Maybe Putin will have an `accident`, or be disposed of by insiders. I suppose he will have layers of protection to get through though.
Wars throughout history are the chief causes of rapid technological development. We only made it to the moon because the technology to blast a rocket there is also useful in terms of carry over (for ICBMs). And many other examples Perhaps this will be an accelerant to ditch the fossil fuels
Putin has been badly maligned! He is first and foremost a prominent member of Greenpeace. When he is not patrolling the ocean to protect the whales, he is planning wars to bring about new green energy bills. All Hail, Putin!
Slightly contrary to that however, it is the Russians who seem to be struggling for morale and motivation in the conflict. The side with more to lose may well end up having more stomach for the fight, despite living under more pampered conditions (I’m not sure Ukrainian living standards were generally that much better than Russians pre war, but it isn’t quite as authoritarian).
Possibly but may be more expedient to progress oil from our territory waters, fracking and nuclear power......sticks head back below the parapet.
But that isn’t a long term solution. And your reply seems to be U.K. centric. The only option Germany has there seems to be nuclear which they deliberately stopped. So they might be incentivised to work on innovations connected to renewables
I take your point. Where I'm coming from is that the general Russian population is, currently, so controlled and for many, got used to it, are not sending any signals which might be interpreted as being short of morale. Their troops morale might be suspect certainly versus the Ukranian army for sure, but for their folk back home simply take life as it is given them by the state and the totally controlled media just tells them, all is fine, so shortages in the shops etc are not new for them. I do have a concern that our population may not be anywhere near so tolerant in support of energy restrictions or paying the higher prices for same. Many simply cannot pay more, we know that even now. It was an interesting point made by Lord (Ken) Clarke yesterday when he raised the point of how long would it take for businesses, governments etc to start looking for a ''business as normal life'? His point being that governments need to much clearer on this possibilty If we are actually going to see this through, we need to be more fully aware of the price we will have to pay.
Have they had shortages over the last 30 years? I don’t know in enough detail. I’m just wondering how used to it they really are
Here's a start: More than 9 million Russians live in conditions of food shortage or malnutrition, according to the UNICEF report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021”. According to the organization, which is part of the UN, in 2018-20, 400 thousand Russian citizens were in the group of "severe food insecurity".14 Jul 2021. But further back in Soviet times there were harsh times which largely had been improved toward the end of the 20th Century.
What percentage of their population is that ? About 6%. So by no means a majority Does the report mention how many are like this in the U.K.? If it is 4m then the proportion is similar. Food insecurity in the U.K. came up during the Rashford situation I have found a link from 2021 reporting 8% food insecurity in the U.K. So potentially similar
I'm done with being an expert in epidemiology and vaccines. Now I'm an expert on the Ukraine conflict its causes and outcome.
I heard on the radio (BBC, if it matters) that Russia are now making it a criminal offence to spread 'misinformation' about the conflict with Ukraine. Any talk/broadcast of less than success for Russian troops could result in prison sentences of up to 15 years. I may be naiive, or cynical, but it would suggest that things are not going as well as the Russian 'Top Brass' would like their populace to believe. This suggests to me (see note about being naiive or cynical) that even Russians are starting to doubt things. With the accelerated speed of change, brought about by instant communication (camera phones, etc) it cannot be long before no-one believes Putin, but which one of his advisors will tell the emperor that he's no longer wearing any clothes?
Agreed, the difference is that here we have a political and media system which however unimpressive and it's many imperfections, which it clearly is and has, in Russia, no such outlet exists for the raising of such issues. Also the geography of our two nations being so different, which makes it less of any excuse for the UK to be so poor in this area of social care, (but there is a chance of being heard ) but for Russia, outside the city areas with a much wider dispersion of population, the grind of life is really hard and has been for a long time. Hence my comment about the built in acceptance of life, without any political or other assistance likely to make any difference at all. We in the UK and the West are, I think, more likely to be less resilient to any deep cuts and impoverishment than our Russian neighbours.
Playing devil's advocate here, I could say that there is more chance of inadequate social care and poverty here (bear with me - these aren't necessarily my views). Russia is a communist country and in theory the state control everything including care and the people, we live in a democracy so market forces in theory control things. In an idealistic democracy the state doesn't intervene. In theory.... EDIT: I have just re-read this and I sound like that US politician that said he invaded the Ukraine as he needed the land to feed his people....
I suspect that to the outsider, (including me, really) Russia is still perceived as a Communist country, but wasn't the Communist state control supposed to have been overthrown/dismantled? To be fair, even if this is the case, the current system, consisting of central control in a very few people's hands, is remarkably similar, it's just that the previous Communist hierarchy have now re-invented themselves as self-serving oligarchs, leaving the average Russian peasant hankering for the good old days of Uncle Joe Stalin.
I think we're all on a similar page, I hope so. It's how well each of these two different societies cope with what is coming down the line in terms of potential energy hardship. That's where my concern lies, IE how much is our society prepared to support action likely to create a good deal of harm to the general population? Inflicting sanctions is a legitimate tool in the present situation, but people with far more knowledge than me are pointing out the potential cost to us, if we manage to stop the flow of energy into Europe. I'm not saying we shouldn't do this, but before we do let's make sure we're doing it with some consensus, however difficult it might be to achieve it.
