Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Highly Knowledgeable.

I'll leave self anointed experts to more recent accounts

Well at least you do Irony well.

Not really, they fixed that by kidnapping at least 250,000 Ukraininan children, and I have seen some people claim it's double that.

OK, the comedian Dave Smith on Joe Rogan made the claim that verbal and written assurances were given to the USSR that NATO would not expand one inch to the east. Up until now, I have not seen that written assurance, unless by written assurance he means the minutes of what was assured to Gorbachev in terms of NATO not placing any military structures in the former East Germany, which NATO did not.

If some sort of written agreement exists, with signatures, that we could see, it would really put a lot of this to bed. Otherwise, Russia can shut the **** up about it.

And he's again pushing the idea that NATO aggressively expands east and downplays any notion that countries would actually want to join the alliance. And why would they want to join the alliance? Does anyone want to take a wild guess? Is anyone naive enough to think that if the Baltics and Poland et al were just swinging in the wind, that Russia wouldn't have attempted to bring them back into the Russian sphere, even unwillingly? Is anyone even more naive to think that there's some great grá in the former Warsaw pact countries for Russia? I suppose all those countries leaving the USSR and becoming pro-western was just a load of subterfuge, was it?

If Zelensky and his predecessor were handpicked by the USA, and if Ukraine's pivoting away from Russia is really all just a carefully orchestrated American psy op, then it begs the question why the Ukrainian people are fighting Russia so hard and didn't decorate their tank muzzles with garlands of flowers. That's a reality that cannot be deflected from. We know what happens to US-picked leaders of countries in the past if their will goes against that of the people. They don't last. Ask the Shah of Iran or the recently deposed government of Afghanistan. But the people of Ukraine are fighting for Zelensky.

I agree that there is enormous geo-political interest for the USA to bring Ukraine into its sphere, but that doesn't detract from Ukrainians themselves wanting to align to the West because it could be seen as a more beneficial relationship. Russia doesn't just get to say that Ukraine is its b*tch and everyone else needs to back off. Russia must prove that it is a more worthwhile partner, and that is not achieved by smashing the country apart. That will only sow hatred for generations.

"Russia are in Zaporizhzhia"

Where to start?

The force is stronger in Zelensky.

Russia will not receive a new territory of Ukraine.

Russia will add itself to the catastrophe that it has brought to the occupied territory of our country.

The price that one person in Russia wants to continue this war will be that the entire Russian society will be left without a normal economy, without a decent life and without respect for any human values.

It can still be stopped.

But in order to stop this, we will have to stop the one in Russia who wants war more than life.

Your life, citizens of Russia.

Tomorrow is one more day of our struggle, one more day on the road to victory. What will be special for us? This day will become one more crock, which will bring us closer to the safety of the world. Until the restoration of our territorial integrity. For the sake of whom, millions of Ukrainians fight and practice.

Tomorrow there will be a special meeting of the RNBO, as I called. There will be solutions.

Gorbachev himself put an end to that rumour a few years ago in an interview that there was no such agreement between NATO and Russia not to expand east.

He's still in power, so...

It's called the Conspiracy Theories forum

At the moment, there is no evidence that the attack was mounted from above the surface of the sea. On Monday, there were 6 ELINT, SIGNIT and Awacs aircraft operating over and around the Baltic Sea and these, together with the ship-borne radar and signals-gathering of the US-led Amphibious Task Force would have spotted any activity over the site especially since there are overlap areas between the various radar sweeps.

The Task Force was positioned many miles away to the East off the Coast of Kaliningrad. However, Security officials did detect Russian Support ships and a submarine operating not far from the pipes, but there is, as yet, no evidence that they had anything to do with the pipeline attack.

Any attack, therefore, would have to have been either through the pipe itself, or by an undersea vessel that either placed charges just before the explosion or had placed charges there as far back as January or February. One thing I would be concerned about is the possibility that a similar attack may occur with the extensive Data Cables off the SW coast of Ireland. If yet to check to see what Rusdian support vessels were in the area of the pipes on Sunday and Monday and, were the same vessels off the coast of Ireland earlier in the year. Support vessels, such as oilers, normally have their transponders on, while their Naval comrades have the ATIS off.

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/russian-navy-ships-had-their-presence-in-the-vicinity-of-the-nord-stream-pipeline-leaks-cnn/#:~:text=the%20Baltic%20Sea-,Russian%20Navy%20ships%20had%20their%20presence%20in%20the%20vicinity,Nord%20Stream%20pipeline%20leaks%20%E2%80%93%20CNN&text=On%20Monday%20and%20Tuesday%20this,sources%20shared%20this%20with%20CNN.

Since someone was using Joe Rogan clips as evidence:

Rogan has always fetishized strength. In some senses it's harmless enough, such as when he drools over physically large men body such as The Mountain. It gets a little bit darker when he starts sounding off about physically weak or obese men - like he clearly sees them as inferior.

When it comes to politics though, he's clearly enamored by strongman dictators. He certainly wouldn't admit that openly - after all he has the odd person from "the left" on his show. If you look more clearly though they are often the types of far-left loons who are strongman enablers themselves, such as Tulsi Gabbard. At the same time his typical politics guest is some Republican supporter/media personality like Ben Shapiro who comes on and complains about how "wokeness" and "weakness" is ruining America.

I barely watch his stuff anymore but I was really curious to see what he would say when the invasion happened. That's cos his typical comments about Putin before then were saying things like "Oh, You don't want to mess with that guy!" with a hushed, reverent tone in his voice. A common underlying belief of fascists is that the strong should be free to do what they want with the weak. I suspect that Rogan probably admired Putin invading Ukraine but he would never say that out loud. I couldn't see any clips of him even talking about the invasion afterwards though. It was like he was ignoring it or something.

Or worse still...lack of any orders. I can't help but wonder if Russian Command & Control is so piss-poor that they are either unable or unwilling to actively manage frontline positions like Lyman. The RU troops there may have just been sitting in position, waiting for a mobilization order that just never came. Now it's too late. If they have any cop-on they should surrender.

Asking for a friend if you bring a jcb and truck with a big trailer can you technically steal from somewhere???

The general narrative on this thread is that an unprovoked invasion of a European country and the massacre of it's civilians is reprehensible.

What part of that do you disagree with?