The Russian Invasion of the Ukraine.

[trustbutverify]

He could, but Putin has also things to apologize for.

Dear glorious supreme leader Putin: Please forgive me for attempting to defend myself, my family, and my country from your naked aggression. Had I not had the audacity of fulfilling my responsibilities to the people who elected me in a landslide, you probably wouldn't have been forced into poisoning all those dissidents. For all these crimes, I humbly apologize.

 

[Andy_Ross]

And I think we can all agree that it's reasonable for him to allow us to keep his kitchen.

Atun-Shei has a video about his similar experiences with a Nazi roommate

 

[The Great Zaganza]

The US has been successfully playing the "goading the bully into hitting me with the Teacher watching" game with Russia, and it's been easy, since bullying and hitting is all Putin knows to do.
Yes, the US pulled a lot of similar stunts than Russia, but it also brought prosperity - something Russia never managed to do.

 

[BillC]

RT seems to have closed its comments section on all articles. While I appreciate that might not seem the most earth-shattering of developments, the trolling comments was a huge part of what RT's web presence was about: rife with anti-Semitism, participants trying to outdo each other with adherence to the Kremlin line, and so on. Now all that is left is the bland, transparent articles above.

 

[Michel H]

Dear glorious supreme leader Putin: Please forgive me for attempting to defend myself, my family, and my country from your naked aggression. Had I not had the audacity of fulfilling my responsibilities to the people who elected me in a landslide, you probably wouldn't have been forced into poisoning all those dissidents. For all these crimes, I humbly apologize.

Excellent, I really like it.

Now, just repeat it five times.

 

[Andy_Ross]

The Russian space agency Roscosmos has said it will not launch satellites part-owned by the British government without guarantees they will not be used for military purposes.

A Soyuz rocket carrying 36 satellites for the internet firm OneWeb is due to go up from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday.
Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said OneWeb had two days to provide "legally binding" guarantees.

OneWeb has yet to comment.
But the UK government is coming under pressure to pull the launch over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
UK taxpayers helped buy OneWeb out of bankruptcy in 2020 with a £400m stake.

In an interview with Russia 24 TV channel, Mr Rogozin said Roscomos had contacted OneWeb and its partner Arianespace to demand "comprehensive legally binding guarantees" that the satellites would not be used for military purposes.

"If by 21:30 on March 4 we do not receive confirmation, the rocket will be removed from the launch pad and the satellites will be sent to the assembly and test building," he added.
The launch is currently timed for 22:41 GMT on Friday (03:41 local, Saturday).

According to Russian news agency TASS, Mr Rogozin said the OneWeb contract had been paid in full and the funds would not be returned.
"We received all the money for it for the manufacture of launch vehicles, upper-stages and for the necessary launch services.
"This money, due to force majeure circumstances that have arisen as a result of the aggressive policy of the West and the sanctions that are applied against Russia, this money will remain in Russia," the Roscosmos boss stated.

The space agency's twitter feed later also went a step further, demanding the "hostile" UK government withdraw its shareholding from the London-headquartered company.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60587154

 

[Shrinker]

RT seems to have closed its comments section on all articles. While I appreciate that might not seem the most earth-shattering of developments, the trolling comments was a huge part of what RT's web presence was about: rife with anti-Semitism, participants trying to outdo each other with adherence to the Kremlin line, and so on. Now all that is left is the bland, transparent articles above.

TripAdvisor has allegedly been shutting down on Moscow restaurant reviews after Twitter users were using reviews of random restaurants it to inform Moscovites (sometimes in Russian) what is happening in Ukraine. The battle has moved to Google Reviews...

https://mashable.com/article/google-reviews-share-misinformation-russia-ukraine

What's very sporting about it is that they're often posting 5 star reviews to do it.

 

[theprestige]

This why it is important to often remind Ukraine that it can probably stop this painful experience by making very reasonable concessions: Crimea belongs to Russia, the two republics are independant, Ukraine won't join NATO for a while and so on.

What is important in this situation isn't so much to be tough or heroic. It is more important to be smart, and to have the too rare ability to admit one's mistakes.

There can be no peace or justice in Ukraine until Putin admits his mistakes. Why do you insist on holding everyone else accountable for Putin's mistakes?

 

[Michel H]

There can be no peace or justice in Ukraine until Putin admits his mistakes. Why do you insist on holding everyone else accountable for Putin's mistakes?

Putin is not responsible for Ukraine's stupidity, in refusing to accept that Crimea has become part of Russia after a referendum, in agreement with the recognized right of sef-determination of peoples.

 

[Michel H]

This is what is known as extortion or blackmail. Give Putin what he wants or he will beat you!

This is what you advocate for Ukraine. I can already see the revisionist histories being written about this: "This is a story about how the West and Ukraine could have avoided calamity by feeding itself bit by bit into the wood chipper."

Ukraine could have accepted that Russian-speaking Crimea belongs to Russia after the referendum, and before Putin's invasion.

Instead it imposed devastating sanctions (with its allies). Smart? Logical? I don't think so.

 

[timhau]

I agree, but IMO there's no way for him to be removed from power. His inner and outer circle have been purged of any kind of dissent so there's no-one close enough to the levers of power to remove him from power - and that includes by assassination.

No. Nobody is that isolated or well-protected. If e.g. Russian oligarchs decide they need Putin gone, they have for all practical purposes still limitless resources to make it happen. They just need to agree to it en masse.

Don't make Putin out to be some supernatural genius mastermind. He is ruthless and cunning, but he is not untouchable.

 

[Ethan Thane Athen]

Ukraine could have accepted that Russian-speaking Crimea belongs to Russia after the referendum, and before Putin's invasion.

Instead it imposed devastating sanctions (with its allies). Smart? Logical? I don't think so.

As others have pointed out to you, 60% of Belgians speak Dutch (the rest speak French with a very small German contingent), how about you just accept that you should be split between the Netherlands and France?

The language spoken has nothing to do with nationality - I should know as an English speaking Welshman!

And before you spout on about referendums, maybe you research the facts around the one you like to quote.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

I'm reporting Michel's off topic posts, and I'd encourage people to stop responding to him to prevent him from dragging this thread onto his personal delusional hobby-horse about WWII.

 

[trustbutverify]

And I think we can all agree that it's reasonable for him to allow us to keep his kitchen.

I'm not sure it was ever really his kitchen to begin with.

 

[GrandMasterFox]

There can be no peace or justice in Ukraine until Putin admits his mistakes. Why do you insist on holding everyone else accountable for Putin's mistakes?

I think a better question is why do people in this thread continue to engage him?

He is trying to excuse two of the most horrible people in history performing genocide by blaming everyone else for making them do this. It takes battered wife syndrome to astounding levels and I'm sure he'll be a great case study for some psychological paper.

 

[Darat]

Many posts moved to AAH that seemed to want to discuss WW2 history. That is not the subject of this thread, we have an entire section to discuss history and another section to discuss conspiracy theories - whether they be historic or new.

Also drop the personalisation of the discussion

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Darat

 

[GrandMasterFox]

No. Nobody is that isolated or well-protected. If e.g. Russian oligarchs decide they need Putin gone, they have for all practical purposes still limitless resources to make it happen. They just need to agree to it en masse.

Don't make Putin out to be some supernatural genius mastermind. He is ruthless and cunning, but he is not untouchable.

Yep. Bin Laden was much more isolated than Putin and we know how he ended up.

 

[trustbutverify]

I'm reporting Michel's off topic posts, and I'd encourage people to stop responding to him to prevent him from dragging this thread onto his personal delusional hobby-horse about WWII.

I don't think his posts are off topic. He's using the comparison between a similar historical event to demonstrate consistency of his analysis with the current crisis.

 

[JoeMorgue]

His military forces should certainly leave Ukraine, where they shouldn't be. This would go a long way helping the Ukrainians, I think.

So let me make sure I get this insanity straight.

Putin walks into a store with a gun and demands everything in the safe.

Your solution is "Well if we just give Putin everything in the safe, he'll leave the store. That would go a long way in helping the store."

 

[Andy_Ross]

Yep. Bin Laden was much more isolated than Putin and we know how he ended up.

Look what happened to Nicolae Ceaușescu.