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After the referendum, Russia will declare Donetsk and Luhansk to be Russian territory. Any shell fired into those areas will have been fired into Russian territory.
Putin does, indeed, intend to repopulate those areas with Russians. He may even instantly turn soldiers into civilians so that civilians casualties appear to escalate.
But Putin doesn't have 20 years or anything like that. His country is on the ropes with manufacturing capability way down and more shut downs on the horizon. Automobile, aircraft, railroad - they are all coming to a full stop, and Russia cannot function without them.
Putin doesn't have 20 years. He'll be lucky if he has 2.
As to "grinding down" the Ukrainians, dare to dream. That nation has pulled together in a way that make sit easy to believe it will still be standing long after Russia is known by some others name(s).
Well, it took us 20 years to lose the war in Afghanistan. I think the pundits are right that Russia will lose this war. It's just not certain how long that will take.
Russia has burned though more young men and materiel in six months than the US-led coalition did in those 20 years.
Good interview.
On the question of Putin's popularity in Russia, being popular is fine but what if Putin is popular only because people don't know the truth about him? Going back to a video I posted on Crimea, Russia won great support among Crimeans, but once they realized what he was doing they changed their minds.
It has to remind us that Nixon won by a landslide before he was drummed out of office and Bush's popularity hit 80% or so after 9/11.
Russia and Putin have been creating problems world wide for many years. The world will be safer with an impoverished Russia which is unable to field an army and with a navy which is rotting in port.
Please name a few of these problems Russia has been creating around the world? The truth is, if anyone is guilty of creating problems around the world, we should be looking in the mirror. But that’s another topic.
The truth is, China is the most prominent threat to US interests and that of the world, exponentially greater than Russia, and it would be in the strategic interests of the United States to maintain positive relations with Russia, rather than continue driving the wedge deeper, with the predictable consequence of pushing Russia toward closer ties with China.
That is of course speaking from a US nationalist point of view, which is contrary to the objectives of Globalism, and the globalist’s agenda. No one seems to discuss this point, therefore I’m left to conclude that it’s a reality outside the awareness or understanding of most Americans.
That said, the geopolitical reality is … NATO is a globalist controlled military alliance, hostile to Russia and her interests. And China benefits from an adversarial relationship between the US and Russia, and anything that weakens both nations, automatically elevates China’s position on the world stage.
Furthermore, while China quietly and rapidly expands its military capability, the Ukraine conflict is depleting the military resources of both Russia and the US, while also negatively impacting global economics. All of these matters are strategically beneficial to China. There seems to be a repeating theme here, with all indications pointing to China.
What we know is, China has always played the long game, and it’s strategies are calculated with emphasis on patience. But their desire for global dominance is no secret. I would also just mention that Covid 19 didn’t emerge from a bioweapons laboratory in Russia.
I understand this will fall on deaf ears, because too many are already too invested in the story they’ve been presented, to consider the story false.
Russia has burned though more young men and materiel in six months than the US-led coalition did in those 20 years.
They are getting close to the US totals in the Vietnam conflict.
Many of them are actually Ukrainians who have been conscripted within the phony "republics" of the Donbas. Poorly trained and poorly equipped cannon fodder. Sad for them.
There are two ways this can go … escalating the war, with more severe global consequences, or negotiating an end to it, and restoring a measure of sanity. Russia’s nuclear capability, along with the EU’s reliance on Russian oil and gas, puts Russia in a strategically powerful place at the table, and the global energy market is extremely vulnerable to continuing on the current trajectory.
Think global depression, because that’s what is looming on the horizon, if this continues much longer, or escalates.
You're not the first to suggest negotiating an end to the war. The fly in the ointment there is: how to get Russia to agree to negotiations.
Erdogan claims he's made progress, an that the Kremlin recently stated, they'd like it to be over ASAP. However, the latest reports tell us, that there's a large group of hawks in the military and other high positions pushing for an intensified military effort. The latest initiative to call up "reservists" and others is the result of people pushing Russia's President in that direction. Those people clearly aren't interested in negotiating a settlement, even if the person in charge were secretly tired of it all, and were looking for an acceptable way out.
Of course negotiation is what most people on both sides, including the support from abroad, want. This has been Biden's stated goal from the start. The trick is in convincing Russia to come to the negotiating table genuinely ready to negotiate. Same for Ukraine, really. Ukraine offered from the start to forget about joining NATO, and agree to be a neutral buffer state. That offer had no effect. They've also said from the start, that they won't give up any territory.
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