Indeed. Millions on this planet are born dirt poor and will never have a way out of it or know what it is not to be hungry or afraid.

Keeping the flame of freedom alive no matter whether it be Putin attacking Kyiv or Napoleon and his sieges of Zaragoza in Spain, it's War to the Death.

Siege of Zaragoza 1808 to 1809

I seem to have read from someone who suspected that all the billionaires getting interested in helping 3rd-world countries later in life do it out of fear of being re-born as a poor kid in a slum in Nairobi.

I do admit that thought has crossed my mind, too. That would be really bad.

Could be worse, they could be reborn as a kid in Blackpool, UK. The slums of Nairobe are a veritable luxury in comparison.

Sorry, but just no. They shouldn't be allowed to compete. I know it's hard on the athletes and not their fault, but given the pressure the IOC put on FIFA and other sports governing bodies to do more, this is a disgrace on the IOC's part.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/disability-sport/60586037

This is a very scary thought and bothers me very much. I also don’t buy the „crazy Putin“ explanation and think that he has some kind of a plan. The sanctions against Russia have been so total, so united and very devastating for Russia. Putin knew they would happen but still went ahead with the invasion. This is unexplainable unless he thinks that at the end these sanctions will not matter much and he still benefits. It feels like Putin is acting the way that the whole thing is bigger than Ukraine because it is obvious that Russia cannot win in Ukraine.

Considering this is the Paralympics....maybe we should try to make an exception.
I have not given proper consideration to this issue but this is my natural response.

Anyways, I'm afraid I cannot agree with athletes, artists and children being excluded from international competitions, but maybe I don't understand what is it at stake.

They are not getting medals.

It would be interesting to see whether the Belarusian and Russian athletes turn up and then don't take part.

Or, other athletes refuse to compete against them.

How is it fair that all other Russian athletes except paralympians are banned from participating in global sporting events? It should apply to everyone equally and I think that the paralympians, who generally want to be treated the same as everyone else, would agree with that.

It already happened...don't know what to say.

Tennis is not banned yet, as well as NHL… there are some exceptions.

In the article they say that it is as far as they can go within their constitution. So I suppose that is all we can ask for really.

On a sadder note, there will be more Russian and Ukrainian paraolympians in the future.

Yet the base scenario seems to be "let's go to war extremely overstretched on multiple fronts and without re-supply".

And he is not a military man at all, if this is supposed to mean proper military eduction.

Blackpool… Where Lancashires Rich live, should try Blackburn.

Thing is, he's done this twice successfully already - Georgia and Crimea. Both times the West had other concerns and didn't really react. This time he's managed to pick the "wrong" time if you like and now has the West fully focused on what he's attempting. I don't think he was expecting the strength of the resistance the Ukrainians are putting up, nor did he expect the West to even notice, let alone back Ukraine against his aggression.

Putin can of course win in Ukraine - Russia's GDP is 10x that of Ukraine's, and its military spending might be even a larger share of its GDP than Ukraine's.
Russia's population is about 130M, but if you subtract the likes of Chechnya and the low density subsistence farming population, you are left with many fewer productive people in the economy. Having a boost of 40M+ relatively densely populated country with a good human capital and one of the most fertile land in the world would in the long therm outweigh any sanctions which cannot go forever and one day US and Germany are aligned against but they might mis-align again as we just witnessed until a few days ago or we might have yet another geo-strategic rationale for a "reset". What do you think would happen had China made a move against Taiwan and Russia promised "neutrality" and cutting supplies to China?

He doesn't use Internet and gets printed information in the red folder. Maybe it wasn't written in the documents he received.

Agree. He is not a military man at all, he comes from the KGB.

Btw, an incredible interview with Andrey Kortunov. Kortunov is Soviet "blue blood": MGIMO graduate, close adviser to the Kremlin and Putin with stints in the embassies in London, Washington and the UN. He was a staunch defender of Putin since decades.

The fact that he is shocked and surprised is already interesting, but more importantly, he is ashamed, embarrassed and depressed. I think putin unintentionally broke something in the Russian model and there's no way things will continue as they were. There will be some sort of change, the question is in what direction.

Take a look at this post.