demographic wrote: ↑Sun Mar 06, 2022 8:52 pm
I kind of don't get where Putin goes now though.
As far as I can see(pretty sure other people will see other goals as well though) all the goals of his invasion haven't really worked out well.
Stated goals...
Protect Russian lives, that didnt last long did it?
Stop NATO expansion, Finland and Sweden now want to join Nato. Fail.
Unite more with Russia, that's not going at all well now is it?
Now a million or so refugees will have stronger ties with Europe.
After trump attacking NATO he was in a better position than he is now as he's managed to renunite more of NATO against Russia
Show Russian power? Showed their weakness more like.
Oligarchs have been sanctioned and more likely to lose huge amounts of money because of the invasion.
The worrying part of all this is how do the rest of the world give Putin something to help him save face?
He's going to just crush Ukraine now but a protracted conflict won't look good either.
Putin is clearly confident in his powerbase and is more strongly aligned with China and I suggest, the CCP model for totalitarian control. Russia is also a lot more self sufficient and it's no accident he is quite keen to acquire "the bread basket of Europe".
He is already threatening Finland which the USSR nearly nabbed only a lifetime ago. He is also a lot less bothered about "the rules of war" up to and including the use of nuclear weapons. Again, no accident one of the first targets was Chernobyl and the cluster of ancient nuclear power stations. Apparently just footfall and tanks/vehicles stirring up the dust is already "a concern"...
Suppose it depends where you get your lies from. Here's a report on what he actually said:
Mr Trump described NATO as "obsolete" shortly before taking office and threatened to withdraw the US from the transatlantic alliance if more countries didn't meet the minimum spending requirements of 2% of GDP.
I wonder if the oligarchs will be that fussed about losing a few toys. A $100 million super yacht is little more than a car in the garage to a billionaire. While the west is playing with fiat currency, Russia have real riches, oil, gas, agriculture and a strong ally in China. Oh and oil/gas prices are going through the roof.
The west is weak. We've allowed ourselves to become soft letting corporate greed infiltrate our democratic process and a media system that makes Russian state propaganda look like an open book. Worse still, the world stood by and watched as the worlds former superpower ran a rigged election and installed a weak old man as their puppet president. An old man who made millions out of Ukranian oil lets not forget. I remember being asked "why should we care what happens in the USA" well, now you know.