No it is rather Russia and China against the rest of the world. That's more accurate. And Russia should be replaced by 10% of the Russians according to Tinkov.
Juvenile take on your part. Trust me on this one, the Ukrainians care about getting murdered and raped, and their land taken and their country destroyed. It is entirely right to support the Ukrainians with massive weapons to defend themselves from the vile and soulless Russian monsters. I am ok on my side with giving the Ukrainians billions and billions of dollars worth of more weapons and I have no money interests in this.
Sounds like Vlad got himself into a pickley, and once again, we need to do this or do that "because Putin will get even more mad and then it will get even worse. Sorry but it is like abusing husband who has played all his cards with the "you need to forgive me and not press charges for your last beating or else you will get an even worse one." Homey don't want to play that game forever. And if he gets in over his head in the Donbas, I would be very wary of a cease fire that he might agree to because he will just be buying time to compensate for his shitty logistics and supply issues and wants to catch up a little. Having said that, I am all in favor of finding a way out. It is just that I would give greater weight to what the Ukrainians want to do versus the scary stuff from Putin and how he is having troubles on the homefront and troubles marketing this war so he might get even more mad and more reckless. Putin knows that - through propaganda- he can contain this thing and declare some kind of lame-arse victory. If he goes further and escalates more, he knows he might end out with even bigger failures to try to pretty up. Ukraine has - weeks ago- already made a more than reasonable offer to Putin: ie. Zelensky has offered a ceasefire if Russia pulls back past the pre-February lines and the Donbas-Crimea lands will be a subject of future negotiations and some kind of international brokering. As a practical matter, that means that Zelensky knows that he is ceding the donabas that was held pre-war and the Crimea because negotiations are not going to change that. That lets Vlad argue on the homefront that he saved some Russian speaking areas from the Nazis and de-Nazified Mariupol as a warning to Ukraine but Mariupol- whatever bullshit he needs to argue - we know he can do it. But to this proposal- Putin has basically said "fuck you, I think I can do better than that and take Mariupol, the land bridge to Crimea and Odesa if get extra lucky." Long-winded way of saying that I reject the Oligarch-clown's statements that the west-Ukraine need to find "a face-saving" way for Putin. Putin thinks his face-saving is to take even more consolation prizes in the east and is basically saying "check back with me again if that does not work out but I have more killing and destruction that I need to try out first." He is still on offense but his buddies are wanting the west to find a face-saving way for him. That dog don't hunt. As an aside, expect all of Putin's language to shift over to his "de-Nazification successes." But y'all will recall that before and upon the announcement of the war everything was about Nato, Nato, Nato, Nato, and more Nato. So Nato has ramped up quadruple in the existing Nato countries and new members are lining up at the door, along with an EU membership for Ukraine. Not sure how Putin is going to explain that away. Reversing Nato expansion and westward leaning of countries was his number one goal and justification. Not sure how he will market that as a success but we know he can do it. I think the way he will do it is just to go full Nazi, Nazi, Nazi and heroes of Bucha in eliminating Nazis there and throughout Ukraine and what a service we have provided to humanity. Whatever, just get the fuck out.
Just to be a difficult child, I will add in too- get ready to moan and groan- that this absolutely is not about money for Putin. It may be for the usual war-profiteers so I agree to that piece, but not for Putin. Now, some will scoff at that because Putin is and has been at the center of all the corruption and huge money associated with it. Except he has tens of billions squirreled away in unknown accounts. More than that. Much more. So he has taken care of bidness there. It is all about legacy for Putin. He is getting on in age and this is his last chance to be Peter the Great in his mind and it is not going well - yet it is still his best chance. That makes him even more dangerous than if it were just about the money.
There is the famous speech in which Putin has said (about nuclear weapon use) "мы как мученики попадем в рай, а они просто сдохнут". Rough translation is "we as martyrs will go to heaven and they will just die like dogs". That's a religious fanatic level crazy. You cannot appease someone like this. I hope the world stands strong against him. Putin is nuts. The nuclear button chain people are not.
Very much so, can’t wait for Azovstal to fall so that we may see what AZOV regiment have been protecting.
Russians were hoping that the Chinese UnionPay will replace Visa and Mastercard for them. Apart from the fact that UnionPay cards are not accepted nearly as widely as Visa and Mastercard... UnionPay announced that it will not work with any Russian banks that were sanctioned by the West.
The head of the Russian Union of Oil and Gas Equipment Manufacturers stated during Russian Duma Committee hearings that 90% of the Russian oil refineries equipment is Western, and anything that breaks today will stay broken and cannot be replaced. Also, he stated that any shelf oil and gas exploration is frozen for the same reason, and shelf gas/oil production will continue only until things break down and the equipment cannot be fixed/replaced because of the sanctions. Good.