The Building of the Berlin Wall and the Invasion of Ukraine - a Comparison


Walter Ulbricht, then Head of East Germany, in 1961: "Nobody has any intention to build a wall."
Shortly afterwards the wall was built.



Vladimir Putin in 2022: "We are not going to invade Ukraine."
Shortly afterwards Ukraine was invaded.


When Putin repeated again and again: "We have no intention to invade Ukraine!" - I was eerily reminded of Walter Ulbricht in 1961

But Russia invading a sovereign country and killing many people is not interfering?

"In particular, Germany has resisted calls from G7 partners including the UK and Canada for Russian banks to be excluded from Swift. This was partly for fear of undermining the EU’s (and especially Germany’s) ability to pay for Russian energy, according to some people familiar with the discussions."

No, Russia is fighting the fascists!

A little old lady taking on one of the invading soldiers.

Can't be much fun to be reviled by someone who looks like your granny.

Formula One cancels 2022 Russian Grand Prix.

Rumours of Ukraine strike back;
"Komsomolskaya Pravda, a local newspaper, reported that a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile hit the Russian military facility Millerovo on Friday 25, citing a source in the law enforcement agencies of the region.

Another media outlet, the Rostov Gazeta, reported Millerovo was attacked by armed formations of the Ukrainian army. It also reported an unspecified number of wounded."

Probably just a gesture that will not change much

"Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: President Putin has made clear that he'd like to reconstitute the Soviet empire. Short of that, he'd like to reassert a sphere of influence around neighboring countries that were once part of the Soviet bloc. And short of that, he'd like to make sure that all of these countries are somehow neutral.”

Garri Kasparov said it before any Blinken.

Apropos of Kasparov, how to checkmate Putin:

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-698594

Tracking the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the BBC News website has published a series of updated maps of the latest
position of Russian forces on day 2 of the invasion.

BBC News - Ukraine maps: Tracking Russia's invasion

I liked this part very much, mods....

The harsh reality is most Western leaders don’t care about their own people so it’s not really surprising that they don't care about Eastern Europeans either.

At least for the time being they are not being used as canon fodder.
I would always see my rights as a human being much more protected here than in Russia. Guess what, you get arrested (and who knows what else happens) if you just peacefully demonstrate.

That is the harsh reality.

I pity the millions of UK tourists who were excited, packed and ready to go to Sibir for their vacation and now have to unfortunately go to Majorca

"Aircraft linked in any way with the UK have been banned from flying over Russia"

https://www.rt.com/russia/550567-rus...tish-aircraft/

A useful link to twitter feeds showing what's happening https://maphub.net/Cen4infoRes/russian-ukraine-monitor

The link does not work, maybe RT was hacked?

Over the last few years we've been able to see that in the 'liberal democracies' some protests and causes are more equal than others. The hypocrisy is there for all to see and the West can no longer confidently state that they hold the moral ground.

mm-hmm

Yes, it can. It does hold the moral high ground without any doubt.

Lots of popular support for Ukraine
"Paris will host this season’s Champions League final after Saint Petersburg was stripped of the match due to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, UEFA has announced.

The showpiece occasion of the European club season will be played at the Stade de France on May 28, European football’s governing body said on Friday after holding an emergency meeting in response to the crisis."

The other thing we can do here on EF is to call out and shame the Kremlin trolls. Seriously. I'm surprised we'd have so many of them twisting and trying to justify Fuhrer Putin

"Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko — armed and surrounded by defense forces — spoke with CNN this morning from the streets of Kyiv, saying that Ukrainians are ready to defend their country.

"Everybody should understand, [Russian President] Putin declared a war not for Ukraine. Putin declared a war to the whole world," he said.

He called the Russian president "simply mad.""

seems now only putin has moral ground to do everything he want