Notice all those Russian oligarchs crying over assets frozen..even as a Chelsea fan...not one once of sympathy over Roman Abramovich losing his team.... not one of these wealthy pussies has condemned the invasion and killing of Ukrainians.... let them suffer as well
I didn't say bend over and do nothing. And yes Putin has painted himself into a corner. But you're missing the bigger picture. The man is a megalomaniac and Biden just wrote a check too, to the whole world. You don't threaten a megalomaniac with prison and execution when that person rules with absolute power and sits on a pile of nukes while he's watching his conventional forces get their asses kicked. It's not a matter of "not doing anything".... it's a matter of keeping your mouth shut and THEN doing something. You NEVER broadcast your intentions. It's stupid and Biden f'd up, and I promise, it's gonna worse now. @UsualName said "Eastern Europe is emboldened". Yeah, they are. But wtf are they gonna do? How many hundreds of thousands of people do you fuckers wanna see die? Oh... and Putin won't "threaten" a nuclear strike. He'll either do it or he won't. He's certainly not gonna "broadcast" it. We have that market cornered.
Y'all see what is going on here so I will spare you. When the going gets rough, toss the Comrades another potato. "He ordered officials to increase social benefits including pensions and to boost wages of state employees, acknowledging that “rising prices seriously affect people’s income.” The government has sufficient funds to meet the costs without resorting to printing money, he said, without elaborating." Putin Says Russia Beat ‘Economic Blitzkrieg,’ Warns of Hardship https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ia-beat-economic-blitzkreig-warns-of-hardship
And Ocho... unfortunately I think you're wrong about this too. We won't "wipe out Russia". We don't play war like that anymore, to the greatest extent possible. We don't (deliberately) kill innocent civilians now. We've certainly done it, but our technology has made it an almost unacceptable act now. Think about it. What will happen if Putin uses a theatre nuke to stop a supply route? Do you think we (NATO) go for Moscow? No effing way. We retaliate against his troops on the ground in Ukraine, and he lights off another nuke. His inner circle knows there's absolutely nothing we can do. If we go after one of his silo's, or all of them in a well coordinated attack, it's the end of the world, because the ones we don't get are heading for NY, DC, and California. You guys can't see this.... it's just gonna keep going and going. Putin is not gonna quit. And now, if there was even ever a chance that he would, well that pretty much went up in smoke now because he knows what's at the end of the line for him. It's he Hague, prison, and execution. I mean he's known this all along, but now the world's eyes will be on America... "Your leader said he's a war criminal... why aren't you doing anything yet to bring him to justice?" Think I'm wrong about that? I'm not. We're in it deeper now, this goes beyond just supplying weapons. I find it hard to believe you guys can't see the ramifications of this. And ya know I'm not alone. As I sit here flipping between Bloomberg and CNBC... I'm hearing the same things being said by folks that are pretty damn smart about these matters. You'll see...
Its the million dollar question, what will Putin do? Do I think he is going to lay down, I guess that depends on what you mean by “lay down.” I do not forget nor ignore the Russians have ~2400 nuclear weapons. I am well aware. I am also aware the Russians are a paper tiger with a military a mile wide and inch deep. I am also aware the Putin regime is now on the offensive addressing the growing divisions in Russian society caused by Putin’s war in Ukraine and it has to be played very carefully by Putin right now. It’s a complicated question of what will Putin do. The most likely answer is Putin will attempt to provocateur and harass and then respond to the west’s reactions to his provocations. It’s his mode of operation so to speak. The problem for him is the opposite of what you assessed, the west is emboldened. It’s obvious we are coming to terms with our true strength amd russia is very small when we flex. Putin’s authority has just been knocked down a couple of pegs. He is still a snake in the grass but I actually don’t think he is free to take big gambles at this time at home. Now this is not to say he is incapable of some trickery or cleverness but that the Russian people would kind of like to reset the clock to 3 weeks ago and get do over right now.
I've probably typed 10,000 words this morning and last night to say what you just so eloquently did in 6 words. In a nutshell... there you have it.
Putin becoming the new Roman Pervertsky. Maybe he will flee to France where he will be safe. Alright, maybe that was not necessary on my part.
Well said, but the question I have, and none of us know.... is how much power do his citizens really have? If I had to guess, I'm gonna say none. See, what folks like us don't understand because we've been raised with Western standards so it's hard for us to comprehend... is that people like Putin... they don't care about human life. I wrote last week when someone commented on Russian soldiers coming home in body bags... Putin doesn't care. He'll send as many troops to their death as he see's fit and not lose one minute of sleep over it. The man does not think like we do. 100,000 people march on DC and America might change for that cause.... 100,000 people march on Putin, and he'll have machine guns on rooftops mowing them down. The only hope lies within his inner circle... and honestly, I don't think someone like Putin would make the mistake of letting anyone in that inner circle unless they were just like him.
When Putin was an administrator in Saint Petersburg in mid/late 1990s Russia was in a state of economic collapse. So Putin goes on the news and is reviewing a list of the food stuffs he ordered and is en route: 1000 pounds of flour, 1000 pounds of dry milk, etc, etc. The people are quelled and the protesting stops for while until none of shows up and the city coffers are empty. Then he gets a promotion to Yeltsin’s prime minister or something like that. Putin knows this game. He will reward the local officials and servants and stiff the people. It’s a slow burn.