Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Don't believe everything on the internet

Even if Iraq and Crimea hadn't happened the blind support of the USA veto that allows the intergenerational genocide of the Palestinian nation is enough for rising nations to ignore it as a serious forum.

Despite the vital US arms supply to Ukraine this war is actually pushing Europe towards long term independence from NATO simply because Putin looked at the Iraq war as permission for his own Russian ambitions. If anyone gave Putin the gee up he needed it was Bush Jr at his Crawford ranch where Putin was very much treated as a strategic alley.

That is another problem (but not as egregious as when the permanent 5 members themselves are grabbing land like Hitler did back in the day, doing their own atrocities + covering up for themselves at the UN).

To my mind there's a huge amount of self serving hypocrisy in leadership and populations of some of these "rising nations" when it comes to who they want to hold to task, what crimes and perpetrators they focus on and what they will turn a blind eye to when it suits. Ukraine war really exposed it.

IMO Putin never needed bad examples from the USA or anyone else to invade and conquer other countries. All he required was a belief there was no other way to get what he wanted and the potential opposition was weak enough, so he could "win" his prize and get away with it.

Not sure what Iraq war (20 years ago now) has to do with it, but Europe is a very long way from independence from NATO (and US military power). The European NATO members don't want it either, but they presumably must all be watching what is going on in the US right now and thinking hard about "plan Bs", what must be done to deter likes of Russia (and I suppose Turkey) in a future where the US abandons them to their own devices.

Their own history is of closed cities to the world and leave the residents to die and give birth to babies with cancer just to keep secrets and kill anyone who would divulge secrets. They've gotten away with it on their own. Not surprising then the Russian sees fit that others should endure the same crap.

The broader public was outraged by Russia's actions in the first few months of the war, then got bored of the conflict. Just like they will get bored of Gaza soon enough

Those of us still posting here are as outraged by Russia's terrorist actions now as in March 2022.

My disgust with the Russian nation really started with their murder of Dutch children who where flying over Ukraine.

True, you probably would have gotten a similar response in a vox pop ten years ago. I did find Steve's report interesting though....definite signs of war weariness and the novelty having worn off.

I don't think it matters much that ordinary Russian people are weary of war if they're not willing to translate that into some sort of pressure on their government to end it. I think Russians - especially those out in the provinces - kind of get off on hardship, as if they feel like they've not a proper person until they have some great difficulty to contend with.

We in the West may look on war weariness as some kind of sign of flagging support, whereas in Russia, it's just another load to hitch on their back and carry without complaint.

One of the reasons that Putin was elected after Yeltsin was that he promised to take care of Pensioners, and since then they have generally stuck by him through thick and thin, and up to his invasion of Ukraine, he had generally looked after them too (they were also very susceptible to any Hitler / NAZI propaganda) But now as the financial pressures caused by the war have increased, so has inflation and the large drop in value of the ruble, and no increase in their pensions. Some of them are looking back on the USSR as the good old times when you didn't need cash. Unless these pensioners have family and friends to look after them now, they will have a very hard time this winter. You see very well how Putin has hidden the real cause of the war from them. Now it cannot be denied that there's a real war going on, but it's not Russia's fault, they were attacked and are trying to defend Russia. This perception is shared by several of my Russian friends. Some, who are not blind understand very well what's happening, but are powerless to change anything, and some for their own reasons, are in agreement with Putin. in present day Russia, that's prudent position to take.

Another 'friend' of Putin has fallen to his death from a high window. Must have been a blind spot to haven't seen it coming.

And yet at the UN

Children now no Bombing each other's cities,

Play nice ....

Stay in a single story or the ground floor. Keep away from any window or it could be curtains for you..

They only criticized Russia so they'd have a reason to criticize Ukraine. Evil bastards.

But on a more positive end of year note, after all the semi (and 100% ) negative publicity about how its going for Ukraine., a good ray of sunshine.

(1) (((Tendar))) on X: "The Battle of Avdiivka is still very much ongoing, but if Ukrainians continue to play their cards as they did in the last 2.5 months, then it can already be assessed as an operational victory for Ukraine. I have been posting about it since early October and when the initial… https://t.co/EeeqXga4uW" / X (twitter.com)