candide

Some of his interventions were maybe not relevant, I.e. I am not pro-Brexit, but democracy was obviously not at stake so his foundation's money would have been best spent elsewhere. However, most of his "meddling" were clearly targeted on causes and candidates which were obviously pro-democracy. Some have been successful, some not, some had later negative counter-effects, but broadly speaking it was in the right direction.

The photo in the OP is priceless! ????

Great news!

Really? I don't think there was a "cult" of Zelinski before the invasion, nor was there a cult of the dead (they died during the invasion). I am also not aware of Ukraine's imperial dream. I have not heard any claim of regaining parts of Romania, Belarus or Kuban.

An interesting article https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/opinion/russia-fascism-ukraine-putin.html

This is a massive loss. In a traditionally yellow city, a former minister of Yingluck has been elected governor, and the PTP gets the highest number of council seats (20), 10 times more than the PPP (2)! ????

After Trump stupidly scratched the TPP, China has been left during 5 years as the only one to propose a coherent economic project in this region of the world. So much time has been lost. It was urgent that a competitive project would come up.

Brave or not brave. Educated and informed young people from the most developed parts of Russia don't want to fight in this stupid war. That's why the army tends to send conscripts from far regions and from minorities to Ukraine. The mostly white and educated Russians living in Moscow or St Petersburg don't want to die for Putin.

That says it all about the guy who lost against him. ????

Come on guys! Don't worry! There are still plenty of uneccentric and quite boring leaders! ????

In other words, they will not have to disguise as restaurants any more. ????

What I meant is that in case of Rusian invasion of Finland, Sweden is right behind (hinter) to provide logistical and military support, host military in case of retreat, etc.... It's critical for Finland.

In particular, Sweden is Finland's hinterland.

That's quite interesting. He would not have been allowed to tell that on State TV without support. How could it be explained? The power that be are preparing minds for a change of policy? An influential faction is contesting Putin's decisions?

He did what he was told to do. He could just have done what Yingluck did: dissolve parliament and organise elections. That's what democratic governments do when they are perceived as being illegitimate. Why didn't he do that and instead made a vague promise of elections in November? Because he wanted to be able to appoint the next army chief in September 2010 (what the red shirts wanted to prevent by having elections earlier). Who did he appoint? Prayut, who was in charge of the army in Bangkok when protesters were killed. PS That could not also be more clear "However, at the official handover ceremony on Thursday, General Prayuth warned that the army was ready to play a role if there were further conflicts and Thailand failed to return to order." https://learngerman.dw.com/en/thailands-new-army-chief-takes-office/a-6066746

Not sure who utilized whom.... see my next post

And "Mr" Paul was showing it again recently! ???? https://www.salon.com/2022/04/26/rand-paul-goes-to-bat-for-putin-the-countries-theyve-attacked-were-part-of-russia/

It's all here. Germany is not that bad, but France's military contribution doesn't seem to be high. Actually It's more complex than that as the EU is also financing arms purchase and it is not included. It also depends whether one considers absolute value or % of GDP. On this criteria some Eastern European countries are very well positioned. Another limitation is that statistics are based on commitments (= promises) and not on actual deliveries. https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/?cookieLevel=not-set

Ahem... Is he really worthy of any of these two titles?

You are considering this issue in an inverted way. The issue is not whether a democratically elected government would have been better, it is whether an unelected autocratic government is providing significant benefits that would justify it. It may or may not have made a noticeable improvement, we don't know. However, what we know for sure, is that the coup did not bring any noticeable improvement. So why impose an autocratic corrupt and illegetimate regime, with all the flaws that are attached to it, in particular the absence of accountability and counter-powers, if it doesn't bring any improvement? The answer is quite obvious! On top of it, what you and a few others are unable to grasp, is that the democratic process is a learning process. It took time in Western countries to develop acceptable democratic systems. This learning process simply cannot happen if it is regularly interrupted by coups which are replacing corrupt elected politicians by corrupt unelected autocrats. It could have happened if there had been no coup. Yingluck may not have been re-elected.

BS! You are responsible for checking the information you convey! And once again, you don't quote your sources, and just try to have other posters losing their time finding the source.

There are opinions and there are facts You can have whatever opinion you want but not your own facts. That's where the source credibility comes into play. OMG it reminds me the discussions we had with the MAGzA guys in the defunct world news forum....

I think they have gone too far with the 2019 law, but: - details matter: the essence of the law is to mandate Ukrainian language. It does not strictly forbid using Russian. Ex Russian language can be used in newspapers, but a translation in Ukrainian must be provided. Doctors or judges can use Russian by mutual agreement, etc... - there is a context: the Ukrainisation trend was notably amplified after the invasion of Crimea and after citizen of "autonomous" regions got granted Russian passports. So Russia is also partly responsible of this excessive reaction. All this is explained in the article you refer to, but it seems you don't like to mention what doesn't support your point. So OK they have gone too far and It's obvious that the EU, the ECHR, etc... will put pressure on them to amend the law. However, the key issue is: does it justify invading Ukraine and slaughter people? For me, the answer is obvious. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/25/ukraine-adopts-law-enforcing-use-of-ukrainian-in-public-life Your tendency to occult information in order to support your propaganda is also evident about the Mariopol event. The protesters "burning alive" in Odessa was not caused by the government, but by a conflict between pro-Maidan and anti-Maidan protesters (the local administration and police being largely anti-Maidan in this place at that time. Pro-Maidan protesters had been continuously attacked by armed pro-Russian protesters (while police wasn't doing much to prevent it) and it caused the latest confrontation which culminated by the burning of a building. This is all documented here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Odessa_clashes

Ahem... https://www.grid.news/story/misinformation/2022/04/18/russias-favorite-war-propagandist-is-a-navy-veteran-from-missouri/

And in particular..... ???? "Against the Iraq War - Dominique de Villepin On February 14, 2003, in the UN Security Council, Dominique de Villepin refused ratify the Iraq war. He spoke on behalf of peace and on behalf of the Iraqi people. But his warnings were never heeded and they still ring true today." https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/074567-011-A/great-speeches-that-made-history/