Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Johnson actually flew out before the talks were finished. The talks failed because Russian demands were unacceptable to Ukraine.

And a country under tyrannical occupation is not a country at 'peace'. There is more to peace than merely the absence of warfare.

Really? I thought it was RuZZian for, "I kill you."

It would be a "Russian Peace".

Russia's definition of peace is rather like the definition of Calgacus as quoted by Tacitus. ''They make a desert and call it peace''

Who would have known threatening half the world with Nukes and firing ICBMs at your neighbors wouldn’t breed confidence to the outside world in your country.

Seems there's never been a year like it across Russia of such mass poisonings in schools in Russia.

Looks like it's the quality of food bought/available on tighter budgets and changes in school staff.

This case reported yesterday has now risen to 60.

interfax-russia.ru/siberia/news/okolo-50-chelovek-obratilis-za-medpomoshchyu-posle-otravleniya-v-kanske

Few sources picking up on this now

A dark evening in the Moscow suburbs

Steven Seagal appears to be passing his knowledge onto others fellow Russians.

https://x.com/thefl0orislava/status/1860380165919932623?s=46

Is this the escalation Putin threatened us with?

A good few business people in recent weeks and days are being hit big time by the Russian authorities for money.

x.com/SibirPost/status/1858756049777684700

2014 was a revolution after many months of protest. It's true that many western politicians joined the protests, but they did not instigate them. The population had already had a revolution in 2004 against an election that had been rigged by Yanukovych, who was PM in 2004. The Ukrainian Supreme Court ordered the re running of the election, which was won by Yuschenko, whom the Russians had poisoned causing disfigurement. That is the background or Russian interference in Ukraine.

Given our own history and long experience of imperial propaganda during British rule, we should see through Russian propaganda designed to delegitimise Ukraine, and to revive colonialism. Russia is doing in Ukraine the things that Cromwell did in Ireland in the 17th century. A collapse of Ukraine would lead another refugee crisis on the scale of 2022, and that's the last thing we need.

Also I recommend people inform themselves about who on social media are well known Russian propagandists so as to avoid falling for their propaganda, which while often claiming concern for our safety, is more concerned with that of Putin and the success of Russian imperialism.

Supposedly a video of the explosions below:

Mearsheimer arguments don't make sense. He argues that The West is to blame for Russia invading Ukraine. His argument is that due to "NATO expansion" Russia had no choice but also expand into Ukraine to counter this. This argument is flawed for a few reasons:

1. NATO is a defensive pact. It was set up to counter the threat of Russia. If one country gets attacked all countries have to treat it as if they were attacked and come to their defense. As a result, it is only a threat to Russia if Russia attacks a NATO country (bar the exception of their action in Kosovo but that's another argument).
2. If Russia was so fearful of a NATO on its borders, they would not have invaded Ukraine, as invading Ukraine would cause it to have even more border areas with NATO. Not only did Russia annex the areas of Ukraine under its control, thus bringing it closer to NATO countries anyway, it caused Finland and Sweden to join NATO too. Finland has a huge border with Russia. Pushing neutral Finland and Sweden to join NATO has also made NATO stronger military.
3. If Russia was so fearful of NATO on its borders, why did Putin move its army away from the Finnish borders after they joined NATO?
4. He speaks like NATO is a monolith with a single point of leadership that could decide someday on a whim to invade Russia. NATO is a defensive pact of 32 countries. It would require a big change in its charter for this to occur. This would require ALL 32 countries to agree to this. We can see how a smaller number of countries in the EU has difficulty in reaching an unanimous decisions relating to Ukraine, let alone a much bigger decision to invade Russia.
5. He never looks at this from the Ukraine's perspective. Ukraine never wanted to be invaded. 90% of voters in Ukraine voted to leave Russia in the 90's. What gives Russia a right to invade a sovereign country? NATO is a voluntary organisation. Ukraine did want to join NATO. Its their choice to join NATO. Ukraine never had a choice whether it wanted to get invaded or not.
6. He points out in one of his talks that very little academics share his views. This should be a warning to those following him. This makes his claims extraordinary, and thus require extraordinary evidence. Funnily enough, he points to Kissenger as someone who shares his views. Kissenger in 2014 did share his views, saying that Ukraine should remain neutral and not join NATO. But Kissenger changed his views in 2023 and said that Ukraine should join NATO.

The reason Russia invaded Ukraine is that they wanted more land. Putin wants to make a new cold-war sized Russia.

TLDR: Mearsheimer is an eejit.