Russia - threadbanned users in OP

This threads always seem to attract recently registered posters all spouting its not Putins fault..

All the whataboutery in the world cannot absolve Russia from the loss of life that will be inflicted if they do push ahead and invade Ukraine. There is no justification for it whatsoever.

Its sad to see people here trying defend the action as if its just Russia trying to defend itself from the west.

The USA and Other Western forces have been guilty of many things that deserve condemnation, but the loss of life of any war in Ukraine will fall squarely on the shoulders of Putin and Russia should they invade IMO.

^^I suppose it's perhaps kind of a paradox of "free speech" thing (like paradox of tolerance) but I just increasingly find myself thinking it would be lovely to have some Western/democratic states only version of the "great firewall". An internet somehow cut off from a lot of the industrial amounts of bullshit and clouds of fud these autocracies spew out + poison public fora with. I'm sure would still be fairly toxic on social media etc. but would have to be better without states with huge resources (Russia/China) doing a deliberate spoiling campaign 24-7 (or even that campaign hobbled somehow by blocking).

Most of the planet would be an economic wasteland from communism without the U.S..

They replelled them plenty of times as they tried over the last 7 years to expand the two separatists areas ,and at a time when the Ukrainian armed forces were in disarray , poorly trained and equipped and with pro Russian commanders ,but they held there own at the time ,and inflicted loses on the Russians ,they could get over run fairy quickly in some areas but will be able to hold others,this is why Russia has massively increased the forces surrounding them , along with moving forces into Belarus to possibly open another area of conflict to draw Ukrainian forces away from the east

No matter what the US may claim, there's not enough LNG in the world to make up for the shortfall of Russian gas to Europe. As long as that remains the case, Germany will resist or try to limit sanctions against Putin which will embolden him. According to the British, 3% of British gas needs come from Russia, whereas 36% of German Energy needs are met by Russian gas. There's a bit of apples and oranges in there, but how much of that 36% is for electricity generation which could be replaced by other sources? If Germany won't turn back on their reactors, can France make up for any of the shortfall? That uncharacteristic knee-jerk decision by Merkel in 2011 is going to define Europe realpolitik for the next decade. I also wonder how much Olympic Man is benefiting via back channels from Nordstream.

It was Merkel's decision in 2011 to decomission Germany's nuclear reactors that has now put them at the mercy of Putin.

Is it coincidence that we suffered a massive hack of the hse by russian hackers aka Russian intelligence and now live fire naval exercises off our coast several months later .

At the same time the Russian embassy is looking to expand its operations here in Dublin

So are we saying that the German's are once again playing a major part in potentially starting WW3 ? The irony of it all.

Putin has publicly stated he wants the borders with Europe redrawn and wants the eastern Europe states back in Russia ,

The only way that will happen is through military means ,bar Crimea which never had a choice , no countries any where have shown anything to suggest they want to be reoccupatied with Russians,

Yes it a stretch but not beyond the realm of possibility if putin isn't stopped now ,he won stop at ukraine

They have helped the situation , they literally signed to be be Putins no1 supporter because of their business deals , Germany should have been Strong but no they literally invited putin into the house and handed over the keys for a gas deal ...

Look at this week a pro Putin naval commander and blocking weapons to Ukraine ,

Surely this is a serious miscalculation by Putin. His actions are now finally galvanising NATO into action and they are reinforcing Eastern Europe the one thing Putin was trying to avoid.

It also gives NATO the opportunity to flex its muscle it the one arena Europe that the organisation was set up for against its traditional enemy Russia, not the quagmire of the ME. Putin has given NATO purpose again and is probably doing more than Trump to get Europe to get it's act together and spend serious money on defence.

Crimea never had a choice? This is a common misconception among a lot of people, the vast majority of people in Crimea something like over 90 percent of the people there want to be part of Russia.