Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

I'd say that was covered under the blanket of all future industrial profits in perpetuity…

Gerashchenko claiming Trump has extended sanctions for 1 more year…

however I’d call this a rouse to butter up Zelensky for tomorrows theft, and then by Monday the sanctions are gone..

I wouldn’t trust anything Trump does. Ever.

IMO , , FOR WHATEVER REASON - and there is something there - the effort by both Putin and Trump to ‘PATCH UP their ‘differences’ and for Putin to get the best deal/arrangement possible there are three packages of conditions to be met in Putin’s eyes. The meeting in Saudi Arabia was a meeting about meetings to patch over things

So, re the two packages of conditions :-

(1) Putin will use Trump’s weakness eg respects dictators, wants to make money in Russia, etc, to set out conditions for that to happen and to establish’ normal relations’ eg exchange embassies, return frozen money , etc.

(2) the second set of conditions will be in relation to Russia agreeing to enter serious negotiations to stop the war . This package would include cancelling all the US applied sanctions before negotiations start

(3) package three will be the conditions that Putin wants met to end the war to his satisfaction.
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I think that Putin is taking a major risk to string things out by burning the night oil re the three above set of negotiations. Does he feel that he is gaining more land day by day, he will exhaust Ykr before he runs out of finance to keep the war going, the Russian pop will not rise up against him, he will not be deposed, he will have a constant stream of sufficient quantity to keep the front lines / supply system adequately operational. ALL BIG IFS. ‘

I think Putin feels that he can string Trump along for a very long time, maybe until Trump is out of the office. Trump has already given huge presents to Putin while getting nothing but flattery in return (if we discount the possibility that Trump is being bribed by Moscow).

Any end of the war would be extremely dangerous for Putin — right now his propaganda can sell the war quite successfully at home, and they can write off any hardships as the consequence of the war economy. But when the war stops, hundreds of thousands of former soldiers that are used to high wages and are not afraid to kill will flood back into Russia where there are no employment opportunities for them. Coupled with the struggling economy and the lack of reserves, this will lead to huge problems, potentially to a revolution.

Can we ship him off somewhere

Realpolitik:

South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), says North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to help Russia's war in Ukraine.

In a brief statement, the agency was trying to determine exactly how many more troops North Korea has deployed to Russia.

Come on South Korea, you know you want to.

He just said he has a lot of respect for Zelensky and Ukraine have fought really bravely.

Would be great if some polonium-210 got into Trump and Putin

So. This would certainly be an interesting deployment for our lads

I wonder what it would be like to have a job like that - he knows everything he says is a lie, but he still does it.

To be fair it's not Trump writing that. Staffers should know better.

Could Zelensky sign a deal to buy time and some form of American security and then if and when Europe gets its act together to fully support Ukraine turn around and stiff Trump. Just in time for the mid term US elections so that the Republicans get wiped out.

Europe has provided The Ukraine with no longer range weapons, they have a **** load and Russia is scrapping the barrel

Whatever else about FF, I have lot of respect for Martin.

Irish government finally seeing the writing on the wall and looking to invest in defense. It's about half the investment though.

Hopefully they have enough sense to invest in an airframe like the Grippen which keeps money in Europe and suits our requirements of durability and low running costs.