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The next 48 hours is everything here. Military intervention is seemingly not an option so the raft of sanctions will have to be monumental and the crippling of the Russian economy pretty immediate and profound if it is to have any real effect.
I think this is definitely the case, I think the Ukrainians will put up a fight but the way the Russians are rolling into the country from numerous directions makes me feel they will quickly be overwhelmed and could be overridden in a matter in less than a week or so. I really hope I am wrong.
Of course Russia will roll in and "win" - they are one of the biggest armed countries in the world.
However what Russia has done is invade a country which hasn't been hostile to them, alas when Saddam invaded Kuwait.
They have broken every rule within the UN so sanctions and wrecking them financially will have to happen first. The Russians will be prepared for this surely though so what effect it has who knows. Then where does it stop, does Western europe and America form a coalition military wise (already NATO) as they did with Iraq in 1991 as surely invasions like this can't just happen without consequences. As soon as that happens Putin starts firing ICBM's towards us all then as he sees outside alliances attacking Russia.
The man is mad but he's doing it. He's called everyone's bluff, surely the Russian people don't want this.
Gary Kasparov has been going on about Putin for years.
Of course he tried to stand as a political opponent to him briefly, but corruption meant that he was prevented from doing so.
This isn't a problem that has emerged overnight, the west's continual weak responses to increasing aggression has emboldened putin
Kasparov's book "winter is coming" published back in 2015
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...nter-is-coming
Foresaw a lot of what was happening, and lays the blame at the west
It would be interesting to find out if you have the same opinion of the elderly if and when you reach a grand old age. I think not.
As has been said, the responsibility for the current situation lies with one man, Putin. Not the Tories, Brexit or anything or anyone else, just the Russian President.
Doucus would blame Huddersfield's two late goals on the Tories, it really isn't worth engaging, unfortunately.
The irony being, that he parrots precisely the kind of disinformation that people like Putin thrive upon and in many cases pump out into twitter in the first place.
I expected Putin to carry out a Crimea-style annexation of the majority ethnic Russian eastern areas of Ukraine, alongside a unification with Byelorussia now the opposition have been suppressed.
But the very recent rhetoric and some of the attacks today suggest a much bigger ambition.
RT is running loads of old 'news' clips (from 3-4 years ago mainly) of alleged attacks on ethnic Russians in the Donbas region - backing up his 'genocide' claims. But the focus is ramping up on the legitimacy and political character of the whole Ukraine - repeating his public statements from years back that Ukraine was subject to a 'fascist' coup and the regime is backed by neo-Nazi militias (the Azov Battalion and others). That is also the theme of state-media coverage within Russia itself, and what the Russian public are soaking up.
Biden was more on the ball than other western leaders in predicting this latest stage, but it feels like all of them (US, UK, EU, NATO) have been caught by surprise. Was Putin's comment (very Trump-like I thought) about retaliation against outside interference a nuclear threat? So far there has been a kind of logic and rationality to his moves - but that (even just a vague threat left hanging) would be pure madness.
My guess and hope is that Putin knows just to what extent he can get away with his incursion into Ukraine and will not breach tacit red lines in the expectation he will get his way with the diplomacy which will inevitably follow. If that's his game then there will be no military action performed by the West.
However, if what some commentators are saying is true then the situation may become very grave. It's reported that Putin is now more concerned about his legacy and wants to reset the status quo. It's thought he is not entirely in command of his thought processes and could be prepared to go further than common sense dictates.
Should he feel bold enough to launch an attack on a NATO state then the repercussions could be awful. If he feels emboldened by his action in Ukraine who knows he might just decide to annexe the Baltic States for example. The potential for utter disaster is clear to see.
Not being funny, but get some cash under the mattress. There will definitely be cyber attacks on banks and infrastructure if the west turn the financial screw.And look what happened under a pandemic..No bog roll and pasta.
Hopefully cut Russian organizations from SWIFT.
I am not his biggest fan, and thought he should have gone during party gate. But does anyone else feel satisfied with Boris managing this situation. Listening to him speak today, this is his type of politics and what seems to spark him into life. Much like his hero Winston, maybe not the best peacetime leader, but comes to life when a strong hand is needed.