Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

[goats]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

As long as your comfortable playing nuclear chicken with a 70 year old nutter with a god complex.

Maybe Bulgaria, Romania next? Do they want to go back under the iron curtain? Ukraine certainly doesn’t…..maybe the Russian people will rise up? They’ll soon be banned from going anywhere or partaking in anything.

[ninian opinian]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

This has been coming for years. This UK government is up to its neck in money from Putins mates. Christ they even put one of them in the House of Lords. London the money laundering capital of the world. Interference in elections. Turning a blind eye has come back and bitten us on the arse. Anyone for tennis!!!

[MOZZER2]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

BREAKING: Ukraine says it has killed fifty Russian soldiers and shot down six planes

[Wales-Bales]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

BREAKING: Ukraine says it has killed fifty Russian soldiers and shot down six planes

I read five jets and one helicopter?

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Maybe Bulgaria, Romania next? Do they want to go back under the iron curtain? Ukraine certainly doesn’t…..maybe the Russian people will rise up? They’ll soon be banned from going anywhere or partaking in anything.

Unlike Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania are members of NATO. Invading either of those two countries would be on a different level altogether.

[Wales-Bales]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Unlike Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania are members of NATO. Invading either of those two countries would be on a different level altogether.

Whose side is China on?

[fingers]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

This has been coming for years. This UK government is up to its neck in money from Putins mates. Christ they even put one of them in the House of Lords. London the money laundering capital of the world. Interference in elections. Turning a blind eye has come back and bitten us on the arse. Anyone for tennis!!!

Putin's played the long game. He had a 10 year plan. Funded Brexit to create disharmony in Europe, fund Trump's conspiracy plans and anarchy in America, make countries such as Germany dependant on Russian oil so they don't want sanctions. UK did **** all when Russian spies poisoned brits on UK soil. We did **** all when Russia bombed Syria. He has played us for fools, tested the water in the Crimea. He has China as an ally, supporting their lack of human rights. He funded oligarchs to fund the Tory party. So now he knows he can just do what the hell he likes.

[Wales-Bales]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Putin's played the long game. He had a 10 year plan. Funded Brexit to create disharmony in Europe, fund Trump's conspiracy plans and anarchy in America, make countries such as Germany dependant on Russian oil so they don't want sanctions. UK did **** all when Russian spies poisoned brits on UK soil. We did **** all when Russia bombed Syria. He has played us for fools, tested the water in the Crimea. He has China as an ally, supporting their lack of human rights. He funded oligarchs to fund the Tory party. So now he knows he can just do what the hell he likes.

Merkel was advised not to do the gas deal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50875935

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

A good article regarding sanctions on Russia’s oligarchs, courtesy of the Guardian:

Putin allows them to prosper on two conditions: that they cough up the cash when he needs it, and that they stay out of politics. The idea that they influence his policies is pure fantasy. The proof of that is that sanctions regularly meted out on oligarchs since 2014 have made not one jot of difference to Putin’s policies.

However, there is a much bolder and more imaginative approach. Russia’s ruling class – the members of the Duma, the Senate, the presidential council, the top echelons of the security and defence services, top state television employees – is several thousands strong. These men (and some women) draft, rubber-stamp, promote and carry out Putin’s decisions. Some of them also – unlike the oligarchs – actually advise him.
Being a member of the Duma or Senate is a pretty cushy number – you are well-paid, you can make an occasional speech if you wish, but you are basically there to vote for the Kremlin’s decisions, and, above all, you can extort as many bribes as you can cope with. (For this reason they are detested by a majority of Russians.) Members of the presidential council are civil servants, essential for the preparation of legislation. The security services play crucial roles in executing Putin’s vision. And TV propagandists spread disinformation.

These are the people to target – because when several thousand of the people Putin actually depends on begin to feel the consequences of his policies in their personal lives, there will be a groundswell of discontent.

Most of these people love to travel to Europe and the US. They educate their children here. They own properties here. The members of the Russian elite, their families and children, love to swan around on yachts, ski slopes and fine hotels in the west, posting pictures of themselves on Instagram. If they are denied visas to travel to the west – if they are effectively imprisoned in Russia – it will not take long for the discontent to permeate the entire political class. The message to them will be clear: if you want to enjoy your western lifestyles, you need a new leader who respects western values; until then, you’re banned.

The added value of this approach is that, unlike some economic sanctions, it will not harm ordinary Russians, in fact, it will delight them.

[Rjk]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Whose side is China on?

china is on China's side

[goats]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Putin's played the long game. He had a 10 year plan. Funded Brexit to create disharmony in Europe, fund Trump's conspiracy plans and anarchy in America, make countries such as Germany dependant on Russian oil so they don't want sanctions. UK did **** all when Russian spies poisoned brits on UK soil. We did **** all when Russia bombed Syria. He has played us for fools, tested the water in the Crimea. He has China as an ally, supporting their lack of human rights. He funded oligarchs to fund the Tory party. So now he knows he can just do what the hell he likes.

All that just for a never ending war with Ukraine? Strange

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Whose side is China on?

China is involved in its own expansion project in the Pacific and claiming territorial waters and islands not nternationally recognised as belonging to them hitherto - and Taiwan is a long-term desired acquisition for them.

[Rjk]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

China is involved in its own expansion project in the Pacific and claiming territorial waters and islands not nternationally recognised as belonging to them hitherto - and Taiwan is a long-term desired acquisition for them.

it could well be that China will use the west's focus on Russia as the opportunity it needs to conduct further expansion.

I'm absolutely not an expert， but from my very limited guesswork I think it would most likely involve consolidating it's controversial territorial waters claims, and displaying more overt control over Hong Kong and Macau .
just my feeling bit I think they're prepared to play the long game with Taiwan - it isn't going anywhere.

[Divine Wright]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Unlike Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania are members of NATO. Invading either of those two countries would be on a different level altogether.

I wouldn't put it past Putin at this point.

[blue matt]

Re: Ukraine Conflict Getting Very Close

Unlike Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania are members of NATO. Invading either of those two countries would be on a different level altogether.

and that is why any country on the Russian border needed to get under the umbrella

would it have made a difference ? ? ? he certainly wouldn't have had free rein to roll in tanks thats for sure