Posted on 11/01/2024 9:14:50 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
The United States and Russia are very close to engaging in 'direct military conflict,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned in an interview published Friday in a Turkey daily, just days ahead of a US presidential election.
'Under the current president (Joe Biden), who has taken the downward spiral of Russophobia in the US to its logical conclusion, our countries are on the brink of direct military conflict,' he told the Hurriyet daily, without elaborating.
Asked about next week's US election pitting former Republican president Donald Trump against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Lavrov said the outcome would make little difference to Russia.
'We have no preference. When the Trump administration was in power, it adopted the highest number of anti-Russian sanctions compared to its predecessors,' he said.
-snip-
Lavrov's comments come just days after Putin staged a mock nuclear war, aunching scores of missiles capable of unleashing a 'massive' strike in a stark warning to the West.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Kyiv in 3 days!
Crimea by Christmas!
Bring a капуста and a jug of горілка.
Kharkiv in 3 days!
You really have no knowledge beyond Russia. You ignore that Ukraine started this whole mess by basically outlawing the Russian language in government buildings & schools. .
But even more glaring is your omission of 2 Minsk accords that were signed but never implemented & hostilities erupting in eastern Ukraine, For 8 years Putin tried to get the International Community to find a peaceful solution. When Angela Merkle stepped down se bragged that there was never any intention to honor the Minsk Accords. that they were just to buy time to arm & train Ukraine.
If that were to happen at our border, we would stage a full out attack, and you know darn well that is what would happen.
So, you are actually ill informed, beyond Russia invaded, which they had every right to protect themselves.
You are correct that neither nation is a NATO nation, but they kept promising Ukraine that they would become a NATO nation. That is without question for anyone with a thinking brain, a threat that Putin was not going t tolerate as he stated in 2008.
It was a worthless war to start, because it may just destroy this nation in the process, but apparently that is of no concern to you.
I’m getting really sick of your alt-history Kremlin kool-aid.
“Globalists and their desire to colonize Ukraine started this war by fomenting an illegal coup in 2014.”
Bull. Russia’s desire to colonize Ukraine predated that by a decade. They tried to assassinate a more pro-western Presidential candidate, invaded then occupied parts of Georgia, and left Ukraine in no doubt that they were going to be next.
Russia also blackmailed most of what used to be the Warsaw Pact, and blackmailed Ukraine, in an attempt to get the west to just stand back and let them do it.
“the loss of Crimea that has been Russian longer than Ohio has been American... OR act.”
Sucks, but Russia’s own leaders are the people who instigated the “loss of Crimea” - starting with the decision made over six decades ago to put Crimea under the jurisdiction of the UkrSSR, then expanded when the Supreme Soviet granted the UkrSSR more autonomy in the 80s. Those changes were in the Soviet age, and were initiated by the Soviets. The entire international community saw Russia, Ukraine, Khazakhstan, Belarus, and every other former member of the USSR, sign it off as THEIR choice, not America’s choice or Schwab’s choice. It’s got nothing to do with frickin’ globalists.
Russia’s known for decades that Ukraine can’t join NATO as long as
1) there is an ongoing dispute between Ukraine and Putin’s Russia that would mean its membership would directly create an Article 5 risk. Despite Putin himself conceding the borders set at the signing of the Belovezha Accords needed to be respected, he and Medvedev are in a Duginist cult that has spent the better part of twenty years bitterly complaining about the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and Moscow ruling over Ukraine directly. They’ve never stopped looking for ways to overturn the immutable historical fact that Russia and Ukraine TOGETHER made those decisions. Blackmail didn’t work, so they resorted to invasion. With Russian boots in Ukraine, NATO membership is impossible.
2) Even just one existing NATO member vetoes their accession. Russia’s known since the 90s that Germany, France, Turkey and at least two other members have gone on the record repeatedly to say, they ain’t going to support Ukrainian membership of the alliance.
3)
“The Uke army we built up was prepping and about to launch it’s final assault on the Donbass.”
Bull. Even Russia’s own observers were telling the Kremlin repeatedly that the violence against civilians in the Donbass had completely fallen off a cliff since 2019. It had gone from hundreds a year, to not even a dozen. In fact, Russia’s own 2021 data from its own observers was so unfavorable to the Russian vranyo that it ended up being obfuscated inside the monthly reports, and never made it into an annual report. Russia always reported those numbers when those numbers worked in its favor, but didn’t when they said this...
Quote: “Within the period between 1 January and 30 December 2021, in the territory of the DPR, 7 civilians and 70 servicemen of the Republic died.”
70 Russian tourists getting killed by Ukrainian nazis, and maybe a similar amount in the other direction, were nowhere near enough convincing as a “causus belli” for the Russian invasion if only 7 civilians were killed across the entire Oblast over the course of a whole year. And as this was all happening on Ukrainian soil, and the Russian implants had no right to be there, Putin knew Ukraine had every right to protect its citizens and its territory from implanted Russian mercs.
What really motivated Putin was, Denisov complained that Russia’s proxy fake regime was on the verge of collapse due to sheer unpopularity and apathy, it couldn’t muster enough support to fill a basketball court, and the only thing that was stopping Ukraine regaining control without a bullet being fired would be if Russia mobilised and did a proper invasion.
“Since the Soviet Union no longer exists, NATO should have been dissolved.”
Why? Russia’s still got CSTO, the NATO equivalent on the Russian side. Defense alliances are entirely legit if they’re set up with membership by consent, any country can apply to join, and any member can leave an alliance at any time if they so choose.
CSTO membership doesn’t tick any of those boxes, and it is about as popular as scrofula even in the pro-Russian diaspora because the only country in CSTO that does benefit is Russia. Ask Turkmenistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Recent alliance meetings have seen other member states tear up the paperwork Putin’s putting in front of them.
That’s the real reason Putin wants NATO to expel its ex-Warsaw Pact members. He knows that the real reason NATO membership appeals to the Baltic countries, to Poland and to Ukraine, is because anyone with two brain cells or more can see how the Russian alternatives are runny cat turd sandwiches.
Being in the alliance means you are just a vassal state whose armies can be used by Putin as cannon fodder. Being outside of either alliance makes you an easy target for Russian invasion.
“Which is where the Minsk Accords I & II were brought forth & signed, but were never implemented. “
Russia signed up to one obligation under those agreements - pull its little green men, its military tourists and its implanted gauleiters, out of Ukraine.
Putin managed to implement the precise amount of 0.000000% of the obligations he himself signed up to, after having the Minsk agreements so skewed to his advantage that all of the hard work was on Ukraine’s side. But Ukraine still implemented more of its obligations under Minsk 1 and Minsk 2, than Russia did.
BS
Russia in totally incapable of military action beyond it’s own borders.
In Syria, the mere glimpse of IDF challenge produced instant retreat of both Russian sir force and troops on the Golan Height ground.
Russian military is a world wide joke
“When Angela Merkle stepped down se bragged that there was never any intention to honor the Minsk Accords. that they were just to buy time to arm & train Ukraine.”
Er, not quite. Because Merkel desperately wanted Putin to deliver on the one thing the agreements expected him to do, and Putin made it clear he wasn’t going to do it.
Therefore, the Minsk agreements were derailed by Moscow’s bad faith, and they were so unenforceable that it would’ve been an injustice to expect the invaded country to sign its own death warrant by ticking boxes off on the checklist for Minsk.
As soon as Putin made it clear that at Minsk Moscow had signed up to tick just one checkbox despite knowing full well that Moscow had no intention of ever ticking it, Merkel’s position changed.
You cannot keep giving a complete welcher the benefit of the doubt, especially when the welcher does something that brazen. It was PUTIN’S RUSSIA that had no intention of honoring the Minsk Accords, just as it was PUTIN’S RUSSIA that had no intention of honoring the Budapest Memorandum, just as it was PUTIN’S RUSSIA that had no intention of honoring the Belovezha Accords.
Merkel’s changed position was a result of her coming to terms with Russia’s “new geopolitical realities” (that’s how Putin describes it himself.)
The “new geopolitical realities” are that, over and over again, the Russian state’s signature on any peace treaty or border agreement or any other non-aggression accord is simply not worth the ink. If Putin wants your land, no agreement you sign will deter him from doing whatever he wants to get your land.
Despite her reluctance to accept that truth, eventually Merkel had to concede that time after time, Putin has made it clear that there isn’t a single treaty, accord or ceasefire agreement with Putin’s signature on it, that Putin will not break the minute it becomes expedient to do so.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-disappointed-merkels-words-minsk-140859136.html
The former Chancellor recently said that the Minsk Agreements, signed in 2014, had given Ukraine "precious time" to become stronger, and the results of this could now be seen. She emphasized that Ukraine in 2014-2015 was very different from Ukraine today.
Ukraine’s Zelensky admits he sabotaged Minsk peace deal with Russia, West blocked negotiations
Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky admitted to the newspaper Der Spiegel that he refused to implement the 2015 Minsk II peace deal with Russia. Germany and France said Kiev used the agreement to “buy time” to prepare for war.
Well, he certainly got what he wanted didn't he.
All they really managed to do was weaken all of Europe & NATO in the process, as well as, get a bunch of Ukrainian's slaughtered, needlessly..
Why has Zelenskyy not brokered a trade deal with the EU? He's had plenty of time to do so. EU could have offered Zelenskyy a trade deal in all of that time Zelenskyy was Ukraine's president even, why have they not offered Ukraine a trade deal?
It has been claimed many times but that does not make it true. The protests against Yanukovych were spontaneous and genuine, not the product of CIA agitation. He was removed not by a CIA coup, but by the democratically elected parliament after he panicked and fled the country, abandoning his office. Subsequently there have been two national elections, something that the Russian apologists always leave out. The last two presidents of Ukraine were elected by the people, not installed by the west.
He was actually going to sign both trade agreements, but the EU threatened that if Ukraine accepted Russia's trade agreement, they would rescind their offer.
What you are conveniently leaving out is the economic blockade that Russia had imposed on Ukraine in opposition to the EU deal. The Russians have been no boy scouts in all of this.
You really have no knowledge beyond Russia.
So, you are actually ill informed, beyond Russia invaded, which they had every right to protect themselves.
A typical leftist ploy that has no place on Free Republic. If you read my former posts, which I believe you familiar with, you will know that I am well aware of all the points you raised and have addressed all of them many times. It is not a question of ignorance, but that I disagree with your characterization of events. While trying to claim the high ground, alleging ignorance of the other party is actually a lazy man's response, a shield behind which he does not have to make logical arguments.
But even more glaring is your omission of 2 Minsk accords that were signed but never implemented & hostilities erupting in eastern Ukraine.
They were never fully implemented not because of the Ukrainians, but because of the Russians. Ukraine actually fulfilled its obligations by passing a law twice granting Donbas autonomy, and by preparing to conduct the required referendum. Russia broke the accords by failing to withdraw its forces, failing to hand the border over to Ukraine, and by blocking the aforementioned referendum.
Furthermore, it needs to be pointed out that there would never have been a need for the accords if Russia had not invaded in the first place. I am always amazed at the position that Russia can seize Ukrainian territory but it is somehow illegitimate for Ukraine to gain it back.
You ignore that Ukraine started this whole mess by basically outlawing the Russian language in government buildings & schools.
Ukraine did no such thing. All it did was mandate that government activities and school instruction should be done in Ukrainian. Russian apologists are always exaggerating the extent of Ukraine's language law. They also ignore the fact that, in compliance with the Minsk accords, they also passed a law granting Donbas autonomy. In any case, this is a question of internal Ukrainian politics, and is none of the business of Russia. Would you be opposed to a law mandating the use of English in government activities and in school instruction? Would Mexico be justified in invading the US if there were such a law?
You are correct that neither nation is a NATO nation, but they kept promising Ukraine that they would become a NATO nation. That is without question for anyone with a thinking brain, a threat that Putin was not going t tolerate as he stated in 2008.
As has been repeatedly pointed out, Ukraine was barred from joining NATO by the NATO charter itself as long as there was a territorial dispute with Russia. And again, you are failing to answer the question that I posed, if this is about NATO expansion, why did Putin reject Zelensky offer of no NATO?
You are confusing a result clause with a purpose clause. All Merkel's statement says is that the time for the buildup was the result of the agreements. She does not say that it was the purpose of the agreements. But even so, why is it illegitimate for Ukraine to seek to regain control over its sovereign territory that was seized by Russia. Such action is not a threat to Russia. And where is your outrage over Russia seizing the territory in the first place?
Oh, and also hold off a Russian invasion. Where is the criticism of the Russians who started this war in the first place?
Kamela’s presence 3 days prior to the war.
Nord Stream’s destruction
Destroying all those lives and the breadbasket of the world.
O’Biden Harris.
We might just fry over this.
Yeah, Russia invading another country and bombing their cities has nothing to do with this and should not be opposed, right?
No one is clean there. Us included.
Just like the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong, huh?
Funny how the same agitators from Kiev ended up in Kowloon five years later.
Yeah, the people of Hong Kong would never have any reason to protest against rule by the peace loving Chinese Communist Party. You are starting to show your colors.
The Germans, Ukrainians and the French all admitted they had no intention to uphold Minsk, but its Russia’s fault for not falling for their deception.
Even by deceitful Western standards that’s risible. 😂
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