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IPFS News Link • Russia

A brazen Russia must face US retribution

• http://edition.cnn.com, By Ivan Eland

Not any longer. Intelligence agencies believe that Russia hacked US political organizations to manipulate the election -- the core of any democracy. President Barack Obama has vowed to retaliate in the manner and "at a time and place of our own choosing."

We could have seen this coming. One clear consequence of the triumphalist post-Cold War US expansion of the NATO alliance, right up to Russia's western border, was the rise of a nationalist Russian leader -- Vladimir Putin -- and his aggressive stance against the West in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria. Unlike the United States, with its vast ocean moats and huge distances from the world's centers of conflict, Russia has lots of reasons to feel insecure at its borders. 

Throughout history, the Russians have been invaded multiple times. The Nazi invasion led to 25 million dead. So Russia has legitimate concerns about maintaining a security buffer of friendly territory in nearby areas, like Georgia and Ukraine. Moscow also is adamant about helping one of the few allies it has left in the world -- Syria.


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