War in Ukraine. Did the West handle the post Cold War era badly?

Merely symbolic but here in Portugal the Russian embassy was "painted" with the Russian flag.

@ghost_of_phobos: Be interesting to get in the minds of the Kremlin and know what they are really thinking.

As much as they love Putin Lord, surely at the back of their minds somewhere they know this shit is crazy.

breaking news that US will move to ban russian oil imports.

IMO this is basically just a symbolic move for US as their dependence on russian oil is minimal.

it's likely that for russia at least, the recent spike in prices will offset any losses incurred by US stopping purchasing.

@uninspiredcup: There’s some dissension in Russia, but there’s a lot of people who passionately back Putin up. About half the Russians I know are extremely pro Putin, and they live in the west.

I understand why he felt threatened, but this invasion has made things worse for him.

@uninspiredcup: In the Kremlin I have doubts that many people think this was a good Idea. I see no upside for Russia. Even their relationship with China, if Russia is isolated it just means that they'll have to sell below market prices and China will have the upper hand in any negotiation.

The general population should be mostly OK with it. We're chimpanzees.Territory and war bring up primal instincts of unity. Although the longer war lasts, the more people will wake up from the collective hypnosis.

This is one is hilarious. Italians <3

Salvini is among those right wingers who loved Putin btw. Seeing even journalists insulting him just made my day.

Getting pretty desperate now not to come across as anime villains, Sadly, not working.

How many schools, hospitals, teachers and healthcare workers have this war killed now?

How many decades will it take to properly rebuild?

@Bond007uk: Regarding the neo-Nazi’s in Ukraine, here is what the BBC said about it:

Neo-nazi threat in Ukraine:

https://youtu.be/5SBo0akeDMY

On patrol with far right militia

https://youtu.be/hE6b4ao8gAQ

@kadin_kai: You can find similar reports about Russia.

Edit:

You can also find how Russia is the nation with the biggest population of neo-nazis, how there's neo-nazi training camps in Russian soil. How Russia absorbed neo-nazis into their army and security forces. How Russian neo-nazi militias have been in Ukraine since 2014. How Putin deals directly with some of those neo-nazi militias.

I mean, from all the stupid shit Putin used to justify his massacre of Ukrainians, the neo-nazi angle is borderline comedy aimed at the mentally challenged.

Plus, the problem is a bit more complex than "Nazi bad".

Far-right ultra nationalists in the army or security forces is a known global issue. The psychological profile makes this type of people more inclined towards it. And it's not unheard to have the army absorbing them to at least have some control over them.

Eastern countries with unsecure borders also tend to have those kinds of movements, because the threat to their nations is real.

Also, communism was so great that when the Nazis arrived in Ukraine they were seen as liberators (big mistake of course) but one can not ignore Ukraine suffered a lot during the USSR era. Even before that too.

Anyway...

Vladimir Putin reportedly fires eight generals

https://euroweeklynews.com/2022/03/11/vladimir-putin-reportedly-fires-eight-generals/

No matter how this ends my total support to the brave people of Ukraine. Hopefully they'll keep being a free people with a democratic system.

Isn't Eastern Europe generally much more open about being racists than Western Europe?

Yeah, the Neo Nazi angle is incredibly laugably bad. Neo Nazis in Ukraine is an issue in the military, but by the gods, Russia, and especially Putin are far worse on this regard.

The Neo Nazis make up a very insignificant portion of Ukraine and last time I checked they didnt even have any seats on the parliament. In fact, of the Neo Nazis, a good ammount of them are the guys who also support Russia.

Putin was always a bad dude, but he def deserves to die along with everyone in the Kremlin. They are nothing but a blight on humanity coasting on the fear of nuclear war. I really hope this whole shit show ends with them getting demolished and Russia moves closer to democracy and cooperation. It will at least be a teeny tiny minuscule of long term good out of all the immediate evil.

Suggestions now are that they are preparing to use chemical weapons using the above garbage as an excuse to justify it.

If there is some, low, low level of depravity they can sink to, jumping at it.

Yea, can find right-wing niche' groups in pretty much any country.

Seen one or two of these posting this shit like it's some kinda gotcha'.

No bro, they are going in because they want it part of Russia and not Nato, making up shit as they go along.

Like, I don't want to insult the guy, but if you are posting that...

This one is interesting, Akhmetov was a pro Russian billionaire. Owner of a football club with deep pro-Russian connections among their followers/hooligans. Seeing him now changing his position publicly, gives also an idea of what pro-Russian Ukrainians feel about this criminal war Russia launched on Ukraine. May he use part of his empire to defend his people.

Ukraine’s Richest Man Says He’s Doing Everything He Can To Help His Country, And Sparing No Expense (forbes.com)

also

Akhmetov, Pinchuk And Tihipko Consider Putin War Criminal | Ukrainian news (ukranews.com)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10601833/Russian-troops-Ukraine-issued-GAS-MASKS-amid-warnings-Putin-launch-chemical-attack.html

Russian troops in Ukraine have been issued GAS MASKS: Chemical warfare equipment is seized from captured troops amid warnings from the West that Putin WILL launch a gas attack

• Ukraine's Ministry of Defence shared images of gas marks seized from invading Russian troops
• The masks were part of a hoard including WWII era helmets and equipment, with Ukraine branding it a 'sham'
• Western leaders have warned Vladimir Putin is preparing a chemical attack against civilians in Ukraine

@uninspiredcup: By the same logic, should Bush, Blair, Obama, Cameron also follow the fate of Putin?

@kadin_kai: You're right. Since these guys are obv bad, we should allow and clap Russia in committing genocide.

Or at least pretend it's ok, because other bad things potentially exist.

If Russia starts uses a chemical attack and Sergey Lavrov start blathering more shit, I hope someone physically picks him up and throws him across the room.

When just done with your Xfiles boxset.

A CCP troll who supports Russia? Get out!

@SOedipus: Surely you should welcome opinion and invite discussion instead of name calling.

Not from someone who supports the CCP and their policies. Sorry not sorry.

source of your claim?

@firedrakes: Just look at his post history. He's been openly in support of the CCP since the HK democracy protests at the very least, plus he is Chinese.

Look at this shit:

And does kadin_kai ever talk about this nazi bullshit in China? **** no, he's just excusing genocide of Ukrainians because there are 200 nazi troops there defending their country.

Iirc, he flat out made excuses for the genocide of Rohingyas. Blaming them for not integrating well enough.

wish they would make up their mind. this got banned from youtube. but fb says ok, go punch russians.

Generally don't encourage violence. But if you happen to be fighting against Russians in Ukraine, then please go ahead.

I was considering volunteering with Ukraine a while back. But the last thing Russia needs is another excuse to invade Sweden. So I choose not to.

Instead I will find other ways to save lives.

@Maroxad: I can't do it now for work reasons but I'm planning to go to the polish border in August to help anyway I can. To be honest for the last weeks my guts tell me to go now but that isn't a rational decision.

I find it hilarious that Putin, the man responsible for the invasion and subsequent deaths of thousands of people, still has accounts on social media platforms, while Trump and various Republicans gets banned for election misinformation 🤡🌍

EDIT: Facebook also removed AZOV from their dangerous organization list as well

misinformation is just another word for "we are absoulte morons who didnt realize the internet existed until now"

I could've had a webpage up since 1990s that "Bill Clinton is an alien" and no one wouldve gave two flying fucks.

You showed interest in joining Nato, that's reason enough.

Netflix made available for free on YouTube the documentary "Winter of Fire". It's a good video document on how determined are the Ukrainian people determined to choose their own future. Kind of heartbreaking seeing it now. I can see how hard must have been for Putin to lose control over Ukraine, in such a way. No wonder he fears them.

@SOedipus: Ha so if one holds a different political view, you simply ignore them! That’s very clever isn’t it. Well done, keep counting those coins!

Are you saying that it's better to put the people who disagree with you in "reeducation" camps, like your god Pooh?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/13/ukraine-news-russia-war-latest-putin-zelensky-kyiv/

Puppets and fake votes to join Russia incoming.

Don't think this will be anything like Crimea. They've inflicted too much pain and suffering for propaganda to be effective or to develop any semblance of loyalty. Not that it was there to begin with.

Zelensky at this point has gone from some bad comedian to a folk hero for the populace, if they capture/kill him and replace him with a Kremlin puppet, doubt it's going to have anywhere near their desired effect. Quite the opposite would imagine.

As big as the Russia forces are, every city they take, they will have to leave forces behind thinning their lines. Having to travel hundreds of miles with hostile topography perfect for ambush (wet mud roads and forest) and they seem to not have any training in dealing with that type of warfare. Good at shelling cities and killing civs, but when it comes to actually fighting forces outside that, pretty inept. With kids who don't even know why they there.

They've claimed only something like 500 people died. But when 3 high ranking generals are killed having to go to the front-lines when they should be at the back, know they are a mess talking pure shite.

Think Boris Johnson summed it up well saying Putin and lose now or lose at a later date.

Watching the Kremlin talk, with increasingly ludicrous claims, they have an air of desperation and that's not good for the civs as it means increasing violence.

Internally, they come across as quack jobs. Having to lie to Putin and put up a false show against the reality. With Putin himself in some sort of bubble where he bought into his own bullshit.

And we thought last year was bad. :/

There are rumors of Putin planning a false flag terrorism attempt. If these rumors are true that would be extremely messed up.

We even increased our military spending to 2% of GDP.

Norway is reaching that target within a few years.

Any specifics to where this false flag terrorism might take place?

I've already heard Russia is trying to pull Belarus into the fight by having their air force attack places in Belarus from Ukrainian airspace.

If the US is overspending because the rest of the NATO countries are underspending, I hope the US will finally cut its military budget.

And the rumor is mostly coming from a single official. So take it still with a grain of salt. But it seems russia is doing anything to forge a Casus Belli, working backwards.

https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-may-use-chemical-weapons-false-flag-attack-not-more-broadly-western-2022-03-11/

First the alleged violence against Russians, then the Neo Nazis, then the "Woke", now the BioWeapons, and it seems they will try to false flag chemical weapons now as well.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-humanitarian-aid-for-besieged-city-of-mariupol-will-arrive-this-afternoon-zelenskyy-says-12564860

lit spouting lines from Halflife 2 :/

""Despite all our efforts, there are still people in the town who try to destabilise the situation, who spur you on to commit extremist acts."

Chemical attacks has been Russias favourite for the last two decades... Didn't an innocent British citizen die late 00's? Are Russia finally admitting to invading another country now?

Zelensky, "Anti-Citizen One".

@HoolaHoopMan:

That's a bit alarmist. Gas mask is part of basic kit in any army. Or should be. Of course it may be that it actually isn't in Russia.

USA triggered the 2014 Euromaiden coup that forced an elected president out. One who was friendly with Russia.

This was the beginning of current war.

Shortly later Russian backed separatists start open rebellion whenever the Ukrainians are going to get them Russia intervened. USA continued to arm them essentially a proxy war for control of a client state.

Russia obviously doesn’t want a thriving democracy friendly to USA on its doorstep.

Russia is suffering from massive brain drain and emigration. Their population is in decline. Their economy wasn’t that great to begin with coupled with massive corruption at all levels.

What better way to distract everyone. Invent some false flag special operation against the nazis next door and bio labs and child slavery!

All that coupled with you have a leader with small man syndrome who surrounded himself with yes men. More then likely given horrible intel just to appease him. Nobody would tell him no. This is the result.

An angry little slav that dug himself a hole.

It’s plainly obvious talking or negotiations are pointless. Putin is so insulated from actual reality by yes men it doesn’t get through.

The saying goes if you want peace prepare for war.

The time for sanctions is over. Russia needs a punch in the nose now.