ozimoron

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Saturday for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow to stop its invasion of Ukraine, saying it would otherwise take Russia "several generations" to recover from its losses in the war. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/meaningful-talks-needed-stop-russia-ukraine-zelenskiy-says-2022-03-19/

He said it was. He already did annex Crimea and the Donbass regions.

In what way has the Ukraine demonstrated that is may be a threat to Russia? It has never invaded Russia. It has never poisoned a Russian president.

I think some of these people are on a payroll to troll sites like this, honestly.

What about the photos of destroyed residential buildings, hospitals and schools and the millions of refugees? Just western propaganda?

In what way? If you prefer, Ukraine IS free to join the EU and NATO.

Not available? You don't believe that Ukraine should be free to join the EU and NATO if it wishes? Ukraine is a poor country and it sees an opportunity to lift itself into prosperity.

So you don't believe his actions amount to war crimes? I'm asking what you think, we all know that he won't face a court that he doesn't even recognise. I'm trying to flush out the Putin apologists here and make then declare their hand.

When did the US or any Western nation indiscriminantly bomb civilians in a continued and methodical way? Or machine gun thousands of kids and bury them in secret mass graves?

According to Harvard Kennedy School's Kathryn Sikkink, Putin needs to be put on trial by a replacement government in Russia. "If you've had leaders who've committed crimes, you want the new government to be able to put those leaders on trial and hold them criminally accountable using due process for crimes they've committed," she explained. "And if you find them guilty, to sentence them and imprison them." https://www.rawstory.com/lindsey-graham-putin-2656991132/

Putin has committed at least several of those offences. Right?

Really? Over 100 children killed and over 1200 still believed trapped in the theatre. Not to mention the indiscriminate bombing of residential areas. How are these not war crimes? Why is the ICJ in the Ukraine investigating war crimes?

*Deleted post edited out* Syria, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Georgia. Plus Ukraine. There is no small time about this criminal despot. You are using numbers to protect Putin? Are you suggesting that he's not a war criminal?

They included military deaths, hardly "innocent". As I said, your original claim was higher than other estimates but still less than your claim. This is why I asked for a link. References to facts always provide context. In this case, your original claim has to be seen as an exaggeration. I'm not downplaying that thousands of Iraqis died unnecessarily, just looking for the facts.

“His instinct will be always to double down, because he’s got himself into a dreadful mess, a huge strategic blunder,” Fatefully, Putin underestimated the national pride and battlefield skills that Ukrainians have built up over the past eight years of battling Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east. Two out of three of those were captured or abandoned, signaling the failings of the Russian troops that let them go. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-europe-nato-49abe49e9b35833a385fe10db802dc5a

The Russian president’s ‘strong man’ image and disdain for liberals has turned him into a hero for white nationalists https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/05/putin-ukraine-invasion-white-nationalists-far-right?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Got a link? I don't disagree that the US should have pursued non military solutions to the 9/11 attacks but your numbers appear to be exaggerated.

In 2017, the size of the regiment was estimated at more than 2,500 members,[21] but by 2022, it has been estimated to be 900 members.

Ukrainian and Western intelligence analysts have long predicted that Russia’s post-war strategy would follow a pattern set in Crimea, as well as in Donetsk and Luhansk, two Ukrainian regions where pro-Russian separatists brutalized the local populations, sowed chaos and destruction, and formed corrupt puppet regimes to govern the so-called People’s Republics. “I know their political plan; it’s very obvious for me,” said Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Kyiv-based human rights lawyer and director of the Center for Civil Liberties, which documents war crimes. “Their plan is to occupy territories, physically liquidate active people, find people they can appoint as local representatives and control them,” she added. “We saw this in 2014, when the war started, how they work. https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-fights-back-kremlin-russia-blueprint/

I'm using Firefox. The issue is intermittent but very frequent. I mangles the top menu bar.

How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London From banking to boarding schools, the British establishment has long been at their service, discretion guaranteed. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/28/how-putins-oligarchs-bought-london

One of those countries invaded a sovereign country and committed war crimes. The others didn't. It's not hard to assume that the west knew Russia would retaliate but they will come out losing in the end. When sanctions are lifted, the company leasing the aircraft will seek compensation for their losses.

off topic much?

They are a way of putting pressure on Putin - that is the rationale. As a BM recently put it, war is war. Those kleptocrats are helping keep Putin in power and helped put him there.

Economically, Russia is done. The kleptocracy that spent decades skimming from an extraction economy while failing to fund public programs, education, infrastructure, or the military, has discovered that the well has a bottom after all. ----------- It was already clear that Putin has a fetish for restoring the Soviet Union—a name that both Putin and his advisers have repeatedly used in recent weeks when describing the Russian Federation. What wasn’t clear is that Putin’s admiration of all things Soviet included the bread lines, famine, labor camps, and political purges https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/17/2086458/-Ukraine-update-Can-Russia-survive-Putin-s-War