Ukraine

Regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine, I understand that the further you live from the crisis area, the better militarily equipped - or backed - your country is and the less you are attached to the people involved, the easier it is to maintain an impartial attitude and not take a stand. 😶‍🌫️

I understand that during warfare, both sides are guilty of preconceived notions and some sort of disinformation, but in that sense Russia is provably worse. Russian leaders tell their people clear lies both in social media and in the national broadcasts. I see no justification for warfare in a frame of reference in which Russia has first conquered territories (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk) from Ukraine, then established a puppet government which represents a demographic Russian or pro-Russian minority in those areas - and now considers the request of that self-imposed, artificial government to be a sufficient reason to conquer a whole democratic state, cause fear and anxiety in the whole world (right after a terrible pandemic and a feeling of global hope in their buds), ruin the sense of peace for many generations and cause immense human suffering and harm.

Finland has been on its toes for decades. We have licked the butt of our neighbor and acted as nicely as possible (this policy is commonly known as "Finlandization"; suomettuminen in Finnish). At these scary times, Finns have a lot at stake regarding national decisionmaking, territorial and national safety and economy. We will suffer gravely from the sanctions and restrictions on imports and exports concerning Russia but we are ready to pay the price.

I regret that, on a neutral and unpolitical cooking site, I previously presented very unpleasant and politically colored views of foreign nationals. I hope you understand the situation in Ukraine and the geopolitical location of my country, state history and family history affect my views. I have nothing against the Russian people per se. I just do not approve of their social order or the actions of their state leadership. The Russian middle class and low-income people work hard at ridiculously low wages while the few rich oligarchs build villas in luxury destinations, buy sports teams and educate their children in top foreign universities. The human rights situation in Russia is what it is: media and human rights organizations are banned or under state control, the lgbtqia+ people are oppressed and ridiculed and the opposition has not been able to operate for decades. Poisoned tea, bullets, bombs and missiles have been spread around the world. Russians are responsible for who they have elected to lead.

I pray for the Ukrainians: the servicemen and their families, the elderly, the handicapped, the patients in dysfunctional hospitals, the wounded, those who have lost their jobs, homes, familiar surroundings or relatives, the children and all the desperate people in love who don't know about tomorrow.
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I'll try to stick to cooking matters, weather issues and spring flowers in the future. <Sigh>
 
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Hemulen said:
Regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine, I understand that the further you live from the crisis area, the better militarily equipped - or backed - your country is and the less you are attached to the people involved, the easier it is to maintain an impartial attitude and not take a stand. 😶‍🌫️

I understand that during warfare, both sides are guilty of preconceived notions and some sort of disinformation, but in that sense Russia is provably worse. Russian leaders tell their people clear lies both in social media and in the national broadcasts. I see no justification for warfare in a frame of reference in which Russia has first conquered territories (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk) from Ukraine, then established a puppet government which represents a demographic Russian or pro-Russian minority in those areas - and now considers the request of that self-imposed, artificial government to be a sufficient reason to conquer a whole democratic state, cause fear and anxiety in the whole world (right after a terrible pandemic and a feeling of global hope in their buds), ruin the sense of peace for many generations and cause immense human suffering and harm.

Finland has been on its toes for decades. We have licked the butt of our neighbor and acted as nicely as possible (this policy is commonly known as "Finlandization"; suomettuminen in Finnish). At these scary times, Finns have a lot at stake regarding national decisionmaking, territorial and national safety and economy. We will suffer gravely from the sanctions and restrictions on imports and exports concerning Russia but we are ready to pay the price.

I regret that, on a neutral and unpolitical cooking site, I previously presented very unpleasant and politically colored views of foreign nationals. I hope you understand the situation in Ukraine and the geopolitical location of my country, state history and family history affect my views. I have nothing against the Russian people per se. I just do not approve of their social order or the actions of their state leadership. The Russian middle class and low-income people work hard at ridiculously low wages while the few rich oligarchs build villas in luxury destinations, buy sports teams and educate their children in top foreign universities. The human rights situation in Russia is what it is: media and human rights organizations are banned or under state control, the lgbtqia+ people are oppressed and ridiculed and the opposition has not been able to operate for decades. Poisoned tea, bullets, bombs and missiles have been spread around the world. Russians are responsible for who they have elected to lead.

I pray for the Ukrainians: the servicemen and their families, the elderly, the handicapped, the patients in dysfunctional hospitals, the wounded, those who have lost their jobs, homes, familiar surroundings or relatives, the children and all the desperate people in love who don't know about tomorrow.
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I'll try to stick to cooking matters, weather issues and spring flowers in the future. <Sigh>
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It's not like we all haven't been thinking about this crisis daily or several times a day. You are just closer to it than most. Someone was going to bring it up eventually.

Russia is blocking much of Facebook (Meta) right now because Facebook refuses to stop fact checking:

Russia says it will limit access to Facebook, a major platform for dissent.

Edited to add that even though I am far away, it's not like I haven't met my share of Ukrainians now living in the US and some of whom have obtained citizenship. I am far from impartial, and I think there are a lot of people here who feel the same way, but we are not in the position to do anything about it.
 
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Sticky Fingers said:
I am confident that the Russian people will see sense and topple the little man. If they don't and it becomes nuclear..... well
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It won't be the Russian people who take him down, it will either be the military if they see a humiliating defeat coming, or the oligarchs who see their own criminal business plans and assets being irreparably damaged. The ordinary people are seen by both groups as politically irrelevant and a resource to exploit.
 
Hemulen said:
I regret that, on a neutral and unpolitical cooking site, I previously presented very unpleasant and politically colored views of foreign nationals. I hope you understand the situation in Ukraine and the geopolitical location of my country, state history and family history affect my views. I have nothing against the Russian people per se. I just do not approve of their social order or the actions of their state leadership. The Russian middle class and low-income people work hard at ridiculously low wages while the few rich oligarchs build villas in luxury destinations, buy sports teams and educate their children in top foreign universities. The human rights situation in Russia is what it is: media and human rights organizations are banned or under state control, the lgbtqia+ people are oppressed and ridiculed and the opposition has not been able to operate for decades. Poisoned tea, bullets, bombs and missiles have been spread around the world. Russians are responsible for who they have elected to lead.

I pray for the Ukrainians: the servicemen and their families, the elderly, the handicapped, the patients in dysfunctional hospitals, the wounded, those who have lost their jobs, homes, familiar surroundings or relatives, the children and all the desperate people in love who don't know about tomorrow.
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I'll try to stick to cooking matters, weather issues and spring flowers in the future. <Sigh>
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Hey, I also wanted to point out that you should have absolutely no regrets. This thread was in general chat before, where it was fine to speak your mind, and now has it's own name specific to the situation. But mostly you should have no regrets because (I assume I can speak for everyone here) this is a forum of like-minded people who care about each other. We love food, cooking, the weather (sometimes), and spring flowers (even though I and some others have allergies, LOL). But seriously, we care about the world and the other people in it as well. Now is particularly the right time to speak your thoughts and how you feel, and it's healthy to comment and discuss these things with others.

I also wanted to point out that my father was a USAF pilot who flew in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, and he lived to retire, even though many Americans did not. There were brave people from countries all over the world who sacrificed much (some their lives) to fight for democracy and the freedom of others. Yes, politicians were and are politically motivated for the most part, but my dad and many of his friends and other military personnel of the times certainly were not. They didn't have to get drafted when WWII broke out, they signed up eagerly and courageously because they wanted to do the right thing, to fight for our country and other countries who were caught up in the atrocities of war.

So take heart and try to stay positive. We are all rooting for Ukraine.
 
If I were President of the world, I´d send out hit squads to eliminate all the tinpot dictators of the world:
Putin, Lukashenko (Belarus), Assad (Syria), Ortega (Nicaragua), Maduro (Venezuela) Kim Jong-un (North Korea), and all the others I´ve forgotten about.
First of all, however, I´d capture them, strip them naked, chain them up and parade them through all the countries they´ve destroyed, a la Game of Thrones.
Then I´d hang, draw and quarter them.
I´m NOT the president of the world, however, because there isn´t one, and there´s also nothing I can do about the tragic situation in Ukraine. Anything I can´t influence directly, I refuse to worry about - because it´s a waste of time and might only affect my health.
The only people who can influence the outcome of this tragedy are politicians, so let´s see if, finally, for once in their miserable lives, the politicians can actually do something.
I feel for the Ukranian people; their democracy is being torn from their hands, but there´s NOTHING I, personally, can do about it. So I will not let it get to me..
Having lived under a dictatorship for the past 20 years, been there, done that.
 
Hemulen

I have long believed that something like the COVID pandemic would come along and destabilize global politics and economies enough to become a tipping point toward a more devestating crisis. And it is now coming to pass.

I have seen politics in the US begin to suffer a trend toward the worse as early as the late 60s when I was still a young kid. And I knew then what I was seeing, - a political situation that was allowing influence by foreign powers, opposed to the US and democracy. And I knew then that the intents of one of our political parties to maintain power would trend toward buying votes, no matter how and what the cost. We are in the US, trending toward our greatest crisis of political and social manipulation. I prefer to stay out of it now. Things are going to get much uglier.

The Ukraine is key to Russia for its access to the Black Sea and its position with regard to piped oil. China has demonstrated how economic control can debilitate the world and Russia no doubt, sees opportunity there with regard to Europe and the Americas, as well.

I don't know how quickly things will escalate to a mindless point of global war, or if things will. I am glad I am old and that it is not my world that lies in the future, though before I pass on, I may yet be affected adversely.
 
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Chelsea under the Russian abromavich sp??. Is now under stewardship of trustees.
The oligarchy will take Putin out??
That can be the only solution.

Russ
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Yeah, that's what I meant about it being a tricky political situation. I was including the US, of course, in my NATO statement. I don't like saying or typing the words about the possibilities of what repercussions could happen if we were to intervene. Here we are, one of the biggest military powers in the world, sitting on our hands and just watching it happen. It's not like we haven't intervened before with non-NATO countries. But Russia is very powerful and their leader is obviously mentally unstable, so yeah.

An implosion and uprising from within Russia would be ideal and delusional Putin would be in disbelief.
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To be correct, the US has THE biggest military in the world. We spend obscene amounts of money on our military (that's another topic). Russia has nukes. The Russian economy is not that big, either. As measure in GDP, the State of Texas has a larger economy than Russia. Russia has nukes.

It is frustrating to see our military, and the very capable militaries of NATO, sitting on their hands, as you said. But, it is what it is.

CD
 
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Democracy will need to do the right thing at some point in history and it appears so far, it isn't going to be this time. It's a scary prospect that for sure with nukes lurking. Unfortunately it's believed Xi Jinping will see this as weakness and make a move to take Taiwan if Putin is successful. Crippling Russia's economy should be the priority and EU and the US need to find a way that can be as effective or more effective as SWIFT without the negative impact on Europe and the USA, whatever that is, it needs to happens sooner than later.
 
garlichead said:
Democracy will need to do the right thing at some point in history and it appears so far, it isn't going to be this time. It's a scary prospect that for sure with nukes lurking. Unfortunately it's believed Xi Jinping will see this as weakness and make a move to take Taiwan if Putin is successful. Crippling Russia's economy should be the priority and EU and the US need to find a way that can be as effective or more effective as SWIFT without the negative impact on Europe and the USA, whatever that is, it needs to happens sooner than later. Cheers
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The US, EU, UK and Canada agreed today to remove the key banks in Russia from SWIFT.

CD
 
caseydog said:
The US, EU, UK and Canada agreed today to remove the key banks in Russia from SWIFT.

CD
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I believe they are going to also confiscate Russian property as well, including oligarch's personal yachts, houses, bank accounts etc. It's beginning to smell like a 2nd cold war.

EDIT TO ADD: I remembered reading a few weeks ago during the Olympics that Putin moved his mega yacht from Germany while being refitted and half way through the job had it piloted back to Russia. It appears he thought that one out.
 
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