Sobering assesment from on the ground in Ukraine, lets hope the talks are successful today.
The Russian economy is smaller than Italy's, they are waging a very expensive war, Russian savings are worth a third less today than they were before the weekend. Their entire banking system, including the Russian central bank, is under threat. They are facing very heavy sanctions, export controls, companies are refusing to ship everything from cars to computer chips to their country.
And we are only 5 days into this. Their enemy is being supported by most of the wealthiest economies in the world, not just financial and humanitarian aid, but military aid. If they manage to take Ukraine, the economic pain only increases for normal Russians. If the conflict continues, it's as bad if not worse.
The average Russian will pay a massive economic price for this.
1. Not a reputable source.
2. Status as of noon on 27th Feb, meaning it's a full day out of date even if it was a valid source.
The World needs to negotiate with Putin for the sake of peace. Putin said there's Nazi's in Ukraine. The West said he's lying. But what about Azov Battalion?
Calm heads need to prevail. I believe we are not far from Nato boots on the ground.
I actually just finished watching it. 😁 Yeah I would agree with most of his take on Putin alright. As for why he's doing what he's doing now? The same czarist thinking in play I would say. He's got an enormous war chest of funds built up over decades and his 'people' are pretty well controlled. He has overstepped though and didn't expect the huge and near total condemnation from pretty much the entire world and the pushback from that. He can still afford to dial back from that in the coming weeks and days and retain most of his position. Not so much the Russian people, but the same czarist thinking never seemed to care that much and the people for most of Russia's history didn't push back.
"Its just the way you post racist and xenophobic copypasta views on many threads across boards"
"Resort to personal abuse. Typical from you Wibbs"
Openly and baselessly calls someone racist and xenophobic, then complains about personal abuse.
The lack of self awareness is comical.
You can't negotiate with crazy.
Appeasing Putin is not a viable option.
What? That's complete BS. I know people who were in combat against civilian militias in Iraq... civilians provided more resistance than the regular Iraqi Army and the fighting was intense. What about Sadr City and al-Sadr's militia (the Mehdi Army)? (His political party joined with Saairun and was the most popular in the most recent Iraqi elections.) There are people, shadows of their former selves, veterans of those battles, in houses and apartments in the US reliving it every day. Whatever about the rights and wrongs of any party to the conflict, the Iraqi resistance was real.
There will be no nukes launched.
The view from the Kremlin
The Kremlin has accused the European Union of hostile behaviour towards Russia, saying weapons supplies to Ukraine were dangerous and destabilising and proved that Russia was right in its efforts to demilitarise its neighbour.
The Russian self sufficiency chestnut again.
Yes they are.
As were cavemen, who produced all they required to live in their own circumstances. On the other hand Neurosurgeons' are not self-sufficient, they but their food from farmers and clothes from weavers in a functioning market economy.
Yes, there are many hundreds of not thousands working for those companies here. A company I work for provide services to just one of these Aircraft Leasing companies and they are a massive operation with many very well paid Irish and EU executives living here.
That's just one of 4 that I know of personally and I'm not in the industry.
Dublin is the world capital of this industry.
So he never said that it was just ranting ridicule .
Why are you acting like I am defending them?
Ireland was pretty bitter about the UK leaving the EU. The EU weren't happy at all with the brits leaving. Imagine if Ireland and the UK exited the EU and joined the US for example. The EU would be absolutely sickened. Then imagine France left and joined the US and then Italy.
That's basically what's happened Russia over the last 30 years. Not defending the invasion, it's wrong.
I have no issue with the idea that we need to understand his motivations before trying to manage him.
But there is understanding Putins mindset/motives on one side and then there's looking at his actions on another. If we go by by the logic of "well it makes sense to Putin" then everything is sane and rational regardless of consequences or outcome. Not all people will react the same, thats what separate's tyrants from democratically elected governments who are usually limited with checks and balances.
Lol the comparison to US invasion of Iraq and saying "The russians are so great they did it faster" makes it very obvious its garbage propaganda.
There's a run on the banks in Russia today...
I noticed that too.
What the hell did they expect??
Putin said Ukraine was being run by Nazis, are you claiming Azov are running the Ukraine? You know Zelensky is Jewish right?
Are there comparitivwely no Nazis in Russia? Are you unaware of russian football Ultras culture?
War is weird. I feel if you grew up on Hollywood movies and even books, you get the impression that it is something that is all-consuming and all encompassing. But once the dust settles, people go on with living their lives. In Friday I was at a protest a few hundred km's from the Ukrainian border and today am just living out the same Monday I always do. I even imagine in Ukraine people will just get used to what is happening and make decisions on what they do with their day depending on where they believe the Russian forces to be or plans for attack.
Edit: I wrote something similar last night only a few pages back, completely forgot I wrote about it haha
At least there are humble souls like yourself around to bring the rest of us back to earth without any sense of arrogance or air or superiority. .
In one way I hope he is right (about China, if Putin were to succeed here). Maybe it is perverse but I wish to see China merrily sanctions bust for Putin, smirk away + try and profit while Russia does a war of conquest and possibly a horrible Stalin type purge of "enemies" straight out of the 1930s + EU is flooded with millions of Ukrainian refugees ala WW2.
Let them at it, and hopefully some pain inducing 3rd party sanctions will start to come down on their heads too and speed up a very necessary cut off. Will wake some more in the West up to the true face of the CCP + their evil I hope.
It started yesterday anyone waking up to get cash today is likely too late already.
Have you converted to toxic Nationalism now? 😂
You have no clue if that is genuine or not. The source is signed as Gonzalo Lira a right wing conservative youtuber...and dating coach...
The guy tweeting it has the below as his bio...
"handsome, jacked, wealthy, genius level IQ, really good at sex"
Hmm 🤔
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is trying to broker a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, his spokesman said.
Hard to see what he thinks he can do.
Putin's Russia is not the victim here. Putin wants Ukraine to be a poor vassal state like Belarus. The Ukrainians don't want that and have every right as a sovereign country to reject it and choose their own path.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wc.vanillicon.com/v2/cb3e473e130edbea92f4060567c2cc7f.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://www.boards.ie/applications/dashboard/design/images/banned.png)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wa.vanillicon.com/v2/a08d55691d6f78a042612a7aa18ff3ab.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w2.vanillicon.com/v2/2ac2e9d82cba49584e6b3394d0993024.svg)