Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Im not in anyway convinced he would nuke anywhere inside ukraine or elsewhere,it's gone from the bomb to might test a nuclear weapon close to the Ukrainan border, which means either inside Russia and a minute possiblity of doing it in Belarus, I'm not sure that would go down well with anyone too .

This nuclear weapons talk has been in every thread on ukraine over the last 8+ years and it's always been used as an excuse not to stand up to putin ,oh we need to be careful he has nukes,let him take ukraine and elsewhere he has nukes,let him invade here he has nukes ,

Most of the nuke talk comes from low level recently registered posters too ,

Interesting.

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BS may get called out on Twitter, but not enough people seem to realise that it doesn't really matter. Trump was allowed to say an outrageous amount of BS on Twitter and any of his being called out on it made little difference. The only thing that did was his eventual banning.

On Wikipedia, maybe you might get away with posting something non-factual on an obscure article that no-one reads, but when it comes to anything bigger, any purported fact you write will require citation or be removed. Wikipedia may not have totally up to the minute information, but tends to be a much better way of filtering through all the noise to build a clear picture of what has happened.

The 5d chess master is having a birthday drink with Trump in the alternative world that their fan bases inhabit.

Apparently they both get strategy advice from Hans Niemann

Too remedial, given Russia have taken over from Saudi as Chinas biggest supplier of oil at a drastically reduced price, removing themselves from actual lucrative markets to fight for scraps with an isolated desperate Russia would be best described as fúcking stupid.

If higher inflation and interest rates caused by oil and gas prices speeds up and prolongs a recession in Europe and America then that directly effects Chinas economy, whose need for energy decreases which leads to Saudi and Russia starting another race to the bottom price war where they will have to pay countries to take their crude.

Same goes for India's economy whose majority export market is Europe and the US.

It has been described as "short sighted" which is perfectly apt.

Worth taking time today to remember Anna Politkovskaya, murderered in Moscow this day 16 years ago. So much of what she warned the west about Putin has come to pass

Goes to show that some Russians were/are brave enough to put their heads above he parapet and some have given their lives for doing so.

@Boggles

I think the 5D chess master got a bit too cocky. If Putin had a plan to usurp the current world order, he was getting it largely done prior to 2022. All he had to do was hitch a ride on the China train and watch as the political fires Russia helped ignite in the US continued to rage and bring the house down.

Ukrainian Air Defense shot down 21 drones, including 15 Shahed-136 drones in last 24 hours, - General Staff of Armed forces of Ukraine

manufacturer issue there, more stealth required, return to sender

Any truth to the rumour that the cake has since fallen out of an 8-storey window???

In Soviet Russia, birthday candles blow out you!

Finland's PM suggests an off-ramp for Putin:

Nope, I doubt it when he has enough conventional weapons to level Russia in a matter of days, why would he? Plus, he would lose the moral high ground. In a matter of hours after Putin calls a nuclear strike, most of Russian military would be destroyed. A 2nd nuclear strike by Putin, then it would develop into MAD scenario. And of course, Putin's chances of survival would become very slim indeed. Nope, He is not that stupid. He is playing largely to a home audience, and that particular audience is becoming increasingly disenchanted with their President for life.

Putin doesn't just need an off ramp - he needs one which can ensure his political future. By rights he should withdraw his forces, but he's too afraid of the political machinations it would unleash against him at home. At the same time, keeping his forces there invites its own kind of domestic political pressure which we're already seeing with the protests on the streets and even top Putin cheerleaders lamenting the state of things.

Unless Putin can carve out something he can realistically accept as a victory, he's fecked.