All three of your claims have been refuted again and again in this thread, yet you keep repeating them. It's really not a good look.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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A stalemate isn't far off what it is now. If Ukraine were to get stronger what makes you think that the best case scenario would be more stalemate? You can't fund and fight a major foreign war forever if you won't even admit it's a war. Something would also have to change on the Russian side to earn a stalemate - as things stand if the Ukrainians keep their will to fight and get better weaponry they will in time grind the Russian army to dust. Big ifs of course - but to me it's way more likely that one side or the other eventually wins and the other has to make a deal.
Refuted? Do you mean that this has been refuted?
3. There is a war for 100+ days now. Why isn't Germany doing much? See the Spiegel article above. Obviously Spiegel cannot directly accuse anyone, but it is really hard to understand why Scholtz is doing nothing.
The article I linked above is a recent one from Spiegel. How has it been refuted? Have you read it? It says it is hard to understand why Scholtz is doing what he is doing, exactly what I am saying.
And has the point (1) been refuted? How? By whom? Here are a couple of articles I have saved. Please read them with an open mind, you may find something interesting.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/orde...a-special-responsibility-to-stop-putins-evil/
https://www.politico.eu/article/blame-germany-russia-policy/
https://www.dw.com/en/german-businessmen-in-russia-more-than-gerhard-schröder/a-40761086
https://www.ft.com/content/6560170c-95f5-478e-860f-eec683c049af
I'm not going into those discussions again. I'll let you have the honour of having bored that conversation to death by sheer repetition.
The slower 'some countries' delivers it's weapons and drags this war on, the longer this stagflation is going to be. Ukraine will fight until its last man is down. And if that isn't enough and Russia takes over all of Ukraine, stagflation will last a decade due to the neverending military and economic tensions between Eastern Europe and USS Ukraine. NATO might have to fight a war then too. This is no good for anybody.
The fastest way for economic recovery is to hand Russia a good beating, and open up food and energy exports from Ukraine into the world.
Sort it out EU.
The fastest way for economic recovery is to hand Russia a good beating, and open up food and energy exports from Ukraine into the world.
Sort it out EU.
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Point (2) I agree it is wild speculation. It has not been "refuted" because it is wild speculation on my part. Probably because I don't like Merkel, because I believe she is responsible for destroying the Greek economy (and me and my family lost a lot in that, so I'd love to see Merkel in prison, but I know it will never happen... ) But I also hold her responsible for Ukraine, she refused to accept Ukraine to NATO, she pushed for Russian gas pipelines, she was a "Putin enabler" for 16 years. She has direct or indirect responsibility for this war. How big a responsibility I don't know, but Germany was making a lot of decisions for all the EU in the past 15 years.
I have a horrible feeling this is going to end up in an all out world war
It won't. Russia can barely hold it's own against the Ukraine and it has no real allies.
I doubt it will get to that stage no one can afford it.
But even if it did would it really be a World War? Wouldn't it just be Nato vs Russia?
I don’t believe Merkel was on the take (she is a person of integrity even though her continuation of Ostpolitik is not looking good from the perspective of 2022). Nor do I believe she was subject to kompromat. However, I find it hard to believe that Schröder was the only Putinversteher on the Kremlin payroll.
From the BBC:
"UK defence secretary makes unannounced visit to Ukraine
The UK's defence secretary Ben Wallace has been on an unannounced visit to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defence said he was there for two days this week and met his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, as well as President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a video posted on the president’s official Telegram channel, Wallace is seen telling Zelensky he is doing an “amazing job".
The MoD said Wallace was able to hear first-hand how the operational needs of Ukraine's armed forces are developing as the nature of the conflict changes.
"This will ensure that the UK's continued support is evolving to meet those requirements and is tailored to the situation on the ground," it said.
It added that the three politician agreed to work more closely "in support of their shared goal of enabling Ukraine to liberate itself from illegal Russian occupation".
It's not clear when the politicians met and whether they were able to discuss the situation of the two British men - Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin - who have been sentenced to death after fighting in Ukraine by an unrecognised court in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic."
"UK defence secretary makes unannounced visit to Ukraine
The UK's defence secretary Ben Wallace has been on an unannounced visit to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defence said he was there for two days this week and met his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, as well as President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a video posted on the president’s official Telegram channel, Wallace is seen telling Zelensky he is doing an “amazing job".
The MoD said Wallace was able to hear first-hand how the operational needs of Ukraine's armed forces are developing as the nature of the conflict changes.
"This will ensure that the UK's continued support is evolving to meet those requirements and is tailored to the situation on the ground," it said.
It added that the three politician agreed to work more closely "in support of their shared goal of enabling Ukraine to liberate itself from illegal Russian occupation".
It's not clear when the politicians met and whether they were able to discuss the situation of the two British men - Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin - who have been sentenced to death after fighting in Ukraine by an unrecognised court in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic."
It is interesting that Germany is getting a lot of crap and the UK's cosying up to Russia and ignoring Russian influence over Brexit is getting a pass because we are delivering weapons. Our Government must not be able to believe their luck.
In what ways has the UK been "cosying up to Russia"?
Feel like that’s a bit of a misrepresentation. UK wasn’t cozying up to Russia, there was suspected links with Russia influencing Brexit - that’s two very different things. I’d think a big reason of why the U.K. is doing so much now is precisely because they know Russia did meddle in our politics.
London has been used to wash Russian dirty money for two decades now, under successive governments. Dirty money, as soon as it was cleaned, helped fund this war.
And Johnson's Government has deliberately underplayed Russian involvement in the Brexit referendum.
I think most people equate brexit more with Murdoch influence than Russian. Russia essentially piggybacked on the narrative that was already being spread far and wide by NewsCorp.
Russian influence is more on the financial side (well, and Lebedev obviously) and there was no attempt early doors to downplay like Germany did
I am happy to change the language if you and others feel it is harsh.
I am concerned that we have not done enough to rid Russian money from our politics. The Tories are still taking Russian-linked donations, even after February.
My point is that more pressure and focus should be given to the UK so that we don't simply slip back into the very dodgy status quo we had.
The ISC Parliamentary Report did state the UK Government deliberately failed to investigate Russian interference in Brexit:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...emlin-interference-scottish-referendum-brexit
It is not the same as Germany's involvement with Russia - I am not making that point. But it did involve an element of ignoring Russian influence because the Brexiteers were concerned it may undermine Brexit. Really not a good look.
Brexit might be the best thing the UK has done if Russia wins and causes massive destabilisation in the EU between Eastern and Western Europe. Hold on to your hats.
I never denied there was Russian involvement or that the government covered that up, of course they did, but the general populace when asked about who influenced that would point to Murdoch press, and they wouldn’t even be wrong. Russia saw a chink that was already there and took advantage because they knew it weakened the west.
The Russian money in the Tory party is obviously an issue but was also never going to be covered by this countries right wing press. It’s sad but true (and absolutely should be seriously investigated, albeit we know they won’t without some high level investigative journalism unearthing something major, rather than the Led By Donkeys shite we currently have raising it)
Citing things that stretch back for 20 years is not the here-and-now in which the UK has been one of Ukraine's most staunch supporters. Moreover, London is the world's most important financial centre - so it's not surprising that it has attracted some money-laundering schemes. The City of London finance sector is largely in private hands - it's not a nationalised industry run by the government.
As for Johnson and Brexit, that's just politics. He wanted Brexit and he got it - he's hardly going to admit any Russian influence on public opinion. Moreover, Russia has been working intensely for decades now to influence public opinion - by sowing confusion and muddying the truth - in almost every nation in the West. The UK is no different in that respect.
You seem very concerned to cast around for political leaders and countries to criticise ... perhaps motivated by the notion that anything short of past or present perfection is fair game.
Sorry, I wasn't disagreeing with you, just clarifying a point. I agree with what you have said.
I do think that if we had a Labour Government for the past few years, the right-wing press would be all over this.
I will reply to this and say no more in this thread, as this may be veering into geopolitics. My initial comment, which was a general one, was that Germany is getting a lot of criticism (and rightly so), whereas the UK has not. The UK's open door policy for Russian money - the money of oligarchs which is also by extension Putin's money - has had the double effect of allowing the Russian state to have more influence over UK politics, and to wash that dirty money which found its way back into the Kremlin's coffers and has helped fund this illegal, cruel, and needless war.
The UK has sent weapons and assistance. I want us to send more. Much more. Putin must be defeated.
But that does not mean that the inaction of the UK Government (current and previous) should be ignored and excused. The City of London (and its ancient privileges which have not been removed by the central government) has turned a blind eye to many money-laundering schemes, which has encouraged even more dirty money to flow into the UK. Added to that golden passport and golden visa schemes run by the UK Government, and we do not have the picture of a state that has listened to its own security services advice, let alone followed it.
If the UK is to avoid complicity in funding the next illegal war run by a dictatorship, much more action needs to be taken now to improve state security. I will leave it there.
This answers some of it.
They've been working on/with Johnson for a long time and he's gone to great lengths to cover up their involvement.
It may be mostly about Brexit but the UK/City of London and the offshire territories under its control are the #1 facilitator for dirty money in the world so are hugely important to the Russian elite and the money they have siphoned out of the Russian people over the last 30 years.
Won't change anything
Cosying up to Russia? How?
Not done the orcs much good though, has it? Unlike Germany, where everything seems to be just words, finding excuses or done as slowly as possible.
Yeah I think Putin greatly underestimated how giving money to the Conservatives would mean feck all loyalty from them.
Covered above, and I said I won't go into it too much in this thread. Probably more for the geopolitics. But it goes beyond donations to the Tories and interfering in UK elections, as bad as that is.
I am happy to tweak my language, but allowing Russian oligarchs to wash billions of pounds of their money in the City of London and in the UK economy ultimately meant funding, indirectly, Putin and helping contribute to the funding of this war.
As much as I hate this Government they are absolutely doing the right thing in helping Ukraine. In fact I would support them doing more. But we cannot forget the loopholes and deliberate policy errors of the past that helped Putin's regime. The semi-autonomous nature of the City should be challenged, and much more stringent regulation of financial transactions supported and implemented, to avoid this happening again.
Yeh, paradoxically he needs the anti-Russian PR, especially if the Russia report ever gets fully released. Unless its not really him driving the Ukraine help.