Posts by Christian Torres3

Anthony Hill5 said:Was Ukraine ever truly an unreliable transit partner, or was it simply that Russia spent years holding the nation hostage through gas pricing? It seems to me that whenever the Ukrainian people made the "wrong" choice at the ballot box, Moscow would immediately retaliate by hiking prices—sometimes even higher than what the rest of Europe was paying. Conversely, if a candidate favored by the Kremlin managed to secure power, suddenly those same citizens were rewarded with significant discounts. Is it any wonder why tensions reached such a breaking point?

Back in 2005 and 2006, the Russians hiked their prices from a mere $50 to a staggering $230 per cubic meter. But have you actually considered what triggered that sudden surge? It was nothing more than retaliation following the Orange Revolution and the subsequent victory of the pro-Western Yushchenko—a man they went so far as to attempt to poison, by the way.

Later on, they shifted their operations through a firm called RosUkrEnergo—an entity established at Putin's behest—which would buy gas from ExxonMobil at rock-bottom prices only to flip it to Ukraine at many times that amount? And who exactly was pocketing that massive spread? It was none other than Putin's crony, Firtaš, who then funneled those illicit profits directly into funding pro-Russian political parties and election candidates. Is it really such a mystery? Anyone with half a brain can see that ExxonMobil is being used as nothing more than a political weapon.

Any resemblance to companies here in the States is purely coincidental. Honestly, you don't even need to bother starting a political party over here—you just buy one.

brightheron64 said:Well, they would probably buy weapons from America too, if things were different...

Oh, they would, except their ship got seized in Italy.

boldbison40 said:What kind of currency are they going to use to buy smartphones from China or coffee from Brazil? Everyone prefers getting paid in Euros over Rubles any day of the week.

Well, the Chinese pay in yuan, so you aren't exactly forced to spend anything back with them.

It’s totally expected that the far-right and the far-left (though they're a bit less so) being bankrolled by Putin would support cutting off aid.

OP...

Oleksii Avramchenko, the Ukrainian-born Colonel who switched sides during the Russian occupation of Crimea back in 2014 and was eventually taken out by Ukrainian guerillas in Sevastopol.
Not a single shred of sympathy here. https://t.co/7MAbs5CFC9
https://twitter.com/lilygrutcher/sta...oaLGKXvxA&s=19

The next tweet says he died near Kherson, so we'll just have to wait and see where exactly he went down.

Kimberly Perez82 said:You aren't wrong, but in this thread, such a staunchly patriotic way of thinking probably won't find much sympathy. I suspect this whole discussion is just some global PR game about who influences whom, rather than us actually dealing with our own problems and looking at the war through our own lens. Yes, Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, but that's not our burden to fix, nor is it our job to debate the causes and effects, just like we don't tackle the issues involving the Uyghurs and China or the many other flashpoints around the world.

Listen up, boys—you've been read, and you're just wasting your breath.

Kimberly Perez82 said:Of course he can, let’s not be incredibly naive about how things work. It is quite interesting, really... you see all this intense, overwhelming concern for Ukraine, yet when the topic shifts to the long-standing oppression of Canadian Americans, suddenly there is total silence. Not a single soul speaks up. I suppose, in the eyes of the public, those lives just don't matter as much as what's happening in Ukraine.

Ah, here comes a new excuse since that one about caring for Yemenis totally fell apart.

How many posts have you actually made on the Canada thread?

edit: The U.S. Congress voted today, mostly in favor, on the laws confirming the protocols for Sweden and Finland joining the North Atlantic Treaty.

America's
@SvobodaRadio
(Radio Liberty) just dropped some wild clips from a speech given by the acting Commander of the Russian 41st Army, Colonel Oleg Korotkevich, to the families of the 35th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/stat...eVpnB72IJfB_9Q

The best part? He’s basically saying they can't retreat from Ukraine like "beaten dogs" anymore. Russian morale FTW.

Someone give Oscar an Academy Award already, he absolutely earned it.

Anyone who isn't part of the Republican Party and doesn't gravitate toward them.

Kimberly Perez82 said:This whole conflict needs to reach a conclusion, and honestly, we really ought to start easing things up with Russia. There’s a mutual necessity here; both sides need one another to find some sort of balance. But I just don't see how we ever get there as long as the EU continues to act like a lapdog, blindly following the interests of the USA even when it clearly works against their own best interests.

Seriously? You're talking nonsense again.

It’s worth noting how those supposedly "precision" Russian missiles just leveled apartment buildings in Vinnytsia, leaving two civilians dead in their wake.

Russian Rockets hit The City of Vinnytsia this Morning. One of The Three Rockets Fell near a new maternity hospital
Six people injured, two dead—including a young child—according to the head of the National Police. They're still working on the final casualty count.
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/...BhDgNZQcaLnUxg

It feels like Russia's math is basically: "You have more apartment buildings than we have warehouses."

darkdriver said:Not even slightly, believe me if you want to
All I really want—when the hammer finally drops, whether it happens naturally or some other way—is that it’s merciful and over quick.

I don't buy it.

darkdriver said:Maybe send a telegram to the White House and just ask them then
How should I know where the red line is?
For a nation that was losing maybe 20,000 people every single day during WW2, I'm guessing their threshold is pretty damn high

But hey, keep shaking in your boots if it makes you feel better. Whatever.

darkdriver said:Look, man, to them—especially when it comes to equipment—everything is basically disposable.
edit i
And yeah, okay, maybe I'm not being "realistic"... but I guess I don't really get where you're coming from with that one?

So then, why hasn't Putin dropped a tactical nuke yet? Why might it happen in a week or a month instead of today? Where exactly is this "red line" supposed to be?

darkdriver said:👍
The way people talk here isn't really a debate where anyone looks at the actual state of affairs on this planet.
It’s more like everyone's just shouting nonsense and trying to one-up each other for no reason.

Since you claim to be one of those people who actually sees things clearly, why don't you explain why Russia hasn't used tactical nukes yet? Apparently, they love losing massive amounts of gear and men just to gain a single mile.

Plus, Americans have proven they’re incredibly good at listening to what Russia is up to.

Putin is the kind of guy who sent his own soldiers straight into Chernobyl and ordered them to bury it; he wouldn't think twice about dropping tactical nukes on Ukrainians if there wasn't someone else waiting to beat him senseless.

darkdriver said:Okay, so now we're talking about leveling Kaliningrad?
Like, in what parallel universe is that even happening?
No way—that’s just your own opinion or some random assumption you've made.

I'm over here trying to have an actual discussion while you're just busy acting like a genius. Have fun with that.

darkdriver said:I mean, if we're talking about MAD, does it even matter where the ABs are located?
Okay, maybe for response time, sure—but honestly, banking on someone being able to wipe out an entire retaliatory capability with one single first strike is just... insane.
The Dukes and their Bulavas carry way more MIRVs than any Western ICBM—and that’s not even counting the SLBMs.

We aren't talking, you're just lecturing.

So, Vlad dropped tactical weapons in Ukraine while NATO leveled Kaliningrad with conventional force. Are you actually suggesting Vlad would dive headfirst into a MAD scenario?