.
Finland at the gate of the northwest of Great Russia has made new friends, why doesn't Maozi dare to hit others?
In the final analysis, it was Europe, the United States and the West that gave Great Russia an illusion -- when appeasement was prevalent in Europe, the United States and the West, Great Russia took the opportunity to occupy Crimea and instigate the independence of eastern Ukraine, and there was no substantive tough action from Europe, America and the West at that time.
This has given Great Russia a strategic illusion, thinking that it can do whatever it wants, and that Europe, the United States, and Western countries will not take it seriously.
So he brazenly dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops in an attempt to swallow Xiaowu's fat meat.
However, with the move of Great Russia, not only Europe, the United States and the West vigorously supported Xiaowu, but an illusion was also punctured.
What illusion?
In fact, before Russia invaded Little Ukraine, Russia had been living in the illusion of imperial afterglow, so much so that Russia itself and most people in the world believed that it was still a superpower like the Soviet Union and the second military power in the world.
Europe, the United States and the West have never punctured this illusion, and this has given Russia a very strong illusion of its own.
In fact, it has long been gone, and the true strength of Great Russia has been exposed.
If you think about it, it's normal, Russia's GDP is not as good as that of Guangdong Province, so how can it support its dream of becoming a great power without an economic foundation?
So now there is a difficult problem in front of Great Russia, and it is better to say that if we win, it will be a mess if we can't win.