I will do that later, but let me first congratulate you on your new avatar

Glad you like it, I felt like it was a time for a change.

Apropo.....thank god the GOP leadership grew a pair and took out the 300 million dollar Ukraine funding from the overall spending package. There are so many cowardly politicians who don't want to vote on a standalone funding bill. It's difficult for them to be called out on it in the election season it if its part of a larger spending package. Given that 55% of Americans are at the moment opposed to additional funding, it is important to know where the politicians stand.

The bill still easily passed the house, but 117 people were against it. Its not that much but the resistance is gaining. (baby steps!) The worse off the economy is in the next year, that number will figure to rise

They dropped $300 million but added many billions

He doesn't know what he's talking about, but the risk is actually real now with the impending shutdown. In fact, McCarthy has only today to convince the bunch of morons in the right wing of the GOP and Ukraine funding could and probably would be cut. The question is how much.

A lot of inaccurate statements.

"Putin arose after Gorbachev was replaced by Yeltsin" - Technically, Gorbachev was not replaced. Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, and Yeltsin was the first president of the Russian Federation. But OK, you may say that these roles are not too different. This was in 1991. Putin rose to Moscow power only in the late 90s, after years of corrupting politics and business in St Petersburg. Yes, this is after 1991, but largely unrelated. It is correct that that the rise of Putin had nothing to do with the US.

"With Gorbachev gone, Russia lost any chance of becoming a social democracy." - Really? Why? As corrupt and drunk Yeltsin was, he genuinely wanted to reform Russia into some form of a democratic state. He initiated (and largely failed in) the establishment of democratic institution like the parliament, courts and proper yet chaotic elections. He developed good personal relations with Clinton and this was probably the first and last time that there were friendly relations between the US and Russia. What led to the increased call for a "strong leader" was the chaos and poverty coming from the failed privatization and the failing government institutions in the Yeltsin era. This outcome was in no way evident by 1991.

"The oligarchs were a product of the communist party thinking individuals amassing wealth would be more efficient that communist officials amassing privileges." - First, the communist party was not in power in the 90s. Then the voucher privatization of the early 90s did create oligarchs but only after the vouchers were handed out to all citizens in the (naïve) expectation that this would create actual ownership and investment. The major mistake was not privatization as such, but they should have built institutions first and only gradually liberalized the market instead of the "shock therapy" approach. Had people not been starving, they might not have given away ownership for kopecks on the ruble.

"The system remained much the same and the party moved further to being a right wing nationalist one." - How a communist party system with planning economy and a huge military-industrial complex is the same as private oligopolies intended to maximize and export profits is the same is beyond me. And what party are you talking about? There has not been any dominant political party in the traditional sense in Russia; the parties were and are largely vehicles by some interest groups and candidates. Isn't United Russia the product of many predecessor parties? You may say that today's United Russia is a nationalist party, but this is not correct for the 90s (the LDPR had this role then, but was not in charge).

"Some in the States were probably happy with this transition." - Apart form this whole transition argument being questionable (see above), the US wanted to establish good relations with Russia throughout the 90s and probably until the mid 2000s. Even Obama tried a another "reset" in 2008. A free and democratic Russia would be a fantastic thing for the US.

I think when Putin became president there was a time when he really wanted to establish the rule of law (he called it "dictatorship of the law") in order to reign in the oligarchs and provide stability. This changed in the early 2000s when he decided to become the top oligarch himself. Then his business model became to enrich himself and stay in power forever - for which he needed to kill democratic institutions. He started instrumentalizing the West as the external enemy to unite Russia against and undertook huge efforts to undermine elections generally and in the West specifically (like China also does).

As far as the role of the US is concerned, I agree with you that it is not the US to be blamed for the failure of modern Russia. But of course its actions or inactions contributed. Not out of bad intentions, but mostly because the US does not really care much about what Russia thinks - very different to the Russians who are obsessed with the US. Certainly the toppling of Saddam and later Ghadafi was something that led to Putin's radicalization as did the perceived support of the color revolutions. But as is the case with Hitler - just because Western powers played a role in the rise of Nazi Germany, this does not take away the ultimate responsibility from the Nazis. If someone becomes a dictator who needs to suppress democracy, it is not the supporters of democracy that are to be blamed.

It is the same totalitarian system. State run capitalism has replaced state run socialism. Political freedom is as curtailed as it was before. There are no functioning opposition parties.
Yeltsin came with the stated aim of reversing the opening that Gorbachev had started. The problem for the West is that right wing, totalitarian, communist turned capitalist regimes are in charge in Russia and China.

That's the past. The future brings another chance to fix it since the current system seems to be sinking.

Putin and Co. could not do anything for Armenia. The Russian Foreign Minister only hoped for a peaceful solution. Let's see where the next event profiting from the void in power occurs.

Look, I don't disagree that today's China and Russia are dangerous regimes. But that does not mean I am ready to tolerate your totally misguided understanding of history and your apparent lack of ability and willingness to analyze and see nuance.

Please don't get personal. You are perfectly entitled to your opinion.

LOL!

I am 81 years old so if I went to Ukraine it is likely they would need to help me much more than I could help them.

Sipugami.

Your title is incorrect and inflammatory. Would you kindly change it to something like Ovation for an ex-Nazi in Canadian Parliament?

The individual in question was indeed in the Ukrainian Waffen SS. But he was never convicted nor charged with any crime.

The Speaker of the Canadian Parliament made a serious mistake, and has paid the price. But this does not justify painting all Canadian Parliamentarians with a broad anti-semetic brush.

Thank you.

this was already discussed in the Ukraine thread. i don't see a need for a separate thread.

You never know. Put a mine detector on your zimmerframe, dose you up on Doppelherz and have you clearing mines.

Forum search doesn't yield any results pointing to this topic as indicated by someone who closed this important thread.

https://www.englishforum.ch/internat...arliament.html


I feel the forum should maintain right/left wing balance and not a politically left leaning machine. We should not tolerate cancel culture on this forum...

When you are completely distorting what happened, it is not cancel culture, it called calling you out on your blatant lies and most definitely should not be tolerated. Your thread was closed, head the warnings.

It wasn't a thread stared by me... btw what happened was Canadian politicians let a Nazi enter their parliament and get a grand reception. They don't have a vetting system in place and try to stay relevant in world politics...

Hardly lies now were they. Trudeau has called many groups and people who descent, Nazis, a term he likes to use often. The truckers, people who questioned the vaccine mandates, members of the conservative party, one of them being Jewish Melissa Lantsman, who supported truckers was accused of aligning with Nazis.

Yet Trudeau, and his party invite someone who was / is a literal Nazi into parliament without vetting. Hmmm. Funny. I mean it is pretty obvious, that someone who fought against the Russians during the war, was not aligned with the Allies. School boy error. A day before Yom Kippur as well. Nice one. Waffen SS, was also a volunteer group too. It's funny how things on the left get ignored (including his black face), but anybody slightly centre or who questions his regime is targeted and cancelled. He needs to step down, buck stops with him.

You have an underrated ability to annoy and spin bs. You could annoy the Russians into surrender.

Otherwise, you could as slammer suggests donate yourself by clearing the minefields. Why burden your family with an expensive funeral?

Either way I will come and haunt you.

Claims today that Ukraine drones hit a Helicopter parking area in Sochi which is over 1,000 Km from the front line.

McCarthy said today he would block Ukraine aid.
LOL!
Look at the havoc caused by a dozen hard-right GOP reps.

Imagine what over 100 who support the aid will wreak.

Edit: A new poll says 63% want Ukraine support in the budget.

Russian police are quitting in droves:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66924404