Posted on 03/20/2022 7:09:22 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
A very large part of Ukraine was under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for a long time, which is why their culture is actually quite different from Russia’s.
Yes: Putin does not have the Soviet Union’s ability to command 40% or 50% of Russia’s economy to support military operations.
It only matters whether they're true.
As I stated early on, had Putin just kept his moves to
the two “republics” and fortified Crimea he probably
could have pulled this off. The liberal powers would
have accepted that but He bit off a bit more than
he could chew, much less the world swallow.
ABSOLUTELY GREAT ARTICLE, THANK YOU!
Isolated megalomaniacs begin to believe in the fake personas they present and in their delusions.
He’s been living in a past that the people he’s trying to control just don’t live in anymore.
A strong national identity is forged when a hostile power invades and starts to wreak havoc. Squabbling among disparate groups disappears overnight.
How credible is your message when you state it as would a wise guy teenager? If you're trying to persuade then you're failing.
Exactly. Putin has managed to promote and encourage the exact kind of Ukrainian national identity he and his supporters in the U.S. claimed never existed.
Good picture
Once forged, it is nearly impossible to break.
Russia can afford a lengthy engagement. The Chineese have encouraged them in that direction. A lengthy engagement will keep oil and mineral prices high. Fertilizere and wheat will not be sold. This inflation will hasten the end of the dollar as a reserve currency. This is the Chineese strategic objective.
[The only question that matters in your scenario is...does he have 100% control of his nukes. If he does not, the have at the guy...if he does... you need to break his nuclear chain first. Otherwise you are playing with thermonuclear war if you shoot and miss.]
Putin’s not suicidal, and he’s certainly not interested in wiping out the Putin name or Russia as a biological or geographical entity. He’ll withdraw the troops to Russia and set about the grim task of killing his internal rivals once he judges the war to be unwinnable at an acceptable cost.
Nearly nothing from the MSM/swamp/globaloids is EVER true, so thank you for the affirmation... or confirmation.
Their language is Ruthenian.
[Russia can afford a lengthy engagement. The Chineese have encouraged them in that direction. A lengthy engagement will keep oil and mineral prices high. Fertilizere and wheat will not be sold. This inflation will hasten the end of the dollar as a reserve currency. This is the Chineese strategic objective.]
The Chinese want the buying power of reserve currency status without taking the trade deficits that go with that buying power. Here’s a hint. It doesn’t work that way.
There’s another big issue - the country with the biggest economy naturally has the biggest currency exchange volumes. That makes its currency exchange trades the ones with the lowest bid-ask spreads. If you use a different currency, one party has to be willing to accept the additional costs from that arrangement. If the Saudis are willing to accept a lower price from the Chinese, or the Chinese are willing to pay a higher price, maybe this will work out to everyone’s satisfaction.
But someone in there is getting the short end of the stick vs working with the dollar. The real bottom line is that people use the dollar not because they like Americans. They use the dollar for the same reason they use iOS or Android phones - they offer the most bang for the buck. Whether operating system or currency, their association with the US has only the barest relationship to the reason people use them.
The dollar is the reserve currency of choice for two reasons - the size of the economy and the fact that unlike Japan, Germany and Switzerland, we don’t charge people interest to park their reserves in dollars to discourage them from doing so. The yuan will *never* be a reserve currency. They don’t want the trade deficits, and no one trusts them.
The Chinese king (Trump’s verbiage in frank conversation with Xi) wiped out $100b is American stockholder value by declaring Chinese for-profit education companies listed on US exchanges non-profits. I wouldn’t trust Xi with the loose change from a trip to the grocery store, never mind a nation’s forex reserves.
Let the UK, France, and Germany jump on Russia.
Not on my border.
The last people formally classified as Ruthenian speakers lived in what is now southeastern Poland. They were driven out to Ukraine after WWII, and the territory they formerly inhabited is now Biesczady National Park.
Yes, I agree, and your scenario is the best case scenario right now. And it assumes that Putin can see a way out and him stay in power and alive. If he can’t see a path out and if he has 100% control of his nukes then I think he will take down the world with him... and for those left to write history.... He will have been the great destroyer of the world and will leave his mark like no other. What I am saying is simply this...stop threatening the man, if you are going to kill him...then kill him..., but stop talking about it. And realize this... if you shoot and miss you may trigger a thermonuclear war. So shut up and and act or don’t but shut up about killing the man and shut up about your designs for him. What I think would be more effective to getting to your end state is a massive build up in oil production in the US and arms in Europe.
Yup. What a monumental miscalculation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.