I get that the U.S. wants Canada and/or Greenland because the ice cap is melting, but how would unrest in Canada help Russia? They aren’t going to fight the U.S. for Canada, and they have their own access to that area already.
Unrest anywhere in “the west” helps Russia. Russia would be delighted to see civil war in North America. They want us busy dealing with our own problems so we leave them alone and don’t pay any attention to whatever other horrors they wish to achieve within their supposed “sphere of influence”.
Russia has been trying to destabilize western democracies in general through this kind of indirect manipulations for a while because the liberal democracy model threatens its authoritarian regime. Other examples are Russia helping anti-EU far right parties, Wagner mercenaries committing atrocities in Africa and attempting to camouflage it as a French operation, paying random dudes to commit easy but high social impact crimes like tagging a Holocauste monument, networks of propaganda accounts on social media to create or amplify anything that will raise anger etc.
Big enough that a rift between the two is a big win for Russia. A chunk of both of our GDPs is a direct result of close cooperation and free trade. We are both poorer when Trump and Putin wreck our trade.
I would wager that the USA loses more if Canada goes away than it would be the other way around.
Why would Russia want that?
I get that the U.S. wants Canada and/or Greenland because the ice cap is melting, but how would unrest in Canada help Russia? They aren’t going to fight the U.S. for Canada, and they have their own access to that area already.
Unrest anywhere in “the west” helps Russia. Russia would be delighted to see civil war in North America. They want us busy dealing with our own problems so we leave them alone and don’t pay any attention to whatever other horrors they wish to achieve within their supposed “sphere of influence”.
Russia has been trying to destabilize western democracies in general through this kind of indirect manipulations for a while because the liberal democracy model threatens its authoritarian regime. Other examples are Russia helping anti-EU far right parties, Wagner mercenaries committing atrocities in Africa and attempting to camouflage it as a French operation, paying random dudes to commit easy but high social impact crimes like tagging a Holocauste monument, networks of propaganda accounts on social media to create or amplify anything that will raise anger etc.
The USA and Canada, together, are the heart of a massive power block. Riving the two is a huge policy win for Russia.
China and Albania moment
Do you mean to say that Camada is not a large economy?
Large, sure, but nowhere near the size of the US.
Big enough that a rift between the two is a big win for Russia. A chunk of both of our GDPs is a direct result of close cooperation and free trade. We are both poorer when Trump and Putin wreck our trade.
I would wager that the USA loses more if Canada goes away than it would be the other way around.