Russia - threadbanned users in OP

With arms production increasing across Europe, I wonder if we will see an Irish arms industry created.

Do you really believe that Timmy? After all the destruction that Putin has caused, that things will ever be the same again in the world, let alone the EU/ UK etc? After the ww2, the west was lulled into a false sense of security, a bubble that Putin burst. That will not be allowed to happen again, indeed it must not happen again, and in order to protect itself and ensure the peace, the EU / UK etc must re-arm ASAP.

I'm only surprised vaccine denialism isn't in there somewhere

Nothing to do with rumours of horrendous casualties reaching the prisons.

I'm thinking that's probably more likely. I can't imagine thier convicts getting much of a choice. Would be just as simple for the Kremlin to "pardon/suspend the sentence of" the prisoner and then push them onto a Mobnik bus at the prison gates.

The poster with the ironic name knows full well it’s trivially easy and perfectly legal to watch RT, both live and (for want of a better word) highlights, if one was into bad fiction.

It’s all deflection.

I suspect older but normal intellectual development was probably hijacked by ideology at about 19 years of age.

I am unpleasantly amazed by the left-wing people who support Russia now. Russia is the most unequal society in the world despite having huge amounts of natural resources and a well-educated population. They allow loan shark debt collectors to harass people in their homes. There is very little worker protection, despite having multiple related laws, as the corruption trumps everything. The state & friends of Putin control most of the economy, with semi-state organisations used for political purposes to force compliance in the population. In many aspects, Russia is a corporate fascist state, as per its definition:

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

How, in the name of Lenin, would a current Russian state be in any way compatible with communist/socialist left-wing ideas is beyond me. The only way I can explain Roger Waters behaviour is that he does not like "Western values" and thus supports Russia who is ostensibly anti-western. But even then it would show a shocking ignorance on his part, as Russian elites are only anti-western when it is needed for them to justify the aggression against Ukraine or to rob their own population, while having their children being born in the best clinics in the USA and having villas in Italy.

Damn murdering hypocrites.

They must rearm ASAP != they can rearm ASAP

Europe has transitioned to more of a services based economy in the last few decades, with most industry offshoring production to India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia etc. The process of bringing enough manufacturing back is not easy or quick. Even though arms manufacturing is still done close to home, the lack of a wider manufacturing economy means there is less expertise and supply chains to tap into locally to help boost production quickly.

Production will continue at current rates or slightly above, but the process of re-industrialisation will be a painful decade or more. The few industrial giants Europe do have are very reliant on China and Korea for key parts - let's hope the US' predictions of war with China by 2025 dont come true, and that the recent documents on mobilisation of Chinese citizenry are nothing more than bluster designed to scare - a China at war with Taiwan would wreak havoc on western supply chains for manufacturing.

If Europe were serious about rearming the time to act was over a decade ago, the 2nd best time would be now - but there is nothing in the works to decrease the reliance on Chinese parts

It might be a terrible thing to say, but considering Russia was in talks with Hitler regarding splitting Europe up between them during WW2, just imagine if this had indeed happened.

At first thought one might say this would have been a terrible thing to happen BUT considering the US were at that time developing the atomic bomb, it may not be too far fetched an idea that instead of the US using those atomic weapons on Japan, perhaps, if faced with a bigger foe ie Russia in the east, that they could have decided to use those weapons on them instead.

It may have resulted in the destruction of Moscow, St. Petersburg and maybe other major cities, and maybe enabled the western allies march into russia and have a huge influence in there.

If this had happened, the map of Europe and indeed its military and economic dynamics would be so different to how they operate today.

It would be so interesting to see how Europe would look and operate today if this had happened.

Not keen on banning stuff but indeed it was directly part of the Russian war effort

With the stark contrast to the gains Wagner are making around Bakhmut it's no wonder why the Russian MOD is now going to cutoff the supplier of Wagner recruits from the Russian prison system

Standing ovation and a lot of emotion at the European Parliament