Has anyone been following this who would like to share interesting articles, etc?
Interesting news of Russia and Ukraine.
Posts
Total:
32
I have, but have zero interesting articles. I have been googling why we should give a fuck.
The best arguments I have read, explain it as a buffer zone between Europe and Russia, and explains how they will get control of the large body of water, and tried to get me to emphasize by asking the reader to imagine North Korea, being on America's border.
It doesn't really do a good job explaining why it benefits Europe to have the buffer zone, or explaining why the United States should care.
Another article claims we owe them something for turning over an enormous nuclear arsenal.. however I feel like, if they were instead not brain dead,t they could have kept the nukes and perhaps Russia would have respected them more.
It doesn't explain why we should care about them turning over nuclear weapons they were unlikely to use against us.
The articles mostly emphasize the strategic advantage of the Ukraine being an independent nation. It does little to explain what the strategic advantage it has, beyond a buffer zone and doesn't explain even why the buffer zone is important.
Neither does anybody even explain why Russia cannot be allies and brought into an alliance with Europe and the United States. Maybe there are just too many people alive from the cold war.
The most interesting article I read was some strategic analysis that basically said Putin was bluffing- what he wants is a micro-incursion, something on a small enough scale that it doesn't trigger a NATO emergency and Ukrainian retaliation. But to get that he was counting on big support from the ethnic Russian communities and he has lost that support completely. Putin is polling at less than 10% within the ethnic Russian communities of Ukraine. In the University city on the border, nearly 1 in 4 people spoke Russian in public just five and six years and now nobody ever speaks Russian in public- several ethnicities have combined in their fear of Russian invaders and the loss of their newborn democracy. Alternatively, Putin's polling amongst Russians is at an all time low and even though most Russians sort of believe that Ukraine is their cultural birthplace and of a right ought to be Russian, too many unhonored soldiers disappearing in Putin's many low-grade battlegrounds has made the notion of any new outright invasions deeply unpopular in the big cities. Further, the crisis in Kazakhstan has made Russia leary- they definitely want to keep Kazakhstan stable before risking Russian discontent.
just nonsense
Just think of the volumes of Russian propaganda people like Dr.Franklin and Wylted must me getting carpet-bombed with right now.
I’m interested in this topic to some extent but I fail to see how or why the US should care. I am in no way proposing we align ourselves with Russia, but whatever is about about to happen between these two countries, it’s not our problem. Although… European governments do have far more reason to be concerned.
-->
@Mharman
And the Grand Alliance at the heart of Western Civilization, NATO, shall we respect our treaty obligations of the last 72 years there, that treaty we Americans wrote to preserve Europe from Russia? As NATO did for us for 20 years in Afghanistan?
-->
@oromagi
Not good enough for me. It’s not like Russia is spreading communism (they are not the Soviet Union anymore), which is what I’m pretty sure NATO was about. Even though I’m sure Russia is in the wrong here, I see zero reason for this to be a threat to the US. Again, Europe can be concerned all they want and they would be completely rational in taking Ukraine’s side. I think if there is any interference in what appears to be a territorial dispute between countries fueled by ethnic tension, it should be the rest of Europe arbitrating, since they are close in proximity and have centuries of experience in the same kind of dispute.
If it were true that NATO’s mission was ideological and not strategic, then we would have dissolved NATO after Communism dissolved in 1990- but the second half of NATO’s history has demonstrated no ideological mission beyond improved democracy and has primarily featured Europe coming to America’s aid in crisis. We’d be a shitty friend to Europe indeed to spend European blood in Afghanistan for 20 years on the basis of that treaty and then instantly not give a shit when it’s Europe crisis six months later. I just can’t see a moral basis for such betrayal.
-->
@oromagi
I get that. Maybe a hard hitting sanction or two, but I’m not a fan of sending the troops in.
-->
@oromagi
I'm not exactly in favor of Putin. I just don't think we should get involved. The whole thing is way to overhyped. Even the Ukrainian president told Biden to calm down and stop inciting tensions. Boris Johnson says Russian Mother's sons will not come home. Why are western leaders saying that?
-->
@oromagi
Nothing that we do will stop Russian interests. They lost over 20 million people in WW2 and for the past 80 years they have been trying to create buffers away from Moscow to make sure this psychological scar never happens again to them and they are never directly invaded by a force
-->
@Dr.Franklin
Russians are Russians.
And Putin started with good intentions, but has descended into the typical old age megalomaniacal paranoia that most Russian leaders suffer from.
We must now await his demise, and see who the next one will be.
-->
@zedvictor4
You think Putin is the new Stalin of Russia? Interesting interesting.
-->
@Reece101
Just similar paranoia and megalomania.
But maybe there has been a certain amount of social evolution in Russia since Stalin.
Let's hope so.
-->
@zedvictor4
they have good reason, the deaths from ww1, Russian civil war, bolshevik dictatorship, and ww2 was the biggest cataclysm to Russia since the Mongol Invasions 700 years earlier, and will probably take the same amount of time for the phycological damage to heal. 200 years
-->
@Reece101
This is an Indian take on the matter (who I think is reliably neutral and intriguing in their perspective).
-->
@RationalMadman
Yeah I’ve seen them before. I don’t like their authoritative spectacle. From what I’ve seen they don’t break down anything. They just have a narrative they run with. I don’t find them that informative.
-->
@Reece101
No idea what you're talking about lol, they are more libertarian than authoritarian on balance, in their narratives.
12 days later
-->
@Reece101
-->
@zedvictor4
And Putin started with good intentions,
What are you thinking of when you say this?
My read is that Putin went from managing a failed mayoral campaign to head of Russian intelligence in 3 years. Then juniormost Deputy Prime Minister in 13 months and then Acting Prime Minister in less than 24 hrs. That is, Putin wasn't even in the line of succession 24 hrs before he took power, then he was 4th in line for the position and then PM in the space of one day and he's never given up power since. That doesn't suggest a man rising to the top with good intentions that suggests a guy taking power without ever intending to be answerable to any court or bureaucracy again.
-->
@oromagi
I agree.
But such is a Russian desire for power, not tempered with Western sensibility. Which doesn't necessarily mean that from a Russian perspective Putin's intentions weren't initially good.
We look at it from a completely different social view point, with little or no understanding of Russian society and how it impacts upon the necessities of government.
And for sure the older Putin has become a typical Russian megalomaniacal despot.
The good thing is, he doesn't look such a well man theses days. So we await his successor with anxious glee.
Global Energy...... .." Ukraine is heavily dependent on nuclear energy – it has 15 reactors generating about half of its electricity.
".. LINK
From above LINK .." Ukraine has investigated developing its significant shale gas deposits,
with an aim of self-sufficiency in natural gas by 2020, but 2019
production of about 21 bcm suggests it will fall short of this target. "....
On the map in above link, it appears { not sure } to me that most of the nuclear reactors are in the south east Ukraine so the parts Russia recognizing as independent states/nations.
Ukraine has no atomic-hydrogen ' peacekeeper ' weapons as they cut loose of their nuclear weapons, as did Belarus.
.." In total, the global nuclear stockpile is close to 13,000 weapons. While
that number is lower than it was during the Cold War—when there were
roughly 60,000 weapons worldwide—it does not alter the fundamental
threat to humanity these weapons represent. "....
... " Moreover, nearly all the major nuclear powers—including the United
States, Russia, and China—are now significantly increasing their nuclear
arsenals in size, capability, or both. This growing new arms race is
raising the risk of nuclear war. "...
1} ..." If one counts the gas reserves in the Asian part
of Russia as being outside Europe, then Ukraine holds today the second
biggest known European gas reserves. As of late 2019, the by then
explored Ukrainian repositories contained 1.09 trillion
cubic metres of natural gas. This is a deposit that is, within Europe,
next only to Norway’s known resources of 1.53 trillion cubic metres. "....
2] ..." but even a desultory Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine is likely
to expose at least six active reactors to the uncertainty of a ground
combat environment.
The world has little experience with reactors in a war zone. Since humanity first harnessed the atom, the world has only experienced two “major” accidents—Chernobyl and Japan’s Fukushima disaster. A Russian invasion, coupled with an extended conventional war throughout Ukraine, could generate multiple International Atomic Energy Agency “Level 7” accidents in a matter of days. Such a contingency would induce a massive refugee exodus and could render much of Ukraine uninhabitable for decades. '...
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine to support Russian-backed separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. In an appearance on the right-wing talk radio program "The Buck Sexton Show," Trump broke his conspicuous silence on the crisis to applaud the Russian dictator.
Does anyone else think Trump will move to Moscow when he is indicted?
-->
@FLRW
Does anyone else think Trump will move to Moscow when he is indicted?
Not on indictment, I don't think. His current plan is the same as Caesar's- take over govt. by any available means and quash his accusers. Only if he believes his last chance at executive power is spent will he flee. Even if he's convicted, the Secret Service has already submitted that it would be impossible to protect Trump in any Fed. Penitentiary and so the Secret Service would secure him at Mar-A-Lago Country Club- from which an escape would be fairly easy to arrange.
-->
@Mharman
Although… European governments do have far more reason to be concerned.
I have seen zero indication that Europeans are more concerned about this than the Biden administration. That alone should give Americans pause before picking a side.
Sanctions didn't work on Cuba and they most certainly and objectively didn't work on Russia. The prize of the Black Sea access is worth the price.
I have seen zero indication that Europeans are more concerned about this than the Biden administration.
But that is because you get your information from Russian outlets and you are not free to think your own thoughts
Out here in the free world, our information is much better.
Boris Johnson: "Russia is planning the biggest war in Europe since 1945, All the signs are that the plan has already in some senses begun. Intelligence suggests Russia intends to launch an invasion that will encircle Ukrainian capital Kyiv."
Emmanuel Macron blamed Putin for breaking the promises made to him last week and raised doubts about Putin's mental heath, declared a national emergency in France, called for massive EU sanctions and did not rule out further military actions.
Olaf Shultz halted the Nord Stream 2 pipeline at considerable expense to Germany particularly.
EU sanctions already announced go much further than those announced by the US and a significant distance beyond Boris Johnson’s Russia sanctions and the EU is forming a crisis meeting right now to announce far more sanctions tomorrow.
Finland and Sweden are looking at ending their bans on arms exports to nations at war so they can ship arms to Ukraine. Finland, Sweden, and Ireland have all threatened to join NATO if Russia invades. NATO is suddenly in alignment and mobilizing- Putin has reminded NATO of its purpose.
That alone should give Americans pause before picking a side.
Sorry, but there's no real question from an American perspective. In a war between Western democracies and Eastern dictators, Americans will always choose Western democracies. Anybody who thinks otherwise has been listening to Eastern dictators for too long.
Sanctions didn't work on Cuba and they most certainly and objectively didn't work on Russia. The prize of the Black Sea access is worth the price.
Straight out of Putin's mouth into GP's brain.
-->
@Greyparrot
@Mharman
@oromagi
@Dr.Franklin
Here is a pro-Russian view from Russia Today on the crisis : www.youtube.com/watch?v=54M2ozQ-Wxo
oromagi 3 :The most interesting article I read was some strategic analysis that basically said Putin was bluffing- what he wants is a micro-incursion, something on a small enough scale that it doesn't trigger a NATO emergency and Ukrainian retaliation. But to get that he was counting on big support from the ethnic Russian communities and he has lost that support completely. Putin is polling at less than 10% within the ethnic Russian communities of Ukraine. In the University city on the border, nearly 1 in 4 people spoke Russian in public just five and six years and now nobody ever speaks Russian in public- several ethnicities have combined in their fear of Russian invaders and the loss of their newborn democracy. Alternatively, Putin's polling amongst Russians is at an all time low and even though most Russians sort of believe that Ukraine is their cultural birthplace and of a right ought to be Russian, too many unhonored soldiers disappearing in Putin's many low-grade battlegrounds has made the notion of any new outright invasions deeply unpopular in
In Dombass (= Donetsk + Lougansk) the Russion population seems to be happy about the latest events. There have even been celebrations in the street.
Dr.Franklin 11 to oromagi :I'm not exactly in favor of Putin. I just don't think we should get involved. The whole thing is way to overhyped. Even the Ukrainian president told Biden to calm down and stop inciting tensions. Boris Johnson says Russian Mother's sons will not come home. Why are western leaders saying that?
I heard that after having been surprised by the annexation if Crimea, the USA has decided to publicly share intelligence information about Russian intentions. By denying these revelations Russia undermines its own credibility if they turn out to be true, which now appears to be the case.
Mharman 6 :I’m interested in this topic to some extent but I fail to see how or why the US should care. I am in no way proposing we align ourselves with Russia, but whatever is about about to happen between these two countries, it’s not our problem. Although… European governments do have far more reason to be concerned.Greyparrot 28 :I have seen zero indication that Europeans are more concerned about this than the Biden administration. That alone should give Americans pause before picking a side.Sanctions didn't work on Cuba and they most certainly and objectively didn't work on Russia. The prize of the Black Sea access is worth the price.
Europe has more to lose in this crisis than than the USA, so it is more inclined to appease Russia. Sanctions will hurt Europe more than America. Moreover, Europe is militarily embarrassingly weak compared to its economic power.
In Belgium we have decided to close all our nuclear power plants by 2025 and replace them with combined cycle power plants (gas). Final decision march 18th. We have good reason to be concerned.