Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The EU is sanctioning 378 Russians over the Ukraine invasion, the UK has sanctioned.....5 (3 of which were already under US sanctions...oh and aren't in the UK...lol). Coincidentally 1/4 of the Tory cabinet have taken money from russian sources....odd that...2m plus since 2019 from Putin linked sources...

Lot of Russian money in London...hmmm...

finland is ex russian empire so they are a target of Putin

The whole of eastern Europe right up to Berlin is on his list

A few years ago they complained to the UN about the annexation of East Germany from the Soviet union ,

This is the scary things he's told the world what he's doing and yet nobody is stepping up to stop him

no complaints here

If they invaded Alaska, the entire world would cease to exist.

Finland and the Baltic states were part of the Russian Empire though, not the Russian Federation which along with Ukraine are both post USSR developments.

Finland was a Russian Empire Grand Duchy known as the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was the resulting status following the Treaties of Tilsit, it goes back to the point I was making and like the Ukraine was never part of the Russian Federation or a Russian territory.

If we are to consider the Russian Empire as former Russian territories then we may as well add Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, significant parts of Poland and Turkey as well Alaska and California to the list.

That 2 million figure is probably far too low by looks of it. Found below online as well....

Lubov Chernukhin has given £1.9million to the Tory party. She is the wife of a former Russian minister.

Johnson and the Tories are a disgrace

It's a Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, fairly regular.

That speech just shows how deluded Putin has become, it will come back to haunt him, talking about Russia pre 1917 is ludicrous , by that logic Putin should return all the lands and property stolen by the tzars and bolsheviks from the Jews that lived in Russia for centuries pre 1917. Imagine if the Austrian prime minister made a speech about returning Austria to its pre 1914 borders or if Erdogen in Turkey wanted to reclaim former ottoman territory in southern Russia.

It is the RQ-4, won't be anything else up there at 57,100ft.

It often uses either LSV052, GRYHK01, FORTE1 or R03319 as the transponder code, sometimes does not identify correctly as the RQ-4 when the operator has inputted an incorrect ICAO 24-bit code, which is the case here.

Well, take Afghanistan with a rag tag and bobble of sandal clad fighters, and look at the problems they caused the Russian military even before the US got involved. Ditto the Chechen's.

I would have thought that my reference to pre-1917 Russia would be enough to make it clear that I'm talking about the empire, but apparently I was wrong in that regard. I was also referring to the Baltic states in that time frame.

Sorry I mistook you comment "Ukraine is a post-USSR development though, you're right on that one", to imply I may be wrong with the rest of what I posted. You mentioned Finland and the Baltic states when I said "what former Russian territories would that be?", yes you mentioned pre 1917, but I took you to mean they were former Russian territories and I was just re-stating the point that I was talking about Russia as it is now, obviously many posters may not be au fait on the topic.

What logic can be used when a country (which strictly speaking only exists since 1991) wants to reclaim former territories of an empire which ceased to exist over 100 years ago simply because they were "Russian", the pre 1917 Russian Empire, the 1917-1991 Russian SFSR and the post 1991 Russia are vastly different.

I think, though some may disagree, that anyone who thinks we can equate former territories of the Russian Empire as former territories of Russia would be incorrect, hence why I mention Alaska, California etc.