Ukraine

garlichead said:
It looks like the bully has pulled out his big stick and ordered the Russian defense minister and the chief of the military's General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a "special regime of combat duty" or "high alert". It shows weakness imo
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Quite agree. Sabre-rattling from a cowardly bully, just to make people think he´s invincible.
 
I don't see how isolating oneself and the people is going to make the lives of Russians better.
 
Rocklobster said:
I don't see how isolating oneself and the people is going to make the lives of Russians better.
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The word is 'elite-ism' and it applies to a limited number of people at the pinnacle of organizations and nations. It is a power thing that allows for promoting the dominance and lavish lifestyles of this elite. When political leaders are bottle-necked in terms of their capacity to adorn their lifestyles with luxury and pomp, they move to open up means to promote what they perceive will improve their situation. Dominance over people simply provides the means with no regard for the people. Elite-ism has always been that way and will always persist that way. Wars are a means to provide for elite-ist objectives when political and social manipulation fails.
 
Rocklobster said:
I don't see how isolating oneself and the people is going to make the lives of Russians better.
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He doesn't actually care about the Russian people.

We are at a dangerous point, demonstrably the Russian advance is not going to plan, the propaganda war has been lost, and this morning he issued a statement thanking his troops for following orders - so clearly some aren't.
This nuclear move came straight after the announcement of talks with Ukraine so could be timed to gain leverage. On the other side, European countries announcing how much hardware they are shipping to Ukraine wasn't very bright as it gives Putin a pretext to escalate.
The bit we don't know is how much confidence the military and the oligarchs still have in the Russian leader, both have much to lose now the quick, clean victory is impossible and a long war looks inevitable.
 
Due to my PTSD I had nightmares for three days after Putin's nuclear threat speech, but I've calmed down considerably now I realise he has no use for nuking the very land he wants to conquer (Europe).
So while this is still bad news (ww 3 potential and at least a long drawn out war possibly across the European continent) at least I don't feel like I have to stay on alert because the air raid sirens could go off every minute. I know, I'm probably just triggered through PTSD. But this made me feel better, because there's hope and Ukraine is fighting a very impressive fight.

I'm voting Zelensky for EU president if he survives this war, I mean what he's doing is unheard of. Fighting with his men on the ground instead of fleeing through external help. That's the kind of leader I want.
Otherwise I'm very sad for all the common people who never asked for this, every side is the wrong side to be as a civilian.
 
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.
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Sadly very few people will have any idea of how the presence of Russia affects Finland and everyday life in Finland. Most assume that Finland is anti-russia rather than needing to walk a very fine line that they do. I've been visiting Finland since 1988 so have seen it first hand and when we cycled down the Iron Curtain Cycle Trail, we saw it & experienced it first hand (even being woken during the night by border police to have our passports checked because if the proximity to the border. We were warned to be very carefully. All the warnings related to not trusting the 'wrong' people and to keep our bikes well locked up even when there was no-one around.

Having lived (in West Germany) and traveled (Czechoslovakia, then all of Eastern Europe from Estonia down to Macedonia) closely to the Iron Curtain both before and after it fell, i have some idea about your concerns and i know that they are not trivial.
Stay safe.

There's a very apt prayer that the alcoholics anonymous have (family member had a problem). At times like this though, stripping away the religious part, it is very apt.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.
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Fingers crossed for the safety of our friends who variously live in Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
 
It looks like Putin's assumption that the Ukrainian people would view him as a savior hasn't worked which has caused all sorts of problems to this point for Putin. None of the major Ukrainian cities have been taken even the ones in the North close to Russian borders. It's apparent that the people of Ukraine value the rights of the individual and Ukrainian people know that the Russian people don't count and that it's the powerful elites in Russia that matter. Ukrainians are willing to fight and die for their Country which has forced the Russian invaders to pause and now appear to be uncoordinated and frustration is setting in. There's been a run on Russian banks and billions have been pulled out of savings and the ruble has crashed. Oligarchs brains will be falling out right about now, even though most of their money is well sheltered from the sanctions it's not good for business, so we'll see what happens on that front.

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I´ve got a feeling that Putin will be hoist by his own petard...
The rouble at its lowest value vs the dollar; the economy has shrunk by 5% already; interest rates more than doubled to 20%; at least 40% of the Central Banks Treasury Fund (ie. International Reserve) is frozen.
 
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karadekoolaid said:
I´ve got a feeling that Putin will be hoist by his own petard...
The rouble at its lowest value vs the dollar; the economy has shrunk by 5% already; interest rates more than doubled to 20%; at least 40% of the Central Banks Treasury Fund (ie. International Reserve) is frozen.
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It is obvious that he made a massive miscalculation, this guy has a clear take on it. He is a left leaning broadcaster, but has a habit of getting to the heart if the issue, whether you agree with him or not.

View: https://youtu.be/gYMsgwzJ-Cw
 
Well, yes - he seems to have his theory that it´s all Trump´s fault. I suggest it´s a bit more complex than that. Putin, for all his sinister past, is about 2,000 times a better politican than the Orange-Blossomed One. In that meeting they had in 2019, I reckon Vlad probably chewed up the orange one and spat him out.
Putin has effectively "voted" himself into President-for-life; which makes him a dictator. All opposition is silenced, beaten, imprisoned, and he´s surrounded by sycophants, so he believes he can do what he wants; which is his big mistake, because the West (well, most of it) STILL has this creepy feeling about the USSR... He may be able to bully his own people into submission, but he can´t do that with the rest of the developed world because, as he learned to his chagrin today, global financial sanctions can be far more effective than idiotic guns and bombs.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Well, yes - he seems to have his theory that it´s all Trump´s fault. I suggest it´s a bit more complex than that. Putin, for all his sinister past, is about 2,000 times a better politican than the Orange-Blossomed One. In that meeting they had in 2019, I reckon Vlad probably chewed up the orange one and spat him out.
Putin has effectively "voted" himself into President-for-life; which makes him a dictator. All opposition is silenced, beaten, imprisoned, and he´s surrounded by sycophants, so he believes he can do what he wants; which is his big mistake, because the West (well, most of it) STILL has this creepy feeling about the USSR... He may be able to bully his own people into submission, but he can´t do that with the rest of the developed world because, as he learned to his chagrin today, global financial sanctions can be far more effective than idiotic guns and bombs.
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His point was that Trump is the result of Putin's plans, a useful fool. His miscalculation was that he hadn't broken western democracy as much as he thought.

On another thought, Switzerland joining in is massive, a huge turn around and a body blow for those with their billions stashed in what they believed were bullet proof accounts. In the last 24 hours we have seen the head of a Russian Bank, and the owner of the biggest aluminium producer in Russia both come out and say the war must be ended. Sanctions are working, the fear of course is how much damage Putin is willing to do on his way out.
 
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