If you cut Russia from SWIFT how do you buy Russian gas, oil and other commodities ?
They played a crucial role in making all of this more likely to happen, yes. (imho)
But it doesn't really matter what we think here. It matters what Putin and Russia think.
Nobody is listening to them. Which is dangerous, and not particularly intelligent behavior.
Start building wind farms as fast as possible. It was never a good idea to allow dependence on Russian energy. How stupid can it get?
And then they will "peacefully" annex the next bit of Ukraine for x reason and so on, the appeasement of the russians and putin is alot more dangerous than war. I hope Nato and the EU countries get boots on the ground and call putins bluff or atleast show him that if he attacks he will cause ww3.
A soft reaction to any form of invasion will be disastrous, it ll spur china to action aswell.
Referendums at gunpoint works every time
They release some strongly worded statements and sanctions that nobody understands. Blair/Clinton era politicians. All soundbites, no substance.
The ball is now firmly in the Ukrainian and NATO/EU court. Putin certainly won't back down and derecognise Donetsk and Luhansk. So it's either a war or they just roll over like they did in 2014 and let Russia "peacefully" annex those regions.
Mick Wallace and Claire Daly do.
Egg on the faces of all the Putin supporters in here. 'They were only having military drills'; ' They are entitled to put army anywhere on their land' etc etc etc.
The US have called him out in advance and have been right on everything. Putin is in a no win situation. He is desperate and that ramble he just had in front of the world proves it. Absolute state of him.
This is NOT about NATO. It was NEVER about NATO.
AT ALL.
Vladolf is about to launch Operation Barbrossiya and Europe needs to WAKE UP and cripple Russia with sanctions tonight as a baseline absolute minimum.
If it does not do this as a baseline minimum, every bit of rhetoric about values and rules and freedom since World War II becomes meaningless.
Could the EU source enough gas to run its economy without any gas from Russia?
dont forget parts of georgia too, troops stationed in belarus, Kazakhstan, moldova east too
The removal of Russian access to SWIFT has been discussed at length throughout Europe as an option if Russia invades Ukraine. Are you saying it can't be done? Do you know something all these other governments don't know?
Ah so NATO and the US forced Putin into annexing Crimea and now into recognising two puppet entities inside another sovereign country? Do you actually believe this garbage?
all this uncertainty is only driving up oil prices which only benefits putin .. in oct 2021 the same man predicted 100 dollars a barrell .. time to stop buying gas/oil from him asap .. but again eu are too weak and germans have turned off their nuclear power plants (thanks green party) just when we need alternative energy supplies urgently
You wonder😅
Go back to 2014 and there's probably very similar tweets from EU officials about Crimea. The EU is weak and just full of words.
We see you.
I thought the whole point would be that they/us (the West, EU etc) won't be handing Russia any more foreign currency (Euros/Dollars) by buying Putin's hydrocarbons for the forseeable if this war goes ahead?
Isn't that mainly why a cut off of Russia edit: is going to be painful (large rises in costs of energy + fuel and possible shortages/rationing) + why you've seen German reluctance about it etc.?
So Western Europe not being able to transact for Russian oil/gas doesn't seem to explain why also cutting Russia out of international banking is a bad idea.
NATO expansion east. And US interference in Eastern Europe.
I haven't changed my position.
I still don't think a full scale invasion of Ukraine is very likely either tbh. But you never know.
It's something else reading reddit with all the yanks commenting on this Russian thing. "propaganda!!" is every second comment....as if they're not faced with propaganda themselves...they supported an invasion of Iraq on it.
And then there's the whole parroting of US officials. If I read another headline where it says something like "Russia says it has killed 5 Ukrainians who crossed the border into Russia" that's followed by some yank saying "Ah Russia creating a pretext!" just because they heard the US guy say Russia would create pretext for an invasion.
Not that It actually means much
Johnson has just said they are ready to go as soon as the first Russian boot steps forward...... Which will be pretty soon I imagine
How do you buy energy without SWIFT ? Maybe Putin cancels SWIFT
as putin threatens to show ukraine what real de-communisation means...
eu countries are split as to when to trigger sanctions... now or wait a few more weeks till russian peace keepers enter ukraine "independent" areas
Didn't Draghi say only yesterday that energy commodities wouldn't be in any sanctions...or something to that effect.
Wonder does he have some mental problem?
any kind of bullshit with an actual NATO or EU member is legitimately WW3 though, no ifs or buts.
And that's one of the better outcomes......you might be given the grand tour of the Lubyanka.
Oh I have ,I said it should it have happened 8 years ago ,now it's time to punish Russia,and punish them hard
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wc.vanillicon.com/v2/c635d680d76ce16e490d61f21d7a1353.svg)
