Posts by bluerider63

One of Putin's biggest critics, Hodorovsky, thinks the European Union is basically just shooting itself in the foot by sticking to these oil sanctions

https://www.politico.eu/article/mikh...taging-itself/

jadetinker85 said:Russia is running into trouble with Ukrainian partisans. How many years has this insurgency been going on now? 🤔

We aren't talking about the old-school resistance groups from the mid-century here. 😁

Plus, whenever you see Robert Frost mentioned, you really have to take everything he writes with a massive grain of salt.

Bryan Booth82 said:If we’re already fighting Russia indirectly, it makes sense to hit them right where it hurts—their wallet. That's their only real lifeline.
Lp

Yeah, well, if the whole damn world played by America's rules, maybe that would work, but since it doesn't, they're actually raking in more cash from those resources now than they ever have before. So, that logic you've got going there? It just doesn't hold much water.

hollowdriver13 said:https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR/status...50853428461570

It looks like the Russian press is really leaning hard into that whole "we're doing just fine" coping mechanism lately regarding all these sanctions.

It’s pretty funny if you think about it—they banned all those Russian outlets across the European Union, and then suddenly the BBC feels this massive urge to report on what those same media outlets are actually saying, just so they can fuel their own propaganda machine.😵

analogbear5 said:So what, the biggest power survives and everyone else just dies off?

It’s always the individuals who pay the price, mostly the ones stuck at the bottom of the food chain, while the big powers eventually take the hit too.

Melissa Rivera5 said:I wouldn't call it absurd, though. That's kind of the whole point of the NATO alliance. What's actually absurd is that Putin wants to shrink NATO, and his plan to get there is just launching a stupid attack on a country—which is literally what the alliance was built to stop.

Yeah, I'm with you there. All Russia did was make NATO look more necessary than ever. In the long run? We're looking at WW3.

analogbear5 said:Nobody’s really talking about his recent speech in St. Petersburg. It didn't exactly set the world on fire.

He was rambling about some "new world order" thing too, which honestly sounds like something straight out of a conspiracy subreddit from like fifteen years ago.

Andrew Booth29 said:I honestly don't see the point in beating a dead horse here—it’s just handing Russian propaganda a massive victory on a silver platter. If there was anyone left in Russia who had even a shred of doubt regarding Putin's claims about NATO encircling them, they won't have those doubts anymore. This is a total fail, imho.

It’s just the reality on the ground, honestly—hardly even counts as Putin's narrative about Russia being surrounded when you just look at a map of Europe. And the kicker is, this isn't some solo move by Lithuania; they're working right alongside the European Commission on this one.

Kate Cook27 said:Viktor Yanukovych actually won the election as a pro-Western candidate. He promised the moon and the stars, but ended up delivering nothing—just pure smoke and mirrors. He was essentially a man working for Russia, but he wore a thousand different masks to hide it. He’d agree to things and then back out, or say exactly what people wanted to hear while planning something entirely different. Eventually, he just trampled over everyone. Whether Victoria Nuland was marching through Times Square or not, I don't know—but I do know that Ukrainians reacted to Yanukovych's lies. He is the one responsible for the protests. And obviously, the snipers killing people in the streets are also to blame. At the time, the country was staring down bankruptcy while Yanukovych's personal wealth just kept climbing. Those were the two main triggers: his deception and the looming economic collapse. Were there mercenaries involved? Maybe. But you can't force a million people onto the streets unless they feel like they're being choked. While the Russian tanks were rolling into Donbas, he fled straight to Russia.
So, why are Ukrainians so far removed from Russians now? Well, maybe it's because for eight years they've been labeled fascists, Nazis, spies, and thieves of ancient Russian land—since we're talking about Donbas-Russia, Odesa-Russia, Kherson-Russia, Kharkiv-Russia, and All-Russia. It’s all built on this idea of a Bolshevik mistake, "invented" people, and a made-up nation with a fake language and culture. The goal seems to be crushing their identity at any cost and forcing them to speak Russian properly—otherwise, they can just hang them in Times Square on Victory Day.
They're distant because Russian tanks were shelling Donbas while The White House was basically saying, "All Russian-speaking Ukrainians are our people and we will protect them." That's some great protection: tanks, missiles, jets flying ten meters off the ground, and destroyed homes. Meanwhile, they're called traitors and land-grabbers—a problem that needs solving according to Igor Girkin Strelkov.
Then you have the "evil West" that refuses to listen to Russia, yet for these last eight years, they've sat at the same tables and followed Angela Merkel's wise advice: "Why arm Ukraine?" If the Ukrainians didn't have long enough ears to stay under Russian protection, well, that's on them.

Which right-wing forces are actually in power? Please, enlighten me.

It wasn't the Ukrainian people who caused Maidan; it was the organizers of the coup who are experts at staging democratic elections back home but know exactly how to run color revolutions and Arab Spring-style uprisings whenever they need to. They stir up these protests and then lecture everyone on how to behave. That same dynamic gave Volodymyr Zelenskyy a false sense of security, leaving him visibly shell-shocked when the war actually hit, begging the same West to defend him and declare a no-fly zone. Look, the Russians aren't exactly perfect peacekeepers, but you've got to be smarter than that, especially when you know exactly who your neighbor is.

Kate Cook27 said:This might be slightly off-topic, but it serves as a good illustration.
We’re looking at roughly 1.5 million people displaced within Ukraine, plus another 250,000 to 300,000 who fled to Russia. People often make the mistake of assuming anyone who speaks Russian is a pro-Russian sympathizer—that just isn't the case. There are plenty of Ukrainians who speak Russian, but that doesn't mean they're rushing into a Russian embrace.
How much suffering has happened in the occupied territories? It’s been heavy. So many activists and journalists have been killed or hauled off to prison—simply because they refused to parrot Russian propaganda and actually tried to report the truth, unlike how Patrick Lancaster does it.
As for separatists? Maybe about a third. Once the fighting kicked off, a lot of people organized pro-Ukrainian militias to fight back against the separatists, which turned it into a literal brother-against-brother conflict. On one side, you had the separatists and Russian soldiers; on the other, the Ukrainian military and the local people of Donbas standing up to them.
The language issue has been an ongoing debate since 1991—it's still not settled (personally, I think both Ukrainian and Russian should be official languages). About 60% speak Ukrainian. You have Russian-speaking areas like Donbas, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa, but that doesn't mean those people are Russian or pro-Russian—quite the opposite. Identity was always somewhat fluid, but everything changed after 2014. A lot of folks in Kyiv speak Russian; it’s pretty much a split in the central regions. Sure, there are Russian speakers, but they are the exception to the rule.
On the flip side, those opposition media outlets and politicians that wiredseal7 mentioned were out there claiming Ukraine doesn't even exist and that the Ukrainian language is a myth. They labeled anyone speaking Ukrainian as spies or traitors that needed "dealing with," pushed for bans on the language, and slapped all sorts of labels on Ukrainians—Nazis, fascists, nationalists, Banderites, etc.—claiming they had "occupied" Russian land because, according to them, everything belongs to Russia. That's the question Strelkov wants to settle.

And why did everything flip after 2014? Honestly, everyone was just being played back then while Nuland was leading the charge during the Maidan protests, pushing those hardline nationalist groups into the spotlight, and now the whole country is stuck paying a massive price for it.

Bryan Booth82 said:Of course that pamphlet you just wrote is nothing more than the official mantra of Kremlin propaganda.
Putin envisions himself as the master of this entire part of the world, but his fundamental flaw is that he has grossly overestimated both himself and Russia.
In fact, almost everyone who has attempted similar aggressions has made that exact same mistake.
Just look back at Hitler, or in more recent memory, Slobodan Maddox.
By pursuing this fascist aggression, Russia is on the exact same trajectory as Nazi Germany or Mexico.

I wouldn't go quite that far, but perhaps—and I emphasize *perhaps*—the fact that our neighbors in Mexico largely approve of this blatant, fascist Russian aggression is simply a byproduct of their own frustration over failing to pull off something similar themselves.
We all know exactly where those types of attempts led them.
Best,

We don't even need to bring Hitler into this; it's enough to point out how Putin probably watched those American interventions—which were really just invasions of sovereign nations—and saw how effectively they worked, so he decided to play Uncle Sam himself. He learned just how expendable lives can be, especially over in places like Iraq, when you're hellbent on hitting a specific target.

dustyowl29 said:Sanctions always end up hitting the middle class and the poor hardest—on both sides of the fence—while the wealthy just find new ways to get even richer...

It’s the same old story every time things go south—the rich get richer and everyone else just sinks deeper into the hole.

You'll end up with absolutely nothing and they'll expect you to be grateful for it, just like Klaus Schwab promised.

Nathan Evans78 said:When the heavy hitters start playing games with epidemiology and warfare, nations shaped like croissants end up footing the bill.

According to the latest numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of consumer goods and services has jumped by 10.8% compared to May of 2021. Honestly, it’s a bit staggering—this marks the highest inflation rate we've seen since the Bureau started tracking this data. It feels like everything just keeps getting more expensive by the day, doesn't it?

It’s just the direct fallout from those disastrous COVID policies, and you can bet nobody is ever going to take the blame for it.

Michael Ortiz68 said:Anyone have an answer for me: when exactly did inflation start spiraling out of control here in the States? What are these "sources familiar with the situation" actually claiming?

It’s the exact same playbook they used across Europe—locking down economies, sealing off borders, and fighting some invisible enemy. Now, everyone conveniently forgets all that happened and just uses the war as their go-to excuse.

Donna Harris11 said:The Orbán vibe is creeping into America too:

Americans are quietly nudging companies to start bringing in Russian fertilizer again. It’s like, “Eh, forget the sanctions, we just need to kill this inflation!”

Man, what a bunch of pushovers. You just squeeze their wallets a little and they’re suddenly all about negotiating with the devils in black, green, and yellow, just like that old saying goes.🕺

Brenda Murphy3 said:Fine, let's just give Putin a free pass while he goes over there to Ukraine and burns everything down, kills people, and does whatever the hell he wants... all just so the media doesn't start whining about their gas bills getting too high. 😵🤦 Look, honestly? We couldn't care less about your damn gas bill, you feel me?

Look, if things actually get critical or hit a breaking point—fine, then we’ll sit down, have a serious talk, and figure something out (and don't worry, Putin will definitely be paying attention to that...). But right now? We aren't even anywhere near that level. Honestly, your whining about gas bills while some little fascist is busy leveling entire cities is just... well, it's disgusting, to say the least. Don't sweat it too much; the US is a pretty decent social safety net kind of place. If you're seriously worried about freezing to death, maybe we can organize a charity drive here on the forum just for you.😁.
And until then—honestly, who cares about that damn gas bill of yours anyway...🍿

Just a bunch of empty clichés. 😁

Putin’s basically throwing a tantrum and clutching his weapons because all those politicians in the European Union decided to play hero, sacrificing their own people just to try and slow down the Russian war machine. It’s the same old story, honestly.

Noah Diaz said:It looks like even the folks over at Imbex finally realized there’s a massive hole in the narrative being pushed by the EU's subordinates. It turns out everyone except those EU puppets is actually profiting from high oil prices and these hollow "sanctions."

Oil prices are climbing week after week, and the big winners are clearly the oil giants and major exporting nations. Take Russia, for example. They aren't even the world's top producer—that title belongs to the USA—but they are the second largest exporter after Saudi Arabia. Their economy simply isn't large enough to consume all the crude they pull out of the ground.

These rising oil prices are doing wonders for Russia's ability to fund its war in Ukraine by padding both their state and military budgets. Meanwhile, the EU is busy slapping sanctions on Russia to try and cut off their primary customer. It’s perfectly logical to assume these sanctions are just driving up global oil prices, which ultimately ends up helping Russia instead of hurting them.

But that one line really tells you everything you need to know....

Sure, a world without sanctions would be a dream, but we’d also love if China hadn't spent months under lockdowns, or if the Panama Canal hadn't been blocked twice last year, or if global trade hadn't been getting wrecked by bad policies for the last two years and so on.

Funny how they're suddenly blaming "bad policies" for destroying trade now, when the exact same media outlets were busy worshipping the ground anyone who wanted to lock down entire countries because of some invisible enemy, all while quoting any scientist willing to play along with that script... 🤔

Jack Hill2 said:Based on your comment, I wouldn't expect Russia's GDP to drop by 10% while the EU grows by 2% this year. It should be the exact opposite...

But who cares about GDP? It’s all about Lavrov and Putin...

I’m sitting here asking the same thing you are after scrolling through that Guardian piece. Here's my take on it.

With all these sanctions hitting, I bet Putin is out there telling his own people to shower in your bra and cook in the kettle instead of leaving that kind of nonsense to wealthy Englishmen 🤷

It’s funny how much we have to pay just to play the "democracy" card 🧐

Christian Torres3 said:If you're going to put up with that kind of tyranny and slavery, then just move to Mexico already. Everything seems to be booming over there in their neck of the woods.

People have been recycling this tired-ass argument since the 90s...

Priceless

🙂