The personal stories that come out of an invasion will be tragic. They will fully reveal the evil of the Russian KGB regime and be a permanent stain on the West, that we let it happen on our borders.
How can we stop it happening without triggering it immediately starting?
Putin knows that as soon as he kicks things off the UK and US will do everything they can to remove Russia from the international community the problem is the EU needs Russia's gas.
Will "everything" include not taking massive donations from relatives of former Putin ministers to spend time with the Prime Minister? Or will the next PM be continuing the tradition started by Cameron, May and Johnson?
Banning foreigners from donating to Western parties, freezing all Russian Bank accounts in UK dependencies, canceling Nordstream II and replacing it with new LNG terminals, cutting the Russians out of SWIFT, seizing real estate owned by Russian shell companies. That would collapse the Russian economy.
I wasn't aware the Russians chucked in a few quid for Boris' lockdown do.
They have paiud most other Tory things so why not.
There seems to be a lot of rumours of the supposed Ukrainian offensive against the breakaway republics starting tonight. This of course ignores the fact the Ukrainians have had some years to do this and haven't, and probably wouldn't anyway. As it is, yet another mark in the column of excuses for Russia to justify an attack.
Perhaps more concerning, plenty of pictures of Russian military vehicles sporting IFF motifs. For the uninitiated, these markings help make sure you can identify your forces from the enemy. Especially useful when you have a lot of kit in common.
Finally, the stories are that the US has prepped to support some kind of Ukrainian insurgency. This assumes a) an attack which Russia clearly has in the options and is certainly positioned to do and b) that any attack is a Day-1 full scale invasion of all of Ukraine, which as yet I wouldn't quite be so confident will necessarily be the case, even though all the tools are in place.
And remember, as I mentioned nearly couple of weeks ago, Sundays are always days to watch.
Also worth remembering Russia is running out of time before the frozen ground becomes mud.
Also natural gas demand is quite seasonal. As we get into March, European demand for gas falls quite quickly.
You do wonder how the British presenter on RT news channel feels his career's going when he reads out about how "orphans are being evacuated to Russia as Ukrainian shelling intensifies".
One wonders whether he will have a "Severed Dreams" moment - start telling the truth until they cut him off..
"...cut him off" Russian-style?
I think he'd be well advised to simply resign gracefully at a convenient point and keep his head down for 10 or more years.
We shouldn’t let him. Like Nazi collaborators they should always live in shame.
Something in that.
What about the Putin fanbois on here?
The same applies to them. Useful idiots trying to wreck the West.
How can anyone in this country be a fan of Putin! I haven’t read anything on here a fan of Putin or anything he is doing. He’s just a creepy pityless KGB McMafia boss! He’s a Dalek! But Policy’s and approaches not tested can be full of inherent vice, we should be able to ask fair questions without being labelled fan boys and girls - As soon as you can’t question your own governments thinking or divert from their approach without being bullied, freedom and democracy dies!
Plenty won't be fans of his, but for reasons of their own argue his side, intentionally or otherwise.
What is his side? Putin doesn’t have ideology. The days of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is long gone, nothing there now to appeal to the ultra left in UK unless they havn’t been paying attention and are truly deluded. As for the faragists, they are just attracted to anyone who challenges and disrupts a status quo - almost like to show us the difference between conservatism and right wing populism. There a third thing, Boris and his government are hated so much for many then whatever He says, I am not. Not me. I told Boris to go to Europe and influence them. I am pleased he did. It was a fine speech considering he’s going to be out of a job in just 3 days now.
You do wonder how the British presenter on RT news channel feels his career's going when he reads out about how "orphans are being evacuated to Russia as Ukrainian shelling intensifies".
One wonders whether he will have a "Severed Dreams" moment - start telling the truth until they cut him off..
"...cut him off" Russian-style?
I think he'd be well advised to simply resign gracefully at a convenient point and keep his head down for 10 or more years.
We shouldn’t let him. Like Nazi collaborators they should always live in shame.
Something in that.
What about the Putin fanbois on here?
The same applies to them. Useful idiots trying to wreck the West.
How can anyone in this country be a fan of Putin! I haven’t read anything on here a fan of Putin or anything he is doing. He’s just a creepy pityless KGB McMafia boss! He’s a Dalek! But Policy’s and approaches not tested can be full of inherent vice, we should be able to ask fair questions without being labelled fan boys and girls - As soon as you can’t question your own governments thinking or divert from their approach without being bullied, freedom and democracy dies!
Plenty won't be fans of his, but for reasons of their own argue his side, intentionally or otherwise.
What is his side? Putin doesn’t have ideology. The days of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in long gone, nothing there now to appeal to the ultra left in UK unless they havn’t been paying attention and are truly deluded. As for the faragists, they are just attracted to anyone who challenges and disrupts a status quo - almost like to show us the difference between conservatism and right wing populism. There a third thing, Boris and his government are hated so much for many whatever He says, I am not. Not me. I told Boris to go to Europe and influence them. I am pleased he did. It was a fine speech considering he’s going to be out of a job in just 3 days now.
Putin does have an ideology - he is a Greater Russian Nationalist. He is also a thieving, murderous bandit. The two can go to together.
Otherwise he would be smiling at Germany to get Nord Stream 2 opened up, so that they would be more gas money for his chums to steal....
You do wonder how the British presenter on RT news channel feels his career's going when he reads out about how "orphans are being evacuated to Russia as Ukrainian shelling intensifies".
One wonders whether he will have a "Severed Dreams" moment - start telling the truth until they cut him off..
"...cut him off" Russian-style?
I think he'd be well advised to simply resign gracefully at a convenient point and keep his head down for 10 or more years.
We shouldn’t let him. Like Nazi collaborators they should always live in shame.
Something in that.
What about the Putin fanbois on here?
The same applies to them. Useful idiots trying to wreck the West.
How can anyone in this country be a fan of Putin! I haven’t read anything on here a fan of Putin or anything he is doing. He’s just a creepy pityless KGB McMafia boss! He’s a Dalek! But Policy’s and approaches not tested can be full of inherent vice, we should be able to ask fair questions without being labelled fan boys and girls - As soon as you can’t question your own governments thinking or divert from their approach without being bullied, freedom and democracy dies!
Plenty won't be fans of his, but for reasons of their own argue his side, intentionally or otherwise.
What is his side? Putin doesn’t have ideology. The days of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in long gone, nothing there now to appeal to the ultra left in UK unless they havn’t been paying attention and are truly deluded. As for the faragists, they are just attracted to anyone who challenges and disrupts a status quo - almost like to show us the difference between conservatism and right wing populism. There a third thing, Boris and his government are hated so much for many whatever He says, I am not. Not me. I told Boris to go to Europe and influence them. I am pleased he did. It was a fine speech considering he’s going to be out of a job in just 3 days now.
Putin does have an ideology - he is a Greater Russian Nationalist. He is also a thieving, murderous bandit. The two can go to together.
Otherwise he would be smiling at Germany to get Nord Stream 2 opened up, so that they would be more gas money for his chums to steal....
I said before, the Gas thing is a drug pusher. It starts cheap, once dependent, it gets more expensive with all sorts of chores for it.
I fear I am too drunk and posting too much again and not enough that’s helpful, I need to stop. 🤐
I was a supporter of Putin's actions in Syria because I believed, and still do, that the side he was supporting was demonstrably the lesser of two evils, and the side that we were supporting was the greater of two evils.
My attitude to Russia generally and to Putin specifically is that they are a foreign, far away country and he's a leader much in the vein of leaders from Ivan the Terrible through Peter the Great, through Lenin, Stalin etc. I am not saying that Russia needs to be lead by a ruthless autocrat, but it is certainly the way it has usually turned out. I don't like it when Putin or Russia do something brutal or cruel, but I am not going to get incensed about it, and sweep equivalent actions by the Saudis et al under the carpet because I am told that I should.
Assad repeatedly used chemical weapons against civilian populations. The idea that that is the 'lesser of to evils' is frankly, bullshit.
And we have still not reached the bottom of the Pandora's Box it opened.
Comments
Not me. I told Boris to go to Europe and influence them. I am pleased he did. It was a fine speech considering he’s going to be out of a job in just 3 days now.
Otherwise he would be smiling at Germany to get Nord Stream 2 opened up, so that they would be more gas money for his chums to steal....
I fear I am too drunk and posting too much again and not enough that’s helpful, I need to stop. 🤐
And we have still not reached the bottom of the Pandora's Box it opened.