Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Similar rhetoric was used to depict your average Japanese citizen during ww2, which enabled the Americans to round up Japanese American citizens and place them into internment camps. And also arguably made it much more publicly acceptable and viable to drop two nuclear bombs on thousands of innocent men women and children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

So I would caution against that sort of dangerous rhetoric.

You are falling into a very obvious and foolish trap, when you pursue that line of thinking. And it doesn't bring about any positive outcomes. I lived and worked in Russia for a number of years, so I find it deeply offensive to hear people trying to lump all citizens of a nation that has over 140m people into one lazy sweeping caricature "pure and utter evil scum". It's not right, and most importantly it's not true!

@Run Forest Run . I lived and worked in Russia for a number of years, so I find it deeply offensive to hear people .

Do you actually think people believe this tripe ,

It's quite clear from the draft that he's more afraid of the ultra nationalists that surround him then his own people.

I don't think Putin can make his nuclear threats and expect no warnings whatsoever in return, or an "okay, okay we're very scared now and we won't send Ukraine any more weapons, just please don't do that!". That might be what he wants or hopes for, but it is not going to happen.

There's a distance between this idea of a "non threatening stance" you call for now and your original post, which was condemning USA (and allies perhaps) for throwing about their own similar nuclear counter threats aimed at Russia.

I haven't seen that they are. cnocbui posted a long Atlantic article there discussing the subject (of what might happen were Putin to use a nuclear weapon) that I thought was quite good, it comes through from that use of nuclear weapons in response is very unlikely. What could happen may be uncertain (and its possible US has been a lot clearer on how it will respond with Russia/Putin in private than we see/hear about in public too) but it won't be that imo.

Have you love the spirit of the Ukrainian population despite being at war and facing daily missle attacks they still manage to carry on as normal despite the chaos kharkiv 5th literary festival was hosted in an underground bunker this year.

The question is: what is the endgame?

Russia has strategically lost. It lost even before the war started. It has lost any semblance of international credibility it retained. Its army has been exposed as a bad joke. Its remaining allies are slowly backing away. Its economy is falling to pieces. Its most educated citizens are fleeing for the exits. The Mad Tsar becomes ever more unhinged.

Ukraine grows stronger by the day, Its people are united. Its leader is globally admired. It has strong international support. And now it has proven it can defeat Russia on the battlefield.

So the calculus on the ground doesn't change: Putin must lose and be seen to lose.

But that's not the endgame. Say these reservists get blown to hell over the next few months - very likely - and Ukraine liberates more and more of its territory. Good. Say it even liberates all of its territory. Even better (but less likely).

The endgame for Ukraine is visible and, even damaged, partially occupied and reeling from the invasion, its future looks optimistic.

But what of Russia? What happens there? Who leads it - and, critically, how does it engage with the world? I have no idea but it's a topic that will have to be reckoned with.

That would make for a very big civil war in Russia.

Be careful of making a false equivalence.

What perturbs me about it is how well filmed it is. Could be fake, could be Ukrainian disinfo trying to stir up the locals. A war during the Twitter era...

People use the expression 'orc' for a good reason. Of course we understand there are good Russians, we are not stupid, but Russia is, and has always been, a very sick country and that is what orc means.

I remember reading an article on how monstrous and evil Russia is and that article was written in 1900. I have tried to find the quote but can't locate it. Russia needs a serious cleansing.

I would look to history for the answer. Typically the government falls and is replaced by a more democratic system, or the whole system implodes and a power vacuum pulls Russia into a civil war.

First thing that came to mind when I saw the reports.

I'm sure it will be announced that shooter was a member of the Azoz battalion and he had his unit Id on him at the time, followed by the whole nonsense of see they Ukrainian Nazis are coming to kill our children,we must now escalate the war even further now

It's fun A young man #Nga #Russia mobilized gave his commander what the end of #Ukraine was like by giving his commander 4 shots to the chest. It is better to go to jail than die

Despite the state controlled media, it's surely the case than many of these 140 million citizens can sense a bad smell off this war operation. They have chosen to date out of habit and culture to ignore the odour and carry on their normal lives. Now it's starting the affect them more directly and clearly there is dissent.

But they are complicit in supporting the regime, you can jail several thousand protestors but you can't jail or control hundreds of thousands if they had sufficient backbone. I don't think the EU should facilitate fleeing Russians, let them stay and sort out their own problems.

Personally I don't much care for the description 'orc' for Russian armed forces but it is simpler, quicker to type and more PC than labeling them as 'disgusting pieces of excrement that should be eliminated' which is a more apt description.

Bush sent US troops into Georgia during Russia's incursion, delivering 'humanitarian aid', and basically said if they were attacked or endangered they would defend themselves. Something similar could have done in Western Ukraine, Kyiv, the grain ports etc.