Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I am scared about the people reading the forum who will believe the clear propaganda. And then decent posters, like Yurt, who are clearly well versed in their subject are kicked off the thread

That person is head and neck into all the conspiracies, YouTube, etc. He is convinced of all this New World Order stuff. He also believes that people will be forced into re-education camps to receive the right opinion. He is Irish. He deplores Ireland with a passion and its “socialist” policies (yet, he damn well benefits from it). In his Narrative, the West is rotten, controlled by the hands of a few depraved individuals. Russia and the extreme Republicans. You couldn’t make it up.

Why can't you just comment on the post, why do you insist in personalizing the debate and insulting the poster? Can't handle that some people hold a different opinion?

Have you read the post he responded to...

These are all tactics. Very easily spotted.

Anyway back to Putins aggression on a neighbouring country which he is actively doing right now.

That stuff. You know the subject of the thread and the attacks he's launched on European countries systems notibly and recently our own. A neutral nation who's health system was taken down for weeks during a pandemic by your poster man Putin 'the strong'. That particular attack even knocked out your local GPs system. Such class. A classy man, if you will

I agree! But he is completely indoctrinated. He has this air of superiority of knowing the truth. The truth is that all his propaganda is making him bitter with life. He sees negative in everything.

Health details are worth far more than credit card details on the black-web

Fact is that Crimea is Russian, ethnically, linguistically and culturally. The people there don't want to be part of Ukraine and that's been expressed democratically.

Do posters here think it's reasonable to try and compel the 1.5m Russians living there to either what, be ethnically cleansed by Ukrainian/NATO militaries, and to live in a state that they feel doesn't represent them?

News for you, Crimea is Russian and will so remain. Sooner you get used to it the better for everybody.

Plenty of cyber attacks occur from Russia but that doesn't mean those criminals operate with the support of the government there.

The executive summary of the cyber attack indicates it was a simple attack, i think a malicious excel file? Such attacks are common on the world wide web and don't require the resources of a national government to mount.

I think the big problem was that the HSE were using vulnerable, unpatched systems and was the zero computer not running anti virus?

Additionally the cyberattack is believed to be the work of a cyber crime group Wizard Spider.

They allegedly operate from Russia and Ukraine.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/wizard-spider-profile-suspected-gang-behind-hse-attack-is-part-of-world-s-first-cyber-cartel-1.4568806

Wizard Spider profile: Suspected gang behind HSE attack is part of world’s first cyber-cartel

Health service attack regarded as a for-profit crime rather than any proxy attack by Russia

Presumably Putin has spoken with China about the aftermath of an invasion and we'll see a turn by them to greater trade in their south.

Sanctions From Europe will not be long lasting, able to be worked around and fought all the way by Berlin and others.

Russia exports 10% of the world's oil, globally dominant in Fertilizer production, lots of minerals and a major wheat producer. It will probably take the West of the Ukraine, a globally significant grain basket.

His contention probably is that Western Europe won't do much bar talk, a far presumption, that Berlin, Vienna, The Hague won't make workable Sanctions, that the loss of Russian fertilizer, grain and oil will Knock Europe very hard. The Euro zone has been kept going by insane levels of stimulus and flooding it with magic money. It's still only given bare growth over the last decade and debt remains an existential issue. To a lesser degree America. There is enough of the world to work around.

He is looking at the end of the post WW2 consensus. Hell, probably even an end to Russia looking West and the primacy of Europe as a global centre.

Not a Putin bot, could care less if he was shot in the morning, hope that they don't invade and hope that Ukraine bloodies them if they do...

But there are reasons he would go and consider it worthwhile.

There was a Tucker Carlson segment where there were actual Americans ringing in, wondering why the US was not backing Russia.

It wasn't legally Russian though, was it?

France is due to construct up to 14 nuclear reactors by 2050. They have always pushed nuclear. Basically, these reactors are up and running, we will be far less dependent on energy from outside the EU. It will change the political landscape