Russian invasion of Ukraine

[hilts]

Can someone let ‘Grandmaster and award winning author and Putin expert’ Kasparov know he’s chatting bollocks because bluesteel and chippy boy both know Putin will deffo stop at Ukraine if we can get them to surrender.

In fairness bluesteel beat him at draughts and chippy only lost 2 1 at Rock Paper Scissors.

 

[SWP's back]

Lucky git! Stayed in the state of Sarawak for a few weeks when backpacking in the late 90s and loved that place for the scenery and people and wish i'd gone on to Sabah as well but headed south on the Indonesian side to Pontanik instead for a while and flew out to Sulawesi (great coral snorkelling).

Yeah it’s heaven on earth, I’ll reply properly on a more suitable thread

 

[SWP's back]

Russias credit rating has gone to BB.
Anything below BB+ is usually termed ‘junk’…but there’s a lot of junk level countries in the world these days.

effectively means, it’s (even) harder for Russia to raise external funds, and the ongoing cost of its existing debt rises.
(I think, I’m no financial expert)

Neither am I but you’re absolutely correct yes.

 

[Blue Mist]

I have been thinking back to another crisis not to long ago and what happened there. A certain Arab country invaded another Arab country. Certain western countries didn’t like it so got together and threw out that Arab country. Will we do the same here or is this different??

The problem we had then was a certain western country was told to stop at the border of the 2 Arab countries. They didn't like that so a few years later invented a load of lies and attacked them in their own country. The same kind if idiots are still in charge so a certain country might decide not to stop at the border this time.

 

[mosssideblue]

there is always a tipping point.

NATO will never attack a country

 

[Blue Mist]

I think that's the most likely end to this too. I suspect he'll initially over run the whole thing then withdraw to what he thinks is a governable and more pro-russian space spinning that publicly as a reasonable compromise.

And in a couple of years the western world will be back trading with him and everything will be forgotten.

 

[Bazzmand Show]

And in a couple of years the western world will be back trading with him and everything will be forgotten.

Western World, the defenders of the world! (when it suits us...)

 

[Kippaxpete]

I'd say it could be the purrrrfect solution.

Who knows, it might give Putin paws for thought.

 

[hilts]

And in a couple of years the western world will be back trading with him and everything will be forgotten.

It will be sold with we need to bring Russia back in for the greater good, world safety and to help the Russian people etc....

 

[Kippaxpete]

Thought this might be of interest. NewsGuard is an independent US-based organisation which monitors the trustworthiness of news and information websites.
These are their top 10 Russia-Ukraine "war myths" followed by NewsGuard’s refutation:

1. “Russian-speaking residents in the Donbas region of Ukraine have been subjected to genocide.” The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has found no evidence of this.
2. “Polish-speaking saboteurs attempted to bomb a chlorine plant in Donbas.” The video of the “attack”, for which there is no evidence, was recorded days before it is alleged to have taken place.
3. “Ukrainian forces bombed a kindergarten in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, on 17 February 2022.” The shelling came from Russian-separatist frontlines.
4. “Russia did not target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine at the start of invasion.” One day after the invasion, Amnesty International documented at least three Russian military attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine.
5. “Nazism is rampant in Ukrainian politics and society, supported by authorities in Kyiv.” The candidate for the far-right nationalist party, Svoboda, won 1.6% of the vote in the 2019 presidential election.
6. “The west staged a coup to overthrow the pro-Russia Ukrainian government in 2014.” There is no evidence supporting the theory that the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine was a coup orchestrated by western countries.
7. “The US has a network of bioweapons labs in eastern Europe.” The claims are based on a misrepresentation of the US Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program.
8. “Nato has a military base in Odesa, southern Ukraine.” Foreign military bases are not permitted in Ukraine.
9. “Crimea joined Russia legally.” The UN Assembly declared a 2014 referendum that backed Crimea joining Russia was illegitimate.
10. “Modern Ukraine was entirely created by communist Russia.” Russia and Ukraine’s shared heritage dates back more than 1,000 years.