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'New shoes as well. Quite a heel on them.'
'We still on for ten?'
The people's eyebrow as well. :D
:eyemouth:
I'm with the imaginary Ukrainians here, there are some toddlers I've met for whom crucifixion is if anything a bit on the lenient side.
Judging by the Russians I've encountered on holidays, I can only imagine Russian Toddlers are a special brand of cunt.
Brits casting judgements on holiday :happycry:
Vlad's latest rant to camera about fifth columnists and 'gender freedoms' is cracking stuff. Also starting to look really ill.
Doesn't have the minerals to be a proper despot, the soft cunt.
Might be a closet case, tbh. Seen stranger.
Shortarse and repressed urges for a bit of tackle. Heard that one somewhere before...
Saw him crying about how cancel culture was affecting Russia today. Good shit.
Funny how all the culture war stuff seems to be uttered by Russia and of course haven't been at all involved in stoking it up for the past years on social media.
Arnie being an absolute legend again.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60794809
:lol:
Fantastic :D
:D
Interesting to see that Zelensky is now pushing for peace talks front and centre and has resorted to being super-imposed in front of Kyiv landmarks in his latest video.
I wonder when the Western narrative that "this has gone really badly for Russia" or "Russia have already lost" (where's my roflcopter) will start to change?
It has gone really badly for Russia no matter how obtusely you dig into your position.
Russia has already lost strategically. If it goes on much longer they'll probably lose militarily. Zelensky may end up making some concessions in a peace treaty, but - like Finland in 1940 - Ukraine will emerge from the episode far greater. Russia will probably never recover its international standing, and it wouldn't surprise me if parts of it started breaking off in the medium to long term.
For the necessary clarity provided by TTH's best geopolitical minds, check post #4 of this thread.
Or it's going pretty well, no matter how obtusely you dig into yours. The objective was to take Ukraine, which they're manifestly going to do. It gets more complicated after that admittedly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
The issue I have is that all the analysis, including Jim's post above this one is solely from a western perspective. How we'd evaluate how things are going if it was us doing it. Which is a dumb place to start because we wouldn't be doing it in the first place and crucially, we're not Russia or Russians.
'Who can we get to front this "Putin is a war criminal campaign"?'
'I don't know, but it has to be somebody with no connection to any sort of offensive war, otherwise Russian propaganda will...'
*puts a line through 'Tony Blair'*
*goes to next name on the list*
Thousands dead, economy in ruins, global pariah status, just as planned. Just need the populace to revolt to complete the package.
niko has pretty much covered it. There's zero objective measure that you can say "Russia have done pretty well". Even your assertion that "Russia has won the war" is still in question as they're still losing hardware across the country and being counter attacked in places (like here). There's no western perspective here, it's objectively looking at the numbers and the objectives of the mission.
They're being brought to their knees by a bunch of farmers. You're giving them far too much credit. What would it take for you to not think Putin is some genius mastermind?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
All things that we hugely care about as a Western society. But how much do Putin, Russia and Russians? There might be a clue to be had in the indisputable fact that Putin's not stopped this yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
The difference between Russia and the West is that they don't care about ethics/democracy and they like Putin as a tough, strongman leader. As such, he won't be toppled unless something unusual happens. However, that has no relation whatsoever to how well they are doing in the war.
Russian's aren't some alien race, mothers still care about their children not coming home. They're still protesting on the street despite the jail time they face. People are still fleeing Russia to not be caught in a pariah state. You're giving Putin more credit than he's due. Even Xi is backing off.
Oh I'm not saying he's a genius mastermind, I think the reality is somewhere in the middle of the stance I'm perceived to have and the one the West does. For a start, they're not being brought to their knees - like seriously, how is this even a thing? If they were you wouldn't have every Ukranian MP claiming WW3 has already started and that they need a no fly zone now and more weapons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Some people are protesting, some people are fleeing, but they have a population of over 140m, a tiny fraction of which are doing those things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
There is a place between them expecting it to take two days and meeting more resistance than planned, probably because they didn't expect the West to provide as much heavy weaponry as possible lest it start the sort of free-for-all that might blow up in our faces next time the roles are reversed. Same with the sanctions. They will have expected eighty per cent of them, but freezing foreign reserves and nobbling their banking sector are unprecedented, and now the other half of the world is working on establishing their own systems (backed by China) in case they ever need to look after themselves in the face of flighty Western disapproval. That hardly helps down the road. Especially if we lose India to that emerging anti-Western camp. That will nause up China policy for the next fifty years.
But neither does judging troop and equipment losses by Western conflict standards. I thought we'd have realised once and for all that looking at things through a Western lense was a bad idea after the shitshow of 'bringing democracy' to the Middle East. Perhaps not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Troop and equipment losses are a military operations concern, not a concern about how sad generals are about it.
You're making strawman arguments Yev.
We lost more men in two months of the Falklands War than we did over eight years in Iraq. Russia has made mistakes (largely corrected), but this is what a war between two actual armies looks like.
Can't really go anywhere with that. Other than to say...Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
...Lewis gets it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewis
Lewis is making a different point to your original post. Britain losing more troops in the Falklands doesn't equate to Russia not performing worse than they had hoped.
If they have seven-thousand dead by now (Ukrainian figures are over-estimates, but that is possible) then that is as many as the Americans took in Afghanistan and Iraq. They were over a longer timeframe, but what did they come away with? If Russia secures its frontier indefinitely then they get a much better return.
What do you consider their frontier? That long slither connecting to Crimea?
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...1_2x640-nc.png
They only need the capital and clearly the amount of resistance was underestimated (or they just lied to Putin because that's what tends to happen), from a purely operational standpoint once the initial push failed they would need a pause to re-supply and re-organise etc. Losses of equipment and troops (and any amount of videos of abandoned vehicles and Russians getting ambushed) doesn't matter to Russia the same way it would to us. For Putin himself I don't see that much threat to his position from the general populace, if you destroy your opposition effectively enough you can do what you like for as long as you want.
Lewis is demonstrating that in actual war, which this is, you lose troops. The thousands Russia have lost sounds pretty bad, but is it, is it really and if it is, by what measure?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
Ukrainian neutrality secures their frontier. That and Crimean recognition is the minimum, and the separatist areas would be nice extras (even autonomy for them, which is what the lol 'de-Nazification' demand would cover in practice).Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
Elsewhere I see our mates in the UAE have been pow-wow-ing with Assad. There's even a pic with him having a sit down with the dick who owns City.
Incredible. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
I did lol at Gordon Brown being wheeled out for his say on this earlier. Next up Nick Cleggs ironing lady.
Well you can't have Tony Blair claiming someone else should be in The Hague.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-60810169
Fucking lol at this. Middle class people discover that refugees come in white.
:rasta:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-60808449
'Vlad' might be the most vulnerable of the lot at this particular moment.
Sponsorships, hmmm.