the biggest damage long term to Europe is that Germany etc. cant buy energy from Russia or sell all that well crafted German automobiles and other tech to the Russians. The EU has gone from having a successful trading partner to possibly inheriting a rump basket case of a state. The only countries trousering it are the US and China.
Thats an interesting take,,,Russia wants Trump, but the Chinese don't.... fun times ahead !! 😂
Oh please Ireland trades more with rest of EU than Russia did
Time to inject some reality
Russian imports from EU are possibly larger than above as they launder products via Stans
The only loser here is Putin destroying his gas exports by trying and failing to freeze Europe and now China and India are paying a fraction of the price for their gas and oil
Putin has been attacking the West, the US, Australia, in fact anyone or Country he deems an "enemy" for many years ( inc NATO, actually especially NATO) . Not openly though, all deniable stuff. Massive hacking operations worldwide, using submarines to map undersea communications and oil / gas pipes, (and possibly planting remote controlled explosives on them) pumping cash into radical groups to de-stabilize democratic Countries, mass propaganda to interfere wilt elections. It's a long list of possibilities, and Putin ticks all the boxes. He's the original bad apple in the box that rots the rest of them.
I think your cynicism is in poor taste to be honest. I kind of doubt any resources Ukraine has that might be exploited post war can offset cost (to Germany/EU) of aiding Ukraine now (incl. shifting their energy use away from Russian fossil fuels much more rapidly than intended) and rearming.
It's been clear (to "normal" politicians in Germany and in the other EU countries) for well over a year that the old relationship with Russia is dead and previous policy was a total failure. They tried economic engagement, and Russia went to war anyway. There is also a distinctly genocidal character to this war after Putin's dream of decapitating the govt. of Ukraine failed.
All they can do now is cut their ties with Russia, aid Ukraine as much as possible, and rearm to face a new security reality in Europe. However they are market economies and democracies, and neither the policy change or effect of it is going to be instant. I mean look at how long it can take to change things in this country, even when the politicians/leaders finally understand the policies they had were wrong and are harming them (as well as the country) and they are on the clock and need to do something (!).
Increasing levels of German military support to Ukraine we are seeing that you commented on are just the working through of this process (that started a long time ago).
I don't see it now.
I do see probability of a Russian test of NATO increasing in a situation where you have (post the collapse of US/EU will to support Ukraine + this resulting in some kind of Russian "success" there, I suppose size of this success determines the danger level...):
So a fair few stars probably have to align for it, as said a low likelyhood event with a very high cost. Safer to support Ukraine and rearm imo.
The US and China are locked in an endgame for the supply of superconductors, which are currently produced in Taiwan. Whether the next US president is Democrat or Republican, the American stance won't change.
Biden at least has somewhat softened the anti China rhetoric (and conversely China toned down alot of the rhetoric too) and there were several meetings where the end result are both being frenemies of sorts “competing”
Trump is clearly the worst of two outcomes for China (and US) on so many levels
anyways speaking of elections
Putin approves list of who can run against him
You post too much stuff in this thread without checking sources. IMHO. It might be true but most probably isn’t.
What do you think he's been doing for the last 10 or more years , assasinations , "accidents", buying politicans and radicals , left and right , destabilizing states, sure its a long game, but you wait for the opportunity,
2014 crimea and donbass ,was decades of work leading to an opportunity,
oh but ukraine has a security pact with uk and US,and their neutral , - fat lot of good that did them ,
I don't agree. I'm pointing out the fact that the rumor is out there and rumor is important in these matters.
But he's not going to Chance a NATO state,
There is one of two weak links in the alliance but the moment Russian forces Cross into NATO territory they will be wiped out in a few days, they don't have either the man power or logistics to attempt it now , even worse they have no air superiority....
Gerasimov killed in a Ukrainian airstrike currently rumoured on Youtube.
Been rumoured since last night still no confirmation from any source we've seen this happen 3/4 times previously where it's been claimed a particular Russian was killed only to turn out to be a false claim
No doubt Russia will release an undated photo or video of him to quell the rumours :)
Like the last time... its huge news if Ukraine did kill him. Very embarrassing for the Russians. You'd never see it happen to his equivalent in the west .
There's massive bounties available to Russians if they inform the Ukrainian military of gatherings of troops or high ranking officials.
It's wait and see.
An 83 year old Russian lady is not afraid to give her honest, angry opinion about Putin and the upcoming election.
That time Russians were spreading rumours of Zalushnys death
Revenge from the grave, the long reaping arm of Prigozhin, if turns out to be true.
Maybe Priogzhin isn't really dead:)
You'll have to try just a little harder ...
No me mention of his death just he hadn't been seen in 8-10 days
So what was the last accounts on here???
No, they don't, but they may have even worse weapons... Propaganda, they have taken this form of warfare to previously unknown heights. Back a few years ago, when propaganda was not considered to be anything like what it is today, Russians were already using it with great effect. Something that they are still doing today.
Propaganda will get them so far but as regularly seen here across especially since covid people will buy into and believe any old nonsense, even to the point of creating multiple accounts to have conversations with themselves to keep posting certain agendas, with propaganda I believe it's down to mental health issues and disorders that allow certain types to be susceptible to it , whether it be putins a refreshing Leader putting his country first over everything,to flat earthers to anti-Semites trying to tell us oh I'm anti Zionist not Antisemite but Israel and the Jews don't belong in Israel..... Or anywhere else,there is no tunnels under Gaza only water tank's 🤣🤣🤣
But this now the world we live in
The genius of the Russian strategy has been to prop up both sides of the political divide, and because freedom of speech is such an enshrined thing in Western democracies and social media companies have seen profits soar due to user engagement, there isn't the political will to stop it.
There's no quick fix. There needs to be early education on critical thinking, but that'll take time to have a real effect, and some countries are maybe too far gone, like the US, to accept this type of education, regarding it as brainwashing.
What makes you so sure?
They couldn't roll the Ukrainian military that barely existed two years ago,that had no numbers of advanced weapons no advanced radars and intelligence networks ,or and modern aircraft both fighters and helicopters,
NATO has satellites , intelligence gathering aircraft, naval superiority,air superiority, ground superiority,man power superiority, the ability to mobilize hundreds of thousands of well trained and well equipped professional soldiers in days ,
Currently Russia has none of the above,
One or two weak links but they are well covered currently 300,000 NATO troops are already prepared across several Baltic states,
This might be one of those very few times I'm wrong but I absolutely can't see it ever happening,
Ukrainians are a very tough rugged and determined breed of people who endured years and years of Soviet brutality and are absolutely determined not to return to that world. There is no guarantee that other countries would fight or resist as tenaciously as the Ukrainians.
In ww2 there was vast differences in the fighting ability and will to resist of different countries. Without strong NATO support it is entirely possible that some countries would give in very easily.
Yet again you are arguing out of both sides of your mouth
Europe in one post can’t produce a shell while in another is a gigachad
Ukraine is simultaneously losing and strong in your posts depending on the wind direction that morning
BTW you never answered the question asked of you, what are your military credentials outside of arm chair generalship?
According to French journalist Elsa Vidal, of course our govts deliberately starved Ukraine of the most decisive types of weapons -- this needs to be universal knowledge now -- but she goes further into the interpretation, which is interesting. She believes it's our fear of Russia collapsing following a proper defeat. She also fingers @RANDCorporation
for being responsible for promoting the cynical policy goal of aiming for neither defeat nor victory in Ukraine.
Additionally, and that's also a diagnosis I made on this platform, she notes that aiming for a stalemate to begin with was necessarily going to make sustaining the political will to support Ukraine more difficult.
And, in my view, it's on that latter point that we really see the problem we have today, with the U.S. losing heart and resolve at the level of the entire country. Because the policy was not some kind of "golden middle" worked out by geniuses, but a costly and bloody and cowardly middle-of-the-road trajectory at a time in history that requires decisiveness.
Vidal concludes, like entire governments in the eastern half of Europe, like many parliamentarians across all of our nations, like hundreds of experts on the region and on military affairs, that we must aim for victory.
If push came to shove and Putin did an even more stupid thing than invading Ukraine, the next most stupid thing he could do would be to openly attack a NATO country. For one thing, it would not be a long dragged-out war. It would be over in less than a month. And if needed, they are in a position to do this straight away, it's all planned and prepared for.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
