Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Kazakh policemen were mutilated and decapitated by your gallant ‘protesters’.

That means they were murdered by bloodthirsty Jihadi terrorists. The Kazakh authorities were correct to clamp down immediately on terrorism, it’s the only language that these head choppers understand. There was nothing peaceful about these protests.

Median comes to mind

No, it sounds like the closest an undemocratic country like Russia gets to democracy. An interview on Irish TV with a minute number of Russians doesn't really give you insight into the reality of Russian politics. I would however totally accept that Russians have had worse, that doesn't mean that what they have is democracy though.

Ukrainian government websites came under cyberattacks today with messages written in Ukrainian, Russian and polish ,

Telling people to be very afraid and expect the worst

More Russian tanks and IVFs have been arriving by the train load in the last 48 hours too ,

Something was pointed out Russia cannot afford to keep the 120,000+ troops deployed on Ukraines border long term , putin was hoping for quick win over nato ,all he's getting is countries wanting bigger NATO deployments and more countries preparing to counter him ,

Sergi lavrov is spouting about a big nato build up preparing to do something to Russia except there is no nato build up in or near Ukraine .

Indeed. I doubt it would be linked to any full-scale invasion, but the key for Russia is to keep applying pressure and making small escalations in order to gain concessions. They are really testing the resolve of the Biden admin and Europe.

And that's before Russia loses access to international credit lines.

No, only lightly armed militia forces and ordinary road vehicles were sent to Almaty.

Whatever is arriving at the Ukraine border are front line mechanised and armoured battalions.

They sent armour vehicles as well to Kazakhstan ,

But to answer jmreire no , definitely seems a bigger force than what we seen lined up going to Kazakhstan ,

You think Russia is like North Korea or something. Russia can do pretty much what it wants like it did with Crimea and will do again here. The US are not stupid enough to take Russia on at this point unless it's absolutely necessary, which in this case it isn't. If they do, then good luck to them because they will need every bit of it.

Russia doesn't fight large , modern , professional militaries ,

Bombing civilians to the stone age is their current strategy in the middle east ,the launched a surprise attack on Georgia ,but when Russian tanks and planes started taking losses ,the Russians decided to fall back ,most of the damage was done to civilian infrastructure ,not military targets.

Russia will not fight the US ,they have shown the Russian doctrine which was deployed by the Iraqis during desert strike , Large tank formations which make up the forefront of Russian warfare ,is redundant when you take modern airpower and anti tank weapons into it ,

The Russians were slaughter in Afghanistan ,and Chechnya twice only they lost complete armored colums time and time again , the second time around they bombed everything and anything back to the stone age ,that might work well in a localised internal conflict which causes the locals turn on fighters , but when the other large army has shown they have the capability to hit targets , vehicles , aircraft ,men 24/7 time and time again ,do you honestly think putin wants to fight America.let alone nato

So who should we call .....

Do you think Ukraine is a democratic country with shared values to the west? How does that align with support for the violent overthrow of a democratically elected government in 2014?

You do raise a genuine question there though - WTF is the point of NATO in a post USSR world? A lot of the Russophobia is more explicable if NATO is seeking a purpose and trying to recast Russia as it's old adversary. The existence of NATO demands an adversary. Otherwise it is pointless. Russia's genuine concern about NATO as an alliance targeted against Russia is also more explicable in that context. You might pretend NATO is not targeted against Russia, but we all know NATO will never admit Russia as a member of NATO. There is definitely a closed door policy on NATO membership. It is just selective.

The reality is there is more chance of military conflict between NATO members (Greece and Turkey) than there is between Russia and NATO.

As for the former Yugoslav republics being in NATO in the 1990s...huge swathes of the former Yugoslavia aren't member states of NATO even now. The earliest accession was in 2004.

As for the jingoistic dreams of NATO marching into Russia...what will you do when Russia drops a nuclear weapon onto your concentration of 250,000 troops and wipes them out as an effective fighting force? Full out nuclear assault, inviting an escalation up to and including extinction of human life? Be serious. The reality is Ukrainian borders are not going to be the trench that the rest of the world dies in. Some more serious minded people need to take charge and recognise that Russia, as a nuclear power, cannot be treated like a bold child. They view NATO as an anti-Russian alliance. The anti-Russian rhetoric of NATO doesn't dissuade them. Diplomacy is the better option.

Russia dropping nuclear bombs ,I'd take the thousands of nuclear weapons pointed directly at them makes me think some people over play the idea of putin making a nuclear strike , there's plenty of nuclear weapons in Europe....

If putin or anyone else wants nato gone , Putin could give up his nuclear weapons make massive cuts to their military and withdraw all Russian forces from Crimea , Ukraine , Moldova, Georgia and elsewhere and show he's interested in peace .

Nato exists because the Russian didn't go away the eastern Europe got it's freedom and independence but Putin wants it back to the good old days of occupation and persecution of eastern Europe , under the guise of defense against the NATO invasion of Russia