Clear tonight that US and UK have led the (largely failed) attempt to go for the harshest measures against Russia but the EU rejected SWIFT proposal — contrary to uninformed twitter commentary from blue tick FBPE throughout the week. Something to remember.
Has Starmer made a mistake by allowing the Stop The West Winning MPs to simply backtrack and withdraw their names from a letter?
A more ruthless leader (Kinnock?) may have just thrown them straight out.
It is consistent with his tactic not to actually confront the hard left, and thus create a war with them. Instead they are just gradually marginalised.
David Lammy says he is 'quite sure' a future Labour government will spend more on defence on QT
He has no choice, it’s Cold War 2 lammy
Yep. Not sure the public have woken up to the massive long term commitment this will require unless we get lucky and Putin, clearly now mad or ill or both, is deposed by saner forces from within.
I find the idea you need to be a shit to succeed in politics depressing, but also wrong.
In the UK, only Boris is a fully-fledged shit. Cameron, Blair, and Wilson were borderline, and for different reasons, Brown. Mostly, British PMs are non-shits. At least in the post-war period.
The US might be less lucky. Obviously Trump, and probably Clinton. But Biden no, nor Obama, nor the Bushes, nor Reagan, Carter or even Ford. Before that, though, a string of shits: Nixon, LBJ, JFK.
France seems to prefer shits. Macron is a shit. Sarkozy, Chirac, Mitterrand, d’Estaing - all shits. Hollande not. I don’t have a view on Pompidou, and I am torn about De Gaulle.
Hollande may not have been a shit. But he was also... well... shit.
Indeed, he also cheated on his wife too so was not exactly a saint either.
He was the worst French President of my lifetime. Chirac was quite effective in many ways, as was Mitterand, I would not say either were shits exactly though no saints either
Clear tonight that US and UK have led the (largely failed) attempt to go for the harshest measures against Russia but the EU rejected SWIFT proposal — contrary to uninformed twitter commentary from blue tick FBPE throughout the week. Something to remember.
That is not at all clear, although possible. America is happy for Italy and Germany to take the heat (literally!) while defending one of America's foremost strategic assets, the global system of dollar-denominated trade, which indirectly funds deficit spending on US "defense systems". I would say it is a tendentious take, at a time when everyone in the West should have kept quiet instead of feuding and unite for at least a few hours if not a few days.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
Our own Foxy has given such opinions before.
See the case of Professor David Southall on wiki.
"In 2004, following more complaints from the MAMA campaign and Mr Clark, Professor Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC), after alleging to a police child protection officer that the husband of Sally Clark, a mother convicted of murdering two of her babies, was himself almost certainly responsible for murdering the couple's children. Professor Southall made the claim in confidence to a child protection officer of the Staffordshire police after watching a television documentary about the case as he was concerned about the safety of the surviving child"
It is not very sensible to look at a TV program, and conclude a diagnosis.
it’s not a diagnosis, rather a tentative but not in reasonable speculation about the possibility that Putin is ill.
A solemn chap on the BBC would give his view as the cameras paned along the collection on top of the Kremlin.
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which always was an unfortunate location…
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which was an unfortunate location For all of a sudden war broke out And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
The modern system of gangsterism in Russia had deep roots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - at the end of Soviet times to get things done required working "on the left". Which meant working with the mafia. The military would even do this, to get building materials for projects for example. Yes, the parallel with Trump and contraction in New York in the 80s is amusing.
So when things changed, they were perfectly positioned to take a chunk of everything... and the most enterprising member of the security services integrated with them to form the Mafia State we see today.
Thanks for that, it is very interesting. Bitch Wars leapt out at me read through later 👍🏻
So that’s how a poverty stricken street thug and gangster, and KGB evil desk clerk got to know each other, become friends and make plans?
However it seems to me we should be very sorry for Russia everyday people, compared to us they had feudal serfdom, the authoritarian governments of nineteenth century replaced by mad Marxist murderers, and as we rejoice fall of Soviet Union they go straight into this Putin shit, never been free like us. Sad to think ☹️
The street thugs weren't poor. The KGB guys were privileged. The elite. Then the system began to crumble. They began to fall in status. And the street thugs now had even more money. Some took jobs with the street thugs. Others rapidly moved into their organisations where their skills and contacts became extremely marketable.
Yes, the contrast with how things turned out in the UK is one to make you think. Churchill and others noted it - that compared to so many other societies, in the UK, the elite ceded power remarkably easily.
Thank you. That’s the innate British sense of fair play I guess in being won over by argument and ceding power.
It was Putin and Abramovich I was thinking of in my previous thread.
At the peak of perestroika, Abramovich sold imported rubber ducks from his Moscow apartment.[
I find the idea you need to be a shit to succeed in politics depressing, but also wrong.
In the UK, only Boris is a fully-fledged shit. Cameron, Blair, and Wilson were borderline, and for different reasons, Brown. Mostly, British PMs are non-shits. At least in the post-war period.
The US might be less lucky. Obviously Trump, and probably Clinton. But Biden no, nor Obama, nor the Bushes, nor Reagan, Carter or even Ford. Before that, though, a string of shits: Nixon, LBJ, JFK.
France seems to prefer shits. Macron is a shit. Sarkozy, Chirac, Mitterrand, d’Estaing - all shits. Hollande not. I don’t have a view on Pompidou, and I am torn about De Gaulle.
Hollande may not have been a shit. But he was also... well... shit.
"See, there are three kinds of people: dicks, pussies and assholes. Pussies think everyone can get along and dicks just want to fuck all the time without thinking it through. But then you got your assholes. And all the assholes want is to shit all over everything. So pussies may get mad at dicks once in a while because, pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes! And if they didn't fuck the assholes, you know what you'd get? You'd get your dick and your pussy all covered in shit!"
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
Our own Foxy has given such opinions before.
See the case of Professor David Southall on wiki.
"In 2004, following more complaints from the MAMA campaign and Mr Clark, Professor Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC), after alleging to a police child protection officer that the husband of Sally Clark, a mother convicted of murdering two of her babies, was himself almost certainly responsible for murdering the couple's children. Professor Southall made the claim in confidence to a child protection officer of the Staffordshire police after watching a television documentary about the case as he was concerned about the safety of the surviving child"
It is not very sensible to look at a TV program, and conclude a diagnosis.
it’s not a diagnosis, rather a tentative but not in reasonable speculation about the possibility that Putin is ill.
A solemn chap on the BBC would give his view as the cameras paned along the collection on top of the Kremlin.
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which always was an unfortunate location…
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which was an unfortunate location For all of a sudden war broke out And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
The modern system of gangsterism in Russia had deep roots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - at the end of Soviet times to get things done required working "on the left". Which meant working with the mafia. The military would even do this, to get building materials for projects for example. Yes, the parallel with Trump and contraction in New York in the 80s is amusing.
So when things changed, they were perfectly positioned to take a chunk of everything... and the most enterprising member of the security services integrated with them to form the Mafia State we see today.
Thanks for that, it is very interesting. Bitch Wars leapt out at me read through later 👍🏻
So that’s how a poverty stricken street thug and gangster, and KGB evil desk clerk got to know each other, become friends and make plans?
However it seems to me we should be very sorry for Russia everyday people, compared to us they had feudal serfdom, the authoritarian governments of nineteenth century replaced by mad Marxist murderers, and as we rejoice fall of Soviet Union they go straight into this Putin shit, never been free like us. Sad to think ☹️
The street thugs weren't poor. The KGB guys were privileged. The elite. Then the system began to crumble. They began to fall in status. And the street thugs now had even more money. Some took jobs with the street thugs. Others rapidly moved into their organisations where their skills and contacts became extremely marketable.
Yes, the contrast with how things turned out in the UK is one to make you think. Churchill and others noted it - that compared to so many other societies, in the UK, the elite ceded power remarkably easily.
Thank you. That’s the innate British sense of fair play I guess in being won over by argument and ceding power.
It was Putin and Abramovich I was thinking of in my previous thread.
At the peak of perestroika, Abramovich sold imported rubber ducks from his Moscow apartment.[
On German TV, German energy minister Habeck says Gazprom has worked towards the current moment by "systematically holding back gas deliveries" to Europe and emptying its reserves in Germany at the start of the winter….
Around 20-25% of Germany's gas reserves are run by Gazprom, either directly or via joint ventures. At the start of February they were on average only 15.9% full, considerably lower than others. (graphic via @iw_koeln)
Good luck to the Russian protesters, and kudos to you too.
I remember attending a few marches in 2003 to protest against the UK's grotesque invasion of Iraq, but this feels bigger and it is certainly in a much more oppressive environment. The Russian protesters are braver than I needed to be in 2003.
I find your comparison of the two protests a bit grotesque.
On German TV, German energy minister Habeck says Gazprom has worked towards the current moment by "systematically holding back gas deliveries" to Europe and emptying its reserves in Germany at the start of the winter….
Around 20-25% of Germany's gas reserves are run by Gazprom, either directly or via joint ventures. At the start of February they were on average only 15.9% full, considerably lower than others. (graphic via @iw_koeln)
Good luck to the Russian protesters, and kudos to you too.
I remember attending a few marches in 2003 to protest against the UK's grotesque invasion of Iraq, but this feels bigger and it is certainly in a much more oppressive environment. The Russian protesters are braver than I needed to be in 2003.
I find your comparison of the two protests a bit grotesque.
Good luck to the Russian protesters, and kudos to you too.
I remember attending a few marches in 2003 to protest against the UK's grotesque invasion of Iraq, but this feels bigger and it is certainly in a much more oppressive environment. The Russian protesters are braver than I needed to be in 2003.
I find your comparison of the two protests a bit grotesque.
On German TV, German energy minister Habeck says Gazprom has worked towards the current moment by "systematically holding back gas deliveries" to Europe and emptying its reserves in Germany at the start of the winter….
Around 20-25% of Germany's gas reserves are run by Gazprom, either directly or via joint ventures. At the start of February they were on average only 15.9% full, considerably lower than others. (graphic via @iw_koeln)
Russia has the biggest number of tanks in the world, the largest nuclear missile arsenal in the world, the 2nd largest airforce in the world and the 5th largest number of troops in the world.
The UK alone can do sod all against Putin other than impose economic sanctions. Only all NATO nations combined, us, France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Spain, Poland, Turkey and indeed the USA of course would be enough to contain him. That requires heavy economic sanctions on Russia from all of them and NATO reinforcements being sent to NATO nations in Eastern Europe as Biden and other NATO world leaders including Boris have started to do
Igor Polikha, Ukraine's envoy to India, expressed deep dissatisfaction regarding the stance adopted by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Earlier that day, India's Ministry of External Affairs had announced that "India is closely following the development of events in the region".[247] India is the biggest source of international students in Ukraine.[248]
Good luck to the Russian protesters, and kudos to you too.
I remember attending a few marches in 2003 to protest against the UK's grotesque invasion of Iraq, but this feels bigger and it is certainly in a much more oppressive environment. The Russian protesters are braver than I needed to be in 2003.
I find your comparison of the two protests a bit grotesque.
Good luck to the Russian protesters, and kudos to you too.
I remember attending a few marches in 2003 to protest against the UK's grotesque invasion of Iraq, but this feels bigger and it is certainly in a much more oppressive environment. The Russian protesters are braver than I needed to be in 2003.
I find your comparison of the two protests a bit grotesque.
Do you? So fucking what?
I do. So I'll tell you when I think so.
Marvellous. I suppose you were one of those people standing around slack-jawed in 2003 shouting "RAGGIES!" at the protestors.
I guess if you lived in Moscow you'd be one of the ones rounding protesters up into vans.
Don't be a complete prick. The protestors in Russia know they can be jailed for years or even Navalny'd.
You went to a reasonable demonstration that would have only had you arrested if you'd broken the law.
Russia has the biggest number of tanks in the world, the largest nuclear missile arsenal in the world, the 2nd largest airforce in the world and the 5th largest number of troops in the world.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
Our own Foxy has given such opinions before.
See the case of Professor David Southall on wiki.
"In 2004, following more complaints from the MAMA campaign and Mr Clark, Professor Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC), after alleging to a police child protection officer that the husband of Sally Clark, a mother convicted of murdering two of her babies, was himself almost certainly responsible for murdering the couple's children. Professor Southall made the claim in confidence to a child protection officer of the Staffordshire police after watching a television documentary about the case as he was concerned about the safety of the surviving child"
It is not very sensible to look at a TV program, and conclude a diagnosis.
it’s not a diagnosis, rather a tentative but not in reasonable speculation about the possibility that Putin is ill.
A solemn chap on the BBC would give his view as the cameras paned along the collection on top of the Kremlin.
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which always was an unfortunate location…
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which was an unfortunate location For all of a sudden war broke out And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
The modern system of gangsterism in Russia had deep roots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - at the end of Soviet times to get things done required working "on the left". Which meant working with the mafia. The military would even do this, to get building materials for projects for example. Yes, the parallel with Trump and contraction in New York in the 80s is amusing.
So when things changed, they were perfectly positioned to take a chunk of everything... and the most enterprising member of the security services integrated with them to form the Mafia State we see today.
Thanks for that, it is very interesting. Bitch Wars leapt out at me read through later 👍🏻
So that’s how a poverty stricken street thug and gangster, and KGB evil desk clerk got to know each other, become friends and make plans?
However it seems to me we should be very sorry for Russia everyday people, compared to us they had feudal serfdom, the authoritarian governments of nineteenth century replaced by mad Marxist murderers, and as we rejoice fall of Soviet Union they go straight into this Putin shit, never been free like us. Sad to think ☹️
The street thugs weren't poor. The KGB guys were privileged. The elite. Then the system began to crumble. They began to fall in status. And the street thugs now had even more money. Some took jobs with the street thugs. Others rapidly moved into their organisations where their skills and contacts became extremely marketable.
Yes, the contrast with how things turned out in the UK is one to make you think. Churchill and others noted it - that compared to so many other societies, in the UK, the elite ceded power remarkably easily.
Thank you. That’s the innate British sense of fair play I guess in being won over by argument and ceding power.
It was Putin and Abramovich I was thinking of in my previous thread.
At the peak of perestroika, Abramovich sold imported rubber ducks from his Moscow apartment.[
“Well it’s just that I thought I’d be doing something better with my life by now, than selling rubber ducks out my flat. Where did we get them? They don’t even float properly, just keel over showing made in India on their ass.” [insert canned laughter] ‘It just so happens i’m meeting this geezer down the Empress Head lunchtime. Bit of an odd sock, you wouldn’t play poker with him. But he says he has a bit of gear he needs selling on.” “What kind of gear?” “Oh you know. Oil.” “Oil? Not like that niche extra virgin olive oil you tried to shift on from Italy? When we translated the label it was lighter fluid!” “No not not like that. Though the salad at Olegs BBQ did go with a bit of a bang” [insert canned laughter] “You immolated his cat!” “No - no that wasn’t his cat. It belonged to his daughter.” “So? Like what then.” “Like 57,000 barrels of crude oil.” “What the…” “You coming, or sitting around here admiring the ass on your rubber duckies the rest of your life?”
I protested against homeopathy once. I could have been dissolved into more than 10 to power of 23 pieces. The Russian protestors are braver than I was.
Russia has the biggest number of tanks in the world, the largest nuclear missile arsenal in the world, the 2nd largest airforce in the world and the 5th largest number of troops in the world.
So? Ukraine is giving it a good go.
Yes but Kyiv will still likely fall to the Russians, maybe within a week, certainly within a month.
Igor Polikha, Ukraine's envoy to India, expressed deep dissatisfaction regarding the stance adopted by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Earlier that day, India's Ministry of External Affairs had announced that "India is closely following the development of events in the region".[247] India is the biggest source of international students in Ukraine.[248]
On German TV, German energy minister Habeck says Gazprom has worked towards the current moment by "systematically holding back gas deliveries" to Europe and emptying its reserves in Germany at the start of the winter….
Around 20-25% of Germany's gas reserves are run by Gazprom, either directly or via joint ventures. At the start of February they were on average only 15.9% full, considerably lower than others. (graphic via @iw_koeln)
Getting bored of the BBC news going on about the new "Cold War". It looks distinctly "Hot" to me.
A few interesting flights visible on Flight Radar this evening.
There are two Stratotankers out of Mildenhall circling over Poland and Romania near to the Ukrainian border. What are they refuelling?
There's a Global Hawk circling the Black Sea. There were two with transponders on before the war started. Where is the other one?
I wonder if the information the US is clearly gathering will make any difference to the outcome. NATO may not be able to intervene directly, but conversely, the Russians will be unable to take out Ukraine's intelligence feed.
Still, intelligence doesn't matter much if Putin is prepared to just lay waste to Kiev. Lets hope that doesn't happen.
His career trajectory has been an exemplar of post-irony politics.
He got his big break starring a TV sitcom which depicted him as a teacher who accidentally becomes president of Ukraine. Then the production company started a political party and he actually did become president of Ukraine.
The UK equivalent would be Ricky Gervais becoming Prime Minister. Which would be a considerable upgrade on what we've got.
His career trajectory has been an exemplar of post-irony politics.
He got his big break starring a TV sitcom which depicted him as a teacher who accidentally becomes president of Ukraine. Then the production company started a political party and he actually did become president of Ukraine.
The UK equivalent would be Ricky Gervais becoming Prime Minister. Which would be a considerable upgrade on what we've got.
What a classy time to mock the man.
He's braver than you are in your ludicrous driving.
Getting bored of the BBC news going on about the new "Cold War". It looks distinctly "Hot" to me.
A few interesting flights visible on Flight Radar this evening.
There are two Stratotankers out of Mildenhall circling over Poland and Romania near to the Ukrainian border. What are they refuelling?
There's a Global Hawk circling the Black Sea. There were two with transponders on before the war started. Where is the other one?
I wonder if the information the US is clearly gathering will make any difference to the outcome. NATO may not be able to intervene directly, but conversely, the Russians will be unable to take out Ukraine's intelligence feed.
Still, intelligence doesn't matter much if Putin is prepared to just lay waste to Kiev. Lets hope that doesn't happen.
Fighters & Intelligence.
The UK & US have been running combat air flights and you'd have to assume the locals are up in the air too but they don't need refuelling close to home. The number of intelligence gathering aircraft trotting up the Baltics and on the Polish border has been notable today. Some of them transponder on, some off which is why you see tankers but apparently nothing to refuel. The background to the former flights is significant. There is a school of thought around what if Russia does chance its arm further, so the big NATO contributors have been busy pushing assets into the East.
There have been regular Black Sea overflights by the NATO owned drones for many days but they tend to go dark as they enter the area of interest, unlike the flights over Ukraine by the USAF. It looks like those same USAF drones are now doing the Black Sea.
@DmytroKuleba Вперше відбулася розмова 2+2 глав міністерств закордонних справ і оборони України та Великої Британії. Теми: санкції та зброя. Лондон працює дуже інтенсивно з обидвох питань. Британія вірить в Україну та нашу перемогу над агресором. https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1496980590935089155
Translate says..
"For the first time, 2+2 heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Ukraine and the United Kingdom had a conversation. Topics: Sanctions and weapons. London is working very both issues. Britain believes in Ukraine and our victory over the aggressor."
“Worryingly for the post-pandemic recovery, people’s view on their personal financial situation in the year ahead fell by 12 points to minus 14, the worst reading since April 2020 at the height of the first lockdown.”
Mark Urban @MarkUrban01 Ok so I’ve just seen the video of two members of 11th Guard Air Assault Brigade being interrogated. I’m not going to post material like this because it demeans the prisoners - but most interesting thing was Russian soldiers claim they didn’t even know they were entering Ukraine https://twitter.com/MarkUrban01/status/1497016667527864321
The question is, do they overthrow Zelenski, install a puppet and then (mostly) withdraw quite quickly, or is it a long term occupation? And if so, how much of Ukraine do they occupy?
I’m not convinced Putin knows the answer to that, yet.
The question is, do they overthrow Zelenski, install a puppet and then (mostly) withdraw quite quickly, or is it a long term occupation? And if so, how much of Ukraine do they occupy?
I’m not convinced Putin knows the answer to that, yet.
The question is, do they overthrow Zelenski, install a puppet and then (mostly) withdraw quite quickly, or is it a long term occupation? And if so, how much of Ukraine do they occupy?
I’m not convinced Putin knows the answer to that, yet.
We have to make sure Putin loses this war.
I don’t think it’s in our power. We can only deter the next war by defending, bolstering and possibly extending NATO.
The question is, do they overthrow Zelenski, install a puppet and then (mostly) withdraw quite quickly, or is it a long term occupation? And if so, how much of Ukraine do they occupy?
I’m not convinced Putin knows the answer to that, yet.
We have to make sure Putin loses this war.
I don’t think it’s in our power. We can only deter the next war by defending, bolstering and possibly extending NATO.
It's in America's power. But they're fretting about whether supplying weapons makes them an enemy of Russia.
Anyone who isn't an enemy of Russia right now should be sanctioned.
UkraineWorld @ukraine_world Ukrainian woman confronts Russian soldiers in Henychesk, Kherson region. Asks them why they came to our land and urges to put sunflower seeds in their pockets [so that flowers would grow when they die on the Ukrainian land] https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1496866811110834176
Taiwan has said it will join democratic partners to impose economic sanctions on #Russia over its invasion to #Ukraine. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Moscow's invasion and described it as a violation of UN Charter.
@DmytroKuleba Вперше відбулася розмова 2+2 глав міністерств закордонних справ і оборони України та Великої Британії. Теми: санкції та зброя. Лондон працює дуже інтенсивно з обидвох питань. Британія вірить в Україну та нашу перемогу над агресором. https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1496980590935089155
Translate says..
"For the first time, 2+2 heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Ukraine and the United Kingdom had a conversation. Topics: Sanctions and weapons. London is working very both issues. Britain believes in Ukraine and our victory over the aggressor."
This is an amazing thread about what is apparently a Russian naval vessel that masquerades as an oligarch’s “yacht” and was docked near Faslane last year.
Putin is said to have been deeply affected by the way Muammar Qaddafi was killed. He watched the video of a bloodied Qaddafi dragged from his bunker, sodomized, and shot—over and over and over again.He thinks he is doing everything to avoid a similar fate. He's doing the opposite
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
Reportedly its the Germans and the Italians who are the holdouts on this. Nice to see the old Axis powers sticking together.
Nice smear James. A European democracy being invaded as we speak by an evil totalitarian empire, and you are calling two allied centrist European democracies fascists.
Where do the secret services find folk like you? Less tap on the shoulder and more hire the online loony.
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
Reportedly its the Germans and the Italians who are the holdouts on this. Nice to see the old Axis powers sticking together.
Nice smear James. A European democracy being invaded as we speak by an evil totalitarian empire, and you are calling two allied centrist European democracies fascists.
Where do the secret services find folk like you? Less tap on the shoulder and more hire the online loony.
Hey, he's just giving them the treatment you give England the English ...
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
Reportedly its the Germans and the Italians who are the holdouts on this. Nice to see the old Axis powers sticking together.
Nice smear James. A European democracy being invaded as we speak by an evil totalitarian empire, and you are calling two allied centrist European democracies fascists.
Where do the secret services find folk like you? Less tap on the shoulder and more hire the online loony.
Hey, he's just giving them the treatment you give England the English ...
Yes at least most pro EU posters have the decency to stay quiet about the latest EU shambles wrt Ukraine. Germany and Italy ought to be hanging their heads in shame. Not quite sure what the Baltic states are likely to make of it all. While Finland - outside NATO might well be feeling especially queazy..
The question is, do they overthrow Zelenski, install a puppet and then (mostly) withdraw quite quickly, or is it a long term occupation? And if so, how much of Ukraine do they occupy?
I’m not convinced Putin knows the answer to that, yet.
I think it's fairly clear that the strategy is to capture or kill all the Ukraine leadership and install puppets in their place. Zelensky is a very brave man to remain in the capital broadcasting to the world as it is under siege.
Whether such a strategy is viable against a people prepared to resist is far from certain. But it's reasonably likely the capital will be captured absent greater western help. As Zekensky says, they have been left to fight alone.
Comments
Or is it Vince Cable tonight?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10549297/From-swift-resolution-apocalypse-MARK-ALMOND-examines-happen-next.html
Would PM Starmer have been sending anti-tank weapons to Kyiv a month ago?
LAB: 41.3% (+6.4)
IND (Newby): 24.9% (+24.9)
CON: 16.4% (-11.9)
IND (Makepeace): 7.8% (+7.8)
GRN: 7.8% (+7.8)
FA: 1.3% (+1.3)
LDEM: 0.4% (+0.4)
Labour GAIN from Independent.
Votes cast: 2,120
No other Ind (-36.8) as prev.
It was Putin and Abramovich I was thinking of in my previous thread.
At the peak of perestroika, Abramovich sold imported rubber ducks from his Moscow apartment.[
Sounds like the Trotters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Abramovich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNnq8gMAE-8
Around 20-25% of Germany's gas reserves are run by Gazprom, either directly or via joint ventures. At the start of February they were on average only 15.9% full, considerably lower than others. (graphic via @iw_koeln)
https://twitter.com/philipoltermann/status/1496980726390169601?s=21
I don’t think anyone’s buying it.
The UK alone can do sod all against Putin other than impose economic sanctions. Only all NATO nations combined, us, France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Spain, Poland, Turkey and indeed the USA of course would be enough to contain him. That requires heavy economic sanctions on Russia from all of them and NATO reinforcements being sent to NATO nations in Eastern Europe as Biden and other NATO world leaders including Boris have started to do
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
There are smart people in the PCP, unfortunately almost none of them are anywhere near Government.
You went to a reasonable demonstration that would have only had you arrested if you'd broken the law.
‘It just so happens i’m meeting this geezer down the Empress Head lunchtime. Bit of an odd sock, you wouldn’t play poker with him. But he says he has a bit of gear he needs selling on.”
“What kind of gear?”
“Oh you know. Oil.”
“Oil? Not like that niche extra virgin olive oil you tried to shift on from Italy? When we translated the label it was lighter fluid!”
“No not not like that. Though the salad at Olegs BBQ did go with a bit of a bang” [insert canned laughter]
“You immolated his cat!”
“No - no that wasn’t his cat. It belonged to his daughter.”
“So? Like what then.”
“Like 57,000 barrels of crude oil.”
“What the…”
“You coming, or sitting around here admiring the ass on your rubber duckies the rest of your life?”
Then all they can really do is guerrilla warfare
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Feh
China and Pakistan are more of a threat to India than Russia is
https://www.reuters.com/world/indias-modi-urges-end-ukraine-violence-call-with-putin-indian-govt-statement-2022-02-24/
Plays nicely into my analogy about Tories preparing well for the miners strike.
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Tough one!
A few interesting flights visible on Flight Radar this evening.
There are two Stratotankers out of Mildenhall circling over Poland and Romania near to the Ukrainian border. What are they refuelling?
There's a Global Hawk circling the Black Sea. There were two with transponders on before the war started. Where is the other one?
I wonder if the information the US is clearly gathering will make any difference to the outcome. NATO may not be able to intervene directly, but conversely, the Russians will be unable to take out Ukraine's intelligence feed.
Still, intelligence doesn't matter much if Putin is prepared to just lay waste to Kiev. Lets hope that doesn't happen.
He got his big break starring a TV sitcom which depicted him as a teacher who accidentally becomes president of Ukraine. Then the production company started a political party and he actually did become president of Ukraine.
The UK equivalent would be Ricky Gervais becoming Prime Minister. Which would be a considerable upgrade on what we've got.
He's braver than you are in your ludicrous driving.
Wordle 251 4/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
The UK & US have been running combat air flights and you'd have to assume the locals are up in the air too but they don't need refuelling close to home. The number of intelligence gathering aircraft trotting up the Baltics and on the Polish border has been notable today. Some of them transponder on, some off which is why you see tankers but apparently nothing to refuel. The background to the former flights is significant. There is a school of thought around what if Russia does chance its arm further, so the big NATO contributors have been busy pushing assets into the East.
There have been regular Black Sea overflights by the NATO owned drones for many days but they tend to go dark as they enter the area of interest, unlike the flights over Ukraine by the USAF. It looks like those same USAF drones are now doing the Black Sea.
@DmytroKuleba
Вперше відбулася розмова 2+2 глав міністерств закордонних справ і оборони України та Великої Британії. Теми: санкції та зброя. Лондон працює дуже інтенсивно з обидвох питань. Британія вірить в Україну та нашу перемогу над агресором.
https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1496980590935089155
Translate says..
"For the first time, 2+2 heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Ukraine and the United Kingdom had a conversation. Topics: Sanctions and weapons. London is working very both issues. Britain believes in Ukraine and our victory over the aggressor."
“Worryingly for the post-pandemic recovery, people’s view on their personal financial situation in the year ahead fell by 12 points to minus 14, the worst reading since April 2020 at the height of the first lockdown.”
@UN Charter, and unacceptable.
But it is not irreversible. I repeat my appeal to President Putin:
Stop the military operation in Ukraine.
Bring the troops back to Russia.'
@antonioguterres UN Secretary General
Mark Urban
@MarkUrban01
Ok so I’ve just seen the video of two members of 11th Guard Air Assault Brigade being interrogated. I’m not going to post material like this because it demeans the prisoners - but most interesting thing was Russian soldiers claim they didn’t even know they were entering Ukraine
https://twitter.com/MarkUrban01/status/1497016667527864321
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ZQXmRsEWY
The question is, do they overthrow Zelenski, install a puppet and then (mostly) withdraw quite quickly, or is it a long term occupation? And if so, how much of Ukraine do they occupy?
I’m not convinced Putin knows the answer to that, yet.
Anyone who isn't an enemy of Russia right now should be sanctioned.
UkraineWorld
@ukraine_world
Ukrainian woman confronts Russian soldiers in Henychesk, Kherson region. Asks them why they came to our land and urges to put sunflower seeds in their pockets [so that flowers would grow when they die on the Ukrainian land]
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1496866811110834176
Just browsing and, my god, American Conservatism is in an unhealthy place.
Putin Apologism everywhere you look.
https://twitter.com/InnaSovsun/status/1497027633007108098
https://twitter.com/williamyang120/status/1497038450687504386
https://twitter.com/alecstapp/status/1497003022622380037?s=21
https://twitter.com/Still_Fast/status/1496600826655408128
https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1497069692506329088?s=21
Where do the secret services find folk like you? Less tap on the shoulder and more hire the online loony.
NEW THREAD
Zelensky is a very brave man to remain in the capital broadcasting to the world as it is under siege.
Whether such a strategy is viable against a people prepared to resist is far from certain. But it's reasonably likely the capital will be captured absent greater western help.
As Zekensky says, they have been left to fight alone.