Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

Yep, you'd certainly never see Germany or France (or Sweden!) selling arms to Middle Eastern countries involved in war or having close relations to despotic regimes. Never. :)
I said "stronger and closer alliance" with these regimes. I never said that other European governments were free of the blame.
 
We're going to end up with two parallel worlds where sanctioned countries all trade with each other (mostly Russia and China (assuming the Chinese eventually invade Taiwan)), whilst non-sanctioned countries have to develop alternative trade routes to trade amongst themselves.
 
Guys who built my house were all from Ukraine, except for the supervisor who was Polish. Just called them to see how they are coping and they have all either gone back home already or are on their way now, to join the army and fight. They accept they may never come back.

I was eating pizza and drinking beer with those dudes a year ago in the exact spot I'm sitting in right now. Feels surreal.
 
I feel for the Ukrainians. Having been caught in an invasion it's a losing feeling. Nothing you can do except hide.
 
We're going to end up with two parallel worlds where sanctioned countries all trade with each other (mostly Russia and China (assuming the Chinese eventually invade Taiwan)), whilst non-sanctioned countries have to develop alternative trade routes to trade amongst themselves.

The reality will be that the largest corporations will continue their trades with Russia, China and whoever they want, that's what they have always done.
 
They most definitely would. NATO doesn't distinguish just because of the size or even importance of a member state. And it has to do that because Latvia or Hungray today could mean Poland or Rumania or even Germany tomorrow.
It is abundantly clear that Putin fears NATO and rightly so. That is precisely why he is attacking Ukraine. Because he fears a NATO state on his border.
As opposed to the 5 he already has.
 
We're going to end up with two parallel worlds where sanctioned countries all trade with each other (mostly Russia and China (assuming the Chinese eventually invade Taiwan)), whilst non-sanctioned countries have to develop alternative trade routes to trade amongst themselves.
China won’t risk its trade with the US, it’s goal is stay neutral as long as possible whilst doing what NATO does i.e. indirectly helping others that weaken their rivals.
 
Start another thread if you want to discuss OT!
You do realise that Sweden’s biggest customer for its arms and weaponry is the UAE? Saudi Arabia’s key partner in the Yemen war.
Yes I know we are at fault there as well. But sadly enough, someone else, much stronger and with veto power at the UNSC, is doing much more to enable the saudis. And that someone has been protecting this despicable regime for decades.

This will be my last answer on this. Please let's not derail this topic.
 
I said "stronger and closer alliance" with these regimes. I never said that other European governments were free of the blame.

Utter fecking joke. Look at the proportion of Sweden's arm sales going to Pakistan and UAE alone, it's pretty much identical to the proportion of UK arms that go to the ME. The difference being the UK sells 15x more overall.
 
I feel for the Ukrainians. Having been caught in an invasion it's a losing feeling. Nothing you can do except hide.

I do believe that while it might not be very difficult for Russia to invade and take hold of Ukraine, it might well be much more difficult to hold onto it in the longer term. Especially because of the size of the country.

I am hopeful that there will be a strong Ukrainian resistance movement that will continue to attack and disrupt the occupying forces.
And that this resistance movement will be progressively supported by the rest of the Western countries to the extent that, much like Afghanistan, they eventually have to retreat.
 
I said "stronger and closer alliance" with these regimes. I never said that other European governments were free of the blame.

Not really though. Sweden's largest exports go to Pakistan and UAE. Germany actually exports more arms than the UK does, including to UAE and Egypt. France just signed a huge deal with the UAE for billions of dollars of jets, as well as ongoing support to the Saudis.

You're all twats who look out for yourselves is the crux of this really. Hilarious to try to paint one western country as being majorly out of step with others in terms of how bad they are.
 
I said "stronger and closer alliance" with these regimes. I never said that other European governments were free of the blame.

Of that lot France are the largest arm sellers and have no issue selling almost anything to anyone.
 
@Mihai Thanks for reply before. Trying to keep up. I feel so privileged sitting in my warm home in England. Thoughts for every person in Ukraine and videos of those on the island and that young lad dying to blow up a bridge are inspiring. Fighting for something worthwhile. It's not nationalism. It's a home and a way of life.

@Shakesey If your grand strategy as head of NATO is "to give putin what he wants" to avoid war, it's just laughable.
;)
 
What is the fallout if someone was to assasinate Putin?

Difficult to know really but I don't think you're going to get a more reasonable Russia following an assassination, especially if its somehow coming from an external power.

You can sometimes end up with a situation far worse than what you had before too. Sisi in Egypt for instance is worse than Mubarak was before him.

He's not going to get assassinated anyway.
 
Looking at Putin's head these days and all I can think of is Andy Cole. I wonder if he experiencing renal failure. It's a condition that can include serious mental health issues as a side effect as well.
 
If you strike him down he will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine

on a serious note probably Russia launches nukes and we all die

No way they launch nukes for that. Only zombie Putin would launch nukes because Putin has been assassinated. They might come together and get even more aggressive, though. Or they might not be able to come together internally, and who knows where that leads.
 
What is the fallout if someone was to assasinate Putin?

I think there would be a collective sigh of relief, followed by a short lived power struggle between residual elites and popular pro-democracy masses in Russia, and the latter would quickly crush the elites. In either case, the world will breathe a collective sigh of relief when this deranged lunatic moves on.