good man. Red wine is sublime. Myself and the pouch do like a nice Barolo or Amarone at times. I never get a hangover after red wine too.
By the way, Zelensky looks like a daft lad gurning his face off after too many cowies during some of his speeches. If he isn't popping a few pills and having a couple of cheeky lines, I'll eat my hat!
I think NATO is a vessel for silent aggression and has long been. Hence a North Atlantic Treaty has long been hijacked for something else entirely. I’m sure the Americans are laughing themselves silly. They’ve stoked it and now sit back watching it all unfold. They seem less happy about their bio labs, which they claimed didn’t exist, being taken by Russian forces. **** knows what they’ve been up to, it’ll be nothing good. The European attitude towards Russia has long been ****, hence they don’t give a ****. As long as China and India don’t turn, Russia won’t care. They know some of the European nations need them and will return to the table behind the scenes.
The bio labs which are so secret that they are referred to on the US Embassy website. The bio labs which the Russians claim are used to research biological weapons but have not produced any evidence on. Seriously Pouchy you need to stop believing everything you hear on Russia-1.
Difficult to assess the extent of that dissenting voice. He was re-elected. All of the East accepted the result and congratulated him (not just Russia) Most of the West did not recognise the result. Fairly standard stuff and a good example of how this all works and what the press in either area feeds people. But yes Belarus fully on board with Russia due to it being heavily reliant on economic trade. The uprising wanted a different leader, not necessarily a souring of relations with Russia and a sudden love of what the West does. They’d be ****ed without them in terms of trade. Strong developing links with China too.
Have we even asked Russia what they want? To resolve this? First of all I agree with what your saying. Russia’s reason for going into Ukraine is what? To defend themselves from who? Or is it to save the republicans? I don’t understand what it is that Russia wants other than to simply take control over Ukraine to save its own borders. The problem is where do they stop!
Go do some research before you comment FFS. This has been on the news in the US. Fox News (not Russia 1) has been all over it typically. USA Today has been caught out in their “bio labs don’t exist” rhetoric. Their fact check put it down to Russian disinformation. The fact check was linked to Ukrainian government and Biden government officials. Unfortunately a senate foreign relations hearing then revealed they did indeed exist and yep, they’d failed to secure the materials prior to the invasion, despite knowing about the invasion. It’s of great concern to them apparently. What do you propose they are researching? Naive much. I suppose you believed them about the WMDs in Iraq too? You keep on with your own interpretation of proceedings though…
I assume they don’t want military installations and bio labs, or really the US infiltrating their neighbours. We’ve been here before after the last world war. It’s difficult because all countries feel the same - hence we are all spying on each other. If the Russians suddenly got friendly with Canada (won’t happen), and started positioning things there the US would quickly become very aggressive. I doubt they’d invade like Putin did, but things would escalate and sanctions would happen. They can’t pretend otherwise, ask Cuba. The West know what he wants in my opinion, but have no interest in acquiescing to it. Hence he went to the next stage because he’s not normal and a bit of nutcase. But he’s put everyone in a hell of situation now.
That is a remarkably blinkered view of Belarusian politics. I am certainly no expert on them but anytime an incumbent starts passing legislation to increase the terms he can serve, extend his powers and detains opposition politicians and activists you have to start to wonder whether the declared election results are meaningful. The increasing trade links with China are a result of the pariah status of Belarus, which wasn't helped by the ridiculous and obvious tourist visas for migrants scheme, nor the effective kidnapping of a foreign airline in order to detain an activist.
Again half truths and misinformation. As you will see from my initial response there isn’t a dispute that the labs exist. What is in dispute is what they are being used for. And yes I do “research” on such issues before posting. Check out https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...weapon-claim-us-un-ukraine-bio-labs-explainer https://ua.usembassy.gov/embassy/ky...n-office/biological-threat-reduction-program/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/60711705 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/09/...ssia-qanon-false-conspiracy-theory/index.html Surely you accept there must be some question marks on your position if you’re agreeing with QAnon ? You may question the impartiality of the BBC but where is Russia’s evidence and WHO and the UN I would have thought would be doing more. But then again everyone likes a good conspiracy theory.
Says it all about what a **** up the Russian army is at the minute, when you have to recruit Syrians to help, I hope these ****ers freeze to death and each has a couple of sunflower seeds in their pockets
I'd agree FOX News, BBC, SKY news. Pick anyone you want they're all full of ****. But its difficult to argue with a news story whereby they present cast iron facts. USA Today did repeatedly print propaganda citing their source as the US and Ukrainian government (which wasn't disputed) as part of a fact check on the claim that the US had bio labs in the Ukraine. That cannot be disputed, it was there in black and white. Then the same US Government revealed in fact they did have labs there, hadn't secured the material, and were concerned about it falling into the wrong hands because they were dicking around with dangerous pathogens etc. For what purpose is unknown but I think we can all probably hazard a guess given their track record - I mean COVID may wasn't that long ago. Remember when you were called a conspiracy nut for saying it came out the Wuhan lab? Now most think it probably did. Who helped fund that lab... Sorry if I'm not particularly trusting of the US government. For the record I'm not trusting of the Russian Government either. I'm not trusting of any ****ing government! Anyone who is an absolute moron, my own has done nothing but lie to me since the day I was born on a variety of important subjects. I think that's the difference and where people like Trev are getting me wrong. I'm not pro Russian or reading Russian propaganda. I can just see they are all a bunch of corrupt bastards who don't give a **** about the common man - so I don't believe western propaganda either. Every single one of them is corrupt and are responsible for this situation we are in.
Now now Trev don't make me bring up COVID and all the 'conspiracies' you dismissed. That did a runner in the night didn't it? Those SAGE scientists you were so in love with, they've all had to slink off into the darkness due to their doomsday predictions looking shall we say, shaky? Careful planting your feet too early, learn from the past. There are no half truths at all. Its helpful you bring up QAnon. They were part of the mocking section FOX News did on it funnily enough. USA Today did print a fact check claiming there were no bio labs. There sources quoted were the US government Ukraine government. If you need a link to find that I can provide it but its a bit lazy given how big USA Today is. The US Government did subsequently admit in a senate foreign relations hearing that indeed there were bio labs. No half truth buddy, hence it hit the main news too. If you choose to believe those bio labs are all for innocent purposes and for the good of mankind, that the yanks are all good guys, then good for you. I don't and I have a raft of evidence 100 years old showing they are anything but. You'll have heard of Edward Snowdon and Wikileaks I'm sure... You're still stuck in the pick a side situation - hence you say its all a conspiracy, stop getting your news from Russia 1. You haven't worked out that I'm not on a side, I'm on the side of humanity and normal people. Not East, not West, because we are all the same. I think all governments and elite are corrupt regardless of nationality or where they reside.
I can't possibly comment on whether the election was fair mate, no one can. Unless you are going to take a poll of each individual without anyone influencing, I can't see how a definitive answer could be known. I'd say it doesn't look good for sure. However I'm hesitant to believe the western reporting/media and their version of the matter, they don't have a great track record. Every single election around the world is corrupt to a certain extent. That is something that can't really be disputed. Its the extent of the corruption that's always difficult to pin down. Look at the Russian, US and UK elections - they're hardly a bastion of impartiality are they. Look at the money involved, look at the background of elected officials - its just one big sham.
“All the “conspiracies “ I dismissed”? Hmmm, so there is Covid-19, people did die and the vaccines do work. I don’t trust any Government to tell everyone everything. In fact it would be quite stupid of them to do so. In particular I don’t trust the Russians or the Americans. As far as Boris and Co are concerned we have probably elected the worst Prime Minister, in so many ways, and Government since electing Prime Minister’s and Governments were a twinkle in democracy’s eye. That being said I can see a manufactured excuse when I see one and to think Putin is highlighting bio labs regardless of what is or isn’t made there for the sake of humanity and not as an excuse to justify Russia’s current actions and their future actions is beyond naive. Also when he lies to his country and even the soldiers being sent by him as to why they are invading Ukraine then that should tell you all you need to know as to which side is in the wrong. It genuinely concerns me when you and others attempt to go down the road of appeasement in this conflict. History has taught us time and time again that appeasement doesn’t work with bullies. Putin/Russia (not the people but those “in charge”) are bullies. We have already let them get away with exactly this before with Crimea. Guess what, he’s chancing his arm again with Ukraine. If he gets away with this or is seen to benefit out of this then I have no doubt he will again. Think Georgia and/or Moldova. Putin should not benefit one iota from this action as if he does he will be more likely to rinse and repeat elsewhere. A stand against him has to be made. It should have happened when he attacked Crimea but it didn’t and we can’t reset that clock. Therefore, we have to make the stand now. Im also not naive to think the “West” are the “good guys” as we have very recent history for exactly this as do the USA but that shouldn’t mean that precludes us from assisting Ukraine in this conflict and again the reasons for helping are also irrelevant. I know we won’t agree but for me it should all be about what Ukraine want and to restore to Ukraine every single inch of it’s country. Going forward we, the World, should collectively use this as a watershed and follow the same philosophy for every other country in the World where that country is invaded by another country. Just a thought we could set up a United Nations organisation and have soldiers from all countries possibly wearing a blue beret and task them to enforce that policy. That would be a start. Sorry to everyone else for the Pouchy like post even those who didn’t manage to get past the first two sentences <cough>Chippy<cough> and I promise to try and not do it again.
Only very selective reading, and choosing sources that fit your beliefs, can conclude that most scientists believe that the Covid virus came from a Wuhan lab. The theory is at best divisive among the scientific community, fed mainly be the US right wing who want to blame China for the pandemic, or by QAnon who want to claim it was a red flag event created by those in power to control the people. The two most recent reports suggest that it started in a meat market and that the clustering of early cases make it almost impossible that it could have been released from a lab. I agree that it is always best to be critically sceptical of anything that any government says, as all governments have an agenda. However, being critically sceptical is not the same as completely mistrusting. The danger of being completely mistrusting is that you then ignore everything that mainstream science (which by its nature can be described as having connections to mainstream authorities). Once you decide to completely dismiss everything they say then you end up going so far down the rabbit hole that you find yourself in the next cartoon version of Watership Down.
