Russia Masses Military Equipment Near Ukraine Borders: A Prologue to WWIII?

[Helen of Annoy]

8 minutes ago, joc said:

Putin is not insane.  Putin is not an idiot. He actually can do whatever he wants...and the world is cowering in fear.  His strategy is brilliant. 

Putin is insane and on top of it he's an idiot.

He can't even use 4th military in the world in less embarrassing manner. 

Fear? Where? Not over here. 

His strategy is a piece of non-existent crap. It's not strategy, it's a narcissist not being able to comprehend reality. 

The reality is that someone will have to kill him now because he starts seeming irrational enough to trigger the mutual destruction and no, that's not what oligarchs or top brass were planning to do next week. 

[Abramelin]

Putin acknowledges that the KGB evaluated him as a man with stunted emotions. His instructors concluded he was at risk, not of succumbing to the temptations of women or drink, but because of his pervasive “lowered sense of danger”. He was also classified as a man unhelpfully unsocial. To this day, he still only grudgingly half admits the agency’s character assessment. “I don’t think that I had a lowered sense of danger, but the psychologists came to this conclusion having followed my behaviour for a long time,” he told journalists back in 2000. This, I fear, is what makes him so ruthless.

https://www.newstatesman.com/uncategorized/2015/10/ruthlessness-vladimir-putin-0

[Electric Scooter]

12 minutes ago, F3SS said:

I'm not saying he's insane or that he's lost but so far his strategy looks like shlt. 

If you go onto Pravda or RT News you will see what his strategy is, and its different from what our media claim.

The aim has not been to take Kiev, its to cut its airport and roads off so the west cannot send equipment and ammo. On top of this it is drawing in forces from the rest of Ukraine allowing Russia to sweep across the south and east.

[+joc]

54 minutes ago, Helen of Annoy said:

He's a little tiresome already with his waving with nukes. Yes, yes, everyone knows he's afraid. Message was sent, he's in fact ****ting himself. Good. 

Putin will take the Ukraine.  The only talks being had are how the Ukrainian Government is going to have that happen.. complete destruction by Russian Forces or by a modified Surrender of the Ukrainian Government.

This isn't the Baltic War all over again.  This is Russia...Putin is Russia...the Government of Russia is pure totalitarian...the whole show of 'democracy' and Citizen Rights and Freedom has been exactly that...a show.  Russia is not a democracy.  The Russian Government and Putin are all on the same page.  

I think you underestimate Putin.  Russia wants the Baltic Sea...that means they have to take the Ukraine...and they are in the process of doing exactly that and no one is going to help them.  The Ukrainian President begging for his people to take up Molotov Cocktails and fight back the onslaught is a Hail Mary and nothing more.    

sigh   I really hate saying all that Helen.  I am just a realist and I see what is going on and make my own analysis of it. 

25 minutes ago, Cookie Monster said:

There is an unexpected outcome that could occur to end the conflict.

Putin gets couped.

No one is going to kill Putin.  There isn't going to be a 'coup' to take down Putin.  Russia is NOT a democracy.  The Military is NOT at odds with Putin.  They are all one and the same.

[Abramelin]

Little Putin, fondly called Volodya used to chase rats with a stick with his friends in the dimly lit alleyways. It was what passed for a game — until the time he cornered one in the hallway and the rat turned back and pounced on him. Volodya was able to outrun the rat but the incident taught Putin an important lesson in his life, which he was able to recall even years later; Never corner someone.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/bibliophilejournalist/explained-russian-judocracy-28037/

[L.A.T.1961]

37 minutes ago, F3SS said:

Seems to me the Russian military kind of sucks. No prep and all hubris from the top. 

The global media hasn't helped over the last decade. I wonder if the constant talk of Putin being a larger than life super villain, master 4D chess player that plays America and the world like a fiddle whenever he feels like it... Yea he's not a good guy and is clearly devious but perhaps all that has gone to his head to the point where he really does think that he can do whatever he wants and the world will cower in fear. It's not over yet but his chess strategy looks to be shoving all the pieces off the board and thinking he won. 

I think he thought he was starting a chess match but now finds himself playing poker, in poker there are winners and losers and Putin is not winning.

[Helen of Annoy]

1 minute ago, joc said:

Putin will take the Ukraine. 

  

Not in this life or the next. 

 

1 minute ago, joc said:

No one is going to kill Putin.  There isn't going to be a 'coup' to take down Putin.  Russia is NOT a democracy.  The Military is NOT at odds with Putin.  They are all one and the same.

They weren't at odds with Putin. Now they will be. This is not normal situation anymore, this is becoming the matter of their physical survival. 

Sanctions alone are the end of oligarchs' world, now they all have to wonder if the little psycho is going to draw nuclear retaliation on their heads. Supposedly hidden somewhere in Ural. Yeah, that'll help them  

[L.A.T.1961]

‘NO TO WAR’: Russian fury bursts open as Putin bombards Ukraine

A feeling of anger, shame and disbelief seems to have lit a fuse under Russia’s usually passive civil society.

MOSCOW — On Tuesday, communist parliamentarian Mikhail Matveyev voted in favor of a proposal paving the way for a Russian “peacekeeping” mission in eastern Ukraine. 

Only four days later he made a U-turn аnd said “No” — no to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“The war should be stopped immediately. When I voted to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics I voted for peace, not war,” he wrote Saturday on social media, a reference to the ever-so-thin pretext Russian President Vladimir Putin used to launch an all-out war on his neighbor. 

https://www.politico.eu/article/no-to-war-ukraine-russian-opposition-fury-bursts-open-vladimir-putin/

[Abramelin]

2 minutes ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

I think he thought he was starting a chess match but now finds himself playing poker, in poker there are winners and losers and Putin is not winning.

Heh. From the link in my former post:

"Putin is not a chess player; he is a judoka. Chess is a contest with rules and transparency; everyone starts with the same pieces. But Putin doesn’t want to limit his options like that. His skill lies in turning his opponent’s strength against him at just the right time. “In this respect, in geopolitics as in judo, Putin is an opportunist”, Galeotti writes. “He has a sense of what constitutes a win, but no predetermined path towards it. He relies on quickly seizing any advantage he sees, rather than on a careful strategy.”

[Helen of Annoy]

8 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

Little Putin, fondly called Volodya used to chase rats with a stick with his friends in the dimly lit alleyways. It was what passed for a game — until the time he cornered one in the hallway and the rat turned back and pounced on him. Volodya was able to outrun the rat but the incident taught Putin an important lesson in his life, which he was able to recall even years later; Never corner someone.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/bibliophilejournalist/explained-russian-judocracy-28037/

The moral of that story is not never attack rats. He got that one wrong too. 

The moral of that story is get rid of rats in professional manner, don't let children play with them because the clumsiest one will be bitten or scared. And, apparently, scarred for life    

Edited February 27, 2022 by Helen of Annoy

[L.A.T.1961]

 Russians lined up at cash machines around the country to withdraw foreign currency as new sanctions to punish the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine sparked fear the ruble could collapse. 

The rush for foreign currency came despite some lenders selling dollars at more than a third higher than the market’s close on Friday, and well past the psychologically important level of 100 rubles per dollar that many economists said would trigger an interest-rate hike by the Bank of Russia. The shock came as Russians were still digesting news that Europe was closing its airspace to them and popular payment systems like ApplePay would stop working. 

“I’ve stood in lines for an hour, but foreign currency is gone everywhere, just rubles,” said Vladimir, a 28-year-old programmer who declined to give his last name, while waiting in a long line at an ATM in a Moscow shopping mall. “I got a late start because I didn’t think this was possible. I’m in shock.” 

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/russians-rush-for-dollars-as-sanctions-threaten-ruble-collapse-1.1729585

[Guest Br Cornelius]

You can tell who here has been supping at the teat of the Russian propaganda machine

Br Cornelius

[ExpandMyMind]

43 minutes ago, F3SS said:

That's what I mean. Too much ego/hubris at the helm. Now he's a cornered rat being embarrassed on the world stage. Hope nothing crazy happens. 

That’s what happens when you believe your own propaganda.

How many times have you thought about how Russia would fare against NATO, or even single nations like the UK? I’ve thought about it from time to time and I’m sure most people have. This war has shown that they’re an absolute joke of a military and wouldn’t stand a chance against a proper, modern armed forces.

If they didn’t have nukes then they’d have been swept away long ago.

[Abramelin]

3 minutes ago, Br Cornelius said:

You can tell who here has been supping at the teat of the Russian propaganda machine

Br Cornelius

You? Who?

[Guest Br Cornelius]

5 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

You? Who?

I used to watch quite a lot of RT until it dawned on me that half the output was pure anti-western propaganda. I also watched almost all of my "alternative" friends get sucked in and become apologists/advocates for Russia. I watched as many Republicans openly stated they would rather be ruled by Putin than a Democratic president.

Those people are still out there - but most have gone quiet. 

Br Cornelius

Edited February 27, 2022 by Br Cornelius

[ExpandMyMind]

24 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

Putin acknowledges that the KGB evaluated him as a man with stunted emotions. His instructors concluded he was at risk, not of succumbing to the temptations of women or drink, but because of his pervasive “lowered sense of danger”. He was also classified as a man unhelpfully unsocial. To this day, he still only grudgingly half admits the agency’s character assessment. “I don’t think that I had a lowered sense of danger, but the psychologists came to this conclusion having followed my behaviour for a long time,” he told journalists back in 2000. This, I fear, is what makes him so ruthless.

https://www.newstatesman.com/uncategorized/2015/10/ruthlessness-vladimir-putin-0

Yup. He’s clinically a psychopath.

[+joc]

8 minutes ago, Br Cornelius said:

You can tell who here has been supping at the teat of the Russian propaganda machine

Br Cornelius

Yep, that would be anyone who has CNN on in their home as we speak. 

[Gromdor]

Funny irony that I saw today: Russian agent who infiltrated the NRA says Ukraine shouldn’t hand out rifles in case a child gets hurt (msn.com)

[Abramelin]

20 hours ago, Abramelin said:

A few minutes ago I had a socalled WTF! experience.

This is why:

https://m.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/taliban-urges-russia-and-ukraine-to-show-restraint-solve-conflict-through-dialogue-articleshow.html

I just remembered: Taliban is the Afghan word for students...

Is this a coded call?

[ExpandMyMind]

3 minutes ago, Br Cornelius said:

I used to watch quite a lot of RT until it dawned on me that half the output was pure anti-western propaganda. I also watched almost all of my "alternative" friends get sucked in and become apologists/advocates for Russia. I watched as many Republicans openly stated they would rather be ruled by Putin than a Democratic president.

Those people still out there - but most have gone quiet. 

I similarly used to watch RT for the same reasons. In fact, I think it was back when we were both tearing up the Israel forum on here 

It’s important to grow.

[L.A.T.1961]

1 minute ago, ExpandMyMind said:

Yup. He’s clinically a psychopath.

He doesn't seem to mind the information being out there, presumably because he thinks it is a badge of honor and useful in keeping his enemy's guessing.

Rather than advertising his undeveloped personality and he should be kept away from the matches. 

[DarkHunter]

The largest plane in the world Mriya has been confirmed destroyed.  The An-225 was the last of it's kind.  Ukraine is blaming Russia for its destruction and it seems Russia isnt saying a thing about it.

[F3SS]

8 minutes ago, ExpandMyMind said:

That’s what happens when you believe your own propaganda.

How many times have you thought about how Russia would fare against NATO, or even single nations like the UK? I’ve thought about it from time to time and I’m sure most people have. This war has shown that they’re an absolute joke of a military and wouldn’t stand a chance against a proper, modern armed forces.

If they didn’t have nukes then they’d have been swept away long ago.

Can't say I ever gave it much thought other than I assumed they'd be formidable. I've considered that they are tank heavy and America is air heavy. Tanks are scary but they're looking kind of outdated as a strong-point right now. They're being taken out left and right from the ground with a shoulder weopon. 

Some say we underestimate Putin. I know it's not over yet but history shows the most feared dictators are just men. Hitler hid and killed himself, Saddamn hid in a hole all alone. Idk, I'm sure there's more examples of their weaknesses and sense of mortality and I'm sure Putin isn't much different. Until I see him take up arms on the battlefield like Kelensky then he's just another wimp in power. 

[+joc]

8 minutes ago, ExpandMyMind said:

Yup. He’s clinically a psychopath.

Is it possible to be the head of a Totalitarian State and NOT be a psychopath?  But...psychopathy is not the same thing as being insane.  Psychopaths are calculating, often times brilliant individuals...the main problem with those people is a lack of conscience.  Works well if your desire is to control other people...you are not weighted down by how anyone might think or feel about it all...and...in many if cases of psychopathy and murder...the more the victim fights back, the more ruthless and determined the perpetrator becomes.   

[Abramelin]

6 minutes ago, DarkHunter said:

The largest plane in the world Mriya has been confirmed destroyed.  The An-225 was the last of it's kind.  Ukraine is blaming Russia for its destruction and it seems Russia isnt saying a thing about it.

Had to google that one:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya