Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The Nagorno Karabakh conflicts had essentially been a bit of proxy fight between the Russian-back Armenians and the Turkish-backed Azeris. Russian troops are in the area to essentially dissuade Azerbijan from rolling over the remaining ethnic Armenian areas of Karabakh. If the Russians fail in this task (which they already have been, thanks to the Lachin Corridor blockade they were supposed to prevent) this will indicate that the Russians might be unable to keep expeditionary forces running. An Azeri victory here might enbolden Georgia to take on Russian forces in thier respective areas too.

What is crap though, is that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is awash with inter-ethnic violence from both sides. Local Armenian civilians stand to probably suffer horribly under Azeri control.

this performative hyperbole isnt very persuasive, Russia wont be invading NATO

I would not be taking a chance on it anyway.

There is this. I had been watching Karabakh for this very reason. I kind of guessed that if Russia was deemed to be weak enough, Azerbijan would make their move. And so here we are.

Already reports of strikes into Stepanakert and if that town falls it's already over. The Karabakh Armenians are starving and a not better armed than the Russians in Ukraine. They face an Azerbijan with NATO-grade gear thanks to Turkey. I can't imagine them lasting long.

What will be worth watching are the Russian garrisons on the approaches into Stepanakert. Will they be made to surrender, or some other arrangement to get them to leave. This too will be a sign of where the Russian military are after 2 years of war in Ukraine.

They are already attacking NATO just not military style, but everything short of that definitely. Computer hacking attacks, mapping undersea cables, general harassment, like the recent incident when two Russians trying to intimidate a NATO intelligence gathering plane , and one Russian plane fired 2 missiles at it. The problem is that, there are those in power with Putin openly calling for nuclear bombs to be used, ( or in Russian terminology " Limited Nuclear Devices") to turn the tide in the war. And that means that they do not give a damn about the fallout from these bombs travelling into NATO Countries.

Russia would be rolled over by EU/NATO in seconds and even the lunatics in charge of Russia know this.

"Had Russia stormed to an easy victory" then ya other countries were probably the plan but the reality is they were shown to be complete amateurs once again just like in Afghanistan.

It's nonsense.

"Putin openly calling for nuclear bombs to be used"

Didn't actually use them though did he. And it's because he won't go to war with EU/NATO.

They won't even try "little green men" on an EU country.

We all knew that was Russia and it won't be tolerated.They will probably keep up all the cyber and political stuff alright.

But they will not do to any EU/NATO country what they done to Ukraine which was the suggestion.

I wish I could be as optimistic. However, populist movements are still on the rise in Europe, and for every Giorgia Meloni, who is steadfast in her support of Ukraine even if I don't agree with her stance on many other matters, there is a Viktor Orban or a Robert Fico, who will gladly do Moscow's bidding. And once one of the large countries elects a leader or a coalition leader who is properly under Putin's sway, something that is looking more and more likely, Putin will have no problem pushing through his ideas and plans, EU/NATO or not.

Mind you, that's not because of Putin's brilliance, but simply due to the sheer stupidity of large parts of the European electorate. In the end, these voters will always cast their voice for those with the simple slogans and the supposedly easy solutions, and Putin is banking on that.

you framed it as invading, now they are going to nuke first, another claim I dont see as credible. Also Im not sure what tide needs turning? Ukraine is looking weaker than Russia at this stage , if anything Ukraine ought to be thinking about locking in their borders with lines of defences

Ukrainian market tragedy may have been caused by errant missile fired by Ukraine | Ukraine | The Guardian

Armenia had been courting the US for over a year now - around last time Nagorno-Karabakh kicked off they had been looking to US for help and the Russians reduced peacekeeping contingent instead as retribution.

They probably don't have the resources now to go back on it anyways. The Iranians do though, there were big border buildups by Iran on their NW with Azerbaijan around last time AZ were about to roll into Karabakh. Interesting to see will they come into the fight. No love lost between the two, not least because of Azerbaijans cozying up to Israel, and funding separatists in NW Iran. Neither Iranians nor Russia want Armenia to be US aligned or to cease to exist, as it would be carved between NATO Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Even if it was a Ukrainian Air Defense missile, the blame still lies with Russia. If it wasn't for Russia's invasion or their bombardment of civilian areas, there would have been nothing to be intercepted by air defense, so the missile would have been fired.

A Ukrainian mistake? Certainly. But the deaths can be soundly added to the list of Civilians murdered by Russia.

Armenia is in CSTO ("Russian NATO") - all Armenia has to do is invoke Article 4 (it's the same as NATO's more famous Article 5) and Azerbaijan will be crushed by the might of the CSTO forces.

What? The number they dialed cannot be reached?

So you're a glass half empty kinda person. A 'just give it up' mentality.

As far as I can see, Ukrainian society and military has a glass getting full mentality and the view that they'll hang in there and keep the throttle on the tyrants neck.

Reminds me of Elmer Fudd for some reason!