BruceVC

Have you ever asked yourself why the majority of countries that use to be ex-Soviet states couldnt wait to join the EU and NATO? If Russia offered an better way of life sovereign countries like Ukraine would join them like you said Western countries are not just about selling weapons and causing wars, they offer a better quality of life and that works for most people who have lived under the Soviet rule or who look at Putins idea of resurrecting the old borders of the Russian empire and they reject it People outside what you have always known your whole life generally dont think badly of the idea of Western ideology

The threat and reality of a nuclear war is always something to be concerned about. I do think its highly unlikely because it never happened in the 50 years of the Cold War due to Mutually Assured Destruction and in those days you also had mentally unhinged people like Putin in both the West and East but they werent that irrational to doom their countries and or the world to nuclear holocaust so its unlikely it will happen now

Add to that the economic burden on all of our countries due to the global interest rate increases due to the end of lockdowns and Putins War becomes even more unpalatable I enjoyed your new Chancellors speech yesterday, he made a lot of sense

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/russia-hikes-key-rate-20-tells-companies-sell-fx-2022-02-28/ The egregious raising of the Russian key interest rate to 20% by their Central Bank is just another example of the severe economic consequences Russia is facing due to Putins War Well least Russia is such a strong economy their will no impact due to the invasion of Ukraine....oh wait

Tired? Surly you jest, this is just the beginning I have been having debates around the US invasion of Iraq for nearly 20 years and we are going to talking about how Russia lied to justify an invasion of Ukraine for decades You must have fortitude ....its going to be a long and glorious series of debates and outrage for the rest of your life, or at least the next 20-30 years

The US learnt lots of important lessons about urban warfare in places like Iraq and the battles for Fallujah The Ruskies have let to learn those lessons

Absolutely but I was watching a comparison on CNN between the sizes and resources of the Ukrainian army vs the Russian army and its literally like David vs Goliath. So we need to be realistic but I do think the Ukrainian army has done exceptionally well so far against the much better resourced and much larger Russian army https://en.as.com/en/2022/02/26/latest_news/1645907062_698195.html But what has made this invasion much harder for Russia is they cant just adopt their normal military strategy of " bombing cities to the ground " and they have been forced to use boots on the ground and hand to hand combat and clearly their training of infantry is not that great

I wish it was that simple, Russia will definitely win a sustained war Their should be no doubt of that. But this invasion has highlighted weaknesses of the new Russian army when they are involved in this type of city warfare

Yes they are trying to avoid civilian casualties, the Geneva Convention does apply to them but also they have no way to control the media narrative until Ukraine is occupied then they can ban\arrest journalists. So its an accurate point, Russia is trying to avoid civilian casualties which is a noticeable difference to other conflicts they have been involved in

Interesting story, thanks for sharing Did you not drink tea when you were young instead of coffee? I was raised on tea growing up and the first time I had coffee was maybe 17-18 years old. Tea is so much better than coffee

Thats not a nice thing to suggest, I am sure @Elerond is ethnically pure blood Finnish?

So you guys are alt-accounts of each other, glad someone is finally being honest about who is real and who is not I appreciate the honesty

Dont worry Malc you will get your military Russian victory against the vastly under resourced Ukrainian army and the fact the Russian military has much more troops and military hardware. No need to be worried that a no-fly zone would make things more even. Also remember Russia is use to levelling cities to the ground with their air force from miles up in the air So this delay is because now the Russian military is fighting on the ground without the benefit of their air force and destroying the entire city where the enemy is. Like we witnessed in Grozny and Aleppo

Yes and some people actually were cheering on this invasion because its all about Nazis. I promise you its true Comrade, they really believed that Oh and you know the Ukrainian president is Jewish but since when did the truth stop Putins misinformation and propaganda

When you going to eat your hat by the way? Here is a link that shows how some deliver on what they say but my advice is go to a local cake shop and ask for a cake made to look like a hat and eat that ? That is also fine because technically it doesnt have to be a real hat, thats what I would do in your situation ? https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/bitcoin-user-eats-own-hat-literally/

Why would you be surprised when a country is invaded and their is a wide diaspora of its citizens that some people would not return to fight for their country? Especially considering the history of Ukraine and the fact the current president was Democratically elected through a transparent election ? But yes I agree, if people are going to fight the Russian invasion they need to understand its not some first world country where your rights are guaranteed....we talking about real war here

I am now 20 hours into the Forest so its a good amount of time for an objective view of the game. Its great fun and I recommend it to people who like this type of genre which I classify as survival. I am using the map and compass because I dont want the hardcore experience which I can imagine is more rewarding but I am happy with my survival decision I have started crafting useful items like a Bow and I have some effective range weapons like a bomb and Molotov ****tail I also have started exploring the dangerous cave system and encountered enemies that are more than cannibals ...in fact they more than human I cant say I will definitely finish this game but I am having loads of fun and lots of scary moments

Something else which I want to recognize is the thousands of Russians involved in anti-War and and anti-Putin protests in Russia and other countries And to protest in Russia is really dangerous because Putin doesnt really tolerate citizens expressing their displeasure with government https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/russia-detains-over-3000-anti-war-protestors-demonstrating-against-invasion-of-ukraine-articleshow.html

Okay I tried, in the interests of " hearing both sides " I watched RT for 10 minutes but the gaslighting and misinformation made me nauseous and I had stop watching or I would have sick But I tried so you can give me that at least

But you can trust most international news agencies with journalists on the ground in Ukraine, for example Gorthfuscious you can trust the stories that highlight the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine right ?

Im pleasantly surprised, Anonymous is involved in hacking that I support ...I never thought I would see that day

Yes but this has been raised, Putin is not thinking rationally and this Ukrainian invasion was miscalculated I have seen from several sources that since Covid lockdowns Putin has isolated himself from most of his advisors because he has this irrational obsession with " not getting the virus " and that could be one of the reasons for this entire badly thought out invasion Thats why Macron sat opposite him at the end of that huge table https://www.firstpost.com/world/emmanuel-macron-sits-across-vladimir-putin-at-long-table-after-snubbing-russian-covid-year-10368021.html

https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/spfs-russia-s-alternative-to-swift.html/ ( this was written before the Ukraine invasion so you can ignore his warnings about " an invasion " ) and this article is " pro-Russian " and basically supports SPFS SWIFT is by far the most widely used and integrated financial payment system in the world and the alternatives like SPFS is really only used internally within Russia so its not gong to make much difference. The whole point of SWIFT is predominantly the intra-country trade and financial payment benefits Real alternatives to SWIFT would have to used by the majority of banks globally and thats not the reality for SPFS or any other similar system So freezing out Russia from SWIFT would have unprecedented economic consequences for Russia unlike anything the Ruskies have ever experienced but it would also directly harm the economies of any country trading with Russia in any way which has to be considered before this type of financial sanction is implemented So its understandable if Germany is reluctant, I would also be reluctant if I was Germany. I think we need to wait a while before the SWIFT " punishment" is implemented which exactly what is happening One more thing, what makes SWIFT " punishment " more easier to implement is if the US is behind it. Because what will happen is the US creates its own set of sanctions that says " you mustnt trade with country xx " which translates to US companies cannot legally do business with these countries. This in turn creates real choices for companies outside the US who have to decide " do we take the risk of trading with company x in country y and face possible US financial sanctions " which very few global companies would be prepared to do and thats also understandable But this is the big stick approach to making SWIFT freezing really be effective and its a long way off because it takes time. I dont think you need SWIFT banning yet, once the invasion is over the current sanctions should make the point ?

The arrogance of Putin knows no bounds, now he is threatening both Sweden and Finland not to join NATO https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/finland-sweden-brush-off-moscows-warning-joining-nato-83126927

What a strange expectation, many East Europeans have ethnic and cultural ties with Ukrainians ....they dont have the same ties with Syrians. So no its nothing to do with racism