When a commercial airliner MH17 was shot down by Putin's men, 283 people were killed including 80 children.
We chuntered, we moaned, but we still allowed Putin's Russian money to flow through London. Where were the UK calls then to ban them from SWIFT?
Instead Boris Johnson played tennis with the wife of one of Putin's mafia for a £160,000 donation to the tory party.
So easy to condemn other countries. To pick the speck out of their eyes and miss the bloody great plank which has been in our own for years.
The UK are utter hypocrites. Conservatives especially so.
You said NOT EVEN A WEEK AGO: "Readiness is not the same as intent and no amount of forces or logistics proves intent. I continue to believe this is all a feint by Putin and that he will not invade. He's seeking concessions."
"US intelligence is crap. You'd have thought we might have learned our lessons over Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now we're expected to follow their scaremongering over Ukraine? What a load of crap."
"I'm afraid that for the greater world peace you sometimes, often, have to turn a blind eye."
Now we're asked to swallow a "we should have done more earlier" line from you.
I would like to take this opportunity to gently encourage you to get in the fucking sea.
When Heathener first turned up we all thought she was another Russian troll, albeit much more sophisticated than the usual BS about Holocaust survivors and BA pilots.
Spending time attacking allies for not doing what you have also failed to do as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues is doing Putin’s work for him. Thankfully, it seems that Western leaders largely understand this. Recriminations are being kept private - if there actually are any.
But the bigger truth is that the only sanctions that will really hurt Russia will cause a level of pain here, too. We have yet to pass that threshold. The EU should be expelling Russia from SWIFT, we should be excluding all private and institutional Russian money and influence not directly linked to known opponents of Putin from the UK. The same in the US. None of this is happening yet. Why? Because the domestic price is deemed too high.
Yes. In other words, they actually are not that angry. And since the public's anger will fade - keeping this intensity is impossible - they may well miss the moment the public would broadly accept a cost.
Damn gutsy people, the Ukrainians. If their resistance hastens the end of Putin in the Kremlin, then the world will owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
They stand at the opposite end of the spectrum of regard than those spineless, self-centred leaders within the EU. Today more than ever, I am relieved we are now unshackled from that moral vacuum.
Macron has performed better than Johnson, I would say personally. I can't see what lasting impact Johnson and Truss with all their arm waving have made, anywhere in this crisis.
Biden has provided accurate intelligence ; Macron has kept a channel of communication open. That's about it, as far as I can see.
We were early with weapons, moral support, training and intelligence. The Ukrainians are very grateful from the UK’s actions. From a public perspective we are a counterpoint to the US - on this we are aligned so it is different to stand out in the way Macron could do
It's the US though that has provided the main intelligence predictions all along, as one would have expected. One area I do agree on is the training and weapons, but that very much depends what the long term use of that all is.
Moral support is also of limited value if you can't back it up with direct involvement, and despite all the encouraging words NATO military planners understandably so far don't want to risk incineration for a non-critical interest. The strongest moral support in that instance can also be two-sided ; Zelenskiy seems to feel betrayed today.
The intelligence was presented by the US but was very much a joint effort. The US is great with SIGINT we are better at HUMINT. It was the combination that made it so precise.
Moral support was perhaps the wrong term. We are playing an important role behind the scenes convening support and encouraging others.
If you are a European leader at this time, history will not judge you by your short-term responses. You will be judged by the long-term consequences of your actions. You may think you're saving yourself a billion here, a billion there, but the consequences of not acting hard now will cost much more in the longer run.
And the costs will not just be financial.
I'd take this coming from Britain a bit more seriously if we hadn't succoured Putin and his cronies in London for such a long time.
The Conservative Party has blood on its hands.
Oh, do fuck off comrade.
The person with blood on his hands is Putin.
Wait a minute, surely we Putinist enablers, appeasers, scum and all too equivocal virtue signallers also have blood on our hands?
Do you see yourself as a Putinist enabler, appeaser, scum and all too equivocal virtue signaller?
I wouldn't personally have put you in those categories, but if you think so...
Perhaps the people who habitually use these terms could draw up a list for clarification.
I don't think I've used those terms on here, personally.
Aside from 'scum'. But I'm in good company with Labour's front bench there...
Though she has quite rightly acknowledged that she was wrong to use the term.
From my memory of that, it was a fair while after, during which period she refused to admit she was wrong.
Yes, but when she had reflected, her apology was unusually sincere for a front line politician.
Damn gutsy people, the Ukrainians. If their resistance hastens the end of Putin in the Kremlin, then the world will owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
They stand at the opposite end of the spectrum of regard than those spineless, self-centred leaders within the EU. Today more than ever, I am relieved we are now unshackled from that moral vacuum.
Macron has performed better than Johnson, I would say personally. I can't see what lasting impact Johnson and Truss with all their arm waving have made, anywhere in this crisis.
Biden has provided accurate intelligence ; Macron has kept a channel of communication open. That's about it, as far as I can see.
The last I saw this week was that he was claiming that Putin had been "duplicitous".
He sounded like a Mark who had only just noticed he'd been had.
(Yes, I am skeptical where all things Marcon are concerned.)
But he's also carved out an independent channel of communication, which remains crucial when you're dealing with a madman. I'm not sure what Johnson's done distinct from the US that will leave any lasting legacy on how this conflict works out, by comparison.
This also depends on what happens next, ofcourse. Overall I think he's achieved little that's distinct so far, though.
Lol, Ukraine's tragedy is a Scottish Yoon's opportunity to whine about the Paddys.
There are comparisons which can be drawn, I suppose, but Rep of Ireland analogous with Putin's Russia! On the far edge of fantasy. RoI as Ukraine, perhaps, in SF minds.
One does wonder what his Ph.D was in: self-awareness failures?
If you think he’s bad, you should see the rest of them. The calibre of Scottish Unionists has shrivelled since the Lib-Labs largely withdrew from the game. They had formed the more cerebral wing.
When a commercial airliner MH17 was shot down by Putin's men, 283 people were killed including 80 children.
We chuntered, we moaned, but we still allowed Putin's Russian money to flow through London. Where were the UK calls then to ban them from SWIFT?
Instead Boris Johnson played tennis with the wife of one of Putin's mafia for a £160,000 donation to the tory party.
So easy to condemn other countries. To pick the speck out of their eyes and miss the bloody great plank which has been in our own for years.
The UK are utter hypocrites. Conservatives especially so.
You said NOT EVEN A WEEK AGO: "Readiness is not the same as intent and no amount of forces or logistics proves intent. I continue to believe this is all a feint by Putin and that he will not invade. He's seeking concessions."
"US intelligence is crap. You'd have thought we might have learned our lessons over Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now we're expected to follow their scaremongering over Ukraine? What a load of crap."
"I'm afraid that for the greater world peace you sometimes, often, have to turn a blind eye."
Now we're asked to swallow a "we should have done more earlier" line from you.
I would like to take this opportunity to gently encourage you to get in the fucking sea.
When Heathener first turned up we all thought she was another Russian troll, albeit much more sophisticated than the usual BS about Holocaust survivors and BA pilots.
Why wasn't more done to defend Ukraine after Crimea in 2014?
Russian oil, handy dirrty Russian money. Trump. A disbelief that Putin would go the whole 9 yards.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look in the mirror and resign themselves that they could have averted this by some means or another many years ago.
Further back in time we punishment Russia for their Soviet past. With the benefit of hindsight some Marshall Plan post Cold War might have helped.
Why wasn't more done to defend Ukraine after Crimea in 2014?
Russian oil, handy dirrty Russian money. Trump. A disbelief that Putin would go the whole 9 yards.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look at hemselves in the mirror and resign themselves that the hey could have averted this by some means or another
An idea..... Johnson flies to Kiev and stands shoulder to shoulder with Volodymyr Zelensky at the Marinsky Palace as the Russian Tanks roll in..........
On the balcony he quotes Dickens with a subtle dig at the French 'It's a far far better thing that I do than I have ever done...."
In a single gesture it restores the Uk's reputation in Europe. Johnson's position in the UK and begins to repair the broken country that the UK has become......
.....And and if it goes tits up all we'll have lost is the worst Prime Minister any of us can remember
The downside being that gives an unacceptably high risk of Dominic Raab as acting PM.
Yes - Making Raab Deputy is a bit like Nixon when he made Spiro Agnew VP. He's said "Nobody is going to assassinate me because Agnew would become President"
He didn't think that one through, did he? Once the forces of law and order had dealt with Agnew, there was no reason not to go after Nixon...
What crime has Raab committed other than not being that good and accepting a job then a "demotion" from Bozo?
When do we dissect Merkels legacy? From where I’m sitting, it doesn’t look great.
Re. Social media - we’ve got idiots like Dan Hodges sharing Ukrainian vehicle locations in Kyiv at the moment, saying their Russian. Social media really is a blessing and a curse
In the age of social media, having a definitive* answer, first, is to reach the pinnacle.
There is no time to check for details like truth or reality.
*Definitive, as in gets all the clicks and is accepted As Truth by the Head Count. for 10 minutes.
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Putin pretends to be a Christian, is fervently nationalistic and hates gays. That's enough.
Yes, as with Trump, many people don't really follow the details - they decide on superficial evidence if someone is their sort of guy and then dismiss criticism as biased or made-up. It's like left-wingers who thought Pol Pot was a good guy until the Vietnamese - hardly right-wingers themselves - decided they'd had enough of him. And right-wingers who deplored Vietnam's intervention because they were those commies who'd caused so much trouble for the US. See Alastair's piece for more on this sort of thinking.
Most people are more or less rational, and there does come a point where they do say hell, I can't support THIS. Most of the left is now vehemently anti-Putin - all the MPs who signed the equivocal Stop the War statement have now withdrawn their support, and McDonnell said last night that he's helping organise a demo outside the Russian Embassy tomorrow. Conversely, I know Republicans who remain viscerally anti-Democrat but simply will not tolerate the idea of voting for Trump.
For information Nick, does this include Mr Corbyn and Ms Webbe, who are Independent?
An idea..... Johnson flies to Kiev and stands shoulder to shoulder with Volodymyr Zelensky at the Marinsky Palace as the Russian Tanks roll in..........
On the balcony he quotes Dickens with a subtle dig at the French 'It's a far far better thing that I do than I have ever done...."
In a single gesture it restores the Uk's reputation in Europe. Johnson's position in the UK and begins to repair the broken country that the UK has become......
.....And and if it goes tits up all we'll have lost is the worst Prime Minister any of us can remember
The downside being that gives an unacceptably high risk of Dominic Raab as acting PM.
Yes - Making Raab Deputy is a bit like Nixon when he made Spiro Agnew VP. He's said "Nobody is going to assassinate me because Agnew would become President"
He didn't think that one through, did he? Once the forces of law and order had dealt with Agnew, there was no reason not to go after Nixon...
What crime has Raab committed other than not being that good and accepting a job then a "demotion" from Bozo?
I'm not thinking about 'crimes' here. I'm just bothered about somebody as dim as he is being PM.
If you are a European leader at this time, history will not judge you by your short-term responses. You will be judged by the long-term consequences of your actions. You may think you're saving yourself a billion here, a billion there, but the consequences of not acting hard now will cost much more in the longer run.
And the costs will not just be financial.
I'd take this coming from Britain a bit more seriously if we hadn't succoured Putin and his cronies in London for such a long time.
The Conservative Party has blood on its hands.
Oh, do fuck off comrade.
The person with blood on his hands is Putin.
Wait a minute, surely we Putinist enablers, appeasers, scum and all too equivocal virtue signallers also have blood on our hands?
Do you see yourself as a Putinist enabler, appeaser, scum and all too equivocal virtue signaller?
I wouldn't personally have put you in those categories, but if you think so...
Perhaps the people who habitually use these terms could draw up a list for clarification.
I don't think I've used those terms on here, personally.
Aside from 'scum'. But I'm in good company with Labour's front bench there...
Though she has quite rightly acknowledged that she was wrong to use the term.
From my memory of that, it was a fair while after, during which period she refused to admit she was wrong.
Yes, but when she had reflected, her apology was unusually sincere for a front line politician.
AFAICR it was well over a month after her initial comment. You'd think if she really thought she was wrong, she'd have apologised earlier.
I'm just applying the same sort of thinking that many do about politicians they don't like.
Sometimes a bit of reflection and time helps. Certainly in the link that I gave several prominent Tory MPs accepted her sincerity in apologising.
The genuineness of an apology is through true repentance, which includes a commitment to not making the same mistake again. To her credit Rayner has moderated her language, at least so far.
Genuineness of apology:
"Angela Rayner has stood by her description of the Conservatives as “homophobic, racist, misogynistic … scum” after the Labour leader distanced himself from her words."
Why wasn't more done to defend Ukraine after Crimea in 2014?
Russian oil, handy dirrty Russian money. Trump. A disbelief that Putin would go the whole 9 yards.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look in the mirror and resign themselves that the hey could have averted this by some means or another
Goes back much further than 15 years. The biggest errors were made in the 1990s.
In this war everything is real: Putin’s madness and cruelty, Ukrainian victims, bombs falling on Kyiv. Only your sanctions are pretended. Those EU government’s, which blocked tough decisions (i.a. Germany, Hungary, Italy) have disgraced themselves.
The Ukrainians have, at least, a truly Churchillian leader
‘Zelenskiy speaking this morning - talking of “terrible explosions in the morning sky over Kyiv” which brings back memories of the assault on the city in 1941’
Spending time attacking allies for not doing what you have also failed to do as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues is doing Putin’s work for him. Thankfully, it seems that Western leaders largely understand this. Recriminations are being kept private - if there actually are any.
But the bigger truth is that the only sanctions that will really hurt Russia will cause a level of pain here, too. We have yet to pass that threshold. The EU should be expelling Russia from SWIFT, we should be excluding all private and institutional Russian money and influence not directly linked to known opponents of Putin from the UK. The same in the US. None of this is happening yet. Why? Because the domestic price is deemed too high.
Yes. In other words, they actually are not that angry. And since the public's anger will fade - keeping this intensity is impossible - they may well miss the moment the public would broadly accept a cost.
No I don't think it is that.
I think it is that two or three are worried about the impact on them. Germany, Italy and two others I think.
And that it will need a 27-0 vote.
On attacking allies, I don't think that pointing out Germany's disastrous last 10-15 years is a disservice. If their constitution allows them to rearm Russia through a period involving dismembering 3 or 4 countries, chemical weapons in Syria etc, but then *compels* them to deny defensive weaponry to a victim of Russia, even to the extent of preventing third country supplies, then they have a *hell* of a problem.
Mutti Merkel's reputation has vanished down the toilet remarkably quickly.
This @derspiegel article depicts a worrying picture of NATO German troops stationed in Lithuania: they lack even basic equipment like warm jackets & underwears 👇
This @derspiegel article depicts a worrying picture of NATO German troops stationed in Lithuania: they lack even basic equipment like warm jackets & underwears 👇
If you are a European leader at this time, history will not judge you by your short-term responses. You will be judged by the long-term consequences of your actions. You may think you're saving yourself a billion here, a billion there, but the consequences of not acting hard now will cost much more in the longer run.
And the costs will not just be financial.
I'd take this coming from Britain a bit more seriously if we hadn't succoured Putin and his cronies in London for such a long time.
The Conservative Party has blood on its hands.
Oh, do fuck off comrade.
The person with blood on his hands is Putin.
Wait a minute, surely we Putinist enablers, appeasers, scum and all too equivocal virtue signallers also have blood on our hands?
Do you see yourself as a Putinist enabler, appeaser, scum and all too equivocal virtue signaller?
I wouldn't personally have put you in those categories, but if you think so...
Perhaps the people who habitually use these terms could draw up a list for clarification.
I don't think I've used those terms on here, personally.
Aside from 'scum'. But I'm in good company with Labour's front bench there...
Though she has quite rightly acknowledged that she was wrong to use the term.
From my memory of that, it was a fair while after, during which period she refused to admit she was wrong.
Yes, but when she had reflected, her apology was unusually sincere for a front line politician.
Putin’s Hitler-like tricks and tactics in Ukraine https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/24/opinion/putins-hitler-like-tricks-tactics-ukraine/ ...What Zelensky did not say, but which is worth knowing, is that his grandfather’s family was murdered in the Holocaust. He is Jewish and won 73 percent of the vote in the last presidential election in Ukraine. For a while, both the president and the prime minister of Ukraine were Jewish, something that has never happened anywhere else, aside from Israel. This does not make them better or worse politicians than anyone else. It simply means that Putin’s claim about “denazification” is not only baseless and wrong, but also cruel and grotesque. It is hard to think of something darker than invading a democracy with a Jewish leader in the name of fighting Nazis.
Using the language of World War II in this way makes it meaningless, and that is part of the point. Putin perhaps imagines that Russians can be mobilized through references to historical trauma, even one that makes no sense. But he is also taking aim at the Holocaust itself. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum called Putin’s claims “groundless and egregious,” which they certainly are. They are also trivializing, and deliberately so. When a political leader invokes genocide and Nazis in a way that Putin has done, he is mocking people who actually care about history and insulting people who survived and remember.
Even as Putin was busy with his own absurd historical propaganda, his former political partner, Dmitry Medvedev, was characterizing Ukraine in a way that was clearly antisemitic. His view was that the presence of Jewish leaders meant that Ukraine is not a real country. Medvedev weds this antisemitic canard to the perverse insult that if Zelenky is not a Nazi himself, he serves Nazis. All of these senseless and painful exploitations of history that people rightly take seriously serve a purpose: to make it harder for anyone to do so in the future...
This @derspiegel article depicts a worrying picture of NATO German troops stationed in Lithuania: they lack even basic equipment like warm jackets & underwears 👇
This @derspiegel article depicts a worrying picture of NATO German troops stationed in Lithuania: they lack even basic equipment like warm jackets & underwears 👇
Another pearl from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. What I particularly like is that he's got some partly original thoughts on an issue that few of us think about at all:
Why wasn't more done to defend Ukraine after Crimea in 2014?
Russian oil, handy dirrty Russian money. Trump. A disbelief that Putin would go the whole 9 yards.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look at hemselves in the mirror and resign themselves that the hey could have averted this by some means or another
Obama was in power in 2014!
And? I am blaming Western Leaders for the last fifteen years. Obama,, one could argue doing nothing in 2014, facitated the Putin backed Trump victory. Keep up!
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Yeah probably. Bleakly. They get a hard on for mad tyrants who go much further than they themselves would ever dare to.
This @derspiegel article depicts a worrying picture of NATO German troops stationed in Lithuania: they lack even basic equipment like warm jackets & underwears 👇
This @derspiegel article depicts a worrying picture of NATO German troops stationed in Lithuania: they lack even basic equipment like warm jackets & underwears 👇
They shouldn’t just restrict to Russian registered planes.
For example the Isle of Man has a large aircraft registry for private jets. The relevant UK minister should be on the phone to the Manx govt now demanding a list of all planes registered there which are owned by an individual or entity controlled by or individually Russian nationals.
This list should then be added to planes that are not allowed in UK airspace, the list should be shared with the US and EU and they should also stop them.
This should be the same for any territory which has a registry.
Kick the oligarchs and SHNW Russian nationals where it hurts - remove their toys, constrain their freedom. Make it clear they are travelling Ryanair to the south of France for this summer season.
The more wealthy Russian nationals who feel the squeeze will increase pressure on Putin as they will be complaining to the man up the line that they cannot use their cash despite what they had to hand over to Putin and eventually the higher ups will step in.
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Yeah probably. Bleakly. They get a hard on for mad tyrants who go much further than they themselves would ever dare to.
Just as people worshipped Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco etc from afar, in days of old.
"I'm not saying he right or a good person. But look at what he did with pig iron production....."
The comedy of what happened in Peru when the university types who'd read their Mao tried to *be* Mao needs a proper writeup.
This @derspiegel article depicts a worrying picture of NATO German troops stationed in Lithuania: they lack even basic equipment like warm jackets & underwears 👇
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
It is based on the not unreasonable idea that there is a clash of civilisations, and it is a waste of time and effort fighting Putin, when our attention should be focussed on other parts of the world - China, Islamism as per my last post. However, this has led them to fundamentally misread the regime that exists in Russia. The last decade demonstrates that Putins regime cannot be bought in to any alliance with the West. It is fundamentally at odds with many values exhibited by the West, most fundamentally on basic ideas of freedom and democracy. The best hope is that Putin is overthrown; but if we are to work with any future regime, there needs to be acceptance of certain cultural differences with the Russian people that exist and are just tolerated.
The "clash of civilisations" is at best a gross over-simplification, at worst a self-fulfilling recipe for division and conflict. Within most societies there is a wide range of views and it is perfectly possible for very different societies to coexist peacefully just as it is possible for nearly identical societies to become locked in bitter conflict. Only someone who bought into the simplistic clash of civilisations narrative would assume that Putin was somehow "on our side" because he is a Christian, when he clearly despises the kind of liberal, free and pluralistic societies that we live in here in the West. Of course, because each society has a diverse range of opinions within it there are those here who also despise liberal democracy, and so perhaps it is unsurprising that Putin has found so many fans among this self-hating group.
Look out for people who talk in "clash of civilisations" terms. They are the "lumpers" of this world and their eagerness to create ideological camps and lump everyone in betrays, I think, an intellectual limitation. They flatten and ignore important differences to fit their limited mental model. This happens on both the left and the right, it's all the same. Then when they have their ideological battlelines drawn, they imagine an all-encompassing conflict between them that cannot be resolved whilst one side or the other even exists. Lumpers are dangerous and they must be eliminated.
oui, jxyi yi q zeau
400 upvotes, including for the final ironic twist, here.
Communicating as President of a nation being invaded must be a very hard tightrope to walk. You need to thank and encourage allies even as you presumably want to just scream at them that you need direct and concrete support.
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Yeah probably. Bleakly. They get a hard on for mad tyrants who go much further than they themselves would ever dare to.
Just as people worshipped Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco etc from afar, in days of old.
"I'm not saying he right or a good person. But look at what he did with pig iron production....."
The comedy of what happened in Peru when the university types who'd read their Mao tried to *be* Mao needs a proper writeup.
My tragic favourite is the young, academic, Nick-Palmer-type Marxist, who adored Pol Pot and voluntarily went to Khmer Rouge Cambodia to admire the regime…. And was brutally murdered, about 3 hours after meeting his hero
Why wasn't more done to defend Ukraine after Crimea in 2014?
Russian oil, handy dirrty Russian money. Trump. A disbelief that Putin would go the whole 9 yards.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look at hemselves in the mirror and resign themselves that the hey could have averted this by some means or another
Obama was in power in 2014!
And? I am blaming Western Leaders for the last fifteen years. Obama,, one could argue doing nothing in 2014, facitated the Putin backed Trump victory. Keep up!
Agreed.
Though it's worth remembering that Putin's propaganda was far more effective back in 2014. Quite a few were arguing on his behalf that Crimea really was Russian anyway, and that it's being part of Ukraine was an anomaly. And some even accepted the tale of a popular uprising aided by the Russians rather than an armed land grab.
What's happening now is the destruction of a democracy and unprovoked military occupation of an independent state. That's obvious even to Russia's propagandised citizens.
Communicating as President of a nation being invaded must be a very hard tightrope to walk. You need to thank and encourage allies even as you presumably want to just scream at them that you need direct and concrete support.
Historians will compare and contrast the speeches given by the presidents of Russia and Ukraine and wonder that much of the west did not do more nor see it coming.
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Yeah probably. Bleakly. They get a hard on for mad tyrants who go much further than they themselves would ever dare to.
Just as people worshipped Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco etc from afar, in days of old.
"I'm not saying he right or a good person. But look at what he did with pig iron production....."
The comedy of what happened in Peru when the university types who'd read their Mao tried to *be* Mao needs a proper writeup.
My tragic favourite is the young, academic, Nick-Palmer-type Marxist, who adored Pol Pot and voluntarily went to Khmer Rouge Cambodia to admire the regime…. And was brutally murdered, about 3 hours after meeting his hero
Given the number of member of my family who were murdered by regimes that enthusiastic academic types supported - and did so long after the nature of said regimes were evident... No.
It is my considered opinion that Malcolm Caldwell got fucked by his own joke.
Another pearl from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. What I particularly like is that he's got some partly original thoughts on an issue that few of us think about at all:
Germany is publicly and hideously humiliated by this conflict. A major power with no spine. A nation of cowards.
Germany is a strong economic power that is weak militarily now.
Russia by contrast is a weak economic power that is nonetheless still strong militarily.
German may be the biggest economy in Europe but even it recognises Russia is the biggest military in Europe. To contain Russia therefore all of NATO must pull its weight, including Germany
The Ukrainians have, at least, a truly Churchillian leader
‘Zelenskiy speaking this morning - talking of “terrible explosions in the morning sky over Kyiv” which brings back memories of the assault on the city in 1941’
No idea how decent a president he has been, its not exactly an easy place to govern, but from afar he's struck the right notes. Hopefully neither he nor the country need find themselves further tested for long.
Be careful what you wish for. A man with a little moustache built up a formidable German war machine and that didn't end well.
I think we and they can start to think about moving on a bit. The sins of that time must not be forgotten, ever, but national policy cannot be rigid for eternity.
Spending time attacking allies for not doing what you have also failed to do as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues is doing Putin’s work for him. Thankfully, it seems that Western leaders largely understand this. Recriminations are being kept private - if there actually are any.
But the bigger truth is that the only sanctions that will really hurt Russia will cause a level of pain here, too. We have yet to pass that threshold. The EU should be expelling Russia from SWIFT, we should be excluding all private and institutional Russian money and influence not directly linked to known opponents of Putin from the UK. The same in the US. None of this is happening yet. Why? Because the domestic price is deemed too high.
Yes. In other words, they actually are not that angry. And since the public's anger will fade - keeping this intensity is impossible - they may well miss the moment the public would broadly accept a cost.
No I don't think it is that.
I think it is that two or three are worried about the impact on them. Germany, Italy and two others I think.
And that it will need a 27-0 vote.
On attacking allies, I don't think that pointing out Germany's disastrous last 10-15 years is a disservice. If their constitution allows them to rearm Russia through a period involving dismembering 3 or 4 countries, chemical weapons in Syria etc, but then *compels* them to deny defensive weaponry to a victim of Russia, even to the extent of preventing third country supplies, then they have a *hell* of a problem.
Mutti Merkel's reputation has vanished down the toilet remarkably quickly.
Merkel and Schroder.
Another example of the decline in a country's political leaders.
Kate McCann @KateEMcCann · 11m Our @sparkomat reporting live from Kharkiv as sound of explosions rock city while @markaustintv presents from Kyiv as sirens wail. Both men have just ended live broadcasting to take cover.
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Putin pretends to be a Christian, is fervently nationalistic and hates gays. That's enough.
Yes, as with Trump, many people don't really follow the details - they decide on superficial evidence if someone is their sort of guy and then dismiss criticism as biased or made-up. It's like left-wingers who thought Pol Pot was a good guy until the Vietnamese - hardly right-wingers themselves - decided they'd had enough of him. And right-wingers who deplored Vietnam's intervention because they were those commies who'd caused so much trouble for the US. See Alastair's piece for more on this sort of thinking.
Most people are more or less rational, and there does come a point where they do say hell, I can't support THIS. Most of the left is now vehemently anti-Putin - all the MPs who signed the equivocal Stop the War statement have now withdrawn their support, and McDonnell said last night that he's helping organise a demo outside the Russian Embassy tomorrow. Conversely, I know Republicans who remain viscerally anti-Democrat but simply will not tolerate the idea of voting for Trump.
The extreme left in the Labour party who have supported STW and signed up to all their letters and petitions have for years agitated on the basis that almost everything aggressive about Russia is the fault of the USA, NATO and the UK.
Such as this on 22 Feb - three days ago:
This dispute could and should be resolved peacefully, and that remains the only basis for a lasting settlement, rather than the imposition of military solutions. That it has not been resolved is not, however, the responsibility of the Russian or Ukrainian governments alone.
The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations.
A most interesting remaining question is: If NATO had accepted Ukraine into membership would this have happened. History thus far says not. Moldova, and the neutrals in the EU/EEA, including the RoI on our doorstep with free movement with the UK might need to think quickly.
That Tim Marshall book about the inside story of Europe's last war is going to need a new subtitle. I wonder what the books on this one will be called.
Germany is publicly and hideously humiliated by this conflict. A major power with no spine. A nation of cowards.
Germany is a strong economic power that is weak militarily now.
Russia by contrast is a weak economic power that is nonetheless still strong militarily.
German may be the biggest economy in Europe but even it recognises Russia is the biggest military in Europe. To contain Russia therefore all of NATO must pull its weight, including Germany
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
I suspect (I don't know) that there are advisors on the ground, and maybe even some US/UK special forces in Ukrainian clothes.
This morning Putin was pretty clear: anyone assisting Ukraine militarily was going to get nuked.
I doubt if Putin wishes to spend the rest of his life living underground and eating tinned pineapple. So, that's a hollow threat.
If he's terminally ill, perhaps he doesn't give a feck.
Hence the idiocy of the “mutually-assured destruction” paradigm: it assumes that every single custodian of the nuclear button is fit and stable. In perpetuity. You don’t have to be a mathematician or a bookie to know how profoundly unlikely that is.
1. Hiroshima 2. Nagasaki 3. Tbd
The idea that we would be made safer by giving Putin a monopoly on nuclear weapons seems quaint.
Though the argument made by the military that spending on conventional forces rather than trident would be more effective is not one to be casually dismissed
It pretty much is now, isn't it, with an aggressive Putin threatening to use them?
Also, the military always argue amongst themselves about how money should be spent. Lots of lovely money gets spent on the Trident system that other branches of the military would quite like. I tend to ignore such comments as rather self-serving.
The truth is we need to see more spending on our armed forces, and other areas of public life.
And that will require large tax hikes.
Maggie spinning in her grave just upped a few rpm.
Bullies and tyrants are only crushed when decisive and punitive action is taken against them.
NATO should admit Ukraine with effect from midnight tonight.
NATO admitting Russia more likely.
I'll go with Finland.
Bosnia are next in the queue but Serbia will probably invade them to stop it happening.
Yep. It will kick off there any day now under cover of all the rest of the mess in Ukraine. Unless Putin orders his puppets in Balkans to hang fire for some reason.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
I suspect (I don't know) that there are advisors on the ground, and maybe even some US/UK special forces in Ukrainian clothes.
This morning Putin was pretty clear: anyone assisting Ukraine militarily was going to get nuked.
I doubt if Putin wishes to spend the rest of his life living underground and eating tinned pineapple. So, that's a hollow threat.
If he's terminally ill, perhaps he doesn't give a feck.
Hence the idiocy of the “mutually-assured destruction” paradigm: it assumes that every single custodian of the nuclear button is fit and stable. In perpetuity. You don’t have to be a mathematician or a bookie to know how profoundly unlikely that is.
1. Hiroshima 2. Nagasaki 3. Tbd
The idea that we would be made safer by giving Putin a monopoly on nuclear weapons seems quaint.
Though the argument made by the military that spending on conventional forces rather than trident would be more effective is not one to be casually dismissed
It pretty much is now, isn't it, with an aggressive Putin threatening to use them?
Also, the military always argue amongst themselves about how money should be spent. Lots of lovely money gets spent on the Trident system that other branches of the military would quite like. I tend to ignore such comments as rather self-serving.
The truth is we need to see more spending on our armed forces, and other areas of public life.
And that will require large tax hikes.
Maggie spinning in her grave just upped a few rpm.
I've consistently said the above for years.
Where I would spend the extra income might not please 'traditional' conservatives. It also probably would not please Labourites either.
Damn gutsy people, the Ukrainians. If their resistance hastens the end of Putin in the Kremlin, then the world will owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
They stand at the opposite end of the spectrum of regard than those spineless, self-centred leaders within the EU. Today more than ever, I am relieved we are now unshackled from that moral vacuum.
Macron has performed better than Johnson, I would say personally. I can't see what lasting impact Johnson and Truss with all their arm waving have made, anywhere in this crisis.
Biden has provided accurate intelligence ; Macron has kept a channel of communication open. That's about it, as far as I can see.
The last I saw this week was that he was claiming that Putin had been "duplicitous".
He sounded like a Mark who had only just noticed he'd been had.
(Yes, I am skeptical where all things Marcon are concerned.)
But he's also carved out an independent channel of communication, which remains crucial when you're dealing with a madman. I'm not sure what Johnson's done distinct from the US that will leave any lasting legacy on how this conflict works out, by comparison.
This also depends on what happens next, ofcourse. Overall I think he's achieved little that's distinct so far, though.
What good is an "independent" channel of communication, when he communicates at variance with the West's general position, and portrays that Putin's interlocutors are going to tolerate an invasion?
If push comes to shove, independent communication are what places such as Switzerland are for.
Why wasn't more done to defend Ukraine after Crimea in 2014?
Russian oil, handy dirrty Russian money. Trump. A disbelief that Putin would go the whole 9 yards.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look at hemselves in the mirror and resign themselves that the hey could have averted this by some means or another
Obama was in power in 2014!
And? I am blaming Western Leaders for the last fifteen years. Obama,, one could argue doing nothing in 2014, facitated the Putin backed Trump victory. Keep up!
Agreed.
Though it's worth remembering that Putin's propaganda was far more effective back in 2014. Quite a few were arguing on his behalf that Crimea really was Russian anyway, and that it's being part of Ukraine was an anomaly. And some even accepted the tale of a popular uprising aided by the Russians rather than an armed land grab.
What's happening now is the destruction of a democracy and unprovoked military occupation of an independent state. That's obvious even to Russia's propagandised citizens.
Sir Alex Younger (ex head of MI6) on R4 this am had an interesting take on Putin, that he had in fact changed over the years and current events are not the culmination of some decades-long strategy but the outcome of Putin’s current mindset. I guess 2014 could be seen as the first symptom of the ‘new’ Putin. He also seemed to think VVP had misjudged this situation and may come a cropper. Hope springs eternal..
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Putin pretends to be a Christian, is fervently nationalistic and hates gays. That's enough.
Yes, as with Trump, many people don't really follow the details - they decide on superficial evidence if someone is their sort of guy and then dismiss criticism as biased or made-up. It's like left-wingers who thought Pol Pot was a good guy until the Vietnamese - hardly right-wingers themselves - decided they'd had enough of him. And right-wingers who deplored Vietnam's intervention because they were those commies who'd caused so much trouble for the US. See Alastair's piece for more on this sort of thinking.
Most people are more or less rational, and there does come a point where they do say hell, I can't support THIS. Most of the left is now vehemently anti-Putin - all the MPs who signed the equivocal Stop the War statement have now withdrawn their support, and McDonnell said last night that he's helping organise a demo outside the Russian Embassy tomorrow. Conversely, I know Republicans who remain viscerally anti-Democrat but simply will not tolerate the idea of voting for Trump.
The extreme left in the Labour party who have supported STW and signed up to all their letters and petitions have for years agitated on the basis that almost everything aggressive about Russia is the fault of the USA, NATO and the UK.
Such as this on 22 Feb - three days ago
This dispute could and should be resolved peacefully, and that remains the only basis for a lasting settlement, rather than the imposition of military solutions. That it has not been resolved is not, however, the responsibility of the Russian or Ukrainian governments alone.
The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations.
The tragedy is that there are elements here that definitely have some basis, but they can't see the present imperative. The West definitely made errors that were not just defensive but also offensive, but Putin has been off on a course after that which was possibly unrecoverable for as much as 15 years now. Farage also doesn't know what he's talking about in mentioning 2014.
The decision to embark on this war rests on the shoulders of one man. As we saw earlier this week Putin has become obsessed with Ukraine, and prone to outrageous theories which appear as pretexts for war but which may also reflect his views. So many lives have already been lost because of the peculiar circumstances and character of this solitary individual, fearful of Covid and a Ukraine of his imagination. At times in democracies we lament the flabbiness, incoherence, short-sightedness and inertia of our decision-making, compared with autocrats who can outsmart us by thinking long-term and then taking bold steps without any need to convince a sceptical public, listen to critics, or be held back by such awkward constraints as the rule of law. Putin remind us that that autocracy can lead to great errors, and while democracy by no means precludes us making our own mistakes, it at least allows us opportunities to move swiftly to new leaders and new policies when that happens. Would that this now happens to Russia.
Lol, Ukraine's tragedy is a Scottish Yoon's opportunity to whine about the Paddys.
Obviously the 2 are not directly comparable.
However nonetheless, the Republic of Ireland now calls itself Ireland thus making a claim to Northern Ireland. Throughout the Brexit talks the Republic of Ireland also worked with the EU to bring Northern Ireland into its orbit.
The main difference is Ireland would not invade Northern Ireland as Russia invaded Ukraine, not least as the UK has a bigger militarily than the Republic of Ireland has
Lol, Ukraine's tragedy is a Scottish Yoon's opportunity to whine about the Paddys.
Obviously the 2 are not directly comparable.
However nonetheless, the Republic of Ireland now calls itself Ireland thus making a claim to Northern Ireland. Throughout the Brexit talks the Republic of Ireland also worked with the EU to bring Northern Ireland into its orbit.
The main difference is Ireland would not invade Northern Ireland as Russia invaded Ukraine, not least as the UK has a bigger militarily than the Republic of Ireland has
Bullies and tyrants are only crushed when decisive and punitive action is taken against them.
NATO should admit Ukraine with effect from midnight tonight.
NATO admitting Russia more likely.
I'll go with Finland.
Bosnia are next in the queue but Serbia will probably invade them to stop it happening.
Yep. It will kick off there any day now under cover of all the rest of the mess in Ukraine. Unless Putin orders his puppets in Balkans to hang fire for some reason.
Hmmm… remind me, who were Tito and Stalin allied with? Must have been right evil bastards?
Putin has lost his marbles - and given his access to the nuclear codes it's worrying that we can now conceive circumstances in which he'd push the button.
I think fairly soon they'll install a puppet regime in the Ukraine, but a debilitating insurgency will tie the Russians down for however long they stay - and the puppet govt will need massive troop support to keep it in place. Added to which they need to keep the lid on Belarus, and possibly large street protests at home.
I think our best hope is for a palace coup led by Sergei Lavrov, or whoever.
The Russians have proved very good at keeping a lid on dissent in Russia. They seem prepared to target all the potential leaders of a sustained resistance. It's quite possible that a majority of those most opposed to the Russians end up either dead, imprisoned or in Poland.
I'm not convinced there will be a major insurgency.
This is not to doubt the will of Ukrainians to resist, or their courage, but I think an insurgency is not all that easy to sustain, and the Russians will be prepared to be a lot more brutal than the Americans.
Worth noting that the massive protests in Belarus were completely suppressed, so Russia can do the same.
Putin will go by internal political intrigue, not mass uprising.
Unless the army mutinies. But unless the Ukrainians defeat it, that seems very unlikely.
And it's not easy to see how the Ukrainians can defeat what's being thrown at them. The murder of those 13 soldiers in the Black Sea by the Russian warship rather grimly encapsulates the situation.
It was impossible to see Stone Age Vietnam defeating superpower America. But they did
And terrain is almost irrelevant. Yes, Afghanistan had mountains, but one of the centres of Vietnamese resistance was the flat Mekong Delta
All that matters is the will of the people to resist - and a ready supply of arms from outsiders.
So far I’d say both are in place. Ukraine borders NATO. But maybe Putin can crush all resistance. We shall see
The Soviets in WW2 and China vs Japan ultimately won, like the NLF in Vietnam and Taliban in Afghanistan, by refusing to accept defeat despite massive losses and years of occupation. It is a very painful route to follow.
By any reasonable analysis of the history of the last thousand years, the Scottish nation ought not to still exist. We are thrawn bastards. So are Ukrainians.
There have been significant population movements in the areas we now as Russian and Ukraine though, in that time period. More, I suggest than have happened in Scotland.
I genuinely don’t understand this mad Republican admiration for Putin and his deeds
Yes I think Putin is right on Wokeness, I also think Mussolini handled the Mafia well and Hitler was great at flag design. I can still see that they are all malign tyrants who generally do - or did - bad stuff.
Farage is the same. And Salmond. Some weird fanboi worship of brutal power. Is that it? Is that all it is?
Putin pretends to be a Christian, is fervently nationalistic and hates gays. That's enough.
Yes, as with Trump, many people don't really follow the details - they decide on superficial evidence if someone is their sort of guy and then dismiss criticism as biased or made-up. It's like left-wingers who thought Pol Pot was a good guy until the Vietnamese - hardly right-wingers themselves - decided they'd had enough of him. And right-wingers who deplored Vietnam's intervention because they were those commies who'd caused so much trouble for the US. See Alastair's piece for more on this sort of thinking.
Most people are more or less rational, and there does come a point where they do say hell, I can't support THIS. Most of the left is now vehemently anti-Putin - all the MPs who signed the equivocal Stop the War statement have now withdrawn their support, and McDonnell said last night that he's helping organise a demo outside the Russian Embassy tomorrow. Conversely, I know Republicans who remain viscerally anti-Democrat but simply will not tolerate the idea of voting for Trump.
For information Nick, does this include Mr Corbyn and Ms Webbe, who are Independent?
Checking the website - no, you're right, it's just the Labour MPs who have pulled out.
Why wasn't more done to defend Ukraine after Crimea in 2014?
Russian oil, handy dirrty Russian money. Trump. A disbelief that Putin would go the whole 9 yards.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look at hemselves in the mirror and resign themselves that the hey could have averted this by some means or another
Obama was in power in 2014!
And? I am blaming Western Leaders for the last fifteen years. Obama,, one could argue doing nothing in 2014, facitated the Putin backed Trump victory. Keep up!
Agreed.
Though it's worth remembering that Putin's propaganda was far more effective back in 2014. Quite a few were arguing on his behalf that Crimea really was Russian anyway, and that it's being part of Ukraine was an anomaly. And some even accepted the tale of a popular uprising aided by the Russians rather than an armed land grab.
What's happening now is the destruction of a democracy and unprovoked military occupation of an independent state. That's obvious even to Russia's propagandised citizens.
Sir Alex Younger (ex head of MI6) on R4 this am had an interesting take on Putin, that he had in fact changed over the years and current events are not the culmination of some decades-long strategy but the outcome of Putin’s current mindset. I guess 2014 could be seen as the first symptom of the ‘new’ Putin. He also seemed to think VVP had misjudged this situation and may come a cropper. Hope springs eternal..
We need to work out what his aim is before we can say that.
It's beginning to look as though he wants to annex all of Ukraine and Belorussia as part of a Grossrussischreich. Certainly there can be no reasonable explanation for attacking Kyiv and the western areas if he isn't. (He may of course just be doing it to show he can, because he's a twat, but that's hardly a reasonable explanation.)
In which case, we can assume Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Georgia will be on his list for conquest. Kazakhstan is also in his pocket.
Would he go for the whole lot by attacking the Baltic states too?
Lol, Ukraine's tragedy is a Scottish Yoon's opportunity to whine about the Paddys.
Obviously the 2 are not directly comparable.
However nonetheless, the Republic of Ireland now calls itself Ireland thus making a claim to Northern Ireland. Throughout the Brexit talks the Republic of Ireland also worked with the EU to bring Northern Ireland into its orbit.
The main difference is Ireland would not invade Northern Ireland as Russia invaded Ukraine, not least as the UK has a bigger militarily than the Republic of Ireland has
It’s like the GFA never happened. Of course for some it never did.
Comments
'Pineapple with pizza should be prohibited.'
Evaluate this statement.
The range of answers I got...
Note the date.
Moral support was perhaps the wrong term. We are playing an important role behind the scenes convening support and encouraging others.
This also depends on what happens next, ofcourse. Overall I think he's achieved little that's distinct so far, though.
The spirit of Molotov-Ribbentrop runs deep.
Western leaders over the last 15 or so years can look in the mirror and resign themselves that they could have averted this by some means or another many years ago.
Further back in time we punishment Russia for their Soviet past. With the benefit of hindsight some Marshall Plan post Cold War might have helped.
Too many crocodile tears around today.
There is no time to check for details like truth or reality.
*Definitive, as in gets all the clicks and is accepted As Truth by the Head Count. for 10 minutes.
‘Zelenskiy speaking this morning - talking of “terrible explosions in the morning sky over Kyiv” which brings back memories of the assault on the city in 1941’
https://twitter.com/aggichristiane/status/1497126985184731149?s=21
I think it is that two or three are worried about the impact on them. Germany, Italy and two others I think.
And that it will need a 27-0 vote.
On attacking allies, I don't think that pointing out Germany's disastrous last 10-15 years is a disservice. If their constitution allows them to rearm Russia through a period involving dismembering 3 or 4 countries, chemical weapons in Syria etc, but then *compels* them to deny defensive weaponry to a victim of Russia, even to the extent of preventing third country supplies, then they have a *hell* of a problem.
Mutti Merkel's reputation has vanished down the toilet remarkably quickly.
https://twitter.com/EmmanuelleChaze/status/1497119563615461389
I mean, what sort of pictures are we talking about here?
I'm glad she apologised - particularly as she did so after the murder of Amess. I wouldn't have called it particularly 'gracious'.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/24/opinion/putins-hitler-like-tricks-tactics-ukraine/
...What Zelensky did not say, but which is worth knowing, is that his grandfather’s family was murdered in the Holocaust. He is Jewish and won 73 percent of the vote in the last presidential election in Ukraine. For a while, both the president and the prime minister of Ukraine were Jewish, something that has never happened anywhere else, aside from Israel. This does not make them better or worse politicians than anyone else. It simply means that Putin’s claim about “denazification” is not only baseless and wrong, but also cruel and grotesque. It is hard to think of something darker than invading a democracy with a Jewish leader in the name of fighting Nazis.
Using the language of World War II in this way makes it meaningless, and that is part of the point. Putin perhaps imagines that Russians can be mobilized through references to historical trauma, even one that makes no sense. But he is also taking aim at the Holocaust itself. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum called Putin’s claims “groundless and egregious,” which they certainly are. They are also trivializing, and deliberately so. When a political leader invokes genocide and Nazis in a way that Putin has done, he is mocking people who actually care about history and insulting people who survived and remember.
Even as Putin was busy with his own absurd historical propaganda, his former political partner, Dmitry Medvedev, was characterizing Ukraine in a way that was clearly antisemitic. His view was that the presence of Jewish leaders meant that Ukraine is not a real country. Medvedev weds this antisemitic canard to the perverse insult that if Zelenky is not a Nazi himself, he serves Nazis. All of these senseless and painful exploitations of history that people rightly take seriously serve a purpose: to make it harder for anyone to do so in the future...
I can't recall it perfectly but it's something like: "Nobody will assassinate me for your sake."
https://www.euractiv.com/section/all/short_news/german-ukraine-arm-supplies-debate-reignites-as-pledged-helmets-still-not-delivered/
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/1497095863864205312
For example the Isle of Man has a large aircraft registry for private jets. The relevant UK minister should be on the phone to the Manx govt now demanding a list of all planes registered there which are owned by an individual or entity controlled by or individually Russian nationals.
This list should then be added to planes that are not allowed in UK airspace, the list should be shared with the US and EU and they should also stop them.
This should be the same for any territory which has a registry.
Kick the oligarchs and SHNW Russian nationals where it hurts - remove their toys, constrain their freedom. Make it clear they are travelling Ryanair to the south of France for this summer season.
The more wealthy Russian nationals who feel the squeeze will increase pressure on Putin as they will be complaining to the man up the line that they cannot use their cash despite what they had to hand over to Putin and eventually the higher ups will step in.
"German army chief 'fed up' with neglect of country's military"
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-army-chief-fed-up-with-neglect-countrys-military-2022-02-24/
"I'm not saying he right or a good person. But look at what he did with pig iron production....."
The comedy of what happened in Peru when the university types who'd read their Mao tried to *be* Mao needs a proper writeup.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Caldwell
Though it's worth remembering that Putin's propaganda was far more effective back in 2014. Quite a few were arguing on his behalf that Crimea really was Russian anyway, and that it's being part of Ukraine was an anomaly. And some even accepted the tale of a popular uprising aided by the Russians rather than an armed land grab.
What's happening now is the destruction of a democracy and unprovoked military occupation of an independent state. That's obvious even to Russia's propagandised citizens.
@Reevellp
·
6m
Seeing Ukrainian troops in very heart of Kyiv hurriedly moving with ammunition to set up defensive positions.
It is my considered opinion that Malcolm Caldwell got fucked by his own joke.
It may not be much but it would show up whatever puppet regime Putin installs for the falsity it would be.
Russia by contrast is a weak economic power that is nonetheless still strong militarily.
German may be the biggest economy in Europe but even it recognises Russia is the biggest military in Europe. To contain Russia therefore all of NATO must pull its weight, including Germany
This appears to be an established charity supporting people affected by the war in Ukraine.
Another example of the decline in a country's political leaders.
It is fortunate that you hide behind an alias and no one knows your true identity.
Kate McCann
@KateEMcCann
·
11m
Our
@sparkomat
reporting live from Kharkiv as sound of explosions rock city while
@markaustintv
presents from Kyiv as sirens wail. Both men have just ended live broadcasting to take cover.
https://twitter.com/KateEMcCann/status/1497138280084746266
#BREAKING - Gunfire heard in the government quarter of central Kyiv @AP is reporting
We must never forgive or forget this. Putin must be toppled
Such as this on 22 Feb - three days ago:
This dispute could and should be resolved peacefully, and that remains the only basis for a lasting settlement, rather than the imposition of military solutions. That it has not been resolved is not, however, the responsibility of the Russian or Ukrainian governments alone.
The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations.
A most interesting remaining question is: If NATO had accepted Ukraine into membership would this have happened. History thus far says not. Moldova, and the neutrals in the EU/EEA, including the RoI on our doorstep with free movement with the UK might need to think quickly.
Where I would spend the extra income might not please 'traditional' conservatives. It also probably would not please Labourites either.
If push comes to shove, independent communication are what places such as Switzerland are for.
( Find paragraph - agreed.)
https://samf.substack.com/p/a-reckless-gamble?utm_source=twitter
https://twitter.com/ukrainelive2022/status/1497106536828710912?s=21
However nonetheless, the Republic of Ireland now calls itself Ireland thus making a claim to Northern Ireland. Throughout the Brexit talks the Republic of Ireland also worked with the EU to bring Northern Ireland into its orbit.
The main difference is Ireland would not invade Northern Ireland as Russia invaded Ukraine, not least as the UK has a bigger militarily than the Republic of Ireland has
Indeed there is considerable criticism from within Europe and the President of Ukraine is dismayed
And when is Europe going to close its airspace
Maybe address these real issues which are genuine reasons for criticism
It's beginning to look as though he wants to annex all of Ukraine and Belorussia as part of a Grossrussischreich. Certainly there can be no reasonable explanation for attacking Kyiv and the western areas if he isn't. (He may of course just be doing it to show he can, because he's a twat, but that's hardly a reasonable explanation.)
In which case, we can assume Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Georgia will be on his list for conquest. Kazakhstan is also in his pocket.
Would he go for the whole lot by attacking the Baltic states too?
https://twitter.com/martinmcnally53/status/1496809403437228037?s=21