I'm hoping in this case it ends with Self-immolation.
Allegedly. Propaganda goes both ways. Confirmation required.
Thank you. Who are by and large women ...and even more CHILDREN
Actually that's how dictatorships work in simplistic hollywood films. Meanwhile back in the real world... Autocrats delegate, they have to, and the 'best' of them know how to do that very very well. They're uber managers and pyschologists. The best don't surround themselves with just idiots either. If your chain of command is made up of useful idiots and yes men you're screwed. Stalin tried that and it nearly did him and Russia in. He changed tack. He had to.
It's more comments made about the state of the Russian equipment and that corruption is supposedly all the way down, including those starving kids who legally should not be fighting. Putin et al at the top seemingly were unaware of the poor state of things.
THey also have a muslim as their first minister and crimean tatar muslims are fighting for ukraine (native ukrainian muslims).
To kill or maim civilians
the Ukrainians have come too far too trust anything the russians say. Unless such a truce was backed by UN troops or NATO it would be meaningless
Very good if we could pull this off
Maslow's hiearchy of needs. Self Actualisation.
Yeah but we're talking about Russia here. they told people a jewish man was leading a government of nazis.
Ukraine’s first International legion of territorial defence forces– fighters from the US, Mexico, India, Sweden, and more.
Not unless they're incels. The same powerful senior men have wives and kids and grandkids and families.
It's doable in the sense it's surrender and the end of Ukraine as a sovereign state effectively. It's also ends up permanently disfigured and partitioned.
You might say that's inevitable but i'd hope they could hold out a little longer and get something that's less of a surrender if that's possible.
Its a 'humanitarian air exercise'. 🙃
Why put landmines in what is supposed to be a humanitarian evacuation corridor?
Man arrested as truck driven into Russian embassy gates
It's the statement from the Russian embassy that's a total farce.
In a statement, the Russian embassy condemned what it described as "a criminal act of insanity directed against a peaceful diplomatic mission".
It said the incident "took place in the presence of Garda officers who stood idle", adding that that it viewed the incident as "a clear and blatant violation of Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic relations of 1961".
The embassy is demanding that Irish authorities "take comprehensive measures" to ensure the safety of embassy staff, and says it is in contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs here.
"The incident is cause of extreme concern. We believe that no people of sound mind could support such senseless and barbaric actions," it added.
Gardaí have said they do not comment on statements or remarks by third parties.
Last week, Russian ambassador to Ireland Yury Filatov alleged that death threats had been made against embassy staff at their home addresses.
In an interview on Russian television, Mr Filatov said that protests outside of the Dublin embassy had become violent and that staff had made reports to gardaí.
The ambassador described Ireland as being at the forefront of anti-Russian measures in Europe.
He also claimed that Russian children are being bullied in Irish schools.
Mr Filatov said: "At present, we're dealing with an extremely tense situation in the embassy. Our employees are constantly receiving death threats at their home addresses, by email and by telephone."
He said that protests outside the embassy are "very aggressive".
The neck of them to talk about "clear and blatant violations", given the actions and crimes of their Russian government in Ukraine. And if they call knocking down a gate as "barbaric" then there's no words to describe the destruction of Ukraine and the killing of its innocent civilians.
Putin doesn't have an ideological bone in his body. He's the head of a criminal organisation that seized the Russian state and refused to let go. It's hidden behind front men and front companies, but Putin is one of the world's richest men. If mass theft is an ideology, then an ideolouge he is. But I don't rate extreme avarice as an ideology.
China is a whole other story that requires a different thread.
Motivated by ideology? You have to be joking. The Chinese and the Russian leadership are motivated by power(and money).
I don't think that makes any sense at all. To take the case of Russia right now, if Putin was motivated by power and money, he would not have done this. He and his friends have lost vast amounts of money in this 'venture', and jeopardized his own power. He is clearly motivated by historical nationalism and the geopolitical import of Ukraine to Russia's physical integrity. These are his pre-eminent concerns and he has been clearly signaling as much for the past 10 years.
What have you seen? I saw Russian soldiers looting but they are paid like 4 euros a week and starving.
Also i mean a lot of that is the ruble tanking.
Genocide , no i think so , what's happening is his military cannot deliver the success he wants , and are now bogged down in a nasty day to day grunt for territory and to demoralise the civilian population The thing is every non ,military target you expend effort shelling you allow the Ukrainian military arm and fight back , You dont win by bombing buildings
A no fly zone is a great thing to wish for, a disaster in practice and would play right into putin's hands by showing the 'imminent threat of the West'. He's already tried this with bull about WMD in Ukraine, possible nuclear bomb research, possible bioweapon research, backed by the US of course. His subjects will lap that up and not question why the Americans would be so daft as to trust that sorta thing to a corrupt nation with a civil war going on and among many deep ties to Russia that it shares its border with? No sane government/military/intelligence operation would sanction that. It lacks plausible deniability, practicality and gives zero advantage.
It's the "Saddam has WMD!" playbook used by the Yanks. It was bull then to wind up support and it's bull now. A no fly zone would be reality. He would be pulling the skeleton outa himself if it were to come to pass. Indeed I'd even bet he hoped it would. Not to start WW3 but to keep the oul "the west is out to get us" narrative that his subjects would lap up while he waged the ground war he was sure would be over in a week or so.
Impossible. Everything in Russia is centralized through Putin. That is how he keeps control.They judiciary is dependent on him even the police..that is how dictatorships work. You can't say you didn't realize ...because in the end you were the linchpin.
Also putin surrounds himself with weak yes men who would never tell him the truth ...also he purposely surrounds himself with idiots also for the same purpose. They stupid and sheepish. Apparently they have lost contact with many of the battalions in ukraine but some think its because the soldiers would be saying things they don't want to hear.Many are just 17 conscripts etc. Also the russians don't know the topography of ukraine like Ukrainians do. Its the thawing season. Putin way underestimated the ukrainians their resolve and how much supplies from other countries they would have.
I think putin also underestimated how much proteccion oligarchs gave him and how much would be taken away if their ability through their assets and how their assets influenced the west would be.
Maybe he really thought he had a kick ass army. But then that goes to show he never really took a close look at it.
To be honest, yes. We teach our kids to grow up and stand up to bullies, to not be afraid. That to stand up for what is 'right' is the right thing to do, that if we let the bullies win, then we will always key them win.
And now as grown ups, when looking at a bully, we cower and appease and let the bully win.
Just for context, for the moment I think sanctions are the way to go. But I think sooner or later, western military will get involved here.
Indeed, and the strongest chance of nuclear escalation is if enough powerful proud senior men prefer to die by radiation sickness than embarrassment.
@[Deleted User] they (Russia/China) are both deeply "ideological" in my view and to me that is exposed more clearly as time passes and they've both grown in strength + gotten confidence to pursue goals more openly. They know what they don't like.
Democracy is a threat to them, even fairly peaceful unthreatening (on the face of it) entities like the EU just existing and going about their business in the way that they do is a challenge and an affront to both Russia and China.
Looks like "we" have to be constantly f-cked with every which way they can think of short of war (or now maybe incl. war for Putin of course, who knows). Ah well maybe we just deserve such for being too "ideological" or "supremicist" ourselves or whatever.
One thing after another:
BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) - The condition of China's winter wheat crop could be the "worst in history", the agriculture minister said on Saturday, raising concerns about grain supplies in the world's biggest wheat consumer.
@completedit It is the end of the world as we knew it. But that world ended sometime during Covid, long before this conflict, and it was not coming back.
It's worse than that, quite a bit seems to have been pocketed at the very bottom so the rot is all the way up.
And it seems putin didn't realise the degree of it.
Probably a few Walter Mitty paintball enthusiasts there as well.
Fair balls to them all though! I hope they survive ok.
(Not that I'd be any better ... what with the oul' bone spurs and all)
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