Johnson wants to be seen on a par with Churchill... God help us. I wouldn't trust the idiot to give me directions to Tesco
Thats not what I said Jay, I was pointing that out they aren't at 70% because ND2 is not yet operational, but the simple fact is that had ND2 gone ahead, as it was until a few days ago they would be at 70% very soon , and that is fact not gibberish.
We are beyond agreement with Russia. That's already sailed. Nobody should expect Ukraine to bow down either. They wish to align to the "free world" and join NATO themselves. So they will never surrender to Russia whilst they can at least put up a fight, and especially when they have almost universal support worldwide.
While that would seem to be logical purely based on human life, it then provides resources, land, technology and wealth for Putin to continue. We're in a position hoping he would stop. But why would he when much of his rambles have essentially been to state the Soviet Union being broken down was a mistake? He's been true to his word (of intent) so far. What message does it send to Russia if nothing is done? What if they take the first baltic country they share a border with, Estonia, a NATO member? If you do nothing, you encourage him as he thinks you're too cowardly to act against him, if you do something, you encourage ww3 in the age of widescale nuclear weapons, cyberwarfare and more. I have no answers. I don't envy world leaders.
Interesting interview with Paul Mason a few minutes ago, he said he was in the Ukrainian Defence Ministry a few days ago, they predicted exactly where they would be attacked from, they also believe Putin's forces are not strong enough to take the whole of Ukraine, they expected him to go so far and then halt or be halted and use the situation to force Ukraine to cede the territories he has unilaterally recognised.
No, it's gibberish. 70% of gas is not 70% of energy. The reason the article is 4 years old is that's when Trump made this claim, a total lie. He said it because he was under pressure from suggestions that he was in bed with the Russians and tried to deflect by making a spurious claim about Germany. "Look at them, they're worse than me." The reason it wasn't repeated is it was another load of Trumpington nonsense. Loko just repeated it and claimed Trump was actually ahead of the game because he was the only one talking about it. But it remains nonsense.
I actually asked why it's the only western leader that I've seen speak out about Russia. You veered off in a different direction without acknowledging the main point of what I was saying. Again though, replace energy with gas, and the main point of the post you've got annoyed about was to highlight and ask why have we become so reliant on Russia for anything and thrown billions at a regime we've always been doubtful of? Why are we planning for protecting ourselves against them whilst still spending billions of pounds and throwing it in their direction? And by 'we' I mean Europe as a whole.
Its not nonsense at all Jay, you're allowing your disdain of Trump, which I fully share, to cloud your judgment. Others could see the writing on the wall, including a lot of Germans.
I can only speak of Lviv which is close to the Polish border, but the people I spoke to there, as well as physical evidence, showed they very much wanted to join the EU. There were numerous places where EU flags were flown, some pro EU street art and quite a few posters. I was surprised how European it felt. There will be differing views and representations in other parts of Ukraine of course, but it certainly didn't feel like a place that was reminiscing of glorious days of the Soviet empire.
Mate, 70% of Germany's energy does not come from Russia. Nor would it with or without the new pipeline. Not even close. That is the claim Trump made. That is the claim Loko repeated. That is the point I addressed. It is not remotely true.
Not sure many people beyond those at the top of the pyramid considered the soviet empire to be glorious.....
Load of ********. If this was happening in middle east we would be over the helping the invaded country playing peace keeper. Vlad has issued a statement saying if the west try interfe it will be met by consequences never seen before.
I can help here, I work for the UK Data Service and look after (amongst other things) International Energy Agency data - UK Imports from Russia - Natural Gas (Million Cubic Metres) Before 2017 we imported nothing 2017 - 98.62 2018 - 1530.113 2019 - 3180.167 2020 - 2279.214 For reference - in 2020 we imported from all sources - 43933.747 million cubic metres We import more from Trinidad and Tobago.