Ukraine

[Kaere]

Anyone else feeling anxious and upset for the future?

[Agartha]

I do but at the same time I think this is it for Putin, this is the beginning of the end for him.... it may not happen quickly, but look at how large the protests in Russia were!

[TrueCrazyLion]

It feels very anxiety-provoking and generally intensely unpleasant to me.
I remember the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as well, they didn’t feel good, but somehow this feels worse.
It seems like Putin is becoming increasingly unhinged, and like he’s posing more and more of a risk to world peace as time goes on. He’s like the worst parts of Stalin and the worst parts of Khrushchev, kinda amalgamated together.
It’s definitely worrying for the future if he isn’t shut down.

[Kaere]

I don't think Putin will ever be gone unless he's assassinated or dies on his own. He's got such a stranglehold on power.

He's just showing the world his real face, he's perfectly hinged and knows exactly what he's doing.

[Agartha]

Even Russians don't want him. I think it will take a while but eventually he will be gone, his pals have turned their backs on him (India, UAE and China have abstained during talks of sanctions, they didn't back him). 

Finland and Sweden now want to join Nato ASAP. After 20 years of declining, I think Nato will finally accept the Ukraine, and the EU will probably do the same. Putin will be as isolated as North Korea.

[Kaere]

He's been stealing elections in Russia for years tho, and North Korea may be isolated but they still have that crazy Kim family in power. The Russian people won't be able to vote him out, he's unlikely to have an election before significant damage is done in the world afterall.

The only difference seems to be that Putin and Russias military are willing and have the means to attack and invade and they don't care if they're isolated. North Korea is laughable, Russia is not.

Even if those countries become a part of NATO, I'm not convinced NATO is enough to deter Putin and Russias military. I really do think we are headed for a WW3. They just do not care, especially with a chaotic United States, where half the country SUPPORTS Russia because of Trump.

I'm also not convinced that China will stay neutral.

[Kaere]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/russian-official-issues-stark-threats-to-the-west-1.5797435

To be noted - it's not just Putin who made this decision to invade.

[Agartha]

Maybe you are right... but I really really hope you are wrong.... Putin and his government are a bunch of crazy oligarchs... and there I was thinking that 2022 was going to be better. 

[Kaere]

I just feel like the last century is repeating itself now, been feeling like The Great Depression here and now this.

I hope I'm wrong too.

[TrueCrazyLion]

Very good point about the last century repeating - we’ve had/are having a deadly pandemic, the economy has been hit hard, and now Putin is being compared to Hitler(And is reminding me of Hitler too if I’m completely honest). 
This is like the first half of the 20th Century on steroids at the moment!

I think it’s a good point Aggie makes about this possibly being the beginning of the end for Putin - for me it seems that he’s increasingly desperate to cling onto power whatever happens, and it does look like he’s on the slippery slope one way or the other.
But you’re also right, K, that he’s got such a hold on power he’ll be very difficult to remove.

I read today that this invasion of Ukraine is costing Russia £15Bn per day(The equivalent of). I’m not sure if that’s the true figure or not, but it’ll certainly be expensive, and it’s a crazy amount of money to throw at something so stupid. 

I can see Putin eventually making so many enemies in high places that someone covertly does an inside job on him.

[TrueCrazyLion]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/russian-official-issues-stark-threats-to-the-west-1.5797435

To be noted - it's not just Putin who made this decision to invade.

Well, Medvedev has been Putin’s puppet since at least sometime before 2008, so he in himself isn’t really an independent entity.

[Agartha]

Today, after Putin threatened the world with nuclear weapons, I was talking about it with a colleague, and I told her I remember being a child/teen during the cold war, learning what to do if a nuclear bomb was detonated.... and that I can't believe it that my own teenage daughter has to go through the same.... we never learn.

[TrueCrazyLion]

I don’t think there’s any real chance of a nuclear war actually starting.
The simple reason for this belief is that if it does, everyone on Earth will be put at risk, including Putin himself. And being the malignant narcissist Putin is, the one thing he won’t want to do is endanger himself. His innate selfishness will, ironically, almost certainly keep us safe from having to deal with that worst-case scenario.

I’ve studied the Cold War in detail in the past - it’s actually one of the eras in history which has interested me the most - and one recurring theme of that era was threats from both sides to use nuclear weapons. It never happened, because no world leader was suicidal enough to do it. The closest we came to nuclear war was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and we did learn from that.

The sooner someone just assassinates Putin and puts him out his misery, the better.

[TrueCrazyLion]

Today, after Putin threatened the world with nuclear weapons, I was talking about it with a colleague, and I told her I remember being a child/teen during the cold war, learning what to do if a nuclear bomb was detonated.... and that I can't believe it that my own teenage daughter has to go through the same.... we never learn.

I actually thought about what you said in a bit more detail, and found this on YouTube:



Didn’t realise the Duck and Cover videos were being made as long ago as 1951, LOL - thought it was mid-50s at least.

Hopefully it doesn’t get to the stage where we start getting official Government warnings about this stuff…!

[TrueCrazyLion]

After checking out the more recent news, it seems that the invasion isn’t going to plan at all, and the Ukrainian people are putting up a strong resistance. Seems to me that this conflict has the potential to develop into Guerrilla warfare, not dissimilar to the conflicts in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

There’s speculation today that Putin’s “nuclear high alert” might just be a strategy to distract people from this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60553356

It would make sense TBH, because it seems like such an OTT escalation on Putin’s part.

Another article I found directly linked to that one, which I found more disturbing - speculating on whether Putin would actually use nuclear weapons:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60551140

This bit in particular caught my attention:

"Putin's in a tight spot," believes Moscow-based defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. "He doesn't have many options left, once the West freezes the assets of the Russian Central bank and Russia's financial system actually implodes. That will make the system unworkable.
"One option for him is to cut gas supplies to Europe, hoping that will make the Europeans climb down. Another option is to explode a nuclear weapon somewhere over the North Sea between Britain and Denmark and see what happens."


That would mean detonating a nuclear bomb right on my doorstep, as Dundee is one of the very closest places to that area mentioned. And I even have a south/southeast facing patio door. Lovely!

[Rogue]

It really is such a sad deplorable mess. I don't really have any words to add, but I don't want to seem as if I'm ignoring this topic. I think the utter stupidity of Putin and his cronies is reprehensible, and sad not just for Ukraine but also for many of the Russian people, and world in general.

Maybe this should be in the news section?

[Kaere]

Moved.

We can remember, our feelings and emotional states related to this are still welcome.

[Agartha]

Putin has managed to unite Europe like it hasn't been possible since the 1950s. He has also managed to unite the world against him. He's only got one ally left now, Belarus.

I still think this is the beginning of the end for the oligarch... he thought he would reclaim the old Soviet Union, instead he will face justice at The Hague.

[Agartha]

If you have 30 minutes watch this video:

[TrueCrazyLion]

I both hope and think that you’re right, Aggie. It’s looking increasingly likely that although the invasion of Ukraine will appear successful in the short term, even in that case it’ll be a Pyrrhic victory which will have consequences for Putin that he never envisioned. 

This is different from the Cold War, because then the world was much more equally divided between East and West; this time everyone else does indeed seem to be uniting against Russia.
Biden has said in his State Of The Union address that Putin has made a bad miscalculation, and that seems to be bang on.
I just hope Putin(And Russia while he’s still in control) can be sorted out without risking a world war in the meantime.

And that video looks really interesting! I actually saw it in my YouTube recommendations in the last day or so and was already thinking of watching it. Will definitely watch it soon!

[Sponsored content]