Posted on 08/20/2025 4:20:09 AM PDT by MtnClimber
It looks to me like Zelensky could be ready to flee the country. Putin is also in a precarious position in Russia.
They’re squeezing more billions and military entanglements out of Trump and the US. Why would they want to stop or interfere with that?
Like with insolent teenagers, sometimes tough love is in order...
Like what is going on in Serbia. Like the shenanigans in Romania and Georgia. And if you look at Fico in Slovakia or Orban in Hungary, there as well.
The sooner Zelensky ends the war with Russia, the sooner Ukraine could hold an election and then Zelensky can start a civil war with whoever wins that. His alternative is to go into exile, but where can he go that where his preferred dress code is popular?
“His alternative is to go into exile, but where can he go that where his preferred dress code is popular?”
Portland or Seattle.
No-one’s going to flee the country because no regimes are going to topple. Zelenskyy’s worst fear internally is losing an election; The window for Putin being ousted is closing. And powerful Russians always feel safest when the windows are closed.
Putin started the war...he can get the hell out.
Great comment.
October 2023, almost two years ago, I cited quite the same in a comment to an FR thread.
"...many prominent investors, including Vanguard Group, Kopernik Global Investors, BNP Asset Management Holding, Goldman Sachs-owned NN Investment Partners Holdings, and Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway's sovereign wealth fund. A number of large US pension funds, foundations, and university endowments are also invested in Ukrainian land through NCH Capital – a US-based private equity fund, which is the fifth largest landholder in the country."Only this year:
"In 2025, the Ukrainian government plans to sell at least ten large companies to foreign investors, exceeding its $3.2 billion privatization revenue target for 2025.So few media articles mention the Zelensky government's "State Property Fund of Ukraine." It's been selling for years, and some large consortiums have been buying. But they are not funding the war, as the last visit by European "leaders" to the White House seemed to be again seeking, along with photo ops of Merz, Macron, Starmer, von der Leyen, Meloni, Rutte and all.Ukraine is continuing its large-scale privatization drive, aiming to sell off major state-owned enterprises and nationalized assets from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, acting State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) head Ivanna Smachylo told Forbes Ukraine in an interview.
In 2024, the SPFU privatized the United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC), a key titanium producer, and Aeroc, a gas concrete manufacturer previously owned by sanctioned Russian businessman Andrey Molchanov. Now, the government plans to sell at least ten large companies in an auction in 2025.
Ukraine Accelerates Privatization: Major Strategic Assets Up for Sale in 2025 Kyiv Post, 5 February 2025
A photo op with Larry Fink, Michael Maduell, George Rohr, Sandro Pierri, John E. Waldron, Nicolai Tangen and others will not be seen. But they are among the top brass in this war aiming to win no matter who loses, while urging mere governments to pay, and pay and pay some more.
The last list of names doesn't exactly tip off the tongue now, does it?
Zelenskyy simply does not have the authority to end the war under Ukraine law.
Ukraine law forbids presidential elections during wartime!
Maybe if all those fighting-age Ukrainian males would leave the nurturing bosom of Poland and actually fight, Ukraine might have a better chance.
This is not well thought out.
The loss of Crimea and the other oblasts joining Russia is where the pro Russia votes were that elected pro Russia candidates in Ukraine pre 2014. Those votes are gone.
They are one now, as well as the millions of refugees that have fled Ukraine and gone to Russia. Then other refugees who fled to Europe. They won’t vote, and if they did those votes coming from Russia won’t be counted.
I don’t see why a Zelensky election loss is likely.
So. Zelensky doesn't have the authority to end the war (so why was he in DC?), but because there is a war, there can't be an election, therefore keeping in place the person who doesn't have the authority to end the war.
The Church Lady might say "that's convenient".
zgłaszasz się na ochotnika
Documenting.
Ukraine’s defense spending as a percentage of GDP remained relatively low in the early 2010s but began to increase significantly following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, reflecting heightened security concerns. Based on data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the percentages for the years 2010 to 2021 are as follows:
• 2010: 1.9%
• 2011: 1.5%
• 2012: 1.6%
• 2013: 1.6%
• 2014: 2.2%
• 2015: 3.3%
• 2016: 3.67%
• 2017: 3.24%
• 2018: 3.64%
• 2019: 4.07%
• 2020: 4.4%
• 2021: 3.43%
Israel’s defense spending (military expenditure) as a percentage of GDP in the years leading up to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack showed a general downward trend, fluctuating between approximately 4.5% and 5.9% from 2010 to 2022. This data is sourced from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading authority on global military spending. Below is a year-by-year breakdown:
• 2010: 5.9% 
• 2011: 5.8% 
• 2012: 5.7% 
• 2013: 5.6% 
• 2014: 5.8% 
• 2015: 5.5% 
• 2016: 5.5% 
• 2017: 5.5% 
• 2018: 5.3% 
• 2019: 5.2% 
• 2020: 5.6% 
• 2021: 5.2% 
• 2022: 4.5% 
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