Russian Foreign Policy

There are so many echoes of WWII. That was a war between the democracies and the dictatorships Germany, Italy and Japan. And once again we have the bad guys Putin, Xi and Rocket Man being pals. This time though Germany and Japan are on the side of the good guys.
 
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China is watching the situation in Europe and for them it's win/win and not a drop of Chinese blood will be spilled - Leave Russia fight it out with Ukraine and possibly draw some more European countries into the conflict. This is likely to continue for years. North Korea suddenly looks to be another extra-rising threat with the USA busy in the West. Suddenly, nobody's talking about the Hong Kong issues. Some of the former eastern bloc countries will be fast-tracked into the EU and sooner than we think there will be an EU army. Make no mistake about it Irish neutrality will be cast aside and not many will be too concerned until the body bags start arriving back. We have a real possibility of a nuclear war with defences in space involved along with the most modern means of attack. Then who shall inherit the Earth? - Certainly not humans!
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
There are so many echoes of WWII. That was a war between the democracies and the dictatorships Germany, Italy and Japan. And once again we have the bad guys Putin and Xi being pals. This time though Germany and Japan are on the side of the good guys.
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Very true. We now have nuclear weapons to worry about, but also social media which may help against the propaganda machines..

Also....anyone else notice how quiet the resident AAM Comrade has been of late?
 
Leper said:
Make no mistake about it Irish neutrality will be cast aside and not many will be too concerned until the body bags start arriving back.
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If this goes Nuclear our policy of being unaligned (not neutral) won't help us.
In the struggle between democratic freedom and totalitarian dictatorship no one should be neutral.
 
Purple said:
If this goes Nuclear our policy of being unaligned (not neutral) won't help us.
In the struggle between democratic freedom and totalitarian dictatorship no one should be neutral.
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If this goes Nuclear, Mr Purple there'll be no struggle - But, the next war after will be fought with sticks and stones.
 
Just a side issue:- Many children will have watched the television news lately and some will have friends in class who are from the eastern bloc. The television pictures don't look good. Kids get frightened with what's happening (I'm frightened too!) - It might do good to speak to your kids (in my case grandkids) just to reassure them.
 
Leper said:
Just a side issue:- Many children will have watched the television news lately and some will have friends in class who are from the eastern bloc. The television pictures don't look good. Kids get frightened with what's happening (I'm frightened too!) - It might do good to speak to your kids (in my case grandkids) just to reassure them.
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My 12 year old daughter, in her usual dry tone, said "If it goes nuclear we'll be fine, sure we've flat 7Up."
 
Leper said:
Just a side issue:- Many children will have watched the television news lately and some will have friends in class who are from the eastern bloc. The television pictures don't look good. Kids get frightened with what's happening (I'm frightened too!) - It might do good to speak to your kids (in my case grandkids) just to reassure them.
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I remember a moment like this in the early 80s. My mother was on the phone talking about the Cold War (it was the a heightened time). I was pretending to play with toys on the floor but was petrified.
 
Leper said:
If this goes Nuclear, Mr Purple there'll be no struggle - But, the next war after will be fought with sticks and stones.
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Yep, and we should be doing all we can to actively make sure it doesn't go nuclear. That means standing up and being counted.
 
Firefly said:
I remember a moment like this in the early 80s. My mother was on the phone talking about the Cold War (it was the a heightened time). I was pretending to play with toys on the floor but was petrified.
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And we are closer to nuclear war now than at any time in history.
Nobody should be under any illusions to the contrary.
 
Leper said:
Just a side issue:- Many children will have watched the television news lately and some will have friends in class who are from the eastern bloc. The television pictures don't look good. Kids get frightened with what's happening (I'm frightened too!) - It might do good to speak to your kids (in my case grandkids) just to reassure them.
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Purple said:
And we are closer to nuclear war now than at any time in history.
Nobody should be under any illusions to the contrary.
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People are scared. Things are dangerous at the moment. But just like modern times are, you will be fed images and video straight from the battlefield (I watched the livestream of the shelling of the nuclear power plant last night!!), you will get immediate reaction from commentators that are ill-considered and the media will still be looking for those clicks. The truth is no one knows how it will play out. Especially the powers to be! There is so much about this situation that is brand new.

Yes we are closer to nuclear war than we have been but we are NOT close to nuclear war. There are lots of decision points between here and there. We are nowhere near the brink! Its a risk at the moment, it is no where near being a favorable course of action. No need to lose sleep worrying about this.

Keep some perspective on the situation, its still early days. This will likely go on for a long time, it could be a decade before any sort of normality returns to Ukraine. Don't stress yourself out. We are just at the start of the humanitarian crisis. Already a million refugees, we will likely host 2% of whatever the ultimate number is. We can have a human impact here in Ireland, by helping them. If you're worried, thats where you should focus your energies, not the news/twitter or whatever.
 
On the markets side, the price of wheat has increased significantly. Both Ukraine and Russia being large producers. Two potential impacts 1) the price of wheat was a factor in the Arab spring. 2) Syria has stopped exports of foodstuffs and Russia has stopped financial support to Syria. There is a real risk of famine occurring in Syria.

Article here
 
Even in the darkest of times, this made me laugh......Better than closing them down

Latvian capital to rename Russian embassy address to Independent Ukraine street

The party coalition governing Latvia's capital Riga has agreed to change the name of the street where Russia's embassy is located to Independent Ukraine Street, a statement said.

The move followed an announcement that Vilnius in neighboring Lithuania will change the name of a street where the Russian embassy is located to Heroes of Ukraine Street.
 
Itchy said:
There is so much about this situation that is brand new.
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And there is so much that is old as the hills.

We are watching the anatomy of tyrants in the person of Putin. It is formulaic.

First, complete repression and elimination of dissenting or opposing voices in their own countries, then the twin demonization of peoples and excuse of civilizing the savages as a pretext for invading other countries, then the cruel and inhuman disdain for the suffering of their victims.
 
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I don't see this being a long drawn out war, I think it is escalating fast and I think the West will not be able to sit this out. Putin is under huge pressure now the best way to force change is to keep ramping up the pressure by increasing substantially military aid to Ukraine. The only reason he is using nuclear threats is because he is afraid of his life and to cause the west to pull back from backing up Ukraine. Because Putin has crossed so many red lines already and told blatant lies we shouldn't think that he will put great importance on another red line

As regards Irish neutrality it's a complete joke and means nothing now. When you see Sweden s neutral country now supplying substantial arms to Ukraine you know that everything has changed now
 
as has been said above if this get bad and article 5 is invoked with a clash between putin and nato ,then nukes will fly at some point .remember that there is an nuclear bullseye on you ,so you won't have to worry about neutrality.
question heard about fundraisers lately some of which is could be going toward buying military equipment bodyarmor etc
where do we stand legally about this ,has our gov said its ok to do so ( i am comparing it to lisa smith transfer of funds to isis)?
 
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