To cover tens of millions of tons of weaponry, food, and strategic raw materials, the United Kingdom ended up footing a bill exceeding a billion pounds over a fifty-year stretch!!!!!!!!!!@@@
That’s easily the most spineless piece of journalism I’ve read in a long time; the level of manipulation here is staggering. It conveniently omits the fact that everything was eventually settled with WW2 America, because acknowledging that would make their little list look far less impressive.
The British would likely have found themselves much better off avoiding that "debt" altogether, had they left it in the hands of the Berlin version of Putin back then.
wiredseal7 said:The question remains the same: what's actually in it for him?
Asking "what does Putin get out of this" only really carries weight if you're looking at it through the lens of a petty tyrant and his online cheerleaders.
Melissa Rivera5 said:Just imagine the scene where some American president tries to run things from Mexico City after being forced to flee the country. Yeah, I don't think the people would buy that...
But then again, Ukrainians aren't a "real" nation or a sovereign state like we are, so I suppose those rules don't apply to them. For them, being directed by Moscow isn't just expected—it’s almost unnatural to suggest otherwise.
Spoken like a true patriot.
On another note: Yanukovych didn't *have* to run. He could have chosen to stay and face the music for his crimes against his own people, following the standard legal procedures. But, clearly, that wasn't convenient enough for him.
Honestly, they should have just let him finish his term from some villa in the suburbs of Moscow.
The real issue isn't what he did while in office, but how things unfolded after he fled; those protests and petitions he tried to stifle with heavy-handed crackdowns are actually constitutionally protected parts of the "democratic process" that our colleague seems to think belong to him personally—rather than recognizing them as anything other than a "perverse coup."
Timothy Snyder’s brilliant piece perfectly captures the disconnect between what people are actually experiencing on the ground in Ukraine and the endless wave of concern trolling coming from the West—which really sums up the whole nature of this conflict.
The practice of hijacking words with positive connotations—terms like "realist," "pragmatist," "logical," or "complex"—and weaponizing them for purely negative propaganda is a well-documented phenomenon, serving as a classic tool of dialectical warfare.
It’s honestly quite amusing to see people label thinkers like Mearsheimer as "anti-imperialists."
urbanotter said:Of course, it’s a huge discount, but we have to remember we're talking about prices inflated by speculators on the commodities exchanges.
An $80 per barrel price is essentially what the Russians were selling oil for before the war in Ukraine started and before the sanctions on Russia were implemented.
So, they are actually still making good money, and thanks to the sanctions, speculators have basically paved the way for India and China to make just as much profit. To hell with Europe and everyone Putin labeled as an enemy of Russia.
Whatever, someone has to foot the bill for the costs of this war and the sanctions.😉
p.s. I see everyone here is quite the expert, so perhaps someone can explain to me how much these sanctions actually impact shipping freight rates. Why did the cost of transporting a container from China to Europe skyrocket from roughly $2,500 per unit to nearly $20,000 per unit? Some sailors I know have mentioned that Shanghai is absolutely choked with ships packed with containers just waiting to head to their destinations. Is that happening because of the sanctions, or is there some other reason behind it??
Much like inflation or fuel prices, that massive spike actually started well before any sanctions were even on the table, though I suppose it's easier to blame them if that fits your narrative.
It seems my crystal ball is equally blind to the past as it is to the future.
Actually, this invasion is purely pragmatic; ideology plays no role in why those Russian grandmothers, driven by a sort of mindless zeal, send their youth to die for the sake of some "Russian world" mythos.
Kate Lewis3 said:And don't forget the S-300 from Slovakia.
It’s like trying to hide a heavy artillery unit in a washing machine and tucking the radar system under a toilet seat. That’s why they tend to stick to quieter routes; they were basically looting the same spots during their previous pushes through the North because there simply wasn't an S-300 anywhere to stash them.
Sandra Harris2 said:It’s probably the same old story: corruption and cronyism winning out over actual professionalism. Local agents are likely just playing WoW and ordering cheap junk from Aliexpress under Putin's portrait, while they spend their time posting exotic food pics and restaurant reviews on IG trying to become travel influencers.
I hope you're right.
If we need to build a physical wall too, count me in.
Don't you get it? They've already shot down the ones that haven't even left the assembly line yet.
It's possible they're even stalking this forum, so someone's posts or analyses might end up being used as "undeniable proof" of American support.🙂
You’re missing the point here. There really isn't any need for them to lurk or dig through archives when they can just manufacture their own "evidence" whenever it suits them.
cosmicgull52 said:Do you remember when those two total rookies went to England to look at cathedrals? 🙏
And remember Marve on the forum who was backing them up? What a disaster.
It’s funny how that same agitator used to mock Bellingcat—which, let's be honest, has dismantled Neanderthals from the MH-17 investigation all the way through the Skripal and Gebrev cases, the work of the OPCW, and even the plight of Navalny, much like a triple-threat version of Stefica Cvek.
steelheron25 said:We’re going to have to tread a bit more carefully with that approach, aren't we? After all, any strike on Crimea Russia is viewed by them as an assault on their own sovereign soil. We really shouldn't be handing them any excuses to escalate things further, especially at a time when some Russian lunatic seems to be threatening us with nuclear weapons every other day. Does sending missiles toward Crimea actually provide much strategic value right now? Perhaps it would be wiser to focus our efforts on reclaiming Kherson and securing that corridor leading toward Crimea instead.
Targeting the ports where frigates, corvettes, and submarines launch their cruise missiles makes perfect strategic sense. As far as military installations go, Crimea is practically overflowing with them.
hollowdriver13 said:It’s honestly tough to tie such a massive pile of blatant lies together into one coherent story when they're being dumped on us so fast. Even the Russian propagandists are having a hard time keeping up lately—they're totally tripping over themselves. 🕺😬
It seems as though every fresh fabrication is greeted not merely as an obvious falsehood, but as some sort of inevitable, undeniable truth.
They’re going to need several dozen extra dimensions just to house all that cognitive dissonance.
Don't overthink it; handing over your own territory to an occupier is a sovereign act, whereas fighting back is just acting like a servant to the masters in the West. One should prioritize being pragmatic above all else.
Kate Cook27 said:My apologies, Jessica—I actually remember you mentioning something about high schoolers being recruited for the military in Russia. In an occupied area near Nikolska, they had a camp set up—not sure if it's still running. They seemed to be recruiting guys. A friend's brother was separated from his family; they gave them passage into Russia, but sent him toward Donetsk instead—he’s only 17. They basically told him he’d become an adult once he reached the front lines, handed him a uniform and an empty rifle, and told him to scavenge for his own ammo from whoever he could find on the ground. 😢Luckily, they managed to get him out—they were moved into Russia first, then eventually made it back to Ukraine.
As for the post itself—was someone claiming there was likely ammo at a certain location just because there were a bunch of guys in olive green nearby??? Same thing was being said about Kyiv, implying there was some military connection there too??
The country is under martial law, which means first responders are frequently going to be found among uniformed personnel; therefore, seeing those uniforms doesn't inherently prove the speculative claims being made by the mudslingers.
Some people also seem baffled by the absence of women and children in certain footage during the height of an explosion or a literal firestorm, wondering how such a thing could even be possible.