Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I saw a couple of exiled Russian oligarchs that got into Putin's bad-books and had been talking with media in the last while about what the situation in the Kremlin is like.

The one fella they were interviewing suggested that talk of oligarchs putting pressure on Putin was misguided, and that Putin himself is essentially a dictator with final say on all matters, regardless of what his wealthy buddies say.

There is no real process to remove him from power, and I suspect he knows that Plan A for many is to simply end him. So I wouldn't be surprised if he retained some of his best trained and loyal troops / agents to function as a protection detail. Going with the whole Nazi comparisons, he'd probably do similar to Hitler and have multipule layers of defence units to protect himself.

I feel that the only ways we'll see the end of him are:

A) He actually is terminally ill, and will just die eventually.

B) An internal defection that results in him being shot / blown up (as had happened with Hitler a couple of times)

C) A military coup by a fed up army who then cut him off or turn their artillery on his house one night.

Or, I dunno, he's visited by 3 Ghosts in the middle of the night, sees the error of his way and the next morning ends the war saying "My bad, sorry, I was being a bastard, we'll pull out. I was having bad week, and you know yourself some days you can feel extra murder-y. Here...I'll pay for the damage and even give Crimea back."

Probably not though...

I read somewhere that he redeployed them there to kill off witnesses of these horrible war crimes, because a lot of them will die

A vote will be held in New York to suspend Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council. The meeting starts at 3pm.

I think that's just a minor side benefit for him, they'd be very likely to be redeployed there anyway.

good

then remove them from the security council and the UN all together.

then the WTO

and the WHO

then the planet in an ideal scenario.

Yes, the Ru central bank + capital controls taking effect.

Drones really changing war, which they can use to adjust artillery. Not sure what the second battery is hitting off in the distance but can see that this incoming fire has disrupted Russians setting up their artillery.

TBF they have been pretty clear what the red line is, an attack on an inch of any NATO member.

All the horror that you mentioned will not be a surprise to any western military or security agency so nothing really changes on that front.

The parameters have changed drastically though, we have gone from Ukraine being toppled in 3 days to now being probable favourites to push these scum and criminals out.

Ukranians are quite clear in what they need.

Today.

Ukraine’s foreign minister sounded more like a defense minister on his arrival at NATO headquarters Thursday morning to request military assistance in fighting Russia’s invasion of his country.

“My agenda is very simple—it has only three items on it. It's weapons, weapons and weapons,”

Even Alexander Solzenhitzin , who was very much anti oppression in Soviet Russia was also very much anti Ukrainian independence as well. His view was that Russia would be better off without the central Asian and Caucasian republics but that Belarus , Russia and Ukraine were indivisible. I suppose his vision was a more European Russia. But he did express positivity towards Putin while he was alive too. The pre 2008 Putin. Be interesting to see his take on current events if he were around. Some of his views were often contradictory as well.

Although it's impossible I'd love to see every civilian get out. The thought of what's happened to so many already in Russian controlled areas just fills me with dread.

In truth, he could pull back now and claim the denazification/ demilitarisation of Ukraine. Russian population would likely row in for a while, but wouldn't take too long for reality to set in. Then he's in big trouble, having to crack down hard on dissent in his own people. He's over reached completely and over committed, question is how long till someone gives him a push.

He's propping up the ruble to prevent people losing the plot tbh. How long can that last