Ukraine / Russia - Actions and Reactions
- Thread starter GURPS
- Start date
But mum’s the word from Brussels. It is a profoundly embarrassing moment for the EU. The triumphalism has vanished as Europe is threatened by years of recession caused by the blowback from sanctions against Russia, where the US insisted on the cut off of energy ties with Moscow. The EU has now become a captive market for Big Oil and is left to buy LNG from the US at the asking price, which is six to seven times higher than the domestic price in the US. (Contracted price for long-term Russian supply for Germany used to be about $280 per 1,000 cubic metres as against the current market price hovering around $2,000.)
Plainly put, the Europeans have been nicely played by the Americans. India should take note of the US’ sense of entitlement. Basically, the Biden administration created a contrived energy crisis whose real aim is war profiteering.
www.tribuneindia.com
Plainly put, the Europeans have been nicely played by the Americans. India should take note of the US’ sense of entitlement. Basically, the Biden administration created a contrived energy crisis whose real aim is war profiteering.
A war Russia set to win
Two massive terrorist strikes misfired spectacularly and a terrible beauty is born in the Ukraine war. These two carefully planned attacks in quick succession — on Nord Stream gas pipelines and Crimean Bridge — were intended as a knockout blow to Russia. According to President Vladimir P
Israel Dares to Tell Ukraine No and Under the Bus They Go
Ukraine has also been downright hostile since the war started, making rash demands of Israel and attacking them publicly for not falling in line with aid. In short, I can imagine the Israelis are now not too keen on giving valuable defensive weapons away to a nation that has not only never lifted a finger to help them but has actively worked against their security situation.
The second part of this is the fact that the Iron Dome is not designed to take down high-tech Russian weaponry over a massive land area. It’s designed to protect cities from mostly low-grade rockets. There’s also the concern of Iron Dome technology falling into the hands of Russia and thereby making its way to Iran and Hamas. Lastly, Israel only has a finite supply of Iron Dome munitions. They simply can’t afford to empty their stockpiles for what is likely a futile gesture.
The bottom line is that Israel is perfectly justified in putting its foot down here. Ukraine’s past hostility leaves it in no place to make demands. And frankly, even though I’m strongly anti-Russian aggression, the sense of entitlement from the Ukrainians is starting to wear thin. No one owes them anything, and their requests for aid should be done with humility and an acceptance of how their own past behavior may affect things. Never mind the issues of anti-Semitism that exist in Ukraine.
I thought that picture of Berlusconi was a wax mannequin.
DOJ Charges 11 With Violating Sanctions in Schemes to Help Russia's Military
Justice, Russia, Ukraine War, Oil, Sanctions
AllSides Summary
The Justice Department charged 11 foreign nationals - five Russians, two Venezuelans, three Latvians, and a Ukrainian - for allegedly evading international sanctions to try and help Russia's war effort in Ukraine.Key Quotes: The charges are for allegedly "participating in unlawful schemes to export powerful, civil-military, dual-use technologies to Russia," the Justice Department said in a press release, and the people charged allegedly "obtained military technology from U.S. companies, smuggled millions of barrels of oil, and laundered tens of millions of dollars for Russian industrialists, sanctioned entities, and the world’s largest energy conglomerate." A Kremlin spokesperson said that "the cynicism of this situation is that it is about taking hostages for further political gain."
For Context: Some of the equipment sent to Russia through the scheme has been found in Russian weapons seized in Ukraine, prosecutors said. The oil was allegedly smuggled from Venezuela through Beijing on behalf of an unnamed Russian oligarch. The U.S. has levied heavy sanctions against Russian companies and business leaders, significantly limiting the extent of any business relationships between the U.S. and Russia.
How the Media Covered It: Reports from sources across the political spectrum highlighted similar details about the alleged crimes.
War Crimes
Well, here’s a video shared today online by Maksim Zhorin, a former officer of the Ukraine Interior Ministry’s Azov brigade (I don’t know who filmed the video.)
Like many if not most among the Azov, Zhorin has a purely Russian name, but chose to make a career within the most aggressive element of the Ukrainian political tribe.
Zhorin is one of the “original” Azov members, a longtime Azov talking head, and he remains a grandaddy or godfather of the Azov movement and its local “Kraken” affiliate in Kharkov city.
(The Kraken are the ones who were filmed shooting Russian POWs in late March or so.)
His video likely shows suspected Russian collaborators/sympathizers being dumped into a pit in Kharkov region.
(AFTER the video got around the world, Zhorin added a comment that the footage was taken from some Russian soldier’s phone, LOL. Yeah, didn’t see a need to make that clear when he posted it. I’d like to see that chain of custody. Let’s start with, you know, like, the guy’s name.)
As I’ve mentioned in the past, they can “get away” with filming and posting anything at all, because the MSM will ignore it, the Ukraine is holy and untouchable.
As with the killings of Russian POW’s, these fools put anything online, with no thought at all.
What are the chances that the MSM picks up, not just mentions (if they do even that) but really runs with this video?
This is literally the FIRST AND ONLY video I’m aware of, of a civilian (a younger female, no less) being thrown into a pit, hands tied behind the back, bouncing 30 feet down the slope like a rag doll, it’s obviously real.
I mean, this is a big deal. We have all these accusations, and then BOOM…..
…..after seven and a half months, FINALLY a video showing a mass grave being “filled” with individually-executed, civilian persons in REAL-TIME. Wow!
And, oddly enough, it’s posted online not by some “top-level Ukrainian war crimes prosecutor”, but by an Azov-Kraken sketchball! Evidently, it was just getting passed around in his circle… Why not put it on TikTok?
Will the MSM say this video was made by Russians, or ignore it? LOL.
Washington's Whoppers on the War in Ukraine
Criticisms of Russia’s military action as brutal and over-the-top are entirely justified. The argument that it was utterly unprovoked, however, is misleading at best and an outright falsehood at worst. Respected analysts had warned for more than a quarter century that expanding NATO eastward to Russia’s border would turn out badly, no matter who ruled in Moscow, since the move was inherently menacing and intruded on important Russian interests. Yet, multiple U.S. administrations casually spurned those recommendations for caution. Indeed, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administration policymakers continued to push for Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO, despite the Kremlin’s repeated and steadily escalating warnings that such a step would cross a red line and trigger a crisis.
Critics who dare contend that such Western actions constituted unwise provocations and were a major factor in the breakdown of East-West relations have been subjected to a barrage of vilification, led by the Biden administration. The favorite allegation is that they are echoing “Putin’s talking points.” The historical record, however, contains abundant evidence against such a simplistic smear.
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However, the notion that Ukraine is a democracy—much less a liberal democracy—is belied by extensive facts. Even during the early years after the 2014 “Maidan Revolution,” there were numerous worrisome features to Kyiv’s conduct. The new government under President Petro Poroshenko implemented onerous censorship measures, harassed and even jailed regime critics, shelled civilians in the secessionist Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and continued the systematic corruption that had plagued Ukraine since it became independent in 1991. Those trends have persisted under current President Volodymyr Zelensky.
By the standards of corruption and political freedom alone, Ukraine was not a liberal democracy even before the war with Russia began. The annual report on corruption put out by Transparency International, published in early 2022, should have been extremely sobering to Ukraine’s defenders. Transparency evaluated 180 countries, and on a 1 to 180 scale, with 1 being the country with the least corruption. Ukraine ranked 122, just 14 points better than notoriously corrupt Russia.
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Zelensky and his colleagues have no tolerance for critics, domestic or foreign. The willingness to target and attempt to intimidate foreign critics became abundantly clear this summer when his government’s Center for Countering Disinformation (partly funded by U.S. taxpayers, no less) published a “blacklist” of such opponents. Numerous prominent Americans were on that list, including University of Chicago Professor (and the dean of foreign policy realists), John Mearsheimer, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Doug Bandow. The ominous, threatening nature of the blacklist became even clearer in late September, when the CCD issued a revised roster (including addresses) of the top 35 targets in early October. That narrower, high-priority list denounced those critics as “disinformation terrorists” and “war criminals.” Such conduct definitely is not consistent with the behavior of a liberal democracy. Yet official Washington and its media echo chamber persist in trying to market that whopper.
Washington’s pervasive, dishonest propaganda campaign is certain to continue, aided and abetted by a shamelessly pro-war news media. The more pertinent question is whether the American people will wake up and realize that they’ve been deceived yet again about a dubious U.S. overseas intervention on behalf of an even more dubious foreign client.
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SamSpade
Well-Known Member
From my perspective, corrupt or not - after all, we do defend our other allies around the world irrespective of their internal corruption - Ukraine WAS attacked without provocation. Unless you count trying to reclaim territories Russia just simply invaded and took, outright.
The WHOLE PURPOSE of NATO is to keep the Russian tanks from pouring into neighboring countries, whether that country is West Germany or a prior member of the Eastern Bloc that belongs to NATO. It exists purely to defend from Russian attack.
So I don't QUITE get the idea that joining an organization whose raison d'etre is to defend from attack is provocative, except - this is Russia. I remember back in the 60's and 70's when we were constructing defenses to protect us from missiles that Moscow was enraged that we would build such a thing. Can you see my point? If you never ever EVER have any intention of attacking someone, the fact that they build a strong defense should make you shrug your shoulders and think "let them waste THEIR money, it's not my problem".
Russia has the same problem most self-absorbed juveniles have - they believe the world is brimming with enemies eager to destroy them. This is like Cobra Kai thinking Daniel LaRusso is "provocative" because he takes Karate lessons from Mr. Miyagi. A step wholly unnecessary if they intend him no harm.
Right now, among other members - NATO consists of almost all of Western Europe, including all of the former Soviet bloc and a few former Soviet Socialist Republics.
I get we would never tolerate either Canada or Mexico joining forces with Russia. After all, we didn't tolerate it in Cuba WHEN THERE WERE MISSILES POINTING AT US. After a while, we just let them do what they wanted. Russia has been disgruntled over the admission of their former satellites, but it's not as though they haven't been rattling their sabers.
Putin has made no secret that he wants the old regime back. This war is entirely on Russia's part - they even went so far as to vigoruously deny they had any intention of invading, dismissing the notion while their forces amassed across the border. Why would you lie so brazenly if your motivation was some kind of righteous cause?
I think their brutal actions in Ukraine speak for themselves.
The WHOLE PURPOSE of NATO is to keep the Russian tanks from pouring into neighboring countries, whether that country is West Germany or a prior member of the Eastern Bloc that belongs to NATO. It exists purely to defend from Russian attack.
So I don't QUITE get the idea that joining an organization whose raison d'etre is to defend from attack is provocative, except - this is Russia. I remember back in the 60's and 70's when we were constructing defenses to protect us from missiles that Moscow was enraged that we would build such a thing. Can you see my point? If you never ever EVER have any intention of attacking someone, the fact that they build a strong defense should make you shrug your shoulders and think "let them waste THEIR money, it's not my problem".
Russia has the same problem most self-absorbed juveniles have - they believe the world is brimming with enemies eager to destroy them. This is like Cobra Kai thinking Daniel LaRusso is "provocative" because he takes Karate lessons from Mr. Miyagi. A step wholly unnecessary if they intend him no harm.
Right now, among other members - NATO consists of almost all of Western Europe, including all of the former Soviet bloc and a few former Soviet Socialist Republics.
I get we would never tolerate either Canada or Mexico joining forces with Russia. After all, we didn't tolerate it in Cuba WHEN THERE WERE MISSILES POINTING AT US. After a while, we just let them do what they wanted. Russia has been disgruntled over the admission of their former satellites, but it's not as though they haven't been rattling their sabers.
Putin has made no secret that he wants the old regime back. This war is entirely on Russia's part - they even went so far as to vigoruously deny they had any intention of invading, dismissing the notion while their forces amassed across the border. Why would you lie so brazenly if your motivation was some kind of righteous cause?
I think their brutal actions in Ukraine speak for themselves.
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Can you blame them ? Russia is in the top 5 of most invaded nations in all of History, and was specifically told at the collapse of the Soviet Union, in exchange for dismantling Nukes in Ukrainian NATO / EU would NOT Expand Eastward ...
NO city in Ukraine is worth ANY American City PERIOD, sorry sucks to be them, we need to stop funding this war, Ukraine is not going to win.
vs 
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
But Ukraine can do what so many other nations have been able to do - OUTLAST them. Both Russia and the U.S. lost in Afghanistan. We lost in Vietnam. This is exactly how weak nations defeat stronger ones. Russians are increasingly less interested in sending men to a meat grinder for no reason.
Believe it or not, one of the BIGGEST reasons we won the Revolution against a far superior power - among lots of things - was that the English people were tired of war, and tired of sending men across the ocean to fight a war that could go on forever. It actually couldn't, but we were willing to fight MUCH LONGER than they were prepared to continue. Merchants were worried that continued animosity would permanently injure their trade; there was worry that continued fighting would deplete their ability to maintain order in the West Indies and elsewhere. There was unrest very early in the war, and by the time of Yorktown, the British people really had had enough of it.
No Americans are in this fight - at least, not at the behest of our government. No American city will pay the price. Continuing to support the Ukrainians drains Russia and deters China. Russia is fast depleting its supply of trained men and well maintained military equipment. The longer this war persists, the weaker they become, and the more likely Putin will be gone. I don't see a downside. Right now, Russia is sending its GREENEST TROOPS right up to the front to protect a withdrawal. They're cannon fodder. I don't see this ending well, for Russia.
For another - believe it or not, our European allies are FINALLY stepping up to the plate and doing their share. It took something like this to make them realize why NATO exists at all.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
They didn't use them in Afghanistan, and we WERE helping the mujahideen.
We've got to find a way around capitulating to a power because they have nukes. Not Russia, not China, not North Korea.