the media/lefties should call him a national-socialist workers party member in the headline then.

Not a nationalist. Those are two different things. Sounds like they’re (media/lefties) condemning any Ukrainian who is defending their nation against an invader by calling them an “ultra-nationalist”


well stated

This post was edited by excellence on Mar 16 2022 09:26am

yes agreed with all that, i was going to quote Goomshill as well but I was doing gymnastic's reading the two stories re: gun crime. now I dont have to

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 16 2022 09:28am

that's an interesting graphic. if you choose the maximum timeframe you can see their weapons sales since 1992. the years 2011 and 2012 are by far their highest numbers, and the only nations that joined NATO since then are tiny montenegro (600 k people) and north macedonia (2.1 m people). so i think it's safe to assume that NATO enlargement had basically no impact on russian weapons exports. just look at 1999 and the following years: despite three (!) major former warsaw pact members joining nato (poland, hungary, czech republic), russian arms exports grew significantly in the subsequent years.

i know you're not making excuses for russia, i never said or implied that. i also agree that excuses and justifications work best with a bit of truth to them, not that pootin (or his bots) really cared about the credibility of their narratives. i guess our main disagreement is over the question if NATO enlargement objectively hurts russian business or not, and i simply don't see any indication that it did.

... I feel you scammed me.

Btw Greece debt to be paid at the end of this month.

You don't present anything interesting, it's all about recessive xenophobia, obtuse, angry, speech.
Your trump supporter may still wait for Mexico to pay the wall instead, in silence.

On topic:
No matter what MSM wants to tell us Selenkij's cries for help/ Nato intervention and the increase in the amount of refugees leaving the country means they're sitting ducks surrounded by Russian forces in majour cities. On the other hand, Russians would announce in a hyperbolic manner any advance they'd made over the past days through their propaganda channels. They didn't so I think we have a stalemate here. Basically, Russia is "negotiating" by bombing to make Selenskij accept Russian demands. At the same time, Russia doesn't have the resources for a prolonged siege. Selenskij opened a door by offering neutrality concerning a possible Nato membership. This way, Putler could just keep land connection to Crimea and retreat while saving his face. Putler himself I think isn't going to trust anything coming from the West anymore so we've got a problem here. The more time passes without an agreement the possibility for a war of attrition increases = Russia bombing every city to the ground and claiming victory like the US usually does. I hope they'll have an agreement where Russia retreats form the west of Ukraine.

The government and the Ukrainian army aren't nazis. You're talking about Azov battalion stationed in Mariupol. They're outright nazis. Azov battalion is also the ones who terrorized Russian speaking Ukrainians in the east by randomly murdering, bombing, terrorizing them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion

Strangely enough, hardly any western outlet reports about them. They're one of the reasons Russian army is so severe towards Mariupol.

This post was edited by babun1024 on Mar 16 2022 09:36am

the question gets hard with weapons sales because after the fall of the USSR there was a period of a firesale for a bit, i dont know enough without having to read up a massive amount when Russia stopped exporting old USSR tech and when they started the phase they're in now in which they've developed new weapons. we see almost daily now reports of new missiles, new tanks, new drones, new planes. questions of how they'll match up with western and US tech, etc.

but i think its safe to say pre-2014 Ukraine was more likely to buy Russian weapons than US weapons, and its safe to say a post-2014 western friendlier Ukraine govt is more likely to buy US weapons, as they have, to directly counter Russian weapons.

India seems precariously positioned to play both sides, buying Russian oil and weapons, while also being a china-like conduit for the western economy with their stronghold on outsourced customer service, billing industry, and engineering.

China wants gas/oil/etc but im sure has very little need for Russian weapons, unless its in small batches to reverse engineer.

at some point im sure Russia will be fairly low on weapons sales targets, Iran, Syria, and maybe a few other bottom dollar snake pits will remain. and old USSR shitholes like Belarus. slim pickings get slimmer.

im curious what the NATO/OPEC relationship is moving forward in this situation, havent read up on that at all.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Mar 16 2022 09:38am

Agree with most of that. I dont think Putin wants to bomb Ukraine into oblivion though (but yes, this may intensify if he is not getting his toys), i am not confident to say that a war of attrition is likely, I believe at this point it is becoming increasingly more likely that a diplomatic solution is on the horizon. I dont think Russia will retreat from the west of Ukraine. (this is just my opinion).

i.e. if Russia stalls I do not believe that such equates to Putin getting worried, provided he is able to get what he wants out of this war. if that makes sense.

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 16 2022 09:44am

progress? https://www.ft.com/content/7b341e46-d375-4817-be67-802b7fa77ef1

gdi paywall

here https://t.co/7TeFi3O8VH

This post was edited by CheatEngine on Mar 16 2022 09:44am

Thanks for that. I cant acces that FT porn site but I got it from another site, its widespread across all media I see. A snippet ~

Ukraine and Russia have made significant progress on a tentative 15-point peace plan including a ceasefire and Russian withdrawal if Kyiv declares neutrality and accepts limits on its armed forces, according to three people involved in the talks.The proposed deal, which Ukrainian and Russian negotiators discussed in full for the first time on Monday, would involve Kyiv renouncing its ambitions to join Nato and promising not to host foreign military bases or weaponry in exchange for protection from allies such as the US, UK and Turkey, the people said. The nature of western guarantees for Ukrainian security — and their acceptability to Moscow — could yet prove to be a big obstacle to any deal, as could the status of Ukrainian territories seized by Russia and its proxies in 2014. A 1994 agreement underpinning Ukrainian security failed to prevent Russian aggression against its neighbour.

Although Moscow and Kyiv both said on Wednesday that they had made progress on the terms of a deal, Ukrainian officials remain sceptical Russian President Vladimir Putin is fully committed to peace and worry that Moscow could be buying time to regroup its forces and resume its offensive. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the Financial Times that any deal would involve “the troops of the Russian Federation in any case leaving the territory of Ukraine” captured since the invasion began on February 24 — namely southern regions along the Azov and Black Seas, as well as territory to the east and north of Kyiv. Ukraine would maintain its armed forces but would be obliged to stay outside military alliances such as Nato and refrain from hosting foreign military bases on its territory.

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that neutrality for Ukraine based on the status of Austria or Sweden was a possibility. “This option is really being discussed now, and is one that can be considered neutral,” said Peskov. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said that “absolutely specific wordings” were “close to being agreed” in the negotiations.


The above is almost verbatim on alot of platforms.

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 16 2022 09:52am