Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Latvia has laws gradually phasing out the teaching of Russian...

https://bnn-news.com/latvian-ministry-of-education-proposes-replacing-russian-language-with-eu-languages-in-schools-240199

Yes he had, but the difference between the Tzars time and Putins is that, the Tzar faced a returning defeated army ( beaten by the Japanese) who faced a very bleak future, no work, no food, massive social and political unrest. All of his control was not near enough to stop the tsunami of unrest that he faced, and so he was swept away. In Putin's Russia, while the first faint stirrings of unrest are starting to show, its containable presently. But if / when it reaches critical mass, the whole rotten structure in the Kremlin will go the same way as the Tsar.

I disagree. While Russia openly threatens Latvia, Latvia cannot allow a cuckoo in the nest.

Russians in Latvia can't be allowed to have a parallel society and have to integrate and use Latvian to access government services. Latvia has a small population of only 2 million. It is the only homeland for Latvians. If you want to be Russian go to Russia.

Your first comment was that they are removing the option of Russian as a foreign language in schools, not that it must be an official government language.

But there government then uses those Russian speakers to sow discent and discord amoung that population of speakers ,then that host country has to right to enforce restrictions including removing the use of that language in Schools, colleges and work places

The funeral Ukraine just laid on for Dmytro "Da Vinci" Kotsiubailo is a monumental example of why Urainians are like us and the Orcs might as well be aliens.

The Orcs leave their wounded and flee. A Ukrainian drone pilot looks down at a muddied battleground and sees an orc missing his left leg from just below the knee, whose been abandoned by his kind; he's still alive and tries to crawl away from under the drone.

A young lad who was a teen when he went to war in 2014, the youngest recipient of the Hero of Ukraine award, gets the PM, Zelensky, laying a wreath on his coffin, the PM of Finland laying one also, the Defence Minister and head of the armed forces kneel in honor...

The contrast could hardly be greater.

Unfortunately he wasn't the only one. This past week or so in Bakhmut has exacted a terrible human toll on Ukraine.

A father and son who served together, died; The nonchalent smoker, Tymofiy Shadura, who was shot for saying 'slava ukraini'; the medic, Yana Rykhlitska 'angel' of bakhmut and a Major who had been fighting since 2014, who's details I can't find.

Bhakmut might still hold, but it's come at a huge cost this week.

We know Russian companies were making a lot of money on lughansk and donesk regions ,80 % of all Ukrainian government subventions and went to Russian companies all with close ties to the Kremlin, Ukraine was a cash cow for the Russians

Prigozhin essentially announcing he to run for president of Ukraine,yes Ukraine in 2024 , wonder what his boss thinks

When a minority language and ethnicity can be exploited to cause the largest war and loss of life in Europe since WW2, I would totally disagree with you.

Extinguising the Russian language from Ukraine is as valid a form of self defense as having a military or buying weapons, and probably cheaper and more effective as a preventative measure. It's also righting the wrongs of the past, where Stalin and others supplanted native speakers with Russians, such as the near total ethnic cleansing of Tatars from Crimea in favour of immigrant Russians.

If Ukrainians wish to expunge the Russian language from their country, then I would fully support them in such a an effort and believe it's no one elses business. 'Walk a mile in my shoes' would seem to apply; in spades.

I'd need to know some other statistics before even hazarding a guess at the second part of your post. Russia have, allegedly, mobilised a further 500,000 (?) men since they officially invaded Ukraine a year ago. I was under the impression that Wagner were primarily operating on the Bakhmut front and the proper Wagner soldiers weren't even doing a lot of the really dirty, dangerous fighting, but were leaving that to the tens of thousands of convicts they had recruited, and so it is this group who have - presumably - taken the most casualties. If Wagner can fully take Bakhmut using this brute force tactic of theirs, it still leaves their elite soldiers plus potentially hundreds of thousands of Russian recruits along the whole front line to try and resist a Ukrainian counter attack.

On the other hand, even assuming that the above figures are broadly true (and I'm not saying for sure that they are, this is just what I have been reading), the new Russian recruits may not be all that motivated or well-equipped or well-fed. And if Ukraine can get the promised weapons and if they can complete the training on them and get organised with it, there's obviously that glittering chance to punch big holes in the Russian front line. They'll certainly have to do something to that effect because winning the war through numbers and grinding attrition warfare is one way I'm quite confident a Ukrainian victory will not come about.

500,000 Mobilised,I'm not so sure they ever did , but even if they did the figures for loses in early January was 25,000 + dead and similar number of injured and incapacitated, in that case by the end of this month they are looking at 75,000 dead ,and possibly an estimated similar number of injured or incapacitated soldiers, that's 150,000 in 12 weeks,in pretty low level localised fighting,as in Most of the actual fighting is taking place in bakhmut, kreminna and zuledar,

If the Ukrainans push 50,000 men , armor and tanks anywhere along the front Russians won't be able to hold them off based off what were seeing in 3 areas alone ,but I reckon we will be looking at Ukrainian forces 100,000 + men and equipment on the spring counter offensive,

Hopefully bakhmut is nothing but a grinder to keep the Russians occupied .

We know ukraine Mobilised 28,000 men recently, but they won't be trained and equipped in a few weeks and thrown into a major offensive, that's playing the same game as the Russians if they go that route

Noble61, B52 currently north of Estonia. Transponder on.

I think that must depend on what direction Russian society takes if and when Russia is defeated in Ukraine. You do have to at least leave the door open for rehabilitation of a country and its society, otherwise you're essentially helping engineer more conflict down the road. Obviously Russia would have to work on itself in order for that rehab to happen, though. If it doesn't, then what you're suggesting would probably be the only way.