Russia - threadbanned users in OP

" A mickey mouse trade deal with say Mali won't come close to making up for the loss of a similar trade deal with say France. "

If your basing your assessment of the situation on a hypothetical mickey mouse deal with Mali , then your ignoring the reality and FACTs.

Russia isnt signing mickey mouse deals, they have overtaken Saudi as Chinas biggest oil supplier. Deals dont get much bigger than that.

https://fortune.com/2022/06/20/russia-leapfrogs-saudi-arabia-china-biggest-oil-supplier-massive-discounts/

As regards France, France has actually increased its Russian oil imports.

" The EU accounted for 61% of Russian oil and gas imports in the first 100 days of the war, buying around $59 billion worth of oil since Russia first invaded Ukraine, according to a new report out Tuesday by independent research group the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).The report found that Russia earned nearly $100 billion from its exports of oil and gas during the first 100 days of the war, While countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland have been trying to wean themselves off Russian energy, France increased its imports over the last year, according to the CREA report. "

You talked of putting a squeeze on Russia, and some mickey mouse deal with Mali, for gods sake man, the EU sent them 100Billion to kickstart the war. So you see wishful thinking , burying your heads in the sands, its a poor strategy. Better to face the facts and reality.

Lets hope Putin's regime is stopped and that when he is gone we dont get a Putin II, cos if we do I think the world is in for a seismic change . For instance whilst the west was concerned with gender pronouns , Russia among other things had been establishing its bases in the Artic, with a view to potential climate warming opening up the northern passages, a vital shorter trade route East, add to this Russian development of nuclear powered ice breakers and the worlds first operational floating nuclear power station. Energy and mineral resources in the Artic are estimated to be more than all current known deposits, not to mention fishing . Russia has firmly established its foot there , with 50% of the sea and 20% of the territory I believe already under Russian control.

Russia and China have been working on collecting physical assets, territory, investing in projecting their power for decades to come, whilst the west has to a large degree been focused on language, tolerance, making safe spaces and gender neutral terminology. The west has by its own admission fallen behind.

This war is where the 2 approachs are going to meet. Lets see who will win.

You mean does NATO have a plan. If they do its probably as bad as all the other plans and efforts Western leaders have made on this Russia Ukraine issue.

Its highly unlikely NATO have a plan that will work , given they left the Black Sea in JANUARY , the nearest NATO vessel was in the Mediterranean when started.

You couldnt make it up, Russia spends 6 months building up a prescence on Ukraines border and NATO chooses to leave the theatre of war shortly before things kick off.

" FEB 2022 - The last such ship from a major naval member of the Western military alliance left the Black Sea – over a month ago. A French warship completed a tour in early January and no major NATO naval ally has patrolled its waters since, according to Turkish maritime website "

What a surprise the surrender monkeys were the last NATO ship to leave.

Russia won this round, long term strategic planning, following the breakaway of Ukraine, Russia kept its naval bases and demanded the handover of most of the Ukrainian naval fleet. Russia has captured a number of ports on the Black Sea in the last few months so its not looking good for the west on the maritime battle.

Another day, another 500 million sent by the EU to fund Russias invasion of Ukraine .

And NATO chose yesterday to directly challenge China, NATO cant even organise a ship in the Black sea, or contain issues in Libya and they think they can threaten China. Looks like our leaders are as susceptible as everyone else to wishful thinking and ignoring facts and reality.

Seems odd to be worried about Putin bots on a random forum, shouldnt you be more worried about all the 'legit' people in the west who faciliated Putins regime and his oligarchs.

Take a trip down the IFSC , it was a funnel for Russian money, in the billions.

London rolled out the red carpet for Russian dirty money .

New Yorks, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Brussells the elites and our leaders embraced Russian money for 30 years. Facilitating trillions of dollars being taken from the Russian people and moved across the world.

But your worried about random posters on a thread

Yep your right, Russia lost a warship , whilst gaining naval and maritime superiority during an invasion.

I heard everyone has lost ships during military campaigns, going back to the loss of Trireme in the Peloponnesian war 400 BC.

Perhaps you take succor in giving up all control of your maritime waters because your sent a boat to the bottom. Personally Id be thinking thats a poor trade off.

"For the laugh, if you can be succinct, list some for great "winning!" war gains 🤣 C'mon we could do with a laugh."

I dont think its a laughing matter .

RUSSIA controls 20% of Ukrainian territory, controls all the maritime waters around Ukraine, 2-4 million Ukrainain refugees, the EU is sending it 500million a day, China has made Russia its largest oil partner, India went from 1% to 18% of Russian oil imports, Ruble is at a 15 year high , and the EU is scarred shtless this coming winter because Putin may turn off the taps , with no sign of Putin or his regime being impeded or slowed down in anyway.

Dirty FACTS but FACTS none the less. If you think they are losing based on all that, thats your entitlement.

great question "Or at least it should do, unless its being manipulated artificially... "

Partly Biden adminstration curtailing US oil production has impacted on the availability of supply, and it takes time to resume increased production.

But mostly I think your right its manipulation of the price, there is no real shortage. But heh OPEC is coining it, US Oil corporations are making a mint with little incentive to fix this problem, Warren Buffett the worlds richest man has made about 10 billion off the oil price rise.

The list goes on and on as to who is benefiting whilst ordinary poeple pay the price but I think the big issue here is to watch out for Putin bots on forums like this, thats probably the real problem.

Besides dont worry our leaders have it all under control and our best interests at heart, as they always do. When have our leaders ever let us down, trust them to fix it . 😲

"a land war "

I suggest you take a look at a map. Ukraine has a huge coastline ,why do you think Russia is all out trying to capture Mariupol, and Odessa, major black sea ports. Russia is attempting to take its whole Eastern seaboard , making it a landlocked enclave .

The world is worried about famine because grain cannot be sea transported from Ukranian ports and you call this a land war.

What does Turkey have todo with it.

The Russian BLACK SEA Fleet is located there alreay, the hint is in the name . Russia has about 20 ships and a few submarines in The Black Sea, and a major Naval base, they dont need Turkeys approval for whats already there. Like it or not Rusisan long term planning, whilst NATO was evacuating its ships from the Black Sea, Russia was expanding its prescence there for decades.

"Why would you voluntarily deal with a nation that doesn't respect basic ownership? If I'm a smaller country with limited resources, do I want to invest those resources where they have much more chance of being taken by force? "

That works both ways.

Having seen how the West has confiscated Russia foreign holdings to the tune of 600 billion, many small nations are also thinking why should I deal with the US , they might decide they dont like my regime and confiscate all my holdings.

Theres no shortage of nations queuing up to send Russia money, I dont like , you probably dont like it, but thats the way it is .

Money makes people do strange things, dirty money makes people do even stranger things. Its a dirty world, not always how you want it to be .