How that’s ever going to work though when their economy is ten times smaller? Russia’s GDP is half of that of France, below Italy and barely over Spain.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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Makes me wonder why everyone was quick to a conclusion that China would help them, there’s not much for them to gain vs what they could lose in the West. They will help wherever they can make money but it won’t be to Russia’s benefit. I reckon China just likes where they are right now.
This a legit translation? Don't get why Chechen thugs are made out to be some sort of super soldier, maybe it's their brutality that gives them this claim.
Missed this earlier today…
My daughters boyfriend is in Uni doing History/Geopolitics… they’re actually discussing it on his course as it happens.
Must be odd feeling as you’d go on that course expecting to read about the impacts of various events, but all historic. Now he‘s doing it live.
Such a shame, it always hits the good guys
Just watching a live stream of a number of CCTV cameras in Kyiv and it sounds like there are a lot of explosions going off right now
American billionaire giving his thoughts.
Didn’t miss much, apparently.
We played very well, but it was another showing of MissingSitters FC
Unlike our attackers.
I don't know how effective Macron has been but I admire and respect his assertiveness and initiatives.
It's not. But perception is also important, how many people would have thought their economy was much smaller? And that gets blown up the second they're seen as begging China for a single cent.
Religious fanatics who actually enjoy in fighting and have major combat experience in Syria or young men who are first time in war and it is because they must be there. Against who would you rather fight?
Combat experience is priceless war. Having said that; of course there is a lot of media propaganda around them. They are not some super soldiers for sure.
The germophobe is probably injected upto his eyeballs with steroids. Induced psychosis
You could have put them in order for a nice acronym.
Military
Information
Cyber
Economic
Financial Times correspondent gives thread on sanctions impact.
There's a profound lack of even half sensible explanations for the decision to invade Ukraine, any decent explanation that doesn't make Putin look irrational would be most welcome at this point. It would be a big surprise if his inner circle is comfortable with the direction they're heading in. Putin might be crazy enough to insist on the use of nuclear weapons and he might not be that crazy, but it's not like he's going to instantly launch them on his own and I honestly doubt that anyone close to him is going to stand by while and accept it's the end of days. They were never going to feck with him as he has again and again proven what'll happen to those that goes against him, but now they suddenly find themselves in a position where supporting him could be very very bad for them. There's always upsides for someone, in this case China, but I really don't think China is all that happy about the type of conflict that Russia is now engaging in, and it wouldn't surprise me that they also share serious concerns about Putins actions and the consequences it could have. We're talking permanently damaged relationships with western countries and sanctions that could potentially have dire consequences for large parts of the Russian population, not to mention constantly going after billionaires that makes up Putins inner circle.
It's not unrealistic that Putin has completely fecked up.
And there you have it. You can prepare all you want to get hit but if it's a truck instead of a bike, it won't be any less painful.
Yeah, sanctions seriously piling up now for Russia. This is gonna hurt.
Have to feel for the Ukrainian people, to have rockets fired at your country must be terrifying, men not allowed to leave, women and kids leaving, how many of them will see their boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/wives/children again.
It amazes me that with all these secret security services across the world, nobody has took out Kim Jong Un or Vladimir Putin.
It amazes me that with all these secret security services across the world, nobody has took out Kim Jong Un or Vladimir Putin.
Monday might be a huge day for Russia.
Yeah, agree. I noticed that too. Ukraine is a huge country, with solid army. You can't finish that war in 72 hours.
The problem could be if Putin starts to think that they are going slowly. Then he will do what he (i guess) wanted to avoid and that is storming in cities with tanks and soldiers. That would be bloodbath.
At this point one has to ask what Putin's end game is here. Even if he were to add Ukraine to Russia (unlikely given the insurgency that is going to happen), he has been castrated by sanctions back home to where Russia will be sent back to the dark ages. There's literally nothing he can do to change this, since even if he were to abruptly retreat tomorrow, the sanctions would remain in place and continue aggressively eroding Russia from within.
Do you think the West will hold onto the sanctions even if Putin does a full withdrawal? I wonder how far the West is willing to go.
Yes, because at this point the sanctions are no longer a reward for deescalation since Putin has already waged war. They will be used to further weaken him and eventually get him out of there.
My best guess is that he keeps biting bigger and bigger chunk of Ukraine (let's say 50% of it) and then sit at the table to negotiate terms and sanctions.
There is really no going back for him now.
the west will probably be making their decisions with an eventual regime changeover in mind. The phrase 20% of something is better than 100% of nothing springs to mind. If Russia ever wants a proper seat at the table again, the concessions they will have to make are ginormous. These sanctions have shown that the world is not scared to find alternative ways of living than through Russian commodities.
At this point i'm almost wishing he gets Dombas so he can pretend it was the plan all along and call it a day (pretty unlikely). This way he won't look like they were defeated and he won't feel the need to escalade violence even more to show he's still a strong leader. This man's ego is collossal, he won't tolerate giving the impression that he didn't achievel what he wanted and that Russia isn't a military superpower anymore (it still is but it's rather small compared to the full forces of OTAN combined).
This war (his decision to go in it) doesn't have any bloody logic. I mean, any war doesn't have any logic of course but this was plain stupidity. As you said; whatever happens, sanctions will stay for months, even years. Russia is fecked. How the hell he missed that?
"But tonight it is clear that while Putin could still “win” his war in Ukraine, the costs to him, and to Russia, will be far, far higher than he could have imagined."
Would these sort of sanctions really have been something he wouldn't have anticipated? Might he have genuinely thought there wouldn't be the will among other nations to even go that far?