Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I doubt that will ever happen, to be honest. Russia seems to demand the kind of leader who rules the place with an iron fist. That could be for reasons such as a sense of machismo in Russian culture, or since it's such a big country with lots of potential fractiousness, it requires an authoritarian to hold the whole project together, but whatever the reasons, Russia has now had quite the history of utterly ruthless leaders.

Now, you may get a relatively palatable leader for those of us in the west, like Boris Yeltsin, but inevitably that will just give way to another Putin.

I think the main lesson going forward is that you just have to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get carried away (or more specifically the Russian government, not necessarily their people). But that can only happen if the current Russian project implodes, and that is not yet a given.

This just in: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian president Vladimir Putin are discussing a place and time to hold talks, according to a spokesperson for Zelenskiy.

The spokesperson also added that Ukraine is ready to talk about peace and a possible ceasefire, Reuters further reported.

Earlier today, the US State department cast doubts about whether Russia had legitimate plans for diplomacy, saying that Russia must stop bombing Ukraine first.

“Now we see Moscow suggesting that diplomacy take place at the barrel of a gun, or as Moscow’s rockets, mortars, artillery target the Ukrainian people,” said State department spokesperson Ned Price. “This is not real diplomacy. Those are not the conditions for real diplomacy.”

The Guardian live blog

It's nonsense so the Russians can get time to regroup. Would trust them an ounce. They can talk when the Russians retreat.

It completely chokes those in their teens, 20s and 30s. All of those brands they have become accustomed to when growing up. All those streaming services, coffee brands, phone manufacturers, clothing manufacturers. You'll end up turfing thousand's of out retail and distribution jobs, no access to Western technology. Pissed off young people who have found themselves back into a Soviet time machines. Deal with that Vlad.

Bringing equipment into Ukraine...... From Poland.....

This shouldn't be excluded from sanctions either. It should be stopped and it will be painful. The alternative is an embolldened Putin, turning his attention to the Baltics and starting WW3. I think suffering a drop in Gas is preferable for a few months is preferable to heading into a Europe wide war and increased possibilty of nuclear strikes from both sides. We can't do the hand wringing and usual tut tutting on this any more. Putin needs to be put down and delaying it endangers us all. It started with poisoning one spy on foreign soil, then Salisbury where blind luck avoided an entire town being poisoned to death, now this. When do we say enough is enough or are we also so precious about our comfort we're happy to watch others die oblivious that our day of reckoning is edging closer.

Vermin

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Stop talking. Support Ukraine with money and support shown outside Embassies around the world. Talks is cheap.

Have you seen the terms.

putin will decide when the meeting is called and what will be discussed.

Ukraine military to be disbanded and all weapons handed over ,a Russian government to be installed ,and Russia permanently stations it's troops and weapons as peace keepers to deter Nato aggression against Ukraine , ukraine will submit to never applying to join nato and ukraine will be neutral

But yet I'm saddened by Eskimo hunt

Surely the Ukrainians will reply with a version of “**** that….”

They're already in the hands of the russians by keeping trading with them. You can trade with Russia, or the EU. Not both. Come back when you've made your decision. BTW Russia won't be buying much in a month.