What a headline to wake-up to on a Saturday morning.
It looks as if Putin has named the day, and all that remains is his phone call. If we can believe what we read; WW3 could begin on Wednesday 16th February 2022.
When I did my school Officer Training course, the very first thing we learned (I know I've mentioned this before) was to 'Know your enemy, go in strong, and go in hard'. This was the traditional, tried and tested, basis for successful warfare, and to ignore it spelt disaster.
Putin, it appears, attended the same course as me, and has not forgotten the advice. Western military leaders, however, seem to ignore their own advice, and spend their time pussy-footing around and discussing blocking bank accounts of ex-pat Russian Oligarchs. No mention has yet been made of kicking the sh*t out of Moscow.
In previous times, if a Russian foot had stepped on Ukrainian territory, Western troops would have been sent in immediately. These days Putin knows that the West has no taste for warfare and he can do as he wishes, with just a few petty financial sanctions threatened against him.
Of course, we all know what WILL happen. He will walk into Kiev, shoot a few people, destroy a few buildings, and install his own regime. The West will then sit back, hum and ha, and say what a nasty boy he is. Appeals will then appear on UK TV, and we will send money to repair damage and feed the starving.
Putin, of course, has untold riches and safe-havens, so whatever happens he will continue to live the high life.
Life was forever thus!
Should invasion go ahead the starving will be the ordinary folk of Russia who will suffer greatly under sanctions from the west if they are as severe as threatened.
ReplyDeleteWhat sanctions from the West?
DeleteThe "ordinary folk of Russia" already suffer from their own regime. Meanwhile "the West" not least the motherland are pissing their pants should Putin tighten the gas pipes even tighter.
U
I agree with Rachel.
ReplyDeleteOther thoughts, a world leader, if he invades, will be destroying his stature in history, going from formidable to utter fool. He appears to be suffering from early dementia or else he greatly under estimates how very angry people are over his bullying the Ukraine and the World.
Sad but true, Cro.
ReplyDeleteI feel so badly for ordinary people caught in the middle of such madness.
ReplyDeleteComing from a more hawkish background I, too, believe a more forceful position should be taken.
ReplyDeleteThere's no disputin, Vlad should be called Ras Putin! The days ahead will remain tense. If I were religious, I would be praying now.
ReplyDeleteI'm praying there will be NO war, certainly not a WORLD war 3. why does Putin want the Ukraine anyway? Isn't his own country enough for him? Selfish bugger.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Putin want the Ukraine? Read up on history. Not least on the break-up of the Soviet Union, the geographical position of the Ukraine in relation to Russia and the Ukraine modelling itself on Western ideas of democracy, voting, free speech. And then there is Nato ...
DeleteU
There are a lot of Russians living in the Ukraine. Putin can always say they need his help because they are bein oppressed.
ReplyDeleteThe whole situation reminds me of the appeasement politics when Hitler started invading Eastern Europe. And our stupid SPD (Social Democrats) are talking about "understanding Putin´s point of view". No wonder when our former chancellor calls Putin his close friend and makes a lot of money with Russian gas.
Hilde in Germany
Unfortunately people have no idea about Russia.
ReplyDeleteWe have had sanctions on them in one for or another for 2 decades. All it has done is encourage Russia to be more self sufficient.
Russia is not only a major exporter of fossil fuels but also a major exporter of food, wheat, potatoes and dozen other staples for which the world market is unceasing. They are also one of the world's largest exporters of fertiliser, chemicals, timber.
Last year Russian factories manufactured more vehicles than Germany.
What's more they did so from materials mined, refined and processed in Russia.
Russia has 3 pipelines supplying gas to China and China now buts more natural gas from Russia than the EU. They have another dozen pipelines either under construction or at the planning stage.
Sanctions are making the EU irrelevant to the Russian economy because Asia doesn't give a s*** about our sanctions, particularly when it gives them an economic advantage.
Even us trying to devalue the rouble failed. All it achieved was to make Russian companies wealthier. Because Russia produces its own raw materials all its expenses are paid for in roubles. They export those in dollars whose dollar value does not change on the world market but they convert it to roubles to take back into Russia.
Furthermore more Russia has a very low national debt and Putin, for all his faults, has built up a cash and gold reserve sufficient to run the entire country for almost a year. Meanwhile we've spent and borrowed ourselves into oblivion.
Every year we become less relevant to them yet it is Europe and the UK that need those very resources Russia produces. What happens in the next decade when they have developed their markets to the point that they no longer need to sell us anything whatsoever?
And yet in spite of the success of their economy they still have the same economic problems at home of social inequality as everywhere else.
DeleteRo, I wish you would say this to the people I know. I might just read this out to them! They have no bloody idea what Russia does. One actually thought that they still queued for food and knew nothing of Oligarchs. They thought that was part of Roman Abramovich's name! I kid you not!
DeleteAs to the folly of thinking the Russian military is useless and out dated I suggest you read this.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.businessinsider.com/myths-about-the-russian-military-that-just-wont-go-away-2022-2?r=US&IR=T
After that look up the Gerasimov Doctrine. Valery Gerasimov devised the modern Russian army battle plan. He knows that Russia couldn't go toe to toe with NATO. He also knows that the west, like Russia, won't want a nuclear war. Hence his plans call for hitting Europe wide infrastructure for fuel, electricity and food production with their SSC8 long range cruise missiles, missiles with nearly treble the range of ours. Europe has virtually no air defence. Relying on air power instead. In contrast Russia has deep and wide air defence around all its major critical infrastructure. From the S500 with its 600km range down to its close in systems which downed 71 of 103 cruise missiles we fired in Syria.
This won't be a rerun of Iraq. We'll get hit and hit hard.