Just thinking about RT v Western news media, this is a great website if you want to analyse where your news comes from. https://ground.news/ They filter news stories from over 4000 agencies and gives you a percentage of whether it's from right or left leaning agencies, and who owns the media channels etc.
I think the last Russian election had a turn-out of less than half of voters. Only about half of those who did vote, voted for Putin’s party, so United Russia only had about 25% of the vote from eligible voters. Ever since the main figurehead of Russia’s opposition to Putin was jailed, the electorate have just become more apathetic to Putin. Protesting against the government there is far more dangerous than protesting here so it may not seem like Putin is unpopular, but he’s not as popular as he would like people to believe.
Russians seem to be just as confused as anyone else. Strange one by Putin this, not a bit of justification, just a random televised address. Nice to see powerful Russian figures and other people on Twitter condemning it. Of course protests in Russia are illegal, so I doubt many will risk demonstrations.
Yeah, looks like he’s made a fairly desperate gamble tbh. He might not fear western reprisals, because he’s calculated that not much will happen, but that doesn’t make his position strong. The international response imo should be to impose proper sanctions, let it play out, and offer humanitarian aid to the innocent civilians who always suffer most.
Quickest way to hit the Russians is to disconnect them from the swift banking system. Those with Russian interests, that is certainly Germany, and as an article about to post the British Government may not wish to proceed this route. But if we are serious about dealing with Russia, it's a way to hurt them. Quote... 'In 2012 Iranian banks were blocked from Swift and the effects were devastating, with oil exports from the Middle East nation dropping from 3m barrels per day to 1m a day.' https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...t-ban-Russia-Swift-money-payments-system.html Yes it would cause collateral damage, but it's better than sitting around sending out idle threats to a madman that has not got the message yet. Hit the Russian economy, and he might begin to see the error of his ways.
Go on In Russia they say "we should go on a walk Thursday" as saying protest instantly flags the coppers.
This may sound a bit flippant under the circumstances but Putin has not yet grown a Charlie Chaplain Tash or dyed his hair black with a comb over but in every other aspect he is following Hitlers path from !936 to 1939 Annexing countries that have a connection to Russia in the near past, now as in !939 Poland could be the final tipping point for all out Global Conflict While I agree with a lot of brb comments we appeared Hitler until it was too late to avoid full scale war, we must as a World, not just Europe and the USA make him understand that Russia will not survive a Global conflict, just as the rest of us would not survive, the Earth would become a wasteland inhabited by mutant humans and cockroaches The immediate solutions are sanctions and diplomacy but if they do not work, then the last option would be to cut off the head of the snake, ie Putin, most Russians might be happy with that and welcome proper elections again Worst case scenario, put our heads between our knees and kiss our arses goodbye because as soon as one red button is pushed our planet is gone
Couldn't agree more I've listened to Boris's speech today and large parts of it, particularly this part... This crisis is about the right of a free, sovereign independent European people to choose their own future and that is a right that the UK will always defend. I would happily throw back in his face using the examples you've given above and a few others, including the people of the Chagos Islands. Or is it that freedom, sovereignty and the right to choose your own future only applies to Europeans lol Hypocritical sycophantic ****ers.
What do you want instead of an authoritarian state as you put it? A free for all? No control, let’s just go mad and do whatever we like? Did the Chinese not block BBC? I suspect that was a tit for tat kind of thing. Do you actually watch Russian TV? What’s wrong with CCTV? Why does that bother you? Are you trying to hide something? Europe was edging closer to Russia? News flash, Russia is a European country and so is the Ukraine. Ukraine is a sovereign nation who were pursuing membership to the EU and NATO, which is a defence alliance. Key word, defence. Does it have anything to do with Russia? Nope Not saying anything your saying is untrue, but your twisting it to fit your thought pattern. A rather nationalistic thought pattern.
I've clearly said on here before I'm a nationalist, well I was corrected and told I'm patriotic, choose whichever term you wish, but you aren't highlighting anything new. Next time can you get to the point quicker, it saves you writing lots of words, that I'm not going to quote.
It showed protesters beeing arrested and driven away on buses . There's a good chance they may never see daylight again .
