Ukraine

[Heathrow fox]

5 hours ago, st albans fox said:

i think that there is a fair bit of diplomatic frustration across the continent with the germans.  i heard yesterday about the us trained ukraine army general (ex georgian) who had been under house arrest in a german hotel until a few weeks ago following a request from the russians in december ..wasn't released until a few weeks after the invasion i think ......

With German inflation hitting record highs on some measures it’s hardly surprising.

[Jon the Hat]

44 minutes ago, Heathrow fox said:

With German inflation hitting record highs on some measures it’s hardly surprising.

It’s taken a huge leap for Germany to acknowledge that it’s strategy of the last 30 years has only served to enrich an enemy.  Hopefully now they’ve done that some more real support follows.

[leicsmac]

On a related note, Garry Kasparov has been talking about the way things played out here for years.

 

I had to say I thought he was scaremongering, but he's certainly been proven right. He'd perhaps make a capable figure at high levels of government one day.

[MPH]

55 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

On a related note, Garry Kasparov has been talking about the way things played out here for years.

 

I had to say I thought he was scaremongering, but he's certainly been proven right. He'd perhaps make a capable figure at high levels of government one day.

 

i actually fear for his safety. He’s not just an opposition leader he’s a very intelligent opposition leader AND  a great communicator.

[leicsmac]

8 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

i actually fear for his safety. He’s not just an opposition leader he’s a very intelligent opposition leader AND  a great communicator.

You'd hope that he is all too aware of that and is taking as many precautions as he can.

[gerblod]

7 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

It’s taken a huge leap for Germany to acknowledge that it’s strategy of the last 30 years has only served to enrich an enemy.  Hopefully now they’ve done that some more real support follows.

The 'strategy' as you term it, was not in any way a form of appeasement. In 1989/90 western Germany was left with the challenge of levelling up a decrepit eastern sector - which has cost billions to do and is still not completed.

German governments knew that military neutrality was essential as their reputation as aggressors was still in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus's consciousness.

Germany would have been the battleground of the Third World War with the use of tactical nuclear weapons as an option. Germany was going to be the front line where the US met the Soviet Union. It was also the gateway to invading Western Europe.

All the Kanzellors from Adenauer to Merkel had two aims - to reintegrate Germany into the community of nations and not to give the Soviet Union/Russia reason to turn aggressor.

There are still many people alive today in the east of Germany who will recall, as the Ukrainians are finding out now, what happens when the Russian barbarians invade.

Every country in Europe has had a hand, large or small, in enriching Russia. The US have had huge trade deals with Russia.

The huge problem is that it's a mediaeval state existing next door to a world trying to become civilised. Maybe sanctions are the only way to squeeze Putin out of it and introduce real democracy. 

 

[Jon the Hat]

38 minutes ago, gerblod said:

The 'strategy' as you term it, was not in any way a form of appeasement. In 1989/90 western Germany was left with the challenge of levelling up a decrepit eastern sector - which has cost billions to do and is still not completed.

German governments knew that military neutrality was essential as their reputation as aggressors was still in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus's consciousness.

Germany would have been the battleground of the Third World War with the use of tactical nuclear weapons as an option. Germany was going to be the front line where the US met the Soviet Union. It was also the gateway to invading Western Europe.

All the Kanzellors from Adenauer to Merkel had two aims - to reintegrate Germany into the community of nations and not to give the Soviet Union/Russia reason to turn aggressor.

There are still many people alive today in the east of Germany who will recall, as the Ukrainians are finding out now, what happens when the Russian barbarians invade.

Every country in Europe has had a hand, large or small, in enriching Russia. The US have had huge trade deals with Russia.

The huge problem is that it's a mediaeval state existing next door to a world trying to become civilised. Maybe sanctions are the only way to squeeze Putin out of it and introduce real democracy. 

I agree Germany has been in a challenging position since the end of the cold war, however it is hard to look back at the dependence on Russian Oil and Gas in particular as anything other than a mistake.  Failure to replace aging nuclear power with modern equivalent but instead to switch to Gas must have assumed that Russian reliance on that money would tie them into the international community and keep them on the straight an narrow.  In retrospect that was incorrect, and fair play to the German leadership for recognizing that.

[Legend_in_blue]

It's quite clear from today's PR stunt that he is ill.  His posture looks totally off at that table.  Watch it back a couple of times, he's sitting in an uncomfortable and unnatural position.

[MPH]

I should be able to manage the new model kit that’s out…

 

 

[SpacedX]

14 hours ago, leicsmac said:

On a related note, Garry Kasparov has been talking about the way things played out here for years.

 

I had to say I thought he was scaremongering, but he's certainly been proven right. He'd perhaps make a capable figure at high levels of government one day.

You are absolutely right. I mentioned this on one of the two deleted threads. Current events prompted me to revisit 2015's 'Winter is Coming' and although like Edward Lucas, extremely one sided, the sagacity is striking. Recommended...

 

 

 

[Parafox]

2 hours ago, MPH said:

I should be able to manage the new model kit that’s out…

 

 

I can guarantee there will be some pieces missing and you'll need special glue to hold it together.

[MPH]

1 hour ago, Parafox said:

I can guarantee there will be some pieces missing and you'll need special glue to hold it together.

 

 I once glued my fingers together during a home repair. I think I’m well qualified to work in the Russian engineering industry!

[Lionator]

6 hours ago, Legend_in_blue said:

It's quite clear from today's PR stunt that he is ill.  His posture looks totally off at that table.  Watch it back a couple of times, he's sitting in an uncomfortable and unnatural position.

I think the Parkinson’s rumours are likely correct, doubt anything will happen to him soon but I’m assuming he wants Ukraine ‘sorting’ in case anything does happen to him. 
 

Also I’m not sure I agree with the comments here about Kasparov, if we had listened to him on February 24th, we’d have been nuked by now. 

[MPH]

17 minutes ago, Lionator said:

I think the Parkinson’s rumours are likely correct, doubt anything will happen to him soon but I’m assuming he wants Ukraine ‘sorting’ in case anything does happen to him. 
 

Also I’m not sure I agree with the comments here about Kasparov, if we had listened to him on February 24th, we’d have been nuked by now. 

 

My guess is cancer. The more puffy face is indicative of either a long course of steroids or chemotherapy. If you have cancer you often get both treatments. Looking at how he’s sitting  It could beRectal cancer ! He looks like he’s in pain

[SpacedX]

23 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Also I’m not sure I agree with the comments here about Kasparov, if we had listened to him on February 24th, we’d have been nuked by now. 

?

 

Not sure I'm with you here. The comments simply refer to the fact that he saw this coming long ago - that's all. 

[Lionator]

33 minutes ago, Line-X said:

?

 

Not sure I'm with you here. The comments simply refer to the fact that he saw this coming long ago - that's all. 

Yeah the comments here were but Kasparov was openly calling for NATO to declare war on Russia and to take Putin out. 

[SpacedX]

Just now, Lionator said:

Yeah the comments here were but Kasparov was openly calling for NATO to declare war on Russia and to take Putin out. 

You said 'the comments here'. That's all we were saying though, that his predictions had been right for years - as opposed to his call for all out war with Russia.

[SpacedX]

It's almost impossible to comprehend the sheer bravery of the remaining fighters in the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol. There's very little of the wider complex remaining above ground due to relentless bombardment from warships and bunker busting bombs, but below runs a rabbit warren of tunnels, basements and bunkers. Russia knowns that if they attempted to storm the Azovstal region that it is so well defended by the Azov Battalion that they would sustain very heavy losses, so they intend to starve them out instead then. The concern is the high number of civilians trapped in the region. If a ceasefire could be arranged then some could be evacuated, but the terms of this would only be surrender, whilst the Ukrainian people don't trust the Russian invaders and in order for them to be given safe passage out of the steelworks it would need for a third country or an international body to act as a guarantor for their safety - which isn't about to happen. They are reportedly terrified of torture and murder at the hands of Russian troops or deportation to Russia through the newly established filtration camps.In the meantime, there are women and children trapped beneath rubble and within collapsed buildings that are impossible to reach in addition to the injured and wounded that are unable to access medical treatment. Supplies will eventually run out. 

 

This is utterly horrific.  

[Bellend Sebastian]

18 hours ago, Legend_in_blue said:

It's quite clear from today's PR stunt that he is ill.  His posture looks totally off at that table.  Watch it back a couple of times, he's sitting in an uncomfortable and unnatural position.

Just watched this, blimey, what a state.

 

It's like they've transplanted his head on to a really rubbish robot body where the only bits that actually move a bit are his hand and foot

[MPH]

Russia aims to seize southern Ukraine and to open a route to the separatist region of Transnistria in Moldova, a senior Russian general says. 
 

Ukraine war: Russia 'plans to seize southern Ukraine' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61188943

[Spiritwalker]

This has now become a war that the West cannot afford Russia to win. 
NATO countries had fallen for Putin’s Nuclear bluff and have been too

shy with the types of weapons supplied to defend Ukraine. I think they

may now realise this was wrong, let’s hope it’s not too little too late.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, Spiritwalker said:

This has now become a war that the West cannot afford Russia to win. 
NATO countries had fallen for Putin’s Nuclear bluff and have been too

shy with the types of weapons supplied to defend Ukraine. I think they

may now realise this was wrong, let’s hope it’s not too little too late.

Obviously agree with the first sentence, but I'd really like to know where people get the certainty about the bolded here and think that Putin, either through miscalculation or flat out insanity, wouldn't make the choice to set civilisation back hundreds of years.

 

What makes folks so sure that it's a bluff that they're willing to stake the future of civilisation on it?

[Legend_in_blue]

The reports regarding the SAS and "sabotage" are concerning.  

[Zear0]

6 hours ago, Legend_in_blue said:

The reports regarding the SAS and "sabotage" are concerning.  

I'd be extremely surprised if they weren't present given their previous operational history. 

[Spiritwalker]

9 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Obviously agree with the first sentence, but I'd really like to know where people get the certainty about the bolded here and think that Putin, either through miscalculation or flat out insanity, wouldn't make the choice to set civilisation back hundreds of years.

 

What makes folks so sure that it's a bluff that they're willing to stake the future of civilisation on it?

I can’t be sure and neither can anyone else be, that’s why it’s such a very good bluff.