Actually...no. Not at all.Russia behaves as would any other country given its size and military. — Manuel
For all its flaws, Russia is the last European nation that is still free and has not fallen into the New-World-Order spiderweb woven by the Anglo-Saxon “master race”. And this is why I think Russia has a point. — Apollodorus
Look at Taiwan, for instance, both sides are doing military drills in the straight all the time. There is an analogue to Ukraine in that instance. — Manuel
Well, that's just great. :/ — jorndoe
LUGANSK, February 19. /TASS/. Head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic Leonid Pasechnik has ordered general mobilization.
"General mobilization shall be announced on the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic," he said in a decree published online. "The People’s Council of the LPR, the LPR government shall be immediately notified about the announcement of mobilization".
The decree said the mobilization aims to create conditions for repelling an aggression against the LPR by Ukraine. It orders full battle readiness for the People’s Militia and other military units. The republic also prohibited men aged 18 through 55 from leaving the region.
Donetsk People’s Republic
Head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin has ordered general mobilization.
"I’m urging fellow citizens who are in the reserve to report to military conscription offices," he said in a video address on Saturday. "I have signed a decree on general mobilization today.".
"We will protect Donbass and all Russian people," he said.
(Russia Today) Two explosions reported on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine were the result of incoming artillery shells, officials have claimed, amid an escalating military stand-off across the border in the Donbass.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the FSB security service in the southern Rostov Region said that local border guard officials had recorded “ammunition strikes” near two rural settlements.
“One of the shells exploded two kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border on the outskirts of the village of Mityakinskaya,” authorities said. “Another shell destroyed an outbuilding on the ground of a private home in the Manotsky farming community.” No injuries have been reported, and a criminal investigation is said to be underway.
While officials have not yet publicly declared who they believe to be responsible for the alleged incidents, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has insisted they had nothing to do with Kiev’s armed forces. “We resolutely refute all accusations of any alleged Ukrainian shells falling on Russian territory,” he wrote on Twitter. “Ukraine has never opened any such fire. We call for an immediate and impartial international investigation of the incidents reported by Russian media.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also cast doubt on the news.
One country, two systems could go only so long... until the Chinese leader decided that he did't need the West anymore and Chinese version of Marxism would do just fine. In 1997 when the UK did hand back Hong Kong to China, the economic situation of China was different: they needed that Western investment and technology.That situation is more difficult. Look at what happened to Hong Kong, pretty sad. — Manuel
Well, since we're calling Chinese communist because they said so, shouldn't we also acknowledge that China is a democracy? — Judaka
If there is a revolution or civil war. Or Putin's regime collapses. After 2014 he and Russia has gone down a rabbit hole. It's a long, long way now to dissolve the distrust towards Russia.It's too late for that, Russia will probably be joining both this century. — Judaka
So behind all the dissimulation and circumlocution and fallacious comparisons, you’re basically an apologist for Russia. — Wayfarer
Sure about Russia not joining the Western sphere of influence. But Russia itself is hardly a paradise. I think they right in this situation. — Manuel
It is necessary to mobilize civil society in order to assure free and fair elections because there are many forces that are determined to falsify or to prevent the elections being free and fair. This is what we did in Slovakia at the time of Meciar, in Croatia at the time of Tudjman and in Yugoslavia at the time of Milosevic.
Russia is trying to keep out Western influence, build a great firewall like China, say no more expansion of NATO or EU. It's too late for that, Russia will probably be joining both this century. — Judaka
Yes, it doesn't need one. But why does Washington care about Ukraine and not Afghans? One is clearly connected to the US, the other is not. — Manuel
Why should the US intervene? — Manuel
As Frank said, the US is not going to intervene. They just promise to impose more sanctions. Biden has said he won't even use the US military to evacuate Americans from Ukraine (as he did from Afghanistan). Likely will send military support to Ukraine and deploy more forces to NATO countries, as they have done already.Why should the US intervene? — Manuel
(RT)No new sanctions can possibly deter Russia from doing what it wants, because Moscow has experience dealing with them for many years already, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, on Friday, the Russian leader claimed Moscow cannot possibly avoid Western sanctions, because they are not aimed at altering the Kremlin's behavior. In his view, they are actually a plan to hinder the economic development of Russia.
“Sanctions will be imposed in any case. Whether they have a reason today, for example, in connection with the events in Ukraine, or there is no reason, it will be found,” Putin said. “The goal is different. In this case, the goal is to slow down the development of Russia and Belarus.”
Putin "once again stressed the necessity for the United States and NATO to take Russia’s demands on ensuring security guarantees seriously and to respond to them in a concrete and substantive manner," the Kremlin said after their phone call.
Russia referred its proposals on security guarantees to the United States and NATO in December 2021. The proposed measures include guarantees that NATO will not advance eastward, including the accession of Ukraine and other countries into the alliance, as well as non-deployment of serious offensive weapons, including nuclear ones. Russia also demands the NATO military infrastructure be retreated to the 1997 borders.
All that you mention there is fine and important for people to know. But even without such a context, one can say that the US would not allow for Russia to have military bases in Mexico, regardless of what Mexico wanted. — Manuel
That historical info adds further foundations as to why Russia is acting as it is, which look to me to be rational behavior. — Manuel
And, one should mention, that saying "the interests of X people", be it Russia, the USA, South Africa, Australia or whatever, can be confusing. It's not as if the interests of a public school teacher is the same as the CEO of some Bank, yet both belong to "X people". — Manuel
Usually it has been Putin who has pushed NATO back to it's Cold War stance. There was genuine talk of Russia becoming a member of NATO, we shouldn't forget. In the 1990's there really was "a window of opportunity". But that collapsed due to the Kosovo war NATO fought.No powerful state would want a hostile military alliance, much less NATO, at the border. — Manuel
Relations between the NATO military alliance and the Russian Federation were established in 1991 within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. In 1994, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program, and since that time, NATO and Russia have signed several important agreements on cooperation.
Not as disastrous as the disintegration of Yugoslavia. In fact, what we should be grateful for the last leaders of Soviet Union is that the it didn't end in a Second Civil War. Now we can see just how precarious the situation in the 1990's was. What was then lacking was the Slobodan Milosevic of Russia, that would have started to "protect Russians everywhere in the Soviet sphere". On the contrary, we had Boris Yeltsin, a leader of Russia who the August Coup wasn't able to detain, but defied them. The peculiar case happened then when the Russian federation, the largest member with the majority ethnicity of the union was against the Soviet Union. There simply was nobody to support the failed enterprise. Until now, when we have leadership in the Kremlin who will ethnic Russians everywhere.It was part of the quite disastrous disintegration of the USSR - which could have proceeded in a much better direction, with less suffering involved for all, as we are now seeing. — Manuel
Actually the case of Cuba just shows how brittle the whole "sphere of influence" idea is. If you are overtly hostile towards a country, which the US has been towards Cuba, in the end you only have the option to invade. When sanctions, coup attempts, using proxies, assassination attempts aren't options anymore. Yes, you have that base GITMO where there is no business for the Americans to stray out of their base perimeter. With South American countries the US has to be even more careful as there simply isn't the option to militarily occupy them. Sometimes the pressure works, but sometimes it doesn't. And Russia has used all the alternative in the playbook to pressure Ukraine, which has lead Ukraine just to defend it's corner.It's funny that Crimea is mentioned so frequently - and fine to mention it, fair - but Guantanamo is not. Yet Guantanamo has nothing to do with the US - there are no Americans living there, minus the base. But people don't like to hear this. — Manuel
It's a MAD, MAD world! :up: — Agent Smith
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