From somebody i know well, but otherwise unknown source.

QUOTE
Is Putin following in Stalin’s steps? Perhaps if one looks at Ukraines history

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At the entrance to the memorial park in Kyiv, there is a sculpture of an extremely thin girl with a very sad look holding a handful of wheat ears in her hands. Behind her back is the Candle of Remembrance, a monument with details reminiscent of authentic embroidery that can be found on traditional Ukrainian costumes. This is a monument that commemorates a historical event known as the Holodomor.

What is the Holodomor?

After the end of the First World War, Ukraine was an independent state, but in 1919 the Soviet Union "sucked" it into the community of Soviet states. The Ukrainians, who even then considered themselves a Central European people like the Poles and not an Eastern European like the Russians, tried to restore Ukraine's independence.

In 1932, not wanting to lose control of Europe's main granary, Stalin resorted to one of the most heinous forms of terror against one nation. In the process of nationalization, he took away the grain-producing land from the Ukrainian peasants, but also all its offerings, thus creating an artificial famine. The goal was to "teach Ukrainians to be smart" so that they would no longer oppose official Moscow. Thus the people who produced the most grain in Europe were left without a crumb of bread. The peak of the Holodomor was in the spring of 1933. In Ukraine at that time, 17 people died of hunger every minute, more than 1,000 every hour, and almost 24,500 every day! People were literally starving to death in the streets.

Stalin settled the Russian population in the emptied Ukrainian villages. During the next census, there was a large shortage of population. Therefore, the Soviet government annulled the census, destroyed the census documents, and the enumerators were shot or sent to the gulag, in order to completely hide the truth.

World War. Their poison gas was hunger. Their Hitler was Stalin. Their Holocaust was the Holodomor. For them, fascist Berlin was Soviet Moscow, and their concentration camp was the Soviet Union. Today, 28 countries around the world present the Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainians, which you could not learn about in school, because almost all evidence was destroyed and victims were covered up for decades, survivors were forcibly silenced by not having the right to vote until recently.

The Holodomor at that time broke the Ukrainian resistance, but it made the desire for Ukraine's independence from Russia eternal.
-Thank you, Joe Begigneul-

Putin’s argument is that NATO promised not to go eastwards in 1989. Whether this was signed off on or not is irrelevant as one comment is missing. What did and what do the Ukraines want?

It's referenced in this excellent performance, English subs enabled

Video of yet another Russian armoured convoy being ambushed, of course, they have many more resources than the Ukrainians but they are taking many more losses than a professional army should be taking. The convoy in the video does not seem to have the usual infantry or aircraft support to take out any ambushers.

Isn't it comical that all his oligarchs, court ideologues and clique are against the West in their narrative for the commoners but all, absolutely all, have houses and properties in London and elsewhere and their offsprings study abroad at insanely expensive private schools etc etc etc?

They all recognise which countries have a great environment to live in, in contrast to their own.
They also recognise where they can take advantage of a very good education, even Kim Jong-un studied at an insanely expensive private school in Switzerland.

Also in the 2019 film, Mr. Jones (which I mentioned earlier in the thread).

It’s about money. Britain has welcomed these crooks and Oligarchs. Russians have financed the Conservative Party. Rees Mogg, Cameron and others bank offshore at the same banks using the same lawyers.

Dunno what you mean. For example, look at Lavrov's daughter. A hard-working, shy and humble human being. Unfortunately, as she didn't have a good enough credit rating, she had to pay cash (GBP 4.4m) for her apartment, the poor thing.
Please meet Polina, 26:

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

And, according to the BBC, the biggest concern in the UK today is about some football team.

So apart from the obvious fairy tales, Lavrov also shows up in Antalya without even a mandate to negotiate anything?

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/10/ukra...n-reality.html

Bad faith obviously. But I wouldn't be surprised if they started to change the narrative into something along the line of "we have achieved main goals" soon. If not, then they really lost the plot.

Those very expensive private schools in the London Gold Belt, Surrey- where many lived, are very concerned they are going to lose a significant percentage of their income!


Britain’s private schools face funding shortfall as sanctions on wealthy Russians tighten

Institutions have been told they cannot accept fees or donations from clients on sanctions lists, or from banks subject to an asset freeze
By Helen Cahill 7 March 2022 • 10:00am

Just across the river from Windsor Castle sits Eton College, widely regarded as Britain’s most prestigious school, boasting alumni from George Orwell to Boris Johnson and Prince William....

From the Telegraph - behind pay wall, could not copy the whole article.

What can I say, different people have different problems........"for instance" Ukrainians are fighting for their lives now...
Maybe they won't be allowed to accept Russian students for a year or so, but normal people in Russia will feel all these sanctions in a very different way... I don't care about the rich and spoiled brats at all.
I already said all of these will affect people and countries in a very different way, and let's not forget simple people on both sides will suffer the most. Yes, even those who think Putin is right.

Polina can say Hi to Ivanka...

Not even half a month of sanctions and the Russian government is imposing limits in Moscow grocery stores on how many items a person can buy at a time. Confirmed here as well

The speed with which they're travelling back towards the USSR is mind-boggling and all I can tell them is bon voyage!

People are people. Propaganda did and does function.

On the other hand, I can't realistically say I can think of a better solution other than these sanctions....and when you look at what happens in Ukraine as we speak, it does look stupid and self indulgent to even hesitate..

I wonder if this is happening in just this market sector or widespread?

"China’s biggest smartphone makers are slashing their shipments to Russia because of the rouble’s collapse and western sanctions despite pressure from Beijing to support Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported."

Basically, Russia is a small market (around 2% of Chinese exports) so Chinese companies are unlikely to risk losing major markets by supporting Russia.

The russkies have a solution. They are essentially saying anyone in the soviet republic can steal western patents now

I am personally looking forward to seeing how successful the soviet iPhones will be

Reminds me of an old joke from the communist times:

The Soviet nanorobots, worlds largest robots!

Putins 'Death Star' convoy has largely dispersed and redeployed near Kyiv according to the latest satellite images.

BBC News - Large Russian convoy redeploys near Kyiv - satellite images

Probably see a new “Ural” sidecar motorbike, going strong since 1945.

Putin is moving chess pawns from Syria to Ukraine. It seems the almighty Russian army is not able to fight 2 fronts at the same time.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/putin-s...raine/47422812

Putin is making his best effort in making the US look good. 4 days ago the US dept of defense published this:

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-St...n-mercenaries/

I am really curious how is he going to position this internally in Russia. He's essentially asking Muslim mercenaries to go and kill fellow Christian Orthodox folk.

But one thing is clear, he's growing more and more desperate (Chechen forces, now Syrian) which makes him even more dangerous as he's very quickly running out of "conventional" military options.