Any authoritarian country only has one strategy when it comes to this stuff. Stick to the story. If they say they are fighting nazi's, then they stick to it. If Israel says no, it doesn't matter. Just stick to the story. If you question the story, you must be a nazi. If you say you're not a nazi, then you're a nazi. Russian people may doubt it, but they can't express their doubts, because then they'd be "nazis".
Editing to add: BTW, all of here are either Nazis or brainwashed by Nazis. That's just the way it works. Think Hitler saying that people were under the influence of a jewish plot.
Tbf, its a smashing game.
This is the worrying thing.
How many of us truly believe that he would "gracefully" accept defeat? Or declare war and throw millions of inexperienced conscripts to their doom?
My worry is that frustration will get the better of him, and to get a solution of some kind of victory of sorts - to show the Russian public - then he may turn to either chemical weapons or a tactical nuke or two to bring about a rapid conclusion to the resistance in Eastern Ukraine.
Just a single nuke could possibly start a chain reaction that would catapult the whole world into catastrophe.
He needs to be taken out, and quick. There should be crack mercenaries after his head on a silver platter, and special forces assassination squads on the job.
The longer Putin is alive the greater the feeling that this whole scenario is gradually building up into a very sinister finale.
It probably would. But would Vlad accept the destruction of the economy or a humiliating loss in Ukraine.
Apparently a lot of the people who support, or at the very least are ambiguous about, the war might change their minds if there is full mobilization. Besides the economic hit, people don't want to see their sons and brothers being called up to be used as cannon fodder.
This war isn't ending anytime soon, but I think we all knew that.
I cannot understand the Russian logic here. No idea what the game plan is and countries who were walking a thin line with the Russians are getting pissed off.
They seem to have had a mental breakdown or have become a full on suicide cult.
The logic is extremely simple -- Putin wakes up in the morning and decides to live another day. If he declares the war as lost, he is dead. If he admits that his plan was pure baloney, he is dead. On the other hand, if a few hundred more Russian soldiers die, but he himself is still alive, that is a good day for Putin. And if any number of Ukrainians die or raped or maimed, that is no skin off his nose.
Putin is just a sad little old man who needs to be put out of his misery as soon as possible.
An interesting aspect is that the state propaganda machine are not admitting that the war is going terribly. Solovyov is on TV every night saying that everything is going to plan, is on schedule and there are no setbacks. The Russian public relying on TV only would nearly be oblivious to the unfolding disaster.
The scariest bit of speculation about Putin that I've heard is that his inner circle has gradually dwindled down to only a few people, and they're all either as paranoid as he is or even more so. In this circle, he's actually the moderate voice. If this is true, it would necessitate a few heads rolling in order to ensure that someone even madder than Putin does not get the reins of power in Russia.
I would say if there is a coup then those will also be cleared out/fall out of a window/murder suicide the family/have a stroke.
But Putin and his "inner circle", however small it is, seem to have absolute power and control. There appears to be no-one in a position to override his reckless decision making. He has used his 20 years in power to make himself omnipotent.
it would necessitate a few heads rolling in order to ensure that someone even madder than Putin does not get the reins of power in Russia.
I hear what you're saying but the bottom line is that's a chance you take when a new head of state takes control. As you say, they could be madder. But that's worth chancing because one thing we do know for certain is that Putin IS power crazy, mad, and very, very dangerous. I think it would take some doing for anyone to actually be worse than him.
I said earlier in this thread that Putin wouldn't see the end of the summer and I still firmly believe this to be true. If he is going for surgery shortly then I think its highly likely he never gets off the table. There's so many now that want him gone there wouldn't really be anyone to protect him. They'd have no problem offing a doctor and claiming he botched the surgery either. In two weeks time I expect the Russians will be firmly in reverse gear and any conscripts that are unfortunate or stupid enough to end up in Ukraine better have said their goodbyes to Mammy because they won't be coming back.
Scholz statement that there will be no removing of sanctions until a peace agreement is in position is typical self interest from him. Get this over with so we can buy gas in peace. Russia's feet should be held to the fire before sanctions are released. They should never again be given access to the materials required for high end weapons. They should be forced to decommission their nuclear arsenal. Its completely unacceptable that a country would so flippantly threaten the rest of humanity with such weapons and be allowed to go back to business as usual. And there should be reparations for the war, until everything is rebuilt to an EU standard no matter how many billion cubic meters of gas that costs them.
Time to put the foot on these fcukers throat and not take it off until the world is safe from a repeat of these actions. Eastern Europe should not have to live with this constant shadow hanging over them.
If I remember correctly, 200 is code for dead, and 300 is code for wounded.
FoG2 Medieval is yer only man. 😁
No, only the Russians steal things, The UKr only take things on a permanent loan. There is a subtle difference
IMHO, Ukr should definitely NOT accept an agreement with RU , no matter who ‘oversees it’ and also agree that ALL sanctions be lifted. Why ? Because RU CANNOT be trusted and could start off again immediately while holding UKr to account . Or come up with a concoction of a reason where UKR broke the agreement. I would insist that all sanctions are left in place for at least five years until the conditions attached to the agreement are bedded down and are then al, lifted on a phased basis over the second 5 years SUBJECT To rU behaviour
In Ukraine it is a long way from A to B when the sky is black with drones.
Don't really agree with either side of this but we do live in an open and free democracy which doesn't randomly ban things.
This makes for interesting reading on how some Russian soldiers are handling being at the wrong end of a very long **** stick
Absolutely the sanctions cannot be turned off immediately. It has to be gradual inline with the Russians removing their ability to threaten other nations around them. They're nuclear weapons need to be decommissioned.
The Russians will also have to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine and for compensation of the victims of their criminal endeavour.
Whatever the outcome Russia's relationship with the West will take a long long time to repair. Their relationship with Ukraine will never be the same.
I don't think that they should be banned. But evidence should definitely be collected in case any of them need a visa renewed at some point
We're talking about Ireland, not elsewhere, and we generally tend to be tolerant of people organising and marching up and down. Most of the time we ignore such protests anyway. There are people outside the Dail most days protesting about something or other.
If the Russians are doing as badly as some are saying they could implode soon.
I think the "correct" way to handle this is to have a counter-protest organised which celebrates Ukrainian resistance against Russian aggression. It's a good opportunity to highlight the freedoms these Russophiles enjoy in a western style democracy whilst showing them their views are not really welcome here.
One very practical way is to provide free gas/oil / fertiliser to Ukr over a number of years or at least at a very knockdown price
I think any Russian person living in Ireland who is openly and unrepentantly supportive of what their mother country is doing in Ukraine, should be made to feel as shunned and isolated and unwelcome as possible as it is legally allowable to do so by any right-thinking Irish person, but unless support of said actions in Ukraine is made a hate crime, I don't see how it's a basis for revoking visas at this time. If it could be proved that they're actively working to undermine the Irish state in some way, then absolutely boot them all the way back to Moscow, but if they're just someone with an opinion we find abhorrent, it's a more difficult case.
Personally I would not want it banned. However inciting behaviour and supporting genocide, rape, looting etc is not ok. So if anything was displaying the Z I would say that person should be arrested and anything similar that clearly shows support for the Russia campaign of genocide in Ukraine should see that person arrested.
Decent people would be self aware enough not to hold "rallies" this year.
It's the fúcking bare minimum really.
Tells you what you need to know about the organisers though.
It's interesting that people with full access to western media are still able to fall under the spell of Putin and Kremlin propaganda. It suggests there must be many tens of millions of people who are supportive of the war back home.
It should not be banned as we are a free and open society. Just as I should be free to arrive at this protest and tell the individuals invovled what pieces of sh1t they are.
These aren't ordinary people . They are assets/activists. Their activities are controlled from the embassy. Don't for one second believe these are off the street Russians.
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