Putin backing off (a little)

Cypress said:
I keep telling Putin's MAGA fanboys you cannot allow yourself to be terrified and intimidated by Vlad. You have to show steady resolve and tenacity.
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Do you think Biden will allow the 28 MIGs be given to Ukraine. Or do you think Biden is still too scared to do it?
 
Cypress said:
I keep telling Putin's MAGA fanboys you cannot allow yourself to be terrified and intimidated by Vlad. You have to show steady resolve and tenacity.
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Yup. Like Kim did with trump.

On the other hand, I wonder if Putin believes that Turkey or Hungary will block the NATO expansion?
 
Althea said:
Yup. Like Kim did with trump.

On the other hand, I wonder if Putin believes that Turkey or Hungary will block the NATO expansion?
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Wasn't Trump writing love letters to Kim?

I think Erdogan is just positioning himself to extract the best concessions he can get from Sweden, ultimately these nations will be admitted to NATO.
 
Cypress said:
Wasn't Trump writing love letters to Kim?

I think Erdogan is just positioning himself to extract the best concessions he can get from Sweden, ultimately these nations will be admitted to NATO.
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Better firing off love letters than Kim firing off ICBMs like he is now.
 
We will not say ‘yes’ to those [countries] who apply sanctions to Turkey to join security organization NATO,” Erdogan said at a news conference late Monday. He was referring to Sweden’s suspension of weapons sales to Turkey in 2019 over its military activities in Syria.

Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that it planned to send senior officials joining with officials from Finland to the Turkish capital of Ankara to address Erdogan’s objections. But the Turkish leader essentially said they’d be wasting their time.

“Will they come to persuade us? Excuse us, but they shouldn’t bother,” Erdogan said. He added that the two countries joining would make NATO “a place where representatives of terrorist organizations are concentrated.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/17/will-turkey-block-nato-membership-for-sweden-and-finland.html
 
It was an extraordinary piece of television.

The programme was 60 Minutes, the flagship twice-daily talk show on Russian state TV: studio discussion that promotes the Kremlin line on absolutely everything, including on President Putin's so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine.

The Kremlin still maintains that the Russian offensive is going according to plan.

But on Monday night, studio guest Mikhail Khodarenok, a military analyst and retired colonel, painted a very different picture.

He warned that "the situation [for Russia] will clearly get worse" as Ukraine receives additional military assistance from the West and that "the Ukrainian army can arm a million people".
Referring to Ukrainian soldiers, he noted: "The desire to defend their motherland very much exists. Ultimate victory on the battlefield is determined by the high morale of troops who are spilling blood for the ideas they are ready to fight for.

"The biggest problem with [Russia's] military and political situation," he continued, "is that we are in total political isolation and the whole world is against us, even if we don't want to admit it. We need to resolve this situation.

"The situation cannot be considered normal when against us, there is a coalition of 42 countries and when our resources, military-political and military-technical, are limited."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61484222
 
The other guests in the studio were silent. Even the host, Olga Skabeyeva, normally fierce and vocal in her defence of the Kremlin, appeared oddly subdued.

In many ways, it's a case of "I told you so" from Mr Khodarenok. Writing in Russia's Independent Military Review back in February, before Moscow attacked Ukraine, the defence analyst had criticised "enthusiastic hawks and hasty cuckoos" for claiming that Russia would easily win a war against Ukraine.

His conclusion back then: "An armed conflict with Ukraine is not in Russia's national interests."

Criticism in print is one thing. But on TV - to an audience of millions - that is another level completely. The Kremlin has gone out of its way to control the informational landscape here: shutting down independent Russian news sources and ensuring that television - the principal tool in Russia for shaping public opinion - is on message.

It is rare to hear such realistic analysis of events on Russian TV.

Rare. But not unique. In recent weeks, critical views have appeared on television here. In March, on another popular TV talk show, a Russian filmmaker told the presenter: "The war in Ukraine paints a frightening picture, it has a very oppressive influence on our society."

So what happened on 60 Minutes? Was this a spontaneous, unprompted and unexpected wake-up call on Ukraine that slipped through the net?

Or was it a pre-planned burst of reality in order to prepare the Russian public for negative news on the progress of the "special military operation"?

It's difficult to say. But as they say on the telly, stay tuned to Russian TV for further signals.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61484222
 
anonymoose said:
"The situation cannot be considered normal when against us, there is a coalition of 42 countries and when our resources, military-political and military-technical, are limited."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61484222
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guy was against the war before it started.
He's wrong about "42 countries against us" that was about the same with Crimea.

The difference is the USA is sending extraordinary amounts of our most advanced weapons
in our current war against Russia
~~

I saw how JAVELIN working in Syria - it was frightenly awesome
I've been watching the drone warfare take out columns in Libyan long sad civil war -
again created (predicate) by NATO
Both javelin and drones turned the war in Ukraine in terms of armour.
~~
Right now the US military is the most destructive force on the planet due to our adventurism and Russiaphobia
Maybe China when it "reunifies" Taiwan" it will takeover that title

But the USA's casual wars , and making a Ukraine/Russian border war into a campaign of "victory"
over Russia means we are the hooligans
 
ExpressLane said:
Do you think Biden will allow the 28 MIGs be given to Ukraine. Or do you think Biden is still too scared to do it?
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You want to use American financial, logistical, and technical resources to deliver outdated cold war era MiG 29 jets that are at least a generation behind Russian air frames?

The Russian aircraft are largely being held at bay by Ukraine's formidable surface-to-air missile defenses. What Biden is giving Ukraine are weapons which will actually be highly effective in defeating the Russian military, aka latest generation anti-aircraft defenses, best-in-class anti-tank missiles, high precision artillery, and fourth generation drone technology, etc
 
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anatta said:
We will not say ‘yes’ to those [countries] who apply sanctions to Turkey to join security organization NATO,” Erdogan said at a news conference late Monday. He was referring to Sweden’s suspension of weapons sales to Turkey in 2019 over its military activities in Syria.

Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that it planned to send senior officials joining with officials from Finland to the Turkish capital of Ankara to address Erdogan’s objections. But the Turkish leader essentially said they’d be wasting their time.

“Will they come to persuade us? Excuse us, but they shouldn’t bother,” Erdogan said. He added that the two countries joining would make NATO “a place where representatives of terrorist organizations are concentrated.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/17/will-turkey-block-nato-membership-for-sweden-and-finland.html
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Nato expansion won’t be stopped by Turkey, but Erdogan can use Sweden’s bid to his advantage

Significantly, though, Turkey has not said it would definitely veto the countries’ membership. As ever with the transactional Erdogan regime, world events are seen as bargaining tools.

On Sunday, Erdogan’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu laid out several conditions for it accepting the two new Nato members, including the demand that the Nordic nations end what he called support for “terrorist organisations”, primarily to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as an end to bans on arms sales to Turkey.
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/turk...but-will-use-them-as-bargaining-chips-1633629
 
anonymoose said:
Nato expansion won’t be stopped by Turkey, but Erdogan can use Sweden’s bid to his advantage

Significantly, though, Turkey has not said it would definitely veto the countries’ membership. As ever with the transactional Erdogan regime, world events are seen as bargaining tools.

On Sunday, Erdogan’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu laid out several conditions for it accepting the two new Nato members, including the demand that the Nordic nations end what he called support for “terrorist organisations”, primarily to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as an end to bans on arms sales to Turkey.
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/turk...but-will-use-them-as-bargaining-chips-1633629
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yeah I know. but the PKK is a deal breaker.
Erdogan literally would have gone into Syria like he did to root them out even if Trump
had kept a contingent there
(despite all the yammering you hear about us "betraying the Kurds' -
Erdogan would have gone in anyhow and Trump knew US forces were at risk if Erdogan did)

Right now the PKK is a deal breaker, but the overwhelming support by other NATO nations is a powerful force for more NATO expansion as well
 
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