Russia - threadbanned users in OP

If Putin is the victim of an internal coup, then the West doesn't technically need to make him pay. Not directly, anyway. Just apply enough pressure on Russia to make Putin's domestic position untenable.

Not all if many dictators live to a very old age…..? Hitler did a DIY job on himself in his 50’s….Mussolini got executed in his early 60’s….., Stalin was in his 70’s rumours now say he was poisoned…..could we be as lucky with the current version…..if Pooh-tin was assassinated/ decapitated/ poisoned…..would all his current ‘yes men’ and regime crumble and country could have a new beginning with some form of semi-sane leader or would it be just destined to revert back to megalomaniac type leader similar to this current ‘abomination of a human being’😡😡

Good idea an ounce of **** might be worth an ounce of gold and then we will all be buying big yachts.

It's basically the Russian version of the US Secret Service. No matter the number it's still only people and they are all malleable.

How many have friends or relatives serving in the forces invading Ukraine?

How are their loyalties if those people they know or love die in a futile war?

I don't think "Poundshop Adolf" is very secure at all.

They don't to badly on average:

Mussolini 62

Stalin 75

Hitler 56

Franco 82

Mao Zedong 82

Papa Doc 64

Kim Il Sung 82

Pinochet 92

Ceausescu 71

Idi Amin 80

Mugabe 95

King Faisal 68

Gaddafi 69

Sadat 63

Albert René 74

Marcos 72

Hussein 69

Generally the ones that stayed within their borders and only persecuted their own managed to avoid being assassinated. The more adventurous ones who decided to attack foreign countries ended up being cut short which may point to foreign interference deciding the fate of alot of these despots.

For all those who keep espousing "make love not war",.. happy to oblige...

That was always the one claim he was going to hide behind, riding to the rescue of those new democratic republics. As has already been suggested by other posters they will take that as a victory plus whatever bits of land they can hold onto to link to Crimea. I'm not all that convinced that they can even achieve this new plan as there is little evidence they'll suddenly improve as an attacking force. Added to their problems will be all the Ukrainian troops that a pull-out from around Kyiv will free up. Korea is not a model and absolutely nobody will go for it. They will also be very hard pushed to hold onto any areas where there is a belligerent local population. Then there are the sanctions to deal with.

From the Guardian:

Ukraine will “not be silent” about the “horror” of rapes being committed against women during the Russian invasion, a politician in the country has said.

The Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva said while one particularly shocking case had been publicly talked about, there are “many more victims” who will need support in the future.

She referred to a case that Ukraine’s prosecutor is investigating, in which a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted in front of her child, PA Media reported.

Mezentseva, who is head of the permanent delegation of Ukraine to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, said details of incidents must be recorded as they happen because “justice has to prevail”.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme:

There is one case which was very widely discussed recently because it’s been recorded and proceeded with [by] the prosecutor’s office, and we’re not going into details, but it’s quite a scary scene when a civilian was shot dead in his house in a small town next to Kyiv.

His wife was – I’m sorry but I have to say it – raped several times in front of her underage child.

Mezentseva, who was speaking to Sky from western Ukraine, said the country could benefit from the experience of other countries, such as the UK, in how to help victims in the aftermath of war.

She said:

There are many more victims rather than just this one case which has been made public by the prosecutor general. And of course, we are expecting many more of them, which will be public once victims will be ready to talk about that.

I've seen the video. The only caveat I'd throw out is it's only been shared by an account known to spew pro Russian propaganda so it may be bollix.

If it isn't then it should be dealt with and I've seen comments claiming to be someone within the Ukrainian authorities saying if it is their forces the book will be thrown at them.

Russians are only going to get more and more nasty the longer this goes on. They are already using rocket launched mines in N Ukraine, an army moving forward doesn't use those. If they can't have Ukraine, looks like they are going to annihilate as much of it as possible, whilst trying to turn what they do have into Russian territory, so any attacks on it will be "an attack on Russian soil".