Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Well with the West trying to destroy Russian/Soviet power & influence since 1917 it's not too surprising Russia is a bit hostile to Western influence.

Also, take into account that three times in the 20th century Russia was invaded on it's Western flank costing tens of millions of Russian lives.

First in WW1 from the Central Powers costing just under 3 million Russian lives & another 3.5 million wounded.

Second the Allied intervention & friendly powers of the White Fascists like Ukraine & Poland in the Russian Civil War led to around 5 million Russian deaths.

Third in WW2 the Nazi invasion of Russia, along with Nazi fascist collaborators like Ukraine, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria & Hungary, costing 20+ million Russian lives.

Don't get me wrong, Putin is a thug & I don't like a lot of things of current Russian society, which is very right-wing, like the anti-LGBTQ campaign for instance, even when in the Soviet days society & culture was pretty right-wing, that's because Marxism-Leninism is on the right-wing of the Socialist spectrum.

But saying that Russia's behaviour is no worse than the USA's.

Talk about regime change, the US was supplying money, weapons & diplomatic support to the right-wing death squads in Guatemala during the height of the Mayan Genocide. Again in the same decade, Washington was supporting Saddam when he was carrying out his worst crimes against the Kurds. They supported, financed & equipped the Contras. Invaded Panama, killing some 3,000 Panamanian civilians. Bombed & invaded Grenada & so on

Some of these clowns are likelly working from the Russian embassy in Dublin so would have a local IP.

By the way, any way to start a petition to close that nest of mongrels down and get them kicked out within the week? It's one of their central spy bases for all of western Europe and it was used as a base to conduct intelligence operations in the US. Every EU country should do the same.

Severe escalation is what they're trying to avoid. In the end the allies might win, but at what cost. The hope, I presume, is that the economic sanctions help in some way to deter Putin. I don't believe it will work but waging all out war as step one is madness.

Diplomacy must be used to spare as much life as possible. The cost of war will likely be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people being slaughtered. If a nuke is used it's unimaginable the devastation that will be caused and the chain of events it will set in motion, from either side.

Yeap, the modern Russian super army of the Kremlin bot fantisits dreams. Having their 1970s jets shot out of the sky by shoulder held NATO weapons.

Burgerface would have had us believe this tinpot brigade could face down NATO armies. They would have been destroyed by the Argentine Airforce that fought the Falklands war.

That is stupid talk and a very jaded narrative. It's much more complex than that.

Ireland had come out of a particularly vicious civil war (per capita, do the maths) and had lost 50,000 in WW1. Not to mention all of the injured. Additionally, the Border Commission had just completed its work a few years earlier, with the chance of scaling down from 6 counties to 3 lost because of military resource debts incurred in the fledgling governments civil war. Britain were mulling taking our (their, as they felt they'd agreed) ports.

So no, we stayed out of WWII for complex reasons, not the simplistic cynicism you're spouting.

The line is built already, it just isn't certified yet. All the Germans did was halt the certification process. The line is ready to go once that completes.

Absolutely shocking stuff. I see Belarus also joining in, another nasty regime.

Have no idea what Putin will do next. Personally (total speculation) I think all these attacks are lightning strikes to weaken and confuse the Ukraine military while Russian forces seize full control of DNR and LNR. Also as a "punishment" to Ukraine. Would also expect the Russian gestapo (read FSB) to be in grabbing Ukrainians they don't like and taking them back to Moscow for sham trials or worse.

Will Putin go on and take the whole country? 44 million people, they'll never vote for puppet, and will overthrow any installed leader, holding the country like that would be a nightmare for Putin, which is why I think all this is "shock and awe" to secure LNR and DNR (fully), then play the, "it needed to be done" to secure those independent regions from the Ukrainian military. Again, just speculation, but a full on invasion, to occupy the country, even in Putin's insane world, just doesn't make any sense. Also, I would wager their "worst case scenario" is a constant war, which means whatever remains of Ukraine will never be able to join NATO.

Horrendous situation. Russian economy (currently around the size of Italy or S Korea) is about to go down the drain in a bad way, their stock market is 30% to 40% down, ruble at record low.

They're people who have lived in an era of US global dominance since at least the early 1990s where the US could do what it liked without fear of any consequences. No country would dare risk open conflict with the US and its vassals. That period of global dominance is coming to an end, but there is an entire generation of people who cant grasp it. So they think assassinating Putin or nuking Russia is a good idea because they simply cannot conceive of any real consequence like a nuclear escalation by Russia.

Their absolute failure to grasp that actions may lead to a reaction has encouraged Ukraine (and Europe as a whole) down a disastrous path because they simply couldn't grasp that Russia could dare call their bluff. To the extent they did, for them it only meant it was all the more critical to double down on the bluff. They're not serious people.

And at this point they've got nothing but sputtering outrage and ridiculous threats.

He certainly has life expectancy issues. Most likely from small fast moving projectiles.

At this stage hopefully their economy does tank, and more of their planes are shot down and the soldiers captured. That's the best we can hope for

ATTENTION: B-52 BOMBER OVER POLAND.

Spent a while circling central Poland conducting air to air refuelling with a KC-135 and is now heading back West, probably towards Fairford. My brother lives right next to Fairford and he informs me that the activity there is unprecedented. Rumour has it that B2 arrival is immanent any day.

Currently more of the talk is on the "Genocide" by Ukraine so they aren't even bothering too much with the NATO excuse. WMDs I think was floated at some point. Needing to think of a different excuse would not have stopped Putin. Somehow I think they would have figured 1 out.

Damn it, I am shocked. This war is extremely stupid and illogical. There is nothing good coming for Russia even in "winning" this conflict. Do Russians expect that their tanks will be welcomed by Ukrainians? Sad thing that they probably do.

You're talking as if Russian interests and Russian policy if driven by Putin alone. That if he wasn't present, Russian policy would be drastically different. So if he is personally unwell, then Russian policy will reflect that. But you remove Putin, Medvedev or one of his other colleagues takes over and continues implementing the same Russian policies driven by the same Russian perception of their own national interests. Russia is governed by a faction, not an single individual.

Even Navalny, the great Western liberal hope, approves of Ukraine being held in the Russian sphere of influence - he criticised Putin's tactics, but not the policy aim.