In Israel the pub Putin has changed its name to Zelensky. What a good marketing move.

On the BBC the Russians are saying that the Children’s and Maternity hospital had been taken over by the Ukraine military for their use.

So, apparently, bombing mothers and babies was a mistake but the intention of bombing wounded soldiers is OK.

Meanwhile in France, anticipated victory laps via thelocal.fr

https://www.thelocal.fr/20220308/pod...nch-prices-go/

Apparently, marketing material (a leaflet) showing a photo of Le Pen shaking hands with great leader Putin with "a femme de conviction" as caption was destroyed after being printed but before being distributed to people. So, two Right candidates have a long story of supporting Putin: Le Pen and Zemmour. Other one, the leftist Melechon has blamed NATO for everything in the last years.

It will be fun if Macron wins due to not supporting Putin and not seeing NATO as a menace to French autonomy.

Canceling a Tchaikovsky concert is daft, but Russians will NOT write if off as mad Vlad any time soon.

The Russian universities have pledged their support for Putin, which means they agree with this sort of "patriotism" and we face an ideological problem in Russia and a profound indoctrination of the population. Sorry, making light of it sounds even dumber than canceling classic music concerts.

It appears the West will never learn anything.

Right to the point. Most important is that the Russian population realizes what is going on. They have to learn about and believe that Putin is waging war. When an Oligarch makes note of it and informs his employees so, then it's a step in this direction.

They are banning every source of independent media or information, they are isolating the people. Don't know how and when will that happen either....they are cultivating the "citadel under siege" syndrome, blaming USA and Nato or EU for this war and all the evils. Frankly many people's level of optimism is very low these days (the more realistic kinds). Let alone the fear of nuclear weapons which is real. This guy and his regime are way more dangerous than some people give them credit for. I see a lot of naïveté (still) and that is not a good thing.

We can only hope
https://www.englishforum.ch/3397381-post4212.html

In the Chernihiv direction, one of the units of the North operational command destroyed the Iskander-M division that fired at civilians! (Photo - Illustrative)
https://www.facebook.com/kommander.nord/posts/2095547280626059?__cft__[0]=AZXpb2TJhAPc3cihemi2qGPQH_cdQjvs04eLa4vme1J0b_Yng UP41SMuEpep85EjCcjzyFy_PM8h91ZKwA0RvVzBvMPFpNlZN9o UZF1RwetknrnEE48jJmKFBwH1gbS2owQ4tnn8PEPblLeY0-Sta7un&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

I am a very optimistic person too...I don't think we have other option than hope, but hope alone will not help us too much. I would say Putin et.co are 20 years ahead of us....(well no, I would actually count the time starting with '45)

Maybe, maybe not.
It would definitely make matters more complicated as more parties with (massively) divergent interests would have to find common ground to work with each other. OTOH the US umbrella worked rather well for us despite the disadvantages.

Video of a Russian tank convoy being destroyed, one after the other.

If so many innocent people were not hurt or killed or made homeless it would be a black comedy:
"Russia's Ministry of Defense has confirmed that Russian military conscripts have been involved in the invasion of Ukraine and that some were taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces, just a day after President Vladimir Putin insisted conscripts were not part of the assault.

The ministry admitted that conscripts were "discovered" in Ukraine but claimed they have already been withdrawn and returned to Russia.
"Unfortunately, several facts of the presence of conscripts in the units of the Russian armed forces involved in the conduct of a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine were discovered," Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a video message.

He added that some conscripts have been captured by Ukrainian forces. "At the same time, a sabotage group of the national battalion attacked one of the units performing the tasks of logistical support. A number of servicemen, including conscripts, were captured," Konashenkov said."

There have been a number of videos of captured Russian soldiers including conscripts.

Finally more Looney tunes, two weeks into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov falsely claimed Thursday that the country “did not attack" its neighbor. He also said there are no plans for Russia to attack other countries

Close, but the authorized terms are Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania.

Putin chose China, rather.

And I am not sure if he had chosen differently, had things evolved differently. I remember when Berlusconi, his good friend, spoke about the possibility of Russian becoming associated with EU. And I read that polls in Russia had at times a vast majority of the population favouring Eu, this is from wikipedia:

"Russian and EU public opinion
A February 2014 poll conducted by the Levada Center, Russia's largest independent polling organization, found that nearly 80% of Russian respondents had a "good" impression of the EU. This changed dramatically in 2014 with the Ukrainian crisis resulting in 70% taking a hostile view of the EU compared to 20% viewing it positively.

A Levada poll released in August 2018 found that 68% of Russian respondents believe that Russia needs to dramatically improve relations with Western countries. 42% of Russians polled said they had a positive view of the EU, up from 28% in May 2018. A Levada poll released in February 2020 found that 80% of Russian respondents believe that Russia and the West should become friends and partners. 49% of Russians polled said they had a positive view of the EU.However, with the exception of Bulgaria, Slovakia and Greece, the share of residents in the rest of the EU countries polled by Pew Research Center with positive views of Russia is considerably below 50%."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia...hip_discussion

__________________
Sometimes you gotta say WTF?! It gives you freedom.

Amazing

China and Russia did not choose each other. The relationship is only of temporary convenience and strategic necessity.

They have a bitter history and only recently resolved one of their major border conflicts. Russia even considered nuking China in the past (only dissuaded by the US).

The only thing that pushes them together is the US in an 'enemy of my enemy' sort of way. In the near term, China needs Russian resources and Russia needs China's money.

Marton, think of "1984". C'mon, Orwell was your compatriot.. We live in Orwellian times.

"War is Peace."

"Freedom is slavery."

"Ignorance is strength."

Of course. It is a way of saying that these two countries have developed close ties lately.

Moscow is becoming comical. They are now banning the export of products which they are actually importing

In other similar news, the delusional Lavrov thinks we're all naiive and brainwashed as his fellow citizens.

"We do not plan to attack other countries; we did not attack Ukraine either"

Meet Lavrov's family. Research apparently by the Navalny troops.

https://twitter.com/pevchikh/status/...D5FK2ORog&s=19

Not really "fact check"

""Specifically, regarding the site’s spent fuel storage facility, the volume of cooling water in the pool is sufficient to maintain effective heat removal from the spent fuel without a supply of electricity. The site also has reserve emergency power supplies with diesel generators and batteries," International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement."

I read that too.

It was only the tabloids which were trying to turn it into a "meltdown" type disaster.