Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Genocide buddy lol, the USA has caused far far more destruction and chaos around the world than anyone else has in the last 20 years, yet somehow the USA has managed to convince people that Xi Jinping is the bad guy.

And isolates him almost completely on the international stage. It's almost like he wants to turn Moscow into a version of Pyongyang, power at all costs and damn the consequences.

Well, ultimately the people do...as you can always vote the bums out!

In Russia, there are literally no checks or balances (apart from sham ones). Putin is a dictator with unfettered power.

Biden and his security have literally called out in advance exactly what Putin was going to do. Very impressive intelligence and unprecedented to watch it play out before our eyes in real time. They really have played an absolute blinder and I'd say Putin can't quite believe it as he has found himself in a no win situation.

I do also wonder, as others have suggested, if Putin is thinking clearly as it's hard to rationale what he is going to gain from all of this. There are world leaders scratching their heads in disbelief that he is going to plough on by the looks of things.

I agree. I genuinely think he's mentally ill and incapable of rational thinking.

Remember he's a modern-day emperor so pretty divorced from reality in any case. And he's spent the last two years locked in a bunker. The only surprise is probably that he hasn't gone round the bend before now.

I would suggest taking it to another thread.

This is all about Ukraine and the immediate threat. It's as clear and as obvious as September 1939 who the aggressor is, and who we should be supporting.

At the moment he is looking like the puppet master but yes, it could all end in tears for him.

We need to stop calling Putins demands "security demands". These words frame what Putin is "asking for" as rational and reasonable, rather than the reality - that he is a war criminal, a kleptocrat, an imperial empire fetishist, murderous and potentially genocidal.

I'm far from an expert on these affairs but I don't think I have seen western powers as united on a single issue in recent times. EU, UK and US are all on board with the same message.

Obviously if shells start falling things may change.

Moscow is isolated already, it's not like Putin will be unaware of the consequences of all this. Keep in mind it's very likely he will rule Russia until he decides not to, and also he has laid down the ground-work to fully protect himself (from investigation, etc) even after he leaves office. I wouldn't compare the leadership of modern Russia to NK, but I would compare it to the Mafia - and they don't have much of an issue being at odds with the law (Europe/US/etc).

Jesus Christ!

Don't you think the people who live in these countries should have the right to choose their own path of self-determination?

I don't think I've read such a repulsive post for quite some time, it literally reads like something a fascist sympathizer would have written about the Sudetenland.

I see that the promised Russian withdrawal from Belarus following recent "exercises" has been cancelled. From to-day's Guardian: "As recently as Wednesday Belarus’s foreign minister, Vladimir Makei, said “not a single” Russian soldier would remain in the country after the massive joint drills – a promise echoed by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov".

See: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/20/russian-troops-will-remain-indefinitely-says-belarus-as-fears-rise-of-ukraine-invasion

I wonder did Lavrov and Co have some new intelligence on the "threat" from Ukraine since last Wednesday. I wonder how Putin's running dogs will spin this one.

One sure thing: you can never believe anything these gangsters say.

The lies are spectacularly brash alright