Off Topic Politics Thread

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Just been talking to a good friend of mine, who knows more about military strategy and war than all the rest of us put together. He seems pretty certain that Putin stops at Ukraine, mainly due to the fact he doesn't have enough ground troops to actually go further. Which, although still awful, is mildly reassuring.
Yeah, he'd need ****loads of troops to take on NATO.
 
I just keep reminding myself of Chechnya. Tiny state with just over a million people, and Russia took two years to, well, withdraw unsuccessfully. They only eventually got their victory years later by destroying most of the place. If they drop too many bombs in Ukraine, others will surely step in to help. But it will be more about drones and bombs, than boots on the ground (I hope!).

Look forward to some pics of the floating holiday home by the way!
I hope it doesn't escalate and there's as little suffering as possible.

Covid put halt to our travel plans so we bought a 10m steel canal cruiser, a bit of a project, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Dutch waterways.

Haarlem.
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Woerden on the Grecht close to its junction with the Oude Rijn
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The Grecht heading north to the Amstel at Uithoorn.
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They are still allowing Russian teams to play though. I find that unconscionable. We should ban all Russian teams immediately. It won’t do much, but may help turn the Russians against Putin
There is no way any Russian team should be involved with international sport of any description for the foreseeable future. Putin's gamble has to totally fail in strategic terms and in the eyes of the Russian public. It will take a long time to register such a success, perhaps but there can be no reward for him or his cronies, ever. Even if, as some suggest, he stops with crushing Ukraine, the world has now to recognise there is an unpredictable, clever and duplicitous person leading an extremely dangerous regime prepared to have it's way by brutal force, whatever the cost to their nation.
 
Dominic Cummings has waded into the Government’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and claimed the Conservative Party has been “financed by Putin’s mates for decades”.

He also made the bold assertion that Russia has been able to influence UK voters.

Boris Johnson’s former ally and chief aide said the Prime Minister’s approach to Vladimir Putin’s latest offensive in Ukraine will fail to stop Russian oligarchs from sending their children to be educated in Britain’s best school – and claimed Moscow refers to the UK capital as a “laundry”.

Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister’s former ally and chief aide said: “tories literally have their party FINANCED BY PUTIN’S MATES FOR DECADES, won’t even stop them sending their kids to eton/harrow or using London as a ‘laundry’ (London’s actual Moscow nickname), then their MPs start babbling about no fly zones!!!”

Mr Cummings concluded the Tweet with a number of clown emojis.

But the former Downing Street aide was confronted with questions by i that the outcome of the 2020 Russia report by House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee warned of “illicit Russian money buying influence across the UK establishment”.

The report claimed that the British government and intelligence agencies failed to conduct any proper assessment of Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 Brexit referendum.

But Mr Cummings dismissed claims of interference in the EU vote as “fake news” and “almost all” false, but claimed Russia was involved in the Scottish referendum two years earlier.

He wrote: “Fake news. Report was leaked from the cmte [committee] before sent to PM’s office, then Grieve popped straight up on tv spinning it. Classified version then had to go thro[through] redaction process.

“Brexit REF claims almost all false. but Russia DID help independence in Scottish REF.”
 

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I hope it doesn't escalate and there's as little suffering as possible.

Covid put halt to our travel plans so we bought a 10m steel canal cruiser, a bit of a project, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Dutch waterways.

Haarlem.
You must log in or register to see images

Woerden on the Grecht close to its junction with the Oude Rijn
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The Grecht heading north to the Amstel at Uithoorn.
You must log in or register to see images

Looks like a great way to spend a summer!
 
I put all the blame for this at Johnson's door. We enjoyed peace in Europe with a united EU but the greedy and corrupt right wing of the Tory party led by Johnson and his Russian buddies divided Europe for Putin with Brexit.

Johnson should be put up against a wall and shot.
I got banned from Facebook for a week for a week for suggesting that!!
 
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Brave brave men. Bastard Russians! No doubt “only following orders” - they should be ashamed
Russia needs to be made a pariah state like North Korea. Seize all Russian assets in every country, expel diplomats and their families, expel all Russian oligarchs and seize their assets (most of central London) - then publish a list of ALL MPs who have been given Russian money and force them to resign. If that means a general election, so be it - what we need now is a government of general unity with cross party MPs running it and no Russian influence allowed
 
Scary times for the Ukrainians :(
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Really lucky my GF's family thought about doing the below last week...
The'yre all together now and just hiding in her grandparents basement about 30km from a city currently under attack.




I think I have mentioned it on here before during the England game against them, but my girlfriend is Ukrainian.
We were meant to be on a skiing trip to the Carpathians at the start of the month.

Her family weren't taking it very seriously until a month or so ago(which is why we only cancelled our trip less than a week beforehand!) but they have started treating it like a realistic threat now.
They live mostly in a town in the Poltava Oblast, but on the border to Kharkiv Oblast which is quite near to the Russian border (relative to the size of Ukraine)

They've started acting on the assumption that if anything happens utilities will be quickly cut off so they took their money out of the bank and started stockpiling food/water catfood etc. Was shown a photo in the city itself of a system they just built to supply water if the normal water system goes down.

Her family's view is that they like Russia but hate Putin, and said they wouldn't want to join NATO or see the need for it if it wasn't for him. (my girlfriend forced me to vote for Russia in Eurovision last year! <laugh> it was because it was apparently woman's rights song which is a serious issue in both Russia and Ukraine. though I couldn't understand a thing.) Don't like being stuck between NATO and Putin but accept that's the situation they are in and side with the west. But that's just their opinion. I don't know much outside that.

Anyway I think they just hate the uncertainty right now. but they also seem to be influenced by western media to be fair. Was asked for our opinion on the Sun yesterday <doh>