The official "World War ]i[" thread

[doodab]

unless he manages to spin it into a "the rest of the world are against us, unite!" situation and people buy it.

It does seem the propaganda machine is in overdrive. How people are responding to it is hard to say, no doubt he has some support.

I suppose a full scale revolution in Russia is too much to hope for.

[minestrone]

Every time they change government they just come up with another whacky system or loon ball.

Get rid of Putin and someone else just as bonkers will pop up.

[doodab]

Get rid of Putin and someone else just as bonkers will pop up.

Or someone worse.

Russia's reliance on energy exports is probably a better argument in favour of wind farms than CAGW.

[darmstadt]

I'm waiting for the inevitable Boney M parody: "War, war, warPutin...."


BTW, one of his daughters lives in Voorschotten in Holland so I doubt he'll be attacking there very soon...

[Goatfell]

. . . to a country that isn't even part of NATO. . .

Ukraine might not be part of NATO, but as I mentioned before, the US and UK have guaranteed their safety.
Budapest Memorandums on Security Assurances, 1994 - Council on Foreign Relations

[doodab]

I also think it's perfectly understandable why the Russians are doing this and it's not a pretext for invading Europe at all.

Since the end of the cold war both the EU and NATO have expanded eastwards and many former Warsaw Pact countries have joined. If Ukraine were to join the EU and later NATO (membership is open to them) that would almost certainly mean the Russians lost their Black Sea port further weakening their hand and meaning they lost influence in the Middle East.

So yes, perhaps the EU should have seen this coming when they were courting Ukraine. Perhaps they did see it coming and judged the loss of Crimea an acceptable price to pay. After all, it seems fairly obvious the Russians wouldn't give it up without a fight, and looked at in this light, it's the further expansion of the EU that has forced their hand.

[doodab]

Ukraine might not be part of NATO, but as I mentioned before, the US and UK have guaranteed their safety.
Budapest Memorandums on Security Assurances, 1994 - Council on Foreign Relations

So did the Russians, and so far they haven't hurt anyone. It seems quite possible they won't unless the Ukrainians decide to start shooting at them.

According to that link we promised to

respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine

and to

seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear

weapons are used;

which would appear to preclude us deciding to send troops uninvited, and certainly doesn't imply that we have to. Given the rather provisional status of the current government I'd suggest even responding to an invitation before any elections occur would leave us on ground just as shaky as the Russians are currently occupying.

Oh BTW, the French & Chinese, being nuclear weapons states, signed up to the same thing in individual statements.

[MicrosoftBob]

I'm waiting for the inevitable Boney M parody: "War, war, warPutin...."


BTW, one of his daughters lives in Voorschotten in Holland so I doubt he'll be attacking there very soon...

Sounds like a good case for extraordinary rendition, any bargain counter is better than none

[DodgyAgent]

My fear is that they (NATO) start digging trenches on the Polish border with the Ukraine. That really would put the tulips up me.

If they get the environment agency to do it no one will notice

[DodgyAgent]

Well the Territorials are looking for people (as the regular army seems to consist of one bloke and a bayonet now), so off you go...

I think Russia will pick off any twat who calls themself "European" and make an example of them