Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Putin getting "sorted" at this stage would solve problems for practically everyone, on all sides.

Very few would lament his demise.

Technology has made science fiction comic stuff an absolute reality.

Why can't a few Musks or Gates' finance a pan-national operation that involves a drone delivery to Putin ??

We know that a toxin spray on any handle would suffice.

Long range sniping would be good too - drone mounted if possible ??

In short, how is he still alive ??

Hilarious, live reporting he says and then says the guy reporting is insane. Thats the first thing housetree has said here that is true, the "reporter" he linked is visibly unhinged.

1 glance at the link is enough to see in the eyes that he's a "madlad" that would make you turn about and walk out of a pub on a Friday evening.

They are probably thinking of help with nuclear weapons, maybe Russia will give them some or scientific help.

It's a well worn theory at this point, but it's seriously lacking in intelligent reasoning.

Russia is bordered by many nations, including Kazakhstan for example, who have been enjoying the recent economic spoils that have come from exploiting their natural resources. If your theory is true, then why has Putin and Russia made no attempts to prevent their economic progression out of fear that it might reflect badly towards their own nation? Kazakhstan would be even easier to subjugate than Ukraine.

Your theory (although it's definitely not yours alone) sounds like more badly thought out propaganda, rather than anything with concrete rationale behind it.

But I suppose if the baying hoard laps it up, that'll be enough to qualify it as a legitimate theory! ;)

Look at the whole not 1 inch east speeches Russian have been ranting about for the last 30 odd years,

We were promised Nato wouldn't move one inch east, something Putin regularly spews in speeches,

But ask putin who promised him that ,who promised Russia that, and where...

Nobody is the answer with the fall of the Berlin wall and former Soviet states gaining independence,

It was raised at some meeting by one Russian negotiator ,I believe in America could have been Germany.

And never officially discussed again by any leader nor president...

But yet they were 'promised "

@storker

If anything, the invasion can only have solidified Ukrainian intentions to join those blocs 1000%. Nice job, Russia. About as sensible as a man trying to beat his estranged wife back into loving him again.

Nope.

The NATO Russia Founding act signed in 1996 permits Ukraine and Georgia, as sovereign European countries, to choose their own security arrangements such as joining NATO.

Russia has zero right to dictate otherwise and is contrary to multiple agreements signed by the USSR and Russia.

The act specifies what forces and weapons can be stationed permanently in new members. Those are the only assurances Russia is entitled to.

Russia has multiple times violated the Budapest agreement by which Ukraine gave up strategic weapons including nuclear weapons.

The rest of your post is whataboutery nonsense and reveals the total bias and prejudice of your position. Deluded peacenik rubbish which does not serve the cause of peace but the cause of aggressive invader Russia and which seems to think the only suffering can occur is in a war and not in the kind of tyrannical occupation Russia has and will subject any Ukranian territory to.

Gorbachev had said that he was given assurances that no NATO military infrastructure would be placed in the former East Germany after reunification. He went on to say that this promise was kept - there was no NATO military infrastructure placed in the former East Germany - but there was NATO infrastructure placed in countries further east of that region. NATO had obeyed the wording of the agreement, although Gorbachev would later say that by expanding in this way, he felt NATO had violated the spirit of what was agreed, but still conceding that what was agreed had been stuck to.

I think a big reason he wasn't killed is Russia want him to sign any peace treaty so it will have more legitimacy with him being the poster boy of the west, off shore accounts n all

But how can you tell if what you're being told is true or propaganda? Or do you even care? Is a pretty lie better than an ugly truth?

If your new best buddy was ONLY North Korea, I might be inclined to agree with you there storker.

The problem the west has however, is that anyone who doesn't play by their rules gets sent to the naughty corner... pretty much permanently.

But the naughty corner is starting to get a bit crowded at this point. And the west is effectively corralling all of these "bad boys" into a loose de-facto alliance. Even though this isn't their goal, and many of these nations don't always make easy bedfellows, necessity and circumstance is creating it. So western foreign policy is actually potentially making the world a much more dangerous place.

And Russia is at the apex of that new alliance, along with China, as both nations would love nothing better than to completely dismantle the western power structures. This war has done nothing to alter that dynamic in favour of the west btw.

I mean....what can you even say

I understand that these constant videos of new recruits horrendously drunk are not anything like a proper sample of those mobilised - but it just seems to be a constant issue.

Ireland is a country that by any standards has a drinking culture but you wouldn't often see people in this kind of state - certainly not during the daytime anyway.

I know there is a degree of press freedom in the west that is light-years beyond what is available in Russia - that's just one way. I won't be engaging with you any further, you don't really have anything to say apart from regurgitated pro-dictatorship anti-democratic rubbish. Better luck elsewhere.

Look yourself and Housefree and several others are in the cúinne dána here. As has been pointed out repeatedly, there is all manner of spin & propaganda in this conflict and previous. In this situation, the best approach is to look as widely as possible for sources and assess them for partiality as you wish. The reality insofar as that exists, lies somewhere in the middle.

As regards this conflict, we have spin & propaganda from Ukraine but also many other sources and observers on the ground in Ukraine and remotely which gives us a good sense of what is going down. From Russia, we have spin & propaganda & lies and f**k all else.

Which is why Russia as a state, economy and society is going down the tubes. This invasion has been an incredibly stupid adventure on their part.