Ukraine Invasion

[Kane]

[John Galt]

even though the script leaked beforehand they are keeping with it

putin says that "genocide" is happening in ukraine https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pu ... 022-02-15/

thank goodness he's got this army that just happened to be there to put a stop to it!!!

[Saz]

[Kane]

Well let's hope they do something this time around.

If they don't it's tits up for the West.

[uebermann]

Welp, it looks like my comments about them not going to invade haven't aged well.

Putin is far more insane than I thought he was.

[Spider]

Time for Europe to build more reactors. Putin's icy gas pipelines encircling their collective testicles like that is proving to be an extremely bad idea.

[John Galt]

so our misadventures in the middle east allowed Russia to get to work in Georgia without much of a peep by the US under Bush

then Obama told President Medvedev (Putin's crony) that he would be "more flexible" after the election in 2012 (this is when Romney said it was a crazy statement, since Russia is the foe who is always siding with all of the world's worst actors against the US, and then people laughed at him)

Obama then drew a red line in Syria... and blinked

Putin takes crimea, sets up "rebels" in Ukraine who shoot down a plane full of civilians. He realizes a US that is too concerned with other things won't stop him, and starts meddling in US elections which leads to Trump who is disdainful of NATO and tries to get the US out of it, basically

now those same "rebels" are being recognized as "independent countries" by Russia, and he's invading Ukraine

And yeah, before that speech the other day, I didn't think of Putin as *unhinged* but he's talking about this made up history where Ukraine isn't a real nation, it's "Lenin's Ukraine" and that it was "Crazy" that all of the republics spit out at the fall of the USSR were able to leave without conditions. the man has delusions of empire, and publicly states them all

THAT ALL SAID

this is a catastrophe for Russia

Europe, when its done shitting itself, will finally realize it can use a toilet like a big boy. this will cause defense budgets across EU and NATO to go up real high. the possibility of a united EU army is on the horizon. NATO will get even more members, as NATO ties are reinforced and strengthened. Russia will have further sanctions placed on it until it is cowed. Germany will have to reverse course on the nuclear situation -- esp considering how safe new reactors are -- and they I think will

[Kane]

Two Russian banks were just blocked from SWIFT and blinken just called off the meeting with Lavrov. Diplomacy is ending. Going after sources for sovereign debt is pretty big too.

This isn't your typical charade of "sanctions." This is a large escalation.

Maybe this new side of Putin has been his true self all along and now we're all only now seeing past the cold steely veneer?

Either way it's only a matter of time before Ukraine proper is invaded.

[Saz]

[Saz]