Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Strange though it may seem, but not all regret the fall of communism,,,I know several Russian's who pray for its return. 2nd biggest political part in Russia after Putins United Russia party is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. One colleague was telling me that under the Communists, she was able to take her Family to Sochi twice a year for holidays. Did not cost them a penny, transport, accomodation, food, health care etc. Now she says, under the Capitalist system, she cannot even afford one holiday a year in Sochi. So you can say that there is some mixture in Russian Society, and some are still more equal than others!!!

Just can't see NATO intervening. They'll weigh up the total destruction of Ukraine versus destruction of all of Europe and decide Ukraine isn't worth it.

Unless things like this mining of atomic power stations proves true (if it's on Fox it probably isn't) as that would suggest Europe is f*cked either way and the only option is to take Russia down.

did you actually watch this live last night?

they were shelling the **** out of the plant indiscriminately and then started firing at the camera. They were trying to destroy the place.

I must have watched the power plant stream for an hour, not fun.

I did and I stand by it ..... A big change was/is needed regarding dependance on fossil fuels in general and specialy from tin pot dictators. europe's issue is that it is always devided when it comes to impementing significant change .... Brexit forced us to be united and now Putin does ...And all for the greater good. Europe needs to be a super power in their own right and not being dependant on medical supplies from China and oil and gas from Russia. It was fukcing embarassing watching the antics used to get a few facemasks from Beijing

NATO carried out an entirely offensive campaign in the former Yugoslavia, born out of frustration with Russia's veto preventing UN action. There is a precedent on humanitarian grounds and they can absolutely argue that the instability caused by this invasion is a real threat to NATO countries.

Not that they will have many planes to fly soon enough anyway.

While a regime change in Russia seems the most likely way to remove Putin, it all depends on who comes next. My thoughts are the following:

Elections under this regime are a joke so it won't be happening that way. Any politician winning an election under this regime (even if Putin is out of the picture) will be a safe choice in their eyes.

His inner circle are most likely yes men and anyone who showed initiative or ambition has probably been rooted out long ago (see how Venezuela went from the charismatic Chavez to the clueless Maduro) so the 'natural' order of succession wouldn't give me much hope either (Medvedev was probably a taste of this).

A coup d'etat can go either way. Look at all those African armies in the last few years who ousted the President and formed transitional councils as they prepared new constitutions and free elections: A lot of them are still in the same bother they were before and some are even more fractured and this is if they were lucky enough to get free elections.

I wouldn't have too much faith in the desires of the upper echelon of the Russian military for anything too drastic. Shoigu, for example, has been in the military since the late 70s; I can't seem him being too interested in letting the plebs rule the roost. At best, they'll remove Putin if they think he's gone too far and push for someone more balanced and easier to control.

The oligarchs would probably want someone like Putin was previously; not drawing too much attention to the country and just letting them get on with their business interests and luxury lifestyle in the West. So they'd probably go for a similar candidate to the military (less of a warmongerer but one who'll protect their interests in exchange for their support). I can't see the oligarchs being in the mood for any great upheaval, either.

A popular revolution seems far-fetched. We have some posters claiming that Russians have been brainwashed into thinking that nothing's wrong while others claim there's a lot of apathy and/or acceptance of the way things are while there's also big ethnic and religious divisions. I haven't met many Russians in my life and I can't say that I have a good idea of what they are like, generally, so I can't offer any insight on that. However, I doubt a popular uprising would be a smooth transition.

What would Kadyrov have to say about a popular movement, for example? I doubt he's the only minority figure who's been empowered by Putin in exchange for support. I can also see it being a fractured election with no outright winner, just a few decent-sized blocks at odds with each other.

The most realistic way for me is one where Putin is forced to one side and the military and the oligarchs install someone to their liking and with some guarantees that there won't be any repetition of what Putin did towards the end. It might be better than what is currently happening but I can't see any wholesale changes for the time being.

Only one solution for that

Warning NSFW unless you work in the BDSM field