Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I think a lot of people who say "I hope Ukraine win" but also are pleading for a partitioned Ukraine are being honest.

Their motivation is not Putin or Ukraine but based on selfish goals like a return to cheap Russian gas or more availablity in Dublin hotels.

Just imagine a few years ago we had the Russians flying these bombers into Irish airspace just to test what response they'd get from the Irish and UK authorities. We had reams of headlines produced in the papers about the bear showing it's claws to Ireland and mocking this country.

Now we have ground crews in Russia throwing car tyres on the wings and top of the aircraft like you would when covering a silage pit. Just because they're terrified of the bombers being hit by cardboard drones. Which has already happened with two bombers destroyed.

Karma.

BRICS is only valuable as long as it is useful.

Any of India, Brazil or South Africa could be gone out of that group very easily with a change of Government or an overreach by China.

China and India absolutely hate each other. China is also becoming more of an influence on far eastern Russia than Moscow is and Brazil and South Africa only in because like you said The Economist or Time or someone coined a nice acronym. The latter have far more important regional groups to deal with.

It's just the G7's Europa League/ Joe McDonagh cup.

Russian dominance over the entire solar system. Woohoo. Right on.

This you @RealityReallyMatters ?

Compared to the customs reducing RCEP BRICS is just **** and giggles.

Realistically there's a good chance of a South American trade blocs, but the only thing uniting BRICS is a united distrust of the USA.

Views on Putin being handed over to the Hague?

That ship is sailed. Kiss your gas goodbye. As for hotels and accommodations out west, the quickest way to repatriate UK war refugees is to help restore their territory asap. Who wouldn't want to go back and build their nation up. Maybe a few draft dodgers but they can be turfed out.

That's an inverted inferiority complex. Something a lot of Russians seem to have.

Ah he was being highly sarcastic.

Interviewer was too.

They know the score in expansionist Putin land.

I didn't go myself but a Welsh farmer delivered a small ickle pickup from me to Ukraine with this group.

Their 100th vehicle has gone out now.

How long does Ukraine have to punch a decisive hole in the first line of defence? Ukraine needs at some point to pick up speed in order to not give a chance to Russian forces to fall back to new defences in an organised fashion. However, it remains difficult to pick up speed if there are more minefields to clear in between the first and second lines, and Russia has more time to lay these if progress on breaching the first line is slow. That is unless there are things which make it impractical to impossible for Russia to lay minefields in between the first and second lines of defence.

There is a long program on RTE 2 now that is interesting. Obviously RTE didn't make so I'll edit this to say who did and if it's online.

If you watch on +1 it starts at 10.40pm.

China may be the main player in BRIC but they are currently in position to dominate much themselves as it stands. Crazy unemployment and a crippled financial sector. BRIC is very much an irrelevance until they recover.

BRICS seems like a canard. Russia is a pariah state with a collapsed economy, and South Africa has 30+% unemployment. Better to call it "BIC". Per your comment, maybe BI.