Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Острый.

Putin has Russian people and politicians poisoned and murdered. They are kidnapping and even murdering Ukrainian mayors, raining bombs down on men, women and children. I would be surprised if the Kremlin wasn't trying to take him out, this is how they operate.

You are talking about a guy that has scored quite an amount of them already.

Besides in his mind he is the one keeping score and he is 10 up.

I think if he does manage to kill Zelensky his family in Switzerland will be taken out.

Gary Kasparov spoke about this, after he got thrown in jail because he challenged him for presidential election.

According to Kasparov he doesn't bother with the chess board, but just tries to find ways to take his opponent out.

He is anything but a genius, he is a thug pure and simple.

He tries to find weaknesses in opponents, no doubt using the old KGB blackmail and buy off tricks and when that doesn't work if one is lucky he throws one in jail on trumped up charges (ala Khodorkovsky or Navalny) or he has people simply assassinated.

He rules like a mafia boss, through fear and rewards.

The wholesale looting of Russia by himself and his cronies is coming back to bite him as the military is looking like a bit of a shambles.

All one has to do is look how much the Sochi Olympic Games cost and how billions were siphoned away to some in his inner circle.

Not sure if his son-in-laws family business was one of the major beneficaries?

Likewise with World Cup.

So if that was done for major one off state expenditure, imagine what has been done with military budget over last 20 years.

Jaysus wait until old Vlad fins out they are linked to company in Belfast.

He will nuke for sure then 😮

Exactly. Macron and UK already said Europe doesn't want regime change in Russia and sanctions will end when Russia withdraws from (most of) Ukraine. In no time at all they'll be back to lining each others' pockets

Reading between the lines I would say given the absolute clusterfuck that the Russians have made invading and prosecuting the war that there is a very high probability that they will be dealing with someone new in the near future.

But there has to be some incentive for Putin to withdraw, bottom line is morally that everybody wants Russia to stop killing Ukranians asap.

Where has it happened? Yes Russia is big and Russia has a lot of resources people need but it's a long time since any country has done something like Russia has here. It is quite outrageous and it rips up + takes a huge **** all over "international order", idea of sovereign states & peoples and their rights etc. that US and West more broadly have (generally) been supporting since WW2.

Conquering your peaceful and unthreatening + democratic neighbour, levelling its cities, killing & expelling its people + taking territory like Genghis Khan or similar, basically because you have the "power" or think you have is not supposed to be on any more.

As regards Will Smith giving someone a slap I see it is below the fold on BBC website and smothered by Ukraine news. Maybe I'm wrong but I really think on a normal slow news day one of the award winners getting up and smacking the Oscars host in the mouth over a bad joke he told would have been at the top ... Whatever about the US, for us in Europe this is not going away I expect.

Closing in on 2,000 pieces of Russian war machinery put out of action..

@Glenomra

It's a bit like saying that a man who is recovering from a broken foot, masturbates one morning, and for a few moments forgets about his pain, so that must mean he's over the thing. No, the pain will return. Similarly, a brief buzz about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock does not indicate that concern about events in Ukraine has abated. It indicates that, shockingly, human beings can think about more than one thing at a time.

I'd say they have a very good chance. The same for the stolen aircraft, watches, businesses seized and ships full of grain - all will be able to take Russia to court and demand compensation be taken from Russia's frozen foreign assets. I'd say there is a chance they won't get anything back as the losses and claims will likely exceed the amount frozen.

Of course they likely will try and make them a condition of any peace process so that might mean no one gets compensated.

There's a lot more than that (around 15), pretty much normal of late, most I have counted so far in a single session was circa 30 military planes.

It's not that simple as saying take them to court and use seized assets to pay for damages, there would be huge legal questions over jurisdiction to start with, recognition of the courts and enforcement of any orders.