Russia invades Ukraine

I had a little look at the European map to look at the boundaries with Russia.

If you consider Belarus is effectively a Soviet state, and if you project that it is highly likely that Ukraine will follow suit given a full scale invasion by the Russian military, you immediately have to fear for the Baltic states given that Russia have a state, Kaliningrad, directly below them. It would essentially mean they are cut off from European borders aside from a short stretch of Polands.

It's also perhaps worth stating that, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia (obvs), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan were all part of the old Soviet Union.

Its also worth stating that Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia), Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany (now part of a unified Germany), Romania, Poland and Albania were all behind the iron curtain and essentially under Russian influence.

As I said in a previous post, I very much fear this could be just the start.

 

Worrying indeed.

Whilst I didn't expect Boris in his nation address just now to be anything different. It brings home just how serious this might end up

 

The worrying thing is Johnson has always craved to be seen on a par with Churchill for his rhetoric, and has commonly used warlike parlance to that end.

I can't help thinking just how twisted fate and irony are, that we have a complete buffoon given the challenges of Brexit, Covid and now a threat of world war.

 

Shoehorning 'tinpot banks' into your post was surely a BBS first, very impressive

Turning Russia into a pariah state however, what would that achieve? We have had decades-long anti-Russian sentiment, some of it brought about by their own doing, but why should its citizens suffer? Do you think they are such a simple people that they all blindly bow down to the barebacked nutter on a horse? Or do you think there are at least a handful of free-thinkers (or 'ordinary people') who just want to get on with life in a peaceful way (much like Ukrainians) and don't deserve to be led by (and put at risk themselves by) a tyrant?

 

The problem is, as with any authoritarian state, that they rig elections and they are happy to murder and kill to protect their position.

I've no idea what the right course of action is here, but I am pretty sure that doing nothing won't guarantee peace either.

 

If he attacks any of the NATO countries in that list then its world war III. I doubt even he's that suicidal.

 

That's just British politics, though Boris is a special case. Even 'credible' Blair ignored a million marching against it and agreed to the bombing and butchering of Iraq, all to impress upon our American cousins. Then a few years later becomes the Middle East peace envoy and charges hundreds of thousands for the pleasure of hiring him for after-dinner speeches. You couldn't make it up. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, but people will still defend him and say, 'apart from Iraq...' We have serious blood on our hands in this country, so many needless deaths in the name of British defence (empire).

 

Also the fact that the Tory party is drowning in Russian Baksheesh somewhat lessons the impact of his tough talk.

 

One is all that you can score.....

 

How many of that list are in Nato? I know the obvious one, Germany?

 

The only way to curb Putin that I can see is from within. Hopefully this rapidly becomes a repeat of their invasion of Afghanistan and a steady stream of body bags back to Russia combined with massive sanctions triggers his own people to get rid of him.
It's a bit of a forlorn hope but it's all I've got at the minute.
A dark day.

 

Exactly, and murder and kill their own people too. Turning it into a pariah state just gives it total free will to carry on, even more so.

 

I feel like I’m living in a version of sim city… the one where after the disease, fires, floods and warfare…. Godzilla appears.

What a mess.

 

I really hope we never find out. But his rhetoric is extremely alarming, and I don't think we can pass it off as just bluster.

 

Indeed, a posted a year old article earlier outlining just a slither of the influence of Russian oligarchs on the tory party.

 

Which countries are in Nato?

 

• ALBANIA (2009)
• BELGIUM (1949)
• BULGARIA (2004)
• CANADA (1949)
• CROATIA (2009)
• CZECH REPUBLIC (1999)
• DENMARK (1949)
• ESTONIA (2004)
• FRANCE (1949)
• GERMANY (1955)

• GREECE (1952)
• HUNGARY (1999)
• ICELAND (1949)
• ITALY (1949)
• LATVIA (2004)
• LITHUANIA (2004)
• LUXEMBOURG (1949)
• MONTENEGRO (2017)
• NETHERLANDS (1949)
• NORTH MACEDONIA (2020)

• NORWAY (1949)
• POLAND (1999)
• PORTUGAL (1949)
• ROMANIA (2004)
• SLOVAKIA (2004)
• SLOVENIA (2004)
• SPAIN (1982)
• TURKEY (1952)
• THE UNITED KINGDOM (1949)
• THE UNITED STATES (1949)

 

Thought this would be of interest. It may not be just to "protect" Russian speakers.

For those who ask: “Why does Ukraine matter? “
This is why Ukraine matters.
It is the second largest country by area in Europe by area and has a population
of over 40 million - more than Poland.
Ukraine ranks:
1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;
2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves);
2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);
2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;
3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)
4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;
7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)
Ukraine is an important agricultural country:
1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume);
1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;
2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;
3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;
5th largest rye producer in the world;
5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);
8th place in the world in wheat exports;
9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
16th place in the world in cheese exports.
Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.
Ukraine is an important industrialised country:
1st in Europe in ammonia production;
Europe's 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system;
3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);
3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;
3rd largest iron exporter in the world
4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
4th place in the world in clay exports
4th place in the world in titanium exports
8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;
9th place in the world in exports of defence industry products;
10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).
Ukraine matters. That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world.

 

I don't think we've seen anything like this trifecta in my lifetime, nor someone so ill equipped to deal with it. I mean, he can't even use a comb!

 

Cheers there's a few peaceful nations in that list so I'd say WW3 was inevitable. Very sobering.