Russian Foreign Policy

Putin and Russia are losers in all of this. Ukraine will recover much sooner than Russia. The Russians must be doing even worse than it seems if they are seriously negotiating. The maniacal little tsar may have to settle for a few fig leaves.
 
Last edited:
I wonder whether not just Putin but Russia itself will be a spent force when things settle.

It recently signed a “Friendship between the two States has no limits” pact with China. This is more significant than previous pacts between the two in that it is just short of a formal alliance against the West.

It is more of a master slave relationship, with Russia being very much the slave.

Commentators have likened Russia to the “canary in the coalmine” for China.

Ukraine and its charismatic President have both challenged and galvanised the West and may force a sea change.
 
So Biden (wearing a green tie and shamrock) just called Putin a murderous thug, flanked by the American and Irish flags...

The President emphasized the strength of the relationship between Ireland -- which has never joined NATO -- and the United States, saying during the luncheon that the relationship was "taking on an even more intense and cooperative forum than it ever has because of Ireland's neutrality."
Biden said Ireland is "stepping up" in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
"Ireland and the United States and working together for the first time now," Biden said. "They're on the United Nations Security Council ... and the European Union. And Putin is paying a big price for his aggression, and they are part of the reason the cost is going so high."
"Everybody talks about how Germany having stepped up and changed their notions about being more leaning forward, and they have," he continued. "And so has Ireland. A neutral country, Ireland has stepped up, and they're taking the hit for what they're doing."


 
Interesting video. The Russians have been lied to for decades so hopefully they will see this. However, given the lockdown on free speech in Russia I'd have my doubts. Makes me thankful I don't live in such a regime
 
Interesting video. The Russians have been lied to for decades so hopefully they will see this. However, given the lockdown on free speech in Russia I'd have my doubts. Makes me thankful I don't live in such a regime
I'm a big fan of Arnie. His videos to/on Trump were excellent.
 
More coverups by Russia....hopefully enough people saw the article before it was deleted...

Russia’s ministry of defence appeared to accidentally reveal that nearly 10,000 of its soldiers have been killed in Ukraine.

The figure was contained in a report on March 20 by the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, which has since been deleted from the paper’s website.

Before it was removed, the article quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying that 9,861 Russian soldiers had been killed, and 16,153 were injured, in more than three weeks of fighting.

Previously, the Russian military had only admitted that around 500 soldiers had been killed.

The article was taken down from the paper’s website and replaced with a version not including casualty numbers.


 
Interesting angle talking to a Ukrainian.

He reckons 75% of Russian people would back Putin because they are conditioned that way.

Here we see each other as equal. We generally respect others and have a high regard for life.

In Russia and many parts of Asia they are told that the common good trumps life.

So if I said that killing those 20 people across the street would mean a better outcome for others, that would be accepted.

Too many see it through the eyes of what we are used to.

It was a superb insight.
 
CNN’s Christian Amanpour interviewed Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary yesterday.

The drivel really means that Putin doesn’t recognize the sovereignty of any former USSR State and will invent any pretext to recover those States for “The Motherland”.
 
That was pretty much the gist of what Putin said the week before the invasion, anything that was ever USSR or Russian empire he still sees them having some claim on.
 
Yes, pretty much!
I wonder whether we are allowing Putin to dictate red lines.
Surely we need to get ahead of him regarding red lines.