Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727214#Comment_118727214

As opposed to the proof that Putin provided of Nazis and Ukrainian citizens being used as human shields, of course.

gandalf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727170#Comment_118727170

For me it looks like he has a health issue that means he is immunosuppressed. Potentially a chronic or terminal illness. He looks like he is puffy which is a sign of steroids which could be part of his treatment. He was an evil piece of excrement before this illness but it appears to be evil X 2 now.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727193#Comment_118727193

It's absolutely not the case that one man gives an order and its automatically carried out, no questions asked. Such a scenario is absurd.

I'm not arguing that point. You could say the same in Russia though. The only input the Chain of Command in the US get is whether or not it is a legal order. That is it. Had Bush decided "**** it" and ordered a nuclear strike of Iraq during the invasion it would have required an illegal break in the chain of command to stop it. I think that would have been likely, and perhaps that would give time for congress/cabinet to step in but that is what you are relying on.

The fundamental point underlying all this is that you do not need to follow an illegal order - but that is true the whole way up and down the chain of command in both US and Russia. The US system has absolutely terrible oversight in general and there is a reason that many are pushing to change it.

Ninthlife

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118726998#Comment_118726998

My point being something as extreme as a nuke wouldnt be necessary to cause disruption.

Anyway again its fantasy stuff. The thread is far better when facts are being discussed and there are updates from the various social media platforms

eggy81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118726360#Comment_118726360

cant go in all guns blazing. We all die in that event. Have to concede, live to fight another day and develop a plant to take the bastard out somehow.

GM228

That's Georgia and Moldova for EU membership, who's next?

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727233#Comment_118727233

Sadly many Russians will believe it. According to my Russian colleagues, many Russians know their own leadership aren't angels, but they always assume the West is "just as bad" and up to the same or worse dirty tricks. There wasn't much of a gap between Soviet brainwashing and the modern brainwashing of the Putin regime.

Mecanudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727207#Comment_118727207

This was the the statement delivered by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova last week regarding Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

"if Finland and Sweden join NATO, which is first of all a military organization, it will entail serious military-political consequences, which would require retaliatory steps by the Russian Federation,”

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727150#Comment_118727150

Mad how 'his people' are fleeing in their hundreds of thousands, but not to their brothers in Russia. Funny that....

gandalf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727279#Comment_118727279

If Finland & Sweden join NATO there is nothing the Russians could do to them.

Tbh all a statement like the one above does is demonstrate why a neighbour of Russia needs to join NATO.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727209#Comment_118727209

Oliver Stone seemed quite taken with Putin. He went on the Stephen Colbert show to promote the documentary and Colbert's basically anti-Putin stance made for a pretty terse interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6XQOD-7VhA

But that was all in the past. It would be one thing to try and see Putin's point of view back then, but Stone's latest Twitter post doesn't condemn Putin's actions even now, which makes it hard for me to take him seriously. Whatever you want to say about the nuance of the situation, or equivocate between what America or the West has done in the past, if you don't at least start with condemning Putin's giving a directive to go and level Ukraine, then that's pretty heartless.

https://twitter.com/TheOliverStone/status/1497631257940807683

Dohnjoe

"A leader of Ukraine’s Muslim community, Sheikh Said Ismagilov, made an address to Russian Muslims serving as soldiers, asking: “Why did you come to kill us?”

He said Ukraine does not need “saving” - as per Vladimir Putin’s rationale for his invasion - and asked Muslims around the world to support Ukraine’s fight for survival."

Yeah, no, we don't need any of this. Russian will immediately claim that ISIS is in Ukraine if this occurs, and use that as a pre-text for even more attacks on civilians and infrastructure.

GM228

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727214#Comment_118727214

Russia has always been one to deny what was happening even when the whole world knew the truth, remember Chernobyl (yes it's in Ukraine, but then part of the USSR and under the control of Moscow) how long did it take the Kremlin to admit what actually happened?

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727214#Comment_118727214

"I also studied at the Faculty of International Information..."

Poor lass probably did 5 years to gain a masters degree only to get wheeled out to feed the global press pure shite.

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727268#Comment_118727268

During the early 80s large numbers of Irish and British went to Germany when a building boom kicked off ,

Give it 18 months and the grandkids of those builders will be back in Germany building a large wall to keep the west out again!

Richard Hillman

I can't help but feel this is only the beginning. Russia doesn't have a viable out at this stage. There's no way back for the Putin Regime to return to the international community.

The only way this stops is if the big man in Beijing puts an end to it. But always said, China plays the long game. Russia have burned their bridges with everyone bar China, Pakistan and India. Half of the planet. Xi will see ultimate weakness on the behalf of Russia and sees opportunity.

So essentially, there is no out from this. Ukraine absolutely deleted off the map. Moldova gone. Georgia gone. Russia back to Soviet times.

Mecanudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727291#Comment_118727291

The underlying gist of that little speech is that Russia (aka Putin) is saying that if either country applies for NATO membership - it's open season (a la Ukraine) for a military strike / invasion or whatever you're having yourself

Dohnjoe

The entire staff of Russian TV station "The Rain" just resigned. They end with the words "No War" and played Swan Lake as they left (Which all USSR channels did when it collapsed)

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727291#Comment_118727291

How long would it take for them to make the decision, ratify it, submit the request and for it to be accepted by NATO?

Parliament debate, referendum?, NATO process. 3 -12 months?

MadYaker

Haha, I lived in Finland for a while. They are nuts, they all have guns, all males aged 18 or over have to do a minimum of 165 days of military service and they've been preparing for a Russian invasion since the last time the Russians invaded in WW2. Not to mention they are E.U members. I don't Putin would be mad enough to try it.

eire4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118726075#Comment_118726075

I think your right there. For me the bigger issue was fear of democracy. Its one thing for the authoritarian dictator in Moscow to see the Baltic nations doing relatively well economically and free it would be a whole different ball game if a country the size and population of Ukraine was to develop into a relatively successful and prosperous democracy in contrast to his repressive regime and the poor economy he presides over in Russia.

TheValeyard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727335#Comment_118727335

As someone else recently said,

Theres already a lot of Russian soldiers in Finland, they just happen to be 6ft down.

eastie17

I still think, and i know the risk, NATO aircraft should be assisting in Ukraine. If they went at it hard that convoy would be gone in a few days.

So they are essentially balancing between letting people die now and hoping sanctions and other pressures stop him at some stage OR provide military pressure now which would probably prevent some of those deaths but risks potentially increasing deaths in another country if he strikes there

People are dieing and are going to continue to die and at some stage because of Russia and Putin, NATO are going to have to intervene at some stage, its almost a case of where do you want your deaths

Heraclius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727333#Comment_118727333

I suspect they will sign bilateral defense treaties with the US. They can join NATO at their leisure then. Tbh they need to get off their arses and do it

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727182#Comment_118727182

*cocks pistol*

"I said said hop in"

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727341#Comment_118727341

If Putin fears democracy, I wonder if its because he fears he would lose power in an open and democratic Russia, or because he thinks that Russia cannot hold together under if it were to try and adopt the model of, say, Denmark? Putin has perhaps looked at Russia's attempt to become more westernised in the 1990s and went, "Yeah, f that..."

Kermit.de.frog

https://twitter.com/GirkinGirkin/status/1499352556300079109

https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1499355164314120195/photo/1

Some really horrible stories of the conditions Russian troops are subjected to and the fact many of them appear to have been lied to. Many stories. Told they are going to "exercises" instead of a war.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727268#Comment_118727268

The UK.

TheValeyard

I'm not sure the Belarus commanders will allow their forces over the border. I think there is a chance they could remove Lukash1tforbrains instead.

Quitelife

Watching the BBC news - the Shelling and missile strikes are killing thousands and reducing cities to rubble.

When the Russian tanks get into kiev they will kill whatever Ukrainians are left there . Meanwhile the West just looks on!