Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Good to see Leinster House lit up in the Ukraine colours.

You make it sound very simple. How would you speak abroad if you had family in Russia and every word you were saying was being weighed against your family's welfare?

on second thoughts, I think that it was Gatling. Whoever it is, I hope that the innocent people are okay! I cannot imagine waiting for the WhatsApp from a loved one that will never come…. harrowing stuff

@eskimohunt Apparently, some leaders of the Russian military were "dismayed" by the decision to invade and occupy the Ukraine.

And yet did nothing , they will do as they are told like good little conscripts , they could have stood up and their men likely would have followed , but now they will be fertilizer for the lands of Ukraine

Sure. Even if they are paranoid as Putin is, that doesn't necessarily mean they're crazy. I think we're all now well aware of what an attack on a NATO member by Russia possibly means for the world as we know it. Russian generals, like the rest of us, are still human beings who would probably not like to find themselves scavenging through the ruins of what we once called civilization. Even the best case scenario of spending the rest of their lives in some big underground bunker would be comparatively sh*t.

And I could understand if they were dismayed, but I still would greatly doubt that it'll have any more blowback for Putin than that from his generals. For now, at least. Nobody politician is invulnerable to ousting, but it would take time for his support to crumble.

If Afghanistan , Grozny and Syria are anything to go by ,the have no issues razing a city to the ground

The reality is that the economies of western countries are dependent on materials from Russia and a variety of other dictatorships. Sanctions will either have a time limit or western governments will assist industries to get around them.

The sanctions that have been announced how long will they last even if they pulled out today? The sanctions need to cripple Russia for years to come (unfortunately it will affect Russians who do not agree with this war).

it might be extreme but I think the country should be cut off economically and diplomatically for many many years. I would also cut internet access to russia (there are backhauls from russia going through EU countries shut them down)

Currency is, always has been, and always will remain a means of exchange only, with no intrinsic value of its own. It matters not if it is rupples dollars or gold, you can attempt to exchange it for goods and services which do have a value, but if the goods or services cannot be delivered because of controls or sanctions the currency is valueless.

If any of you are old enough to remember the insatiable appetite Russians had for simple Western World items such as denim jeans and other non-communist produced equivalent's before the collapse of the USSR. A Russian/China alliance isn't going to keep consumers happy if they are excluded from modern consumables. Cutting off products and services will fuel the anti Putin sentiment in the motherland. Ukraine unfortunately is feeling the brunt of it right now but these companies with very healthy balance sheets need to act. Soft power also - UEFA need to exclude them from competition.

Anyone can help the Ukraine by financial support. Anyone can show support by turning up outside Russian Embassy..

Old Joe Stalin moved cr** load of Ruskies into Baltics after WWII and fooked out hundreds of thousands to Gulags and Siberia, etc.

He did same with Tatars in Crimea. He moved Chechens, and ethnic Koreasn to Kazackstan and Uzbekistan.

He was basically eihncally clensing on a grand scale even from the 1930s. Sure he let millions of Ukrainians perish in famines as colectivisation kicked in.

There was some issues in 90s after Baltics became independent and the natives wanted to limit ethnic Russians like not giving them automatic citizenship if they had no ties to country prior to WWII and also limit getting state job if one could speak native languages, etc.

The numbers fell from 1.7 miillion in 1989 to 1 million in 2017.

And some of those have ended up here, others went back to Russia.

Ever wonder why say some Lithuanians are such fans of Putin ?