I honestly feel Brainy that all the talk of NATO is a Russian red herring. As you note they've already got NATO on their 'doorstep' and have had for decades. If they took Ukraine over they'd actually add to the size of their borders with NATO.
My feeling is the talk and promise of the EU is the far bigger threat to Komrade Vlad. They see Ukraine as about the closest to them beyond their borders*. Now the other ex Soviet states getting into the EU and increasingly making Russia look like the corrupt and poor craphole it is was bad enough, but Ukraine? It's too close to home culturally and historically. A lot of Russians would know or have family in Ukraine and vice versa. Deep connections going on. Note Czar Vlad going about their Ukrainian 'brothers'. He'd never say that about Poles or Latvians or Czechs. So Ukraine ending up in the EU and turning into a more peaceful, corruption free, economically rising, using the Euro, full democracy right on his doorstep where ordinary Russians can see the results up close and personal? Not unlike the Soviets knowing a similar threat and needing to put a dirty great wall up between East and West Germany, because those in the East could see how much better their brothers and sisters were doing and wanted some of that. And remember, where did the Iron Curtain start to get lifted? That's a red rag to the Kremlin bull. That's his biggest threat, not NATO. He can spin NATO aggression very easily and his subjects will buy it lock stock and barrel, but much better lives for people and their kids in a place that used to look and feel so much like Russia? Not nearly so easy.
*Well Belarus too, but that's been annexed already. Their president is barely a puppet, he's barely the bloody strings of a puppet. He's literally a colonel in the Russian army. They think that little of him.
There was a link put up to a Russian ‘rival’ to Anonymous, who may have hacked the Anonymous website for a couple of hours. At the end of the video it says ‘under no circumstances should you doubt your country’.
I guess it’s one of the luxuries of being on the far left. When the facts aren’t in line with ideology you can say ‘there is no way to know you or I know what reality is’. You can show all the evidence you like. By the end of it you’ll be arguing about whether or not you would know if you were really just a brain in a jar being chemically manipulated to hallucinate.
Unless it’s US foreign policy, then the ‘truth’ is available in paperback or kindle.
Yup but to destroy cave and tunnel complexes. The worry here is their usage on civilian population centres.
We don't know which side the missus is supporting either, plenty of Russian brides around
Why not donate the missus to the cause, and keep the money for a few jars for yourself? 😁
Only joking. We need a bit of light humour on this thread... too many gobshite know-it-alls stirring the pot, and most of the others having personal arguments with each other. So childish when the population of a whole country is being systematically eliminated or displaced.
The problem I see with that Maebee is that blocking western social media will massively reduce the non Soviet propaganda information available to ordinary Russians and could easily be spun by Czar Vlad as "they don't want you to see the truth. Here's our truth".
Agreed. The giant will wake up at that stage. Binkov Battlegrounds did a NATO v Russia piece and Russia would be decimated in one sharp shock. Everything is in place for it.
The guy has gone fully down the rabbit hole. Putin doesn't need to go into a NATO country. Plenty like Sweden and Finland already face threats from Putin. The guy will do what he likes because he knows NATO won't move against him.
The moment Russia sets foot in a NATO country that will be a different story altogether, because if NATO doesn't defend in that situation then the very essence of NATO is gone. Even if Putin threatened Nuclear war I still think NATO would engage Russian forces in that scenario.
Russia loosing some troops in an attempted attack of a NATO country will not start a nuclear war IMO.
But Russia would never attempt invading a Nato country for this very reason anyway.
Russian forces are bombing and killing civilians, there is no doubt they are deliberately flattening certain areas and cities in their attacks with little regard to the civilians. They had utterly no concern at firing on a nuclear power station. Cluster munitions are being used, residential areas are being targeted by MRLS rockets, it's a type of carpet bombing. We've seen a Russian armored vehicle deliberately swerve and crush a civilian car. Russian forces opening fire on a father and son in a car full of dogs, the scene was butchery. Very difficult for them to make the case they are doing their "best" to avoid civilian casualties in a war of aggression
In Grozny Russia just flattened the place, in Syria, Putin flattened Aleppo with dumb unguided bombs. We see the same systematic pattern emerging in this war.
Did anybody catch that legend priest from Dolphin’s Barn on Joe Duffy?
Doesn't surprise me that this bit of spiel is on Fox News. Russia already has had NATO on its borders for 20 years via the Baltic states and that went off without incident. Secondly, Russia 'only' threatening to do what they have been threatening for 15 years mitigates their current actions in absolutely no way whatsoever. Thirdly, Russia (then the Soviet Union) stationed Nuclear missiles on Cuba in the 1960s, but this situation was eventually resolved through diplomatic means - Kennedy and Krushchev agreed, no nukes in Cuba and no nukes in Italy/Turkey.
Fourthly, Putin seems to base his misgivings on a claim that NATO promised Russia that it wouldn't expand eastward. 1) Absolutely nothing was ever signed to this effect. No treaty, nada. 2) The alleged assurances given to Gorbachev specifically concerned not stationing 'defensive structures' in East Germany after reunification, which Gorby said was adhered to. He also said that allowing former Eastern Bloc countries to join NATO went against the spirit of the assurance given, but was not technically a violation.
Russia has no actual right to dictate what alliances its neighbours can join. I would suggest to Mr. Putin that if he wants NATO to back off from Russia, he should have tried what Krushchev did in the 60s with the Cuban missile crisis and station a few nukes in a south or central American country. Then, back channel to the U.S. administration and say he'll remove those if NATO will agree a demilitarised zone across Russia's western flank in the Baltics and guarantees on neither Finland nor Ukraine acceding to the alliance, and Russia also promising not to try and invade those countries.
If they continue with this and block Instagram, tiktok etc, it might hit home to the younger Russian population.
Hi, the missus wants to donate money towards the cause, but who or where would be the best place to donate that will be effective? Thanks in advance.
Ha, I was actually thinking the exact opposite. Posters who IMO have come out with the most crap on other unrelated threads are some of the ones going on the exact same here.
For example some of the anti-vax experts who have ended up here now, but thats just my opinion.
672.5k refugees entered Poland since 24th of Feb. 99k over last 24h
Source (the Border Guard webpage in Polish ): https://strazgraniczna.pl/pl/aktualnosci/9898,Sytuacja-na-polsko-ukrainskiej-granicy.html
The US used a thermo byronic bomb in Afghanistan they called it the mother of all bombs and nothing happened.
I think Orwell is very good. Maybe add 1984/2022 to it?
Featuring Ronan Keating as Vlad Putin !
I'm not sure why you find the statement that western armies with a chain of command that leads to the top of government and who have signed up to the rules of warfare, are less likely to use human shields than say, militant groups.
That doesn't seem controversial to me, yet you seem to think that I'm engaging in western propaganda.
Great work. Literally a smoking gun. The fcukers.
The big one is the oil and gas.
If he can keep selling that then he has something, if that is stopped watch the chinese demand huge cut in prices.
And then the Chinese have to worry that West don't hit them for sanction busting.
I think it it is time the West revisited globalisation where they give away power to their enemies.
With the way those two operated I am surprised they weren't ever run by Putin.
Everything is Fucked : The Vladimir Putin Musical
Coming to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre this Spring
No. G8 is with Russia. Soon G100
Whoops - never assume...
While I'm sure it's not named after George, I'd say having a Russian embassy on Orwell Road is actually quite appropriate, although I doubt they'd pick up on the irony.
You can write the suggestion (that there could be ukranian forces in the building), off as bullshit? Seriously? Based on the fact that they're a legitimate army, so they probably wouldn't be in a civillian building?
I think you had it right the first time. We can't really know, we can just see which side we like and presume they are in the right in every instance and the other side are just shelling a civillian building out of malice in every instance. It's not likely to be true though.
We don't actually have to buy our own side's propaganda hook, line and sinker in order to support Ukraine. We can be honest and admit we only have out propaganda to keep us up to date and the Russians have theirs. I suspect ours I'd closer to the truth because they truth suits us and the ones we support are actually the victims of the attack. But we probably should pretend to have a clue about specific instances.
Ahh for fecks sake you know what I mean, they don't fly supersonic and don't have missile capability, etc.
Taxiing a big taildragger involves a bit of weaving as it is impossible to see forward. All you see is a massive engine cowling.
And yes we know they are near impossible to replace. Perish the thought I didn't say a Mosquito.
BTW taxiing is not flying 😉
Not sure to what extent but Oracle and Microsoft pulled the plugs.
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