GLASNOST
Gold Member
1). Yes, Putin did urge Finland and Sweden not to join.Putin certainly would have strongly urged Finland and Sweden not to join the defensive coalition.
Such solidarity among European democracies constitutes a strong disincentive for his rebuilding the Soviet empire.
2). It has nothing to do with "democracies" in fact the US isn't a democratic nation and Sweden has tossed its democratic principles out the window by applying for membership in NATO without a vote .... as well as throwing Julian Assange to the lions and allowing CIA spy planes the use of the airport at Arlanda to shift innocent "suspects" to Guantanamo. There are more examples.
3). I see no indication that Putin is striving to reestablish a Soviet empire. Of course, if you subscribe to the western MSM then you'll believe he's already preparing the Gulag for another incarceration marathon. His assertions regarding the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade is (by all ears to the ground) true and their treatment of ethnic Russians in the Donbas region is also apparently true.