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  1. Putin was more likely to be couped if he hadn’t moved to protect the Russians who have lived in the Donbas for 100s of years.Should he have lain back , sold out Russia to voracious US/EU monied interests and taken the bribes?Allowed the eastern rebels to be slaughtered? Should he have ignored the bellicosity from the US/UK , the de facto Nato membership of Ukraine, the increasing flood of arms into Ukraine with the repression (and killings) of the Russian minority.Lets not forget it was Lenin who for reasons of “balance” moved parts of Russia into Ukraine in the 20,s.This was ok for decades until the nationalistic Ukrainians sought to eliminate all Russians from the newly minted Ukraine (1991)
    Who shares the blame here?
    Nato/US who absolutely refused to countenance Russian pleas for security guarantees, at every step attempting to block Russia’s energy relationship with Germany and interfering in both Russian and Ukrainian elections.Refusing to pressure Ukraine into implementing the Minsk accords under the Normandy format.In fact, encouraging Ukraine not to implement them , when Germany and France were themselves guarantors of the peace agreement.
    Any Russian who can read English knows the West is not their friend
    Please tell me what Putin could have done once all diplomatic efforts had been exhausted.I mean how many years have passed since Putin’s famous Munich security forum address in 2007? the same speech in various iterations repeated until the final straw in 2022.
    The US/EU and vile UK would like nothing better than to smash up Russia into resource rich components, like Yugoslavia, and feast off the profits until climate disaster and further pandemics do us all in
    Incidentally, if Putin is driven by maniacal avarice as so often claimed , he could really cash in by accepting the billions US is clearly ready to spend on ripping apart Russia
    I want to know what country in the world would willingly accept a huge hostile military alliance to move to its borders?

    1. Russia is not the problem. Putin and his siloviki thugs are the problem. A moderate Russia led by a Navalny or a Nemtsov would cooperate with its neighbours not bully them. Francesca you have misread Russian history. Let the Ukrainian people decide for themselves what sort of government they want. Don’t assume that it was the US behind Maidan because it wasn’t.

      1. Oh my goodness.Navalny?
        Nationalistic Navalny who famously referred to Caucasian Muslims as cockroaches and mimed shooting them.He is also in favour of the Crimean return to Russia.Unfortunately, despite still being allowed to operate social media accounts from within prison (Heard from Assange lately?)the most support Navalny has ever been able to muster within Russia was in 2013 when he ran for mayor of Moscow on an anti migrant platform .He got 27% of the vote and came second.His polling has languished since.

  2. Interesting times.
    U.S industrial complex ? It’s always been a thing in the modern world, and I for one am grateful they maintain military superiority while weakening the rogue state that is Russia, and facing an expansionist authoritarian Han ethno state in China.

    Covid? I don’t think the vaccine really makes much difference other than to severity, and true it’s not identical to the flu, but current mortality rates to omicron are a few times worse than baseline flu so comparable to a nasty flu epidemic although yes long covid is a thing.

    Climate change? Is a thing but overhyped, and yes in the same capitalist society which gives us the military industrial complex, we have some people getting very rich from climate change and a bunch of people losing quality of life to pay for it although the new layers of technocrats work very hard to make sure they themselves are not in the second group. EV subsidies for the cities while cutting food production anyone?

    Late stage capitalism? The fate of China determines our fate in the next 20 years and the fate of western capitalism. War and territorial expansion are distinct possibilities that will overshadow other minor details in our part of the world. Failing to ensure energy security by ceasing oil and gas exploration and allowing Marsden Point to close, is just another treasonous colossal fail from the current government. No military to protect our fisheries or assets.

    Fun times ahead and we have been poorly prepared by consecutive weak governments

  3. All out! General strike until N.A.T.O honours the Two Plus Four Agreement! All N.A.T.O bases back to the Gensler Line!

    Down tools! All wage cuts reversed now! End all restrictions on supply of energy!

    Down with the far-right Kiev putsch regime! Remove all bans on the opposition parties and press outlets! New elections now!

    Down with fascism! Defeat the Azov Regiment! Arrest all Banderite Fascists in Ukraine! Jail the traitors who broke the Minsk Accords!

    No to chauvinism, yes to C.I.S reunification! Honour the March Referendum, and implement the New Union Treaty! Defeat U.S. attempts to break up Russia!

  4. Martin,

    Mostly Kremlin talking points. Even so, no regrets about the donation to TDB. Happy New Year.

  5. Francesca’s comment should have been the lead article in this space. Bomber lists all the obvious reasons why Putin had no choice in this matter but then, for some unknown reason, claims he is motivated by avarice. Come on Bomber, in the circumstances you clearly understand Putin was facing, tell us what he should have done.

  6. “In the competition between men, capitalism is war of all, against all” As Marx said.

    According to Lenin. The war of all against all, fought by the capitalist robber barons of 19th Century America was traditionally carried out with dynamite. Lenin went on to say, that was until the state reserved unto itself the monopoly on violence.
    The monopoly of violence by nation states may have stopped the use of violence in the competition between capitalists, but it didn’t stop the use of violence in the competition between capitalist states.

    War is capitalist competition writ large.

    The history of capitalist competition in this part of the world is as ugly and violent as anywhere. (And promises to be again).

    https://www.thecoconet.tv/coco-docos/tales-of-time/tales-of-time-the-samoan-war-you-didnt-know/

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