Indeed, he is. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
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Indeed, he is. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
Back to the O.P.
How dangerous is Vladimir Putin well he has revealed what many knew.
To all democracies , very dangerous, if he was an engine part he would be replaced
To the elderly sick , babies of Ukraine possibly fatal as the snows arrive in unheated ruins.
Also add the brave internal opposition, refuseniks and abused demonstrators
It is also a tragedy for the oft forgotten bereaved, the brave defenders, many middle aged men with no prior military background, the weary conscripts and the refugees/abducted./deported.
It is huge cost to post Covid19 European economy and of course a window display for modern military materiel, strategy and tactics.
In many ways the critics are much like Pattaya
Pussy Riot Kick Off ?Anti-War Tour? After Member Flees Russia In Disguise - YouTube
Because Putler is a dictatorr of a country called RuSSia.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Opposition lawyer wanted
Status: 01.12.2022 11:16 a.m
He was a defense attorney for the human rights organization Memorial - now the Russian Interior Ministry has put opposition lawyer Novikov out on a wanted list. Novikov had previously been classified as a "foreign agent".
The Russian Ministry of the Interior has put the well-known lawyer Ilya Novikov out for a wanted manhunt. Criminal proceedings had been initiated against Novikov, the state news agency Ria Novosti reported, without going into detail about the specific allegations.
Here is the thing Sabangman, all these clown bloggers and their comments that you are posting here on TD would already be locked up in your beloved country RuSSia.
Do you think you can comprehend this fairly simple piece of information?
I might start a thread- "How Dangerous are the Neo-cons". They make Vlad look like Paddington bear, so far this century. :chitown:
Replace those unelected dictators America, like a spare engine part. They are far more dangerous than your pet bogeymen.
Show some respect misskit.Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
After all, Sabangman was a junior officer of the greatest Navy the world has ever seen :smileylaughing:
Then you should have never joined (which I doubt very much) in the first place.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Where you high and singing Hare Krishna when you joined :rofl:
I think you may have the wrong Navy HermantheVermin. :chitown:
If outsiders think Trump prosecutions are long overdue, imagine what Putin could do with the Russian legislature?Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Or the Thai military with Thailand's "judiciary", and Opposition. Really sucks dunnit.
Why not, the DH needs sprucing up.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
This thread is about Putin. Not Neo-cons, or the Thai military.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Suggest you start another thread if that kind of obfuscation floats yer boat.
Maybe something you find amusing, instead of posting laughing smileys everywhere. Putin and his war is no laughing matter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Switch
Quote:
Originally Posted by Switch
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Originally Posted by Switch
Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Fucking hell :)
It's going downhill...fast
Did Putin Really Fall And Soil Himself? Here Are Claims About His Health
Here’s the poop on the latest rumors about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health. The hashtag #PutinPoopedHimself began trending on Twitter after General SVR’s Telegram channel asserted that Putin had fallen down five steps on a staircase, landing on his coccyx. Not Cossacks, but coccyx, which is the medical term for tailbone. Apparently, the tailbone didn’t end there, though. According to General SVR, this fall caused Putin to “defecate involuntarily,” as opposed to defecate voluntarily on the stairs. The image of someone falling down stairs and then having some fecal release may seem rather different from the picture of Putin riding shirtless on a horse that emerged over a decade ago in 2009. However, Putin himself hasn’t been putting forth statements about any recent fall or his coccyx. So the question is whether the Telegram story is actually legitimate or simply a pile of you-know-what.
Naturally, relying on Twitter to vet information and determine whether it is accurate would be a bit like relying on a trash bag to serve as a parachute. This has been particularly the case ever since billionaire Elon Musk acquired Twitter, reportedly got rid of large chunks of its fact-checking staff, has been touting a “free speech” say-anything approach, and has tried to sell blue Twitter verification check marks to anyone who would buy them, as I reported for Forbes. Thus, you can’t assume that something is true simply because a Twitter hashtag has been trending:
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?...id=95573&stc=1
https://teakdoor.com/blob:https://te...d-067a766c6dd0
Otherwise, you’d have to assume that #TrumpWasRightAboutEverything, right? So in order to determine the veracity of this latest claim about Putin’s health, you’ve got to examine the source and determine not only how reliable this source may be from a medical standpoint but also how much actual, concrete evidence the source offers.
So what about this General SVR? How reliable is this source? Just because the General says “Yes” does that mean you should say “Yes” too? Well, this certainly isn’t the first claim that the General SVR Telegram channel has made about Putin’s health. For example, in May 2022, the General SVR claimed that Putin had undergone surgery for some type of cancer diagnosis, as economist and author Anders Åslund had tweeted back then:
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?...id=95574&stc=1
https://teakdoor.com/blob:https://te...1-01b55f55c12c
Wait, hold your Putin horses, did Åslund include the words “appears credible” in his tweet above without really elaborating as to why and without knowing or revealing who General SVR really is? The operator of the General SVR channel is supposedly a former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service official who happens to have access to Putin and his staff with an emphasis on the word “supposedly.” The operator of this channel remains anonymous and unconfirmed, meaning that it could still be anyone ranging from someone in the Kremlin to that barista at your local coffee shop who can never get your latte order quite right to your grandmother who happens to have some free time and an Internet connection.
And just because someone doesn’t look well on a video doesn’t mean that you can assume any type of specific medical diagnosis. Sure there are some very obvious medical problems such as when someone is actively bleeding or someone’s arm just fell off. When the latter happens on a video, you can probably say with a fair amount of certainty, “Gee, it looks like his arm just fell off,” assuming that David Blaine or some other magician wasn’t involved. However, it’s not possible to establish most other types of diagnoses from afar without conducting a real physical exam and associated tests and actually talking to the patient.
This hasn’t prevented a number of random would-be doctors and would-not-be doctors from trying to diagnose Putin remotely simply by analyzing photos and videos of the Russian leader. They’ve pointed out markings on his hand that could potentially, possibly, perhaps, maybe look like the insertion point for an intravenous (IV) line and situations where his feet and legs supposedly appeared to be shaking such as the following shown by a video from The Sun:
Putin’s feet shake during tense meeting fuelling speculation over his health - YouTube
Such speculation has fed to an ongoing toilet bowl swirl of rumors about Putin being very ill, with claims that he is suffering from a variety of ailments ranging from pancreatic cancer to Parkinson’s Disease. It’s been a toilet bowl because to date there hasn’t been much in terms of concrete medical evidence. For example, while a leg and foot shake could perhaps, maybe, potentially, possibly be consistent with a movement disorder, it could also represent a number of other things. For all you know, Putin could have simply been nervous or grooving to a song in his head such as “It’s Raining Men” sung by The Weather Girls, the Diana Ross song “I’m Coming Out”, Erasure’s “A Little Respect”, or perhaps “YMCA” by the Village People.
Similarly, there could be a number of explanations for what may appear to be IV line insertion markings on Putin’s hands. They could be simple injuries. For example, Putin could have been doing jazz hands and accidentally hit a life-sized statue of Elton John, Barbara Streisand, or RuPaul, resulting in some bruising. Even if the markings were from an IV line, there are a number of reasons why he could have gotten an IV line including dehydration from either not consuming enough liquids to consuming too many alcoholic drinks such as vodka sodas.
During an Aspen Institute Security Forum several months ago, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns did say that there’s been a lot of rumors about Putin’s health and “as far as we can tell, he’s entirely too healthy,” as you can see in this CNN news segment:
CIA director weighs in on rumors about Putin's health - YouTube
The Kremlin has continued to deny any suggestions that Putin is not well. But you’ve gotta take anything that the Kremlin says about Putin with an ushanka full of salt as well. The words “open” and “transparent” may not be the first words that you think of when you think of Putin’s leadership, especially after he had ordered the brutal invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. Although the Kremlin did admit that Russia was conducting a “special military operation” outside its border when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, don’t expect the Kremlin to hold a press conference about any defecation operations that may have occurred outside the borders of a toilet.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to automatically poo-poo all claims about anyone falling down stairs and defecating until you’ve actually seen the poo. You don’t have to always say, “I want the poo and nothing but the poo.” It does mean, however, that you should probably wait until you get confirmation from someone who is not anonymous and is instead a reliable—preferably medical—source before you believe anything said about Putin’s health. Anytime anyone anonymous tells you something, you’ve got to take it with a diaper-full of salt. Listening to an anonymous social media account can be like listening to graffiti on a bathroom stall. And you never know who may be putting something out there about Putin.
Did Putin Really Fall And Soil Himself? Here Are Claims About His Health
Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of June 2, 2020 No. 355
On the Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence
"17. The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and (or) its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is threatened.
18. The decision on the use of nuclear weapons shall be taken by the President of the Russian Federation."
Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 02.06.2020 г. № 355 • Президент России
No-one cares. The Russian military will kill Putin before he brings a rain of hell on them.
In fact that's probably why he's shitting himself.
The frightened war criminal Putin jails yet another opposition leader for daring to speak the truth.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia...bucha-massacreQuote:
Russian opposition leader Ilya Yashin was convicted on Friday of spreading “fake news” about the massacre of civilians in Ukraine, with a Moscow court sentencing him to eight years and six months in prison.
15 Dec, 2022 12:11 HomeRussia & FSU
Vatican apologizes to Russia – Moscow
The Pope claimed last month that two ethnic groups living in Russia were particularly disposed to battlefield cruelty
"The Vatican has issued a formal apology to Russia for derogatory remarks made by Pope Francis last month about some ethnic groups in the country, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
The ministry received the message on Thursday from Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. It expressed the Holy See’s respect for “all peoples of Russia, their dignity, faith and culture, just like all other nations and peoples of the world,” Zakharova told a press briefing.
“The capacity to recognize one’s mistakes is becoming more rare in international relations today. This situation shows that, behind the Vatican’s calls for dialogue, there is a knack for having such a dialogue and hearing the other side,” the Russian diplomat noted. She added that Moscow considered the incident to be over.
Pope Francis made a negative generalized assessment of the character of Buryats and Chechens, two of the many ethnic groups living in Russia, in an interview published in late November. He described them as “of Russia but… not of the Russian tradition” and claimed that such people were “the cruelest” of the Russian troops in Ukraine.
Moscow responded by issuing a formal note of protest to the Vatican, while many Russian officials, including Zakharova, expressed outrage about the remarks.
“This is no longer Russophobia, it’s a perversion on a level I can’t even name,” the spokeswoman said at the time.
The Vatican and Pope Francis personally offered mediation in the conflict in Ukraine. The pontiff previously angered Kiev by publicly recognizing that NATO’s expansion in Europe was a contributing factor in the conflict, which is part of Moscow’s position on the origin of the violent standoff with Kiev and its foreign backers."
Vatican apologizes to Russia – Moscow — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
15 Dec, 2022 14:54 HomeWorld News
EU parliament chief pledges corruption ‘clampdown’
Roberta Metsola vows a tough response to a revelations allegedly involving Qatari money .
"European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has pledged to do all it takes to make sure the legislature is “not for sale” to foreign actors, amid a corruption scandal allegedly involving FIFA 2022 World Cup host nation Qatar.Four people, including an EU parliament vice president Eva Kaili, her partner, and two NGO heads were detained in Belgium last week on suspicion of taking bribes from a foreign nation. The country in question has not been officially named, but an informed source has told the media that it was Qatar, which had been seeking to influence EU policy-making.
Police have also posted a picture of €1.5 million in cash they seized in raids targeting the homes of the politicians from Friday to Monday.
The affair has dealt “a blow to democracy,” Metsola said on Thursday. “It takes years to build trust but just a moment to bring them down.”
“There are... too many informal groupings that are potentially more amenable to influence. Too many organizations whose transparency of funding is not clear. We will clamp down on everything,” she vowed.
According to the parliament’s president, this time “there will be no impunity, there will be no sweeping under the carpet, there will be no business as usual.”
“I will do everything I can” to make sure that the European parliament “is clean, that is transparent, and that is not for sale to foreign actors that seek to undermine us,” Metsola said.
A Belgian justice ministry spokesperson said on Thursday the graft probe was “a major case” on which its investigators had been working “for more than a year, in collaboration with foreign intelligence services, to list suspicions of corruption of MEPs by different countries.”
“We’ve been too naïve... for far too long” about the shady operations of foreign powers in Brussels, the spokesperson acknowledged.
Kaili, who denies any wrongdoing, her partner and parliamentary assistant Federico Giorgi, and founder of Fight Impunity NGO Pier Antonio Panzeri currently remain in custody. The head of the No Peace Without Justice group, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, will be released, but will have to wear an electronic ankle tag, prosecutors said."
EU parliament chief pledges corruption ‘clampdown’ — RT World News
15 Dec, 2022 12:03 HomeBusiness News
Canada to reintroduce sanctions on Nord Stream turbines
Ottawa plans to revoke a waiver that exempted the pipeline parts for Russia’s oil and gas industry.
"Canada is revoking the waiver that facilitated the repair of turbines in Montreal for Russia’s Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, and their subsequent return to Germany.
The move was announced late on Wednesday in a joint statement by Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.The decision was made after consultations with Ukraine, Germany and other European states, according to the statement.
“Canada is making this decision recognizing that the circumstances around granting the waiver have changed. It no longer serves its intended purpose,” it read.
Nord Stream 1, owned by Russian state energy major Gazprom, faced technical difficulties earlier this year when turbines for its Portovaya gas compression station were caught up in the Western sanctions war against Moscow.
Manufactured by German Siemens Energy AG, the turbines needed regular maintenance at the company’s plant in Montreal, where they became stranded due to Canada’s sanctions on Russia’s energy industry. After a request from Germany, which feared a shortage of gas if the pipeline was shut down, Canada exempted the turbines from restrictions. They were allowed to be sent to Germany with further delivery to Russia.
However, Gazprom then refused to take them back without a legal guarantee that they could be repaired in the future."
Canada to reintroduce sanctions on Nord Stream turbines — RT Business News
OhDohs usual dump of Russian propaganda turds that no one reads.
An intriguing article to keep you entertained while I head off to the shithole that is Sin City for some festive amusement.
Merry Christmas one and all!
Vladimir Putin’s Last Stand: The Promise and Peril of Russian Defeat
Speaking of jail, Putler used the word war.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
According to his law he has to go to jail now. And with all the fake BS Sabang is posting he can go right along.Quote:
“Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,”
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
Russian Foreign Ministry: “No apology from the Vatican” on Pope's comments | ROME REPORTSQuote:
Russian Foreign Ministry: “No apology from the Vatican” on Pope's comments
Vladimir Putin orders FSB to step up surveillance of Russians and borders |International News | WION - YouTube
I wonder what the war criminal used this time?
Quote:
December 27, 2022
Two Russians Die Within Days In Same Hotel In India
Two Russian men have reportedly died at a hotel in the eastern Indian city of Rayagada within few days of each other under mysterious circumstances. Millionaire Pavel Antov was found lying in a pool of blood outside the hotel on December 24, days after another Russian, Vladimir Bidenov, who was accompanying Antov, reportedly died of a stroke. According to media reports, Antov had voiced criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
Two Russians Die Within Days In Same Hotel In India
Ah, another Vlad-style defenestration.
Quote:
Reports in Russian media said Mr Antov, 65, had fallen from a window at the hotel in the city of Rayagada on Sunday.
And still he is idolised by several non-Russians
I wonder what the war criminal used this time?
December 27, 2022
Two Russians Die Within Days In Same Hotel In India
Two Russian men have reportedly died at a hotel in the eastern Indian city of Rayagada within few days of each other under mysterious circumstances. Millionaire Pavel Antov was found lying in a pool of blood outside the hotel on December 24, days after another Russian, Vladimir Bidenov, who was accompanying Antov, reportedly died of a stroke. According to media reports, Antov had voiced criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
Two Russians Die Within Days In Same Hotel In India
I have heard on a newscast quoting a supposed russian insider that there is a takeover going on between some of the elites. It may actually not be Putin inspired this time. Just standard company takeovers Russian style.
Interesting to hear the take on the history and politics of Ukraine from a scholar and historian
The Politics of Unreality: Ukraine and Nuclear Risk: A Conversation with Timothy Snyder (#301) - YouTube
Got to 24 mins.
He starts up with a lot of Kanye related stuff (jewish) and then gets going.
And I disagree with his guest on a fundamental point :)
Maybe later
To avoid years of warfare in Ukraine, the West needs to deal with Russia as it is now, not as it should be
All eyes are on the end of the Putin era, it seems.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi issued a decree in September declaring negotiations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to be “impossible”. This could imply a Ukrainian strategy of no negotiations at all (which is unlikely) or an expectation that the end of the ‘Putin era’ is in sight.
Likewise, many among the Russian intellectual elite and Western political community are hedging their bets that change is coming, and that a new leadership in Russia would be a more pliant partner.
Such hopes are misplaced.
Three reasons why a post-Putin leadership will not be easy
First, there is no sign that Putin – whatever his rumoured health problems might be – is about to die. In his recent public appearances, the Russian president has not made the impression of a man defeated. On the contrary, he looks energised and determined.
The war has given Putin an opportunity to express his long-held and pent-up frustrations with the West, which he had to suppress at times of diplomacy. Now the gloves are off.
Leaving the messy business of Ukraine to a successor is not how Putin understands a leader’s role
Putin believes that time is on Russia’s side in a long war of attrition against Ukraine. The notion that he might step down, under the weight of guilt and shame for the damage he has done to Russia, is misguided.
Putin is on a mission, and it must be accomplished. Leaving the messy business of Ukraine to a successor is not how he understands a leader’s role. Having assumed the burden, he is the one who must end it.
Second, even if Putin does leave power, a stage-managed successor chosen by him is unlikely to be a progressive. The task of the new leader (or leaders) would be to modernise Russia – without necessarily reforming it politically along liberal Western lines.
Russia’s painful experience of reforms in the 1990s, coupled with acute knowledge of the West’s own problems, make this prospect unappealing. Most citizens are ready to believe that the Western model of development is not suitable for Russia. Far more attractive seems to be the Chinese model of tight political control, coupled with economic liberalism and a welfare state.
The fact that many liberal and anti-war members of Russian society have left the country makes such a plan easier to implement. With leading Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny in prison, there is so far no evidence of a serious challenger to Putin from the opposition.
Big business would have a say, but not on matters that challenge the political order. Moreover, significant business figures have been sanctioned, and are correspondingly cut off from the West. Although financial and economic strategy is one of the few areas where different opinions are welcome in Russia, the state controls 71% of the economy – almost twice the 38% share it held in 2006.
Third, if the stakes for ending the war in Ukraine are set so high as to be interpreted as national humiliation in Russia, a patriotic backlash might well occur.
If the Kremlin loses political control and is unable to orchestrate a bureaucratic succession, that could open a space for right-wing forces to influence the country’s politics.
The likes of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, can claim to represent the ‘real Russia’ better than the cosmopolitan elites of Moscow and St Petersburg, who have one foot in the West.
https://cdn2.opendemocracy.net/media...width-1025.jpgYevgeny Prigozhin (right) has become a prominent figure in Russia's "party of war"
| (c) Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo. All rights reserved
Prigozhin is too notorious a figure to aspire to become president himself, but he can play a role of a kingmaker – his anti-elitist sentiment and an image of warrior masculinity find traction in Russia’s depressive towns, low-skilled working class and prison populations.
In a scenario of increased power for Prigozhin and Russia’s ‘party of war’, the version of the war in Ukraine that we have seen so far – a distant conflict playing out on Russian TV screens while the lives of many ordinary people continue regardless – would be over.
Each Russian citizen would have to contribute on the battlefield or in the workplace and abandon their personal plans, hopes and dreams. If Russia’s patriotic political forces can offer a convincing example of living by the values they preach (perhaps by sending their own children into the heat of battle, which nobody among the current leadership has shown a willingness to do), then war would become the norm.
At this point, it might be useful to recall the lessons of history: the social consequences in Germany following the end of the First World War, a civil war and a bitter peace, out of which grew the Freikorps, fascism and the Nazi terror.
And then there’s Crimea
Finally, no Russian president, however keen they are to mend relations with the West, would be willing to part with Crimea. (This is one area where Elon Musk, who suggested that Russia should retain Crimea, may have a point.)
Based on my own conversations with many Russians (including members of the opposition), people’s intense emotional attachment to Crimea means that only an existential threat to the very survival of the country would outweigh its potential loss. The offer of access to global financial markets is not enough.
Not only the leadership but also many members of Russian society are prepared to bear huge costs for the sake of retaining Crimea. The Ukrainian position – that it must control Crimea – does not leave a Russian leadership with any other option but to continue the war.
Waiting for a ‘Russia after Putin’ is like waiting for Godot. A leadership change is not imminent, nor does it open any chances for peace. Instead, we face the prospect of a long-term Syria 2.0 scenario, one that would drain both Ukraine and Russia, and in which there will be no winners.
Politically, the war is already lost for Russia, regardless of developments on the battlefield. Putin is responsible for starting it; it would be consoling if he were forced to face the consequences of his actions. Yet, so far, we have little reason to believe that will happen.
There is no easy escape from the tragedy.
To enable sober forward thinking, it is essential to part with the illusion that a ‘Russia without Putin’ is around the corner and will fundamentally be better. If we are not prepared to deal with Russia as it is – as opposed to what it should be – with Putin being part of the package, we should envisage years of warfare in Ukraine.
And we should start thinking about the effects of a long war upon Europe, on our own societies and how they will respond.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr...ria-successor/
Assuming Trump is now unelectable, I think time is on Ukraine's side. I still believe the sanctions will crush Russia. Russian industry won't be able to manufacture enough arms to come close to winning this war.
Unfortunately I agree. Putin is going nowhere soon and he has the power and the means to continue this war for years.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
I think trouble is brewing for Putin. That's why he's offing many of the elites. His health problems also make him look piss weak. I think Putin will be gone by the end of this year. His successor might be even worse.
Wishful thinking combined with conspiracy theory. :rofl: Your last sentence is correct though. Here's a little informal wager- I reckon Zelensky will be gone before Putin.
No, I won't take that one up. The Russians will be targeting Zelensky.
Putin started and lost the war. More losses are to come and he's fxcked the Russian economy. He'll be lucky to stay in office. I think the dice are now loaded against him. He's put himself in a piss weak position. It isn't just wishful thinking.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the USSR Jack Matlock says in Ukraine: Tragedy of a Nation Divided: https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont...00-Matlock.jpg
Interference by the United States and its NATO allies in Ukraine’s civil struggle has exacerbated the crisis within Ukraine, undermined the possibility of bringing the two easternmost provinces back under Kyiv’s control, and raised the specter of possible conflict between nuclear-armed powers. Furthermore, in denying that Russia has a "right" to oppose extension of a hostile military alliance to its national borders, the United States ignores its own history of declaring and enforcing for two centuries a sphere of influence in the Western hemisphere.
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont...200-Kennan.jpgDiplomat and historian George Kennan, quoted in Thomas Friedman’s This Is Putin’s War. But America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders:
"I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the founding fathers of this country turn over in their graves."
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont.../200-perry.jpgWilliam J. Perry, Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, wrote How the US Lost Russia – and How We Can Restore Relations in Sept. of 2022:
"Many have pointed to the expansion of NATO in the mid-1990s as a critical provocation. At the time, I opposed that expansion, in part for fear of the effect on Russian-U.S. relations….Still, the first step in finding a solution [to the war in Ukraine] is acknowledging the problem and recognizing that our actions have contributed to that hostility."
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont.../200-gates.jpgRobert Gates, Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, in We Always Knew the Dangers of NATO Expansion:
"trying to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO was truly overreaching, … recklessly ignoring what the Russians considered their own vital national interests."
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont...-carpenter.jpgTed Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute in The US and NATO Helped Trigger the Ukraine War. It’s Not ‘Siding With Putin’ to Admit It:
"One can readily imagine how Americans would react if Russia, China, India, or another peer competitor admitted countries from Central America and the Caribbean to a security alliance that it led – and then sought to add Canada as an official or de facto military ally. It is highly probable that the United States would have responded by going to war years ago. Yet even though Ukraine has an importance to Russia comparable to Canada’s importance to the United States, our leaders expected Moscow to respond passively to the growing encroachment.
They have been proven disastrously wrong, and thanks to their ineptitude, the world is now a far more dangerous place."
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont...0-Gfoeller.jpgAmbassador Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell: in Newsweek‘s Lessons From the US Civil War Show Why Ukraine Can’t Win:
"Before the war, far right Ukrainian nationalist groups like the Azov Brigade were soundly condemned by the US Congress. Kiev’s determined campaign against the Russian language is analogous to the Canadian government trying to ban French in Quebec. Ukrainian shells have killed hundreds of civilians in the Donbas and there are emerging reports of Ukrainian war crimes. The truly moral course of action would be to end this war with negotiations rather than prolong the suffering the Ukrainian people in a conflict they are unlikely to win without risking American lives."
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont...0-Caldwell.jpgChristopher Caldwell: in the New York Times‘ The War in Ukraine May Be Impossible to Stop. And the US Deserves Much of the Blame:
"In 2014 the United States backed an uprising – in its final stages a violent uprising – against the legitimately elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych, which was pro-Russian."
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont...0-friedman.jpgThomas Friedman: in the New York Times‘ This Is Putin’s War. But America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders:
"The mystery was why the US – which throughout the Cold War dreamed that Russia might one day have a democratic revolution and a leader who, however haltingly, would try to make Russia into a democracy and join the West – would choose to quickly push NATO into Russia’s face when it was weak.
A very small group of officials and policy wonks at that time, myself included, asked that same question, but we were drowned out."
America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders [from the title]"
The 2019 RAND Corporation study Overextending and Unbalancing Russia "examines nonviolent, cost-imposing options that the United States and its allies could pursue across economic, political, and military areas to stress – overextend and unbalance – Russia’s economy and armed forces and the regime’s political standing at home and abroad. " It includes the paragraph
Providing lethal aid to Ukraine would exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability. But any increase in US military arms and advice to Ukraine would need to be carefully calibrated to increase the costs to Russia of sustaining its existing commitment without provoking a much wider conflict in which Russia, by reason of proximity, would have significant advantages.
The highlighted words indicate that the authors were quite aware that US provocations would cause Russia to respond militarily.
Below is a graphic version of the above article, a larger version is available here.
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/wp-cont...standers-1.jpg
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2023/01/02/putin-apologists/
:chitown:
"They are liars"
:)
The question is: "Are they still alive or locked up?"Quote:
Originally Posted by helge
1x :) smiley for helge
1x :chitown: munching popcorn idiot for Sabang
I think Sabang might need a Mudanjiang corn field to figure it out :rolleyes: