He is a smart guy, and would have access to greater information than any of us here.
There are plenty of other smart guys with greater information than us saying the opposite. In effect, you're choosing to believe Putin over other national leaders. Putin is a proven liar and a dictator. You're either purposely spreading misinformation or you're delusional.
That will depend 100% on what he thinks at that moment....yes, we all know that he has threatened to use nuclear weapons, and every says that he is only bluffing.. the big question though is he?.
could the EU defeat Russia by combining its forces and marching on Moscow? IMO-no
You are confusing a proper chain of command with Putins dictatorship
I'm not sure that is fully accurate. I remember reading an article a few years ago implying he was beholden to certain backers and powerbrokers. This article was speculating on why he would never be allowed to retire, because he was irreplaceable to these people. I'd be inclined to believe it. The Kremlin is a very shady place. I don't think Putin wields all the power there.
And make sure you post what I said in the following posts after that one as well.
Just like in the cold war, there were numerous things going on behind the scenes speculated by many, that cannot be proven by any of us. Does that mean none of that stuff happened? None of the cold war espionage, spying or covert operations happened, because we can't prove it?
You can choose to interpret my posts how you wish. But I'm the one who wrote them, so I know what I was saying. I never once pretended I had evidence to prove my opinion. But then I never stated it to be an absolute truth, just an opinion. So there was no burden of proof.
You can go round in circles like this all day if you wish, but I'm sure everyone else on the thread will be getting bored of this nonsense.
Like I said, perhaps you guys should go off and take this little discussion among yourselves to PM. Might be better than forcing everyone else on this thread having to read such a pointless back and forth.
timmy....if Putin was a normal sane individual I'd agree with you, but so far his actions have been anything sane rational or normal. Unless you consider him to be sane and normal, even after the Duma meeting? Maybe you would trust an unstable person with a nuclear arsenal, but I would not. Remember all the " there will not be any invasion, its all talk and bluff" to get concessions?? Well, as far as I'm concerned, Putin is a man on a mission, and a life or death one , if he does not get what he wants.
Pretty sure steamrolling into a country on weak/false pretences is asshole behaviour regardless of what circles you move in.
Poland are not reliant on Russian gas, they have over a years stockpile of gas and last year decided not to renew there contract with Russia for the gas which is due to expire shortly.
There suppliers of gas is now Qatar and America.
Considering illegal invasions, aggression and (ongoing) occupations are not uncommon, I think this Russia-Ukraine situation is being aggravated and escalated for the geo-political interests of the different sides here. Turkey invaded and continues to prop up its puppet state in Cyprus, and more recently invaded and continues to occupy Syria. Israel acts like a rogue state systematically and extremely frequently. UAE has seized and is now occupying Yemen's largest island and is fortifying it, along with an airbase being built on another island by an unknown state. Sri Lanka invaded relatively recently Tamil Eelam and commit large scale human rights abuses. Barely made headlines. Continued occupation of Kashmir by India and accompanied human rights abuses. These are just from the top of my head.
None of these are being played up to the extent of what is happening here between Russia and Ukraine. Russia seized Crimea and now the DPR. I mean its really nothing new or unusual that a state would act like this given the aggravating circumstances. The outrage constantly pumped out in western media and from western states in particular the USA and UK are both expected and disproportionate to their reaction to all the other illegal occupations and wars going on around the world, some of which they directly fuel.
The wests reaction are not proportionate to their position on other acts of illegal aggression and are designed to be escalatory and are entirely serving of their geo-political interests and nothing more - even if they are technically correct by international law.
I Don't think they have man like General Mark Milley on staff at the Kremlin ,I agree if putin decides to push a button it's him and only him who will push it , there will be no discussion and nobody to stand up and say Stop this madness
Putin seems to think Ukraine are being used by the west.
Such is the nature of confrontations between these two juggernauts over the years, most of what goes on is usually covert and well hidden from our eyes and ears.
You are confusing a proper chain of command with Putins dictatorship......and that's what he is. If he says push the nuclear, that's exactly what will be done.... unless of course there's a repeat of what happened before when Russia gave the order., and a front line commander refused to carry it out. Just how much dissention did you see at the Duma meeting the other evening???
I don't think Putin cares what west Ukrainians agree with at this point. If Putin needs to do as the USA does and install a friendly government backed by continual firepower, he will do that if he does not get the concessions he's asking for.
This is a quote from your post that im talking about:
"NATO had very advanced plans to set up in Ukraine. Crimea was earmarked for a major NATO installation."
That is not you expressing an opinion, it is very much trying to post it as a fact.
(I can quote the entire post if you like?)
Discovered that my number on Russian oil is wrong by a good bit, according to this. I agree on the gas but as we get into warmer weather that becomes less of a problem.
In 2019, Russia (with a share of 31.5%), Norway (11.3%), and the United Kingdom (11.9%) combined accounted for 54.7% of total crude oil imports to Germany.
But west ukrainians don't agree with his ideology which will make it extremely difficult for russia to hold considering its size. He has already recognised two break away regions of east Ukraine so I would be reading that he might be happy splitting the ukraine into east and west. He knows it would be impossible to hold the west of Ukraine.
"Ukrainians will suffer as a proxy force used to engage the Russians"
That sounds to me like you are saying the Ukrainians are being used as the agressors.
You are now changing it to Ukrainians being armed to defend themselves.
And then you acuse me of misrepresentating you.
Not sure about oil, but Poland, Baltics, Hungary are all vastly more reliant on Russian gas. I think some of those are 100% reliant on Russian gas - surely the scope of sanctions will be limited by this
Off you go.
Putin fires shells, the world fires words .
Someone needs to step up and defend Ukraine.
The context for the Nord Stream announcement also included an intention to review their own energy security. Germany are most exposed to Russia at 65% for oil and 40% for gas.
They are not funding neo Nazis .
They are supplying and training the Ukrainian military who are defending their own country .
If Russia's principal concern over Ukraine is them being in NATO (and this is obviously subject to skepticism) and plonking nukes down on the Russian border or whatever, then splitting Ukraine isn't going to really allay those concerns. It just moves the border. Besides, Putin's words indicated that he views Russia and Ukraine as natural bedfellows. Two peas in a Slavic pod, but one pea being poisoned by western propaganda, and this doesn't seem a situation that Putin is willing to tolerate indefinitely, or at least that is the impression he's giving. So, again, west and east Ukraine aren't going to be a satisfactory solution as things stand and as the rhetoric goes. The Russian Federation is made up of many federal subjects with lots of different ethnic groups. I don't see why Putin wouldn't think that Ukrainian Tatars couldn't be another, and need to become such in order to rid them of westernised thinking.
and also many who are not expert in either
President Joe Biden's administration has informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of intelligence assessing that Russia is preparing to conduct a full-scale invasion of the neighboring country within the next 48 hours, U.S. intelligence officials have revealed to Newsweek.
"The President of Ukraine has been warned Russia will highly likely begin an invasion within 48 hours based on U.S. intelligence," the U.S. official with direct knowledge told Newsweek.
"Additionally," the U.S. official added, "reporting from aircraft observers indicates Russia violated Ukrainian airspace earlier today, flying possible reconnaissance aircraft for a short period over Ukraine."
Ukraine has been very slow to move forward since independence. Corruption is rife. The east of the country which is pro russia is holding the west of country back. Perhaps it is best to split the country. Let west move forward into the EU and east back to Moscow. Admittance that the Ukraine jurisdiction boundary is not in the right place.
Russia maybe be able to take the east back but holding the west of Ukraine against their will would be impossible. Country has 43 million people. There would be fighting for decades should russia try and take all of Ukraine.
Very enlightening it is too...repeated over and over... How narcissistic to you need to be to keep on repeating brain fart opinions to all and sundry, if as you admit yourself you do not claim to base these opinions on facts!?
Ahh ok so the west is using Ukraine now to attack Russia? Gotcha
Can you point out where I said that in any of my posts? You seem to have a bad habit of deliberately misinterpreting people's posts.
The west will not put boots on the ground to support Ukraine, but they will support them by proxy by arming and funding them. They wont defend Ukraine themselves, but will use Ukraine as a proxy. This bs about west using ukraine to attack Russia and Russia not being the aggressors is your own.
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