Reply to: Charley boy spot on yet gets it in the neck

[speling bee]

BBC News - Prince Charles's Putin remarks outrageous - Russia

Let's be absolutely clear. Nige agrees with Vlad.

Nigel Farage defends Putin from royal 'Hitler' attack

[Bunk]

or in a Private conversation.

If he thought that conversation would remain private then it's definitely thick.

[BrilloPad]

BBC News - Prince Charles's Putin remarks outrageous - Russia

[Zippy]

I would imagine the Queen is the first mother in history to hope her son pops his clogs before she does. He just doesn't seem to get it.

[SpontaneousOrder]

He is demonstrating that he is a Greater Russia irridentist. Here is a list from wiki of current European irridentist claims:



Of course, if regions such as Catalonia become independent that will lead to further irridentist claims.

Do you want to decide which claims are correct and which are not? Or should they be decided by a mass set of referenda including perhaps separatist referenda to redraw all the borders? Or by force majeure (which is what Putin has done)? Or just left to lie with an attempt to protect the rights of minorities?

I think he's more likely trying to avoid a nato allied fascist state from forming in his back yard. Especially somewhere so strategically important for all sorts of reasons. They've only just recently celebrated victory in the Great Patriotic War against the fascists - I don't think anyone could have expected any other outcome from inciting such a coup, especially when the core support was arguably garnered among the various neofascist groups in Ukraine.

[MicrosoftBob]

Russia is just protecting her interests as she always has done (against Hitler for example). The whole Ukrainian coup was engineered by the US and EU in order to expand East.

By that reason you could say Hitler was just protecting Germanies interest, they both wanted living space and both had plans to invade each other

Surely the coup was engineered by Putin in order for Russia to expand East yet again, or are there invisible American tanks annexing the Crimea that I don't know about ?

Here we can see how the Russian media can inform the opinions of the naive and weak minded....

[Unix]

The same as Stalin, because he thinks he can get away with it

If he starts murdering Polish politicians like Stalin did, start worrying...

Here we can see how the western media can inform the opinions of the naive and weak minded.

[Unix]

Russia is just protecting her interests as she always has done (against Hitler for example). The whole Ukrainian coup was engineered by the US and EU in order to expand East.

[vetran]

The same as Stalin, because he thinks he can get away with it

If he starts murdering Polish politicians like Stalin did, start worrying...

He won't they will just start having accidents, remember he & his friends used to bury most of the bodies without anyone knowing.

[MicrosoftBob]

I've little doubt in this case, though, that the whole situation was orchestrated by 'the west'. Just like Syria/Libya/etc.
might be wrong but I honestly can't see why Putin would be at all interested in taking over Europe. What's the motive?

The same as Stalin, because he thinks he can get away with it

If he starts murdering Polish politicians like Stalin did, start worrying...

[BrilloPad]

BBC News - Prince Charles 'compared Russian actions to Nazis'



so should he have kept his mouth shut?

He might be spot on. But celebrities really should keep their mouth shut on anything political. unless they happen to be a politician as well.

[vetran]

Whether he is right or wrong isn't the point. He should know better than to say things that could make the situation worse. The fact that he doesn't, makes me think he is either thick or selfish.

or in a Private conversation.

[speling bee]

What's the motive?

He is demonstrating that he is a Greater Russia irridentist. Here is a list from wiki of current European irridentist claims:

Spanish claims to Gibraltar which was ceded in perpetuity to Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht, and argues its case at the United Nations claiming its territorial integrity is affected.
Hungarian claims to parts of the neighbouring countries inhabited by the ethnic Hungarians (including parts of Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, etc.). The claim is based on historic criteria for some regions (such as Transylvania, where Hungarians are a majority in two out of sixteen counties), and ethnic for other regions. The former Kingdom of Hungary lost 2/3 of its territories as a result of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. Nowadays, irridentists are split between a group which wishes to reclaim all former regions of Hungary, and those only desiring ethnic Hungarian regions that are contiguous to current-day Hungary.
The Greater Romanian goal was achieved in 1918, but Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Southern Dobrudja were lost again in 1940. The goal of Romanian irredentism is the re-establishment of Greater Romania as advocated by the Greater Romania Party, thus claiming territories from Ukraine, Bulgaria and the merger with the Republic of Moldova.
Greater Serbian claims to large areas of Bosnia, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro, on grounds of ethnic affiliation; still promulgated by the Serbian Radical Party.
Bosniak claims to Sandžak.[citation needed] and large areas of Montenegro due to a large historical Muslim population.
Albanian claims to Kosovo, which Serbia asserts is a province of Serbia, and which the Kosovar government insists is an independent country, as well as to parts of Montenegro, the Republic of Macedonia and Greece (on grounds of ethnic affiliation).
Irredentists from the Republic of Macedonia have expressed land claims to the entire region of Macedonia out of which only 40% lies within the Republic of Macedonia, the rest being in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania, on the purported ethnic, historical and geographic grounds.
Bulgarian irredentists have claimed the Republic of Macedonia based on the idea that the Macedonians are actually Bulgarians; this was an important factor in Bulgarian foreign policy between Bulgarian independence and World War II.
Ingush (part of the Russian Federation) claims of the eastern part of the Prigorodny District in North Ossetia as part of Ingushetia on historical and historical-ethnic grounds. See Ingush-Ossetian conflict
Armenian claims to the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on ethnic and perceived historical grounds. It is de jure part of Azerbaijan, but de facto an Armenian populated independent country where conflict started in 1988 and has the explicit long-term goal of rejoining Armenia. See also: Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Armenian irredentists have also laid claim (on perceived historical, historical ethnic, modern ethnic and also juridical grounds) to territories up to the Pontic coast of Turkey near Trebizond, and south past Lake Van (sometimes far enough to incorporate the historical Subterranean region of Cilician Armenia, though this claim has now been abandoned for the most part), as well as Nakhichevan in Azerbaijan, Javakh in Georgia, and areas of Northwest Iran near Maku. See United Armenia concept for more info.
Irish nationalists, including republicans, and originally the Irish state itself, have long laid claim to Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.
Some Scottish nationalists have also laid claim to the former burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is on the border between Scotland and England.[citation needed] Berwick had been part of Scotland until during the 16th century when it was seized by English lords.
German nationalists claim westernmost and northern parts of Poland (including Stettin, Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław), southern part of Denmark (South Jutland County), eastern Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), eastern France (parts of Alsace-Lorraine), Memel in Lithuania, and Kaliningrad Oblast, Russian Federation (including Kaliningrad), former parts of the German Empire.
Polish nationalists claim westernmost parts of Belarus (including Grodno and Brześć), Ukraine (including Lwów, Stanisławów and Tarnopol), eastern Lithuania (including the capital Vilnius) and Zaolzie, now part of the Czech Republic. All these regions were part of the interwar Poland.
Some Belarusian nationalists claim the region of Podlaskie from Poland as; the border region, of Lithuania which includes the capital Vilnius; parts of Smolensk and Bryansk Oblasts from Russia. Historically the listed regions belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania a predecessor to modern Lithuanian state, and the borders were drawn during the short-lived Belarusian Democratic Republic.
Some Ukrainian nationalists claim a multitude of bordering regions where there was or is mixed population. The Transnistria strip of land, presently a non-recognised breakaway republic from Moldova; parts of southern Bukovina and Maramureş from Romania; the Rusyn-populated Prešov Region from Slovakia; the historic Lemkivshchyna province, now part of Poland; the upper San River valley; land to the left-bank of the Bug River (Chełm and Podlaskie), all from Poland; the Polesian lands in Belarus, including the city of Brest; parts of Bryansk Oblast, including the city of Starodub; parts of Belgorod, Voronezh and Kurst Oblasts (historically part of Sloboda Ukraine); parts of Rostov Oblast including the cities of Shakhty and Taganrog; the historic region of Kuban and parts of Stavropol Kray (Ukrainian nationalists see Kuban Cossacks as Ukrainians), all from Russia.
The English Democrats Party are irredentist in regards to Monmouthshire (since 1974 part of Wales).[1]
Chechenia (currently part of the Russian Federation) has occasionally laid claims on a region called Akkia (roughly the Auhovskiy rayon, in Russian), part of neighbouring Dagestan. Prior to the 1944 Chechen deportation to Kazakhstan, the region was part of Chechnya (then an autonomous region within the Soviet Union), which was abolished. It was given to Dagestan, and included all of the modern Novolak district as well as parts of the Kazbek district and the Khasavyurt district (including the city of Khasavyurt itself). Following the repatriation in 1958, Chechen autonomy was not restored in Akkia, and the Chechens were barred from returning there. In spite of this, Chechens have returned to Akkia, and according to the census, in 2002 there were nearly ninety thousand Chechens in Dagestan, primarily in Akkia.
Russian irredentism has three definitions, narrow, interim and broad.
In a broader senses, it could include all lands that historically made up the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire at their maximum extent. The broadest sense of Russian irredentism would also extend to all neighbouring regions in bordering countries that are populated by people who also live/lived in Russia (e.g. Iranian Azerbaijan in Iran), or are closely related to those people due to linguistic, ethnic or religious reasons. Historically Russia has pursued these policies, examples include the Panslavism movement to put all of the Balkans under a Russian hegemony (which in majority were Slavic and/or Eastern Orthodox); the Russian Third Rome philosophy, which had an ultimate goal of re-claiming former Byzantine regions, in particular the warm winter port of Constantinople. In process establishing a hegemony over Greater Armenia, and in perspective the Holy Land (Lebanon, Palestine etc.) Simultaneously there were ambitions to continue expansion into Persia and even India (see The Great Game). Russia planned to force cession from China's Qing Dynasty of Xinjiang, Manchuria and Mongolia, and even Korea. The Russo-Japanese War ended those prospects, except for the successful Russian creation of the Mongolian People's Republic from a weak Republican China. Finally there were plans to continue expansion beyond the International Date Line into the Yukon, however the Alaska Purchase ended those ambitions, and Russian America became part of the United States.
The interim sense of Russian irredentism include some or all of the independent countries and/or territories that made up the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire. These include, in a narrow understanding of interim sense: the East Slavic countries of Ukraine and Belarus; the pro-Russian break-away states of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria; other nations making up the CIS and Georgia, the Baltic States and in broadest understanding, Finland, Poland and Kars Oblast.
The narrow sense of Russian irredentism focuses on regions that are populated by ethnic Russians that are outside the Russian Federation. Narva in Estonia; land around Daugavpils and Riga in Latvia; the historic land of Sloboda Ukraine and New Russia from Ukraine, and in particular Crimea and the city of Sevastopol; the Gagra district in Abkhazia (de jure part of Georgia); lands between the Russian border and the rivers of Ural and Irtysh in Kazakhstan, as well as parts of Semirechye. Due to the conflicting nature of ethnic Russian, Russophone and Slavic definitions in the understanding of Russian irredentism, there is often lots of overlap between one sense and another.

Of course, if regions such as Catalonia become independent that will lead to further irridentist claims.

Do you want to decide which claims are correct and which are not? Or should they be decided by a mass set of referenda including perhaps separatist referenda to redraw all the borders? Or by force majeure (which is what Putin has done)? Or just left to lie with an attempt to protect the rights of minorities?

[MicrosoftBob]

Politically it is a good thing that someone in authority can speak out publically without a political axe to grind

Without the Lords and the notional blocking powers of the Queen, we'd be even closer to a totalitarian EU dictatorship than we already are

[speling bee]

I don't see Putin as having done anything wrong.

Historically, Taunton is a part of Minehead.