Russia Dismisses Proposed Peace Deal from Trump Transition Team

[NativeBob]

with current massive unemployment in EU UA enjoys unlimited supply of cannon meat. There are thousands of foreigners fighting Russian troops. And more and more are on the way.

Funny paradox: UA conscripts are running away yet in the same time westerners are coming. 

[transam]

10 minutes ago, baansgr said:

What do you call taking a cyanide pill and shooting himself...if that isn't giving in I don't know what is

You missed out what led to that, he wouldn't give in................🤭

[Walker88]

12 hours ago, mokwit said:

Doesn't that sentence apply just as much to the Biden voters as Trump voters?

I don't know. My equity portfolio really enjoyed 2024, and as far as I know, Biden was still President.

 

I'm out now, as I believe 47 will preside over a 20% decline in the S&P in 2025, with UE somewhere in the 5-6% range and the US in a Recession by the 4th Quarter.

 

Even MAGA cult members will be calling Biden-Harris the "good old days" by 2027.

[stevenl]

2 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

I don't know. My equity portfolio really enjoyed 2024, and as far as I know, Biden was still President.

 

I'm out now, as I believe 47 will preside over a 20% decline in the S&P in 2025, with UE somewhere in the 5-6% range and the US in a Recession by the 4th Quarter.

 

Even MAGA cult members will be calling Biden-Harris the "good old days" by 2027.

No chance. If your prediction comes through they'll blame biden for setting the scene.

[BusyB]

13 hours ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

This is of course utterly absurd.

 

While it's true that Russia's military forces are sizable, the idea that they could afford to lose 100,000 troops and still be able to replace them is extremely unlikely. Even Russia, with its huge population and conscription policies, would struggle to sustain such losses without significant impact on the country's economy and morale.

 

History suggests that dictatorships like Putins are inherently unstable and often fail in the long run. There are many factors at play, including: Economic instability, corruption and human rights abuses.

 

There can only be one outcome to Putin's folly.

 

 

Bit like Galtieri.

[AndreasHG]

19 hours ago, baansgr said:

What was the response of US in 1962...

 

The US did not invade Cuba. The US let the Cubans struggle under Russian rule, it allowed Russia to deploy conventional weapons on the island for defensive purposes, it allowed communism to rule the place unchecked, it kept sanctions in place and focused on something better, more rewarding and interesting than wasting time with the Castro brothers and their demented, hopeless circus. Problem solved.

 

Can Putin do the same? He could but he miscalculated, and now his past criminal behavior doesn't allow him to acknowledge defeat, relax, retire or let his guard down. He must always seem to come out on top, to project strength to feel secure. In the very moment Putin acknowledges defeat in Ukraine, he would instantly turn into a dead man walking in the Kremlin.

 

To be clear, Putin has already lost. He triggered a war to prevent Ukraine to become NATO member and, even before the war is lost, both Finland and Sweden already joined the alliance.

Finland and Sweden added 1,350 km to the border shared by NATO with Russia, a combined population which is half of that of Ukraine, but with a combined GDP of $895 billion, five times bigger than Ukraine.

 

In a democratic open society, genuinely worried about a hypothetical NATO aggressive stance, Putin would have been impeached and forced to retire. Neville Chamberlain is a good example of what happens in democracy when a leader is defeated in the international arena by a dangerous opponent.

 

But Russia is not a democratic open society, and in Russia politics is just about posturing and eliminating one's opponents.

In Russia all smart people perfectly know that NATO hypothetical aggressivity is a joke. NATO has no reason to invade Russia and take charge of 140 million Russian citizens, a big junk of whom are destitute, illiterate, alcoholics, troublemakers and/or pretty w**res.

Only idiots in Russia (and elsewhere) can truly believe that NATO may have aggressive intentions. 

 

Therefore, Putin is left off the hook. He can keep on posturing, pretending to be a world master strategist, while the Russians pretend to believe that NATO is a dangerous enemy, their casualty count mounts, innocent Ukrainians are killed every day, the Russian economy is slowly but securely sliding into a crisis similar to the one that caused the demise of the Soviet Union, and the Russians, as usual, are the ones who will foot the dearest bill,

 

Bottom line Russia is just an immense Potemkin village. Another demented, hopeless circus, like the one the Castro brothers set up in Cuba, only much bigger and wealthier.

 

 

[portisaacozzy]

11 hours ago, CANSIAM said:

No problem, replacements are on Karon, Kata, Surin Beaches Phuket......... 

sorry,forgot about them !!!

[Hakuna Matata]

 

[Hakuna Matata]

By gilbertdoctorow on January 2, 2025

‘Judging Freedom’ edition of 2 January:  How the War in Ukraine Will End

 

The title which Judge Napolitano assigned to this chat says it all. We discussed in particular why Vladimir Putin is amenable to meeting with Donald Trump given the bellicose statements that General Kellogg and others whom Trump is bringing into his administration have been making and their nonstarter proposals for simply postponing Ukraine’s accession to NATO for some more years, which the Russians have rejected outright. 

 

The Russians may have no illusions about the United States but they know, as the Soviets once did, that all of the European leaders count for nothing, that they are all underlings or proxies for the USA. 

 

In short, the Russians can pulverize the Ukrainian army and may do so in the coming weeks before the inauguration in Washington.  But to find peace in Europe they must strike a deal with Washington over the downsizing or dissolution of NATO.

 

I appreciated the opportunity to remind viewers that Russia is a democracy, in its own fashion, and that Mr Putin is not only a statesman but also a politician who has to deal with pressures from various strata of the population. And that is why this war has been drawn out so long: for the Kremlin to overpower Ukraine at a stroke, they would have had to bring into play far more troops than were available in February 2022, meaning through mass mobilization.  And such a mobilization would have been very unpopular.  This political stress was avoided by using the war of attrition method that Russia has applied.

[stevenl]

Nonsense from start to finish, but this goes even further in nonsense.

"I appreciated the opportunity to remind viewers that Russia is a democracy, in its own fashion".

[marquess]

On 1/2/2025 at 6:03 AM, mdr224 said:

Russia isnt in a strong position to dictate terms currently. I think dont give them what they want

Check out the current  military situation, listen to Andrei Martynov, or Alexander Mercurios of the Duran. Unless the West are prepared to send their own troops, Ukraine has lost and so have their Western collective sponsors.

[transam]

2 minutes ago, marquess said:

Check out the current  military situation, listen to Andrei Martynov, or Alexander Mercurios of the Duran. Unless the West are prepared to send their own troops, Ukraine has lost and so have their Western collective sponsors.

Dealing with tyrants can be complicated........🤗

[marquess]

On 1/2/2025 at 7:35 AM, Lacessit said:

Really. The Russian economy is a basket case, with the official bank interest rate at 21%. The ruble has lost 40% of its value since the war began.

 

You need to wake up yourself, tovarisch.

It's about a 35% decline. The Russian economy is now the strongest in Europe in terms of purchasing power. Inflation is currently at  9%. A spare 100k would earn a good amount of interest in a Russian back providing the currency remains at its current levels. The Europeans are destroying their own economic wellbeing for the sake of US corp interests and de industrialising.

[marquess]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

Dealing with tyrants can be complicated........🤗

Dealing with the Hazel missile that currently can't be stopped, helps to cool western hegonomic arrogance. Russia doesn't need the West, but the latter want their resources, and would like to see it broken up.

[Airalee]

On 1/2/2025 at 7:36 AM, mokwit said:

Doesn't that sentence apply just as much to the Biden voters as Trump voters?

“At least 83 billionaires – two of them centibillionaires with a net worth of more than $100 billion each – are supporting Harris, while 52 billionaires, one a centibillionaire, back Trump.”
 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/11/04/billionaires-backing-trump-harris-2024/75936100007/

[transam]

6 minutes ago, marquess said:

Dealing with the Hazel missile that currently can't be stopped, helps to cool western hegonomic arrogance. Russia doesn't need the West, but the latter want their resources, and would like to see it broken up.

"Russia doesn't need the West", I disagree, it's their leader that doesn't need the West.

Still, I hope folk there get McDonald's back one day, and have a leader of peace, who is not involved with commie thoughts, eh...

[mokwit]

9 hours ago, AndreasHG said:

 

The US did not invade Cuba. The US let the Cubans struggle under Russian rule, it allowed Russia to deploy conventional weapons on the island for defensive purposes, it allowed communism to rule the place unchecked, it kept sanctions in place and focused on something better, more rewarding and interesting than wasting time with the Castro brothers and their demented, hopeless circus. Problem solved.

 

Can Putin do the same? He could but he miscalculated, and now his past criminal behavior doesn't allow him to acknowledge defeat, relax, retire or let his guard down. He must always seem to come out on top, to project strength to feel secure. In the very moment Putin acknowledges defeat in Ukraine, he would instantly turn into a dead man walking in the Kremlin.

 

To be clear, Putin has already lost. He triggered a war to prevent Ukraine to become NATO member and, even before the war is lost, both Finland and Sweden already joined the alliance.

Finland and Sweden added 1,350 km to the border shared by NATO with Russia, a combined population which is half of that of Ukraine, but with a combined GDP of $895 billion, five times bigger than Ukraine.

 

In a democratic open society, genuinely worried about a hypothetical NATO aggressive stance, Putin would have been impeached and forced to retire. Neville Chamberlain is a good example of what happens in democracy when a leader is defeated in the international arena by a dangerous opponent.

 

But Russia is not a democratic open society, and in Russia politics is just about posturing and eliminating one's opponents.

In Russia all smart people perfectly know that NATO hypothetical aggressivity is a joke. NATO has no reason to invade Russia and take charge of 140 million Russian citizens, a big junk of whom are destitute, illiterate, alcoholics, troublemakers and/or pretty w**res.

Only idiots in Russia (and elsewhere) can truly believe that NATO may have aggressive intentions. 

 

Therefore, Putin is left off the hook. He can keep on posturing, pretending to be a world master strategist, while the Russians pretend to believe that NATO is a dangerous enemy, their casualty count mounts, innocent Ukrainians are killed every day, the Russian economy is slowly but securely sliding into a crisis similar to the one that caused the demise of the Soviet Union, and the Russians, as usual, are the ones who will foot the dearest bill,

 

Bottom line Russia is just an immense Potemkin village. Another demented, hopeless circus, like the one the Castro brothers set up in Cuba, only much bigger and wealthier.

 

 

One has merely to kick in the front door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down. Is that what you are saying?

[Mike_Hunt]

My wish for 2025 is a complete collapse of the Russian economy, and someone removes Putin from power.

[Lacessit]

21 minutes ago, marquess said:

It's about a 35% decline. The Russian economy is now the strongest in Europe in terms of purchasing power. Inflation is currently at  9%. A spare 100k would earn a good amount of interest in a Russian back providing the currency remains at its current levels. The Europeans are destroying their own economic wellbeing for the sake of US corp interests and de industrialising.

It's a wartime economy, the Kremlin is shelling out subsidies to companies manufacturing goods and services for the war. Non-war companies are having to hike wages to compete, people who are stupid enough to volunteer for the meat grinder are getting salaries way above the norm in industry.

 

That's assuming the official inflation and revenue figures are valid, the Russian government does have a lot of form in bending the truth.

 

I'd as soon put money in a Russian bank as I would buy a airplane ticket from Moscow to Vladivostok.

 

It may look healthy, IMO it's a society heading for collapse.

[mokwit]

21 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Begging for troops from North Korea is a bit of a tell.

Just as N Korea rents out labour for money it is probably renting out soldiers. My guess is Putin paid for these and the reason he did is that they are expendable and without family in the USSR and at this meatgrinder phase of an attrition war they are just as good for the task at hand as civilians from remote areas of Russia who volunteered because the state gave their parents a sheep if they did. Russians families still hurt from Afghanistan and its losses.

 

Russia will burn through N Koreans to force Ukraine to burn through over 25 yr old Ukrainians until they have to lower the conscription age, and then it will be 18 year olds or using NATO armies (more) without officially using NATO armies.

 

An alternative explanation is the Western propaganda one, that Russia's professional army has been destroyed as a force in a similar way that the UK's small professional standing army had been destroyed in WW1 by the end of 1914 with conscription following.

 

I feel sad for the N Koreans who have been subjected to extreme propaganda all their lives and probably feel they are doing their bit to fight the Imperialism that apparently threatens N Korea's existence.

[candide]

1 hour ago, marquess said:

The Russian economy is now the strongest in Europe in terms of purchasing power

No 🤣

It is Germany.

https://countrycassette.com/countries-by-gdp-ppp-purchasing-power-parity/

 

And PPP is not really relevant to compare the economic power of countries.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/by-gdp

 

[candide]

28 minutes ago, mokwit said:

Just as N Korea rents out labour for money it is probably renting out soldiers. My guess is Putin paid for these and the reason he did is that they are expendable and without family in the USSR and at this meatgrinder phase of an attrition war they are just as good for the task at hand as civilians from remote areas of Russia who volunteered because the state gave their parents a sheep if they did. Russians families still hurt from Afghanistan and its losses.

 

Russia will burn through N Koreans to force Ukraine to burn through over 25 yr old Ukrainians until they have to lower the conscription age, and then it will be 18 year olds or using NATO armies (more) without officially using NATO armies.

 

An alternative explanation is the Western propaganda one, that Russia's professional army has been destroyed as a force in a similar way that the UK's small professional standing army had been destroyed in WW1 by the end of 1914 with conscription following.

 

I feel sad for the N Koreans who have been subjected to extreme propaganda all their lives and probably feel they are doing their bit to fight the Imperialism that apparently threatens N Korea's existence.

I don't think NK soldiers were given any choice.

From what I heard, they are sent first and sacrified to weaken Ukrainian defenses, and then Russian soldiers follow. 

[AndreasHG]

3 hours ago, Hakuna Matata said:

I appreciated the opportunity to remind viewers that Russia is a democracy, in its own fashion

 

3 hours ago, Hakuna Matata said:

the Russians can pulverize the Ukrainian army and may do so in the coming weeks

 

3 hours ago, Hakuna Matata said:

But to find peace in Europe they must strike a deal with Washington over the downsizing or dissolution of NATO

 

LOL, Hakuna Matata's post contains the highest number of idiocies I have ever recorded in a single post...

 

Putin has killed all his political opponents, and a big share of those who disagreed with him. None of his opponents ever made to the ballots. They were stopped way before, by bullets, poison, hanging, flying off from high windows or flying off the sky with their airplane, crew and associates. Putin, like Adolf Hitler after a few years in power, reached the stage where he only represents himself.

 

It's three years that the Russians try unsuccessfully to pulverize the Ukrainian army.

Russia has almost four times the population of Ukraine, almost three times the GDP per capita of Ukraine, the support of China, India, Iran, North Korea, Siria (till it lasted), and all has achieved in three years is add a further 119,000 km2 (46,000 sq mi) of occupied Ukrainian territory, to the 42,000 km2 (16,000 sq mi) it already controlled prior the full scale invasion of March 2022.

It took only six weeks (yes you read it right Hakuna Makata, 42 days in total) for Hitler's army to overrun the armies of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France, starting from May 1940.

 

The difference between Germany and Russia is due to the endemic corruption of the Russian society and widespread posturing, the so-called Potemkin village effect. The Russian Army pretends to be powerfully invincible, and the rest of the Russians pretend to believe it, with only the idiot at the top (i.e. Putin) ending up believing that there might something true in the claim and deciding to put it to test.

Stalin did the same mistake with Finland in November 1939.   

 

But the most idiotic part of the post is the expected downsizing of NATO... NATO just added two members, Finland and Sweden, 15,5 million inhabitants and a combined GDP five times bigger than Ukraine. If there is one thing happening to NATO it's that it has just got bigger, and its member countries are spending more in defense, pushed by Russia's aggressivity and by the newly re-elected POTUS, Donald Trump.

 

Russia, with its GDP of 2 trillion USD and 143 million inhabitants, is dwarfed by the EU 19,4 trillion USD GDP and 449 million inhabitants, and disappears when compared to NATO combined GDP of 53.1 trillion USD and a population of 951. 

 

 

 

 

[billd766]

On 1/2/2025 at 8:25 AM, gargamon said:

What you say conflicts with what they are saying on RT. Clearly you must be incorrect.  😮

Is RT a propaganda arm of the Russian government?

 

Also according to the internet RT is banned from Meta.

 

Yet you seem to believe it.

 

Perhaps it is you that is incorrect.

[Chomper Higgot]

46 minutes ago, mokwit said:

Just as N Korea rents out labour for money it is probably renting out soldiers. My guess is Putin paid for these and the reason he did is that they are expendable and without family in the USSR and at this meatgrinder phase of an attrition war they are just as good for the task at hand as civilians from remote areas of Russia who volunteered because the state gave their parents a sheep if they did. Russians families still hurt from Afghanistan and its losses.

 

Russia will burn through N Koreans to force Ukraine to burn through over 25 yr old Ukrainians until they have to lower the conscription age, and then it will be 18 year olds or using NATO armies (more) without officially using NATO armies.

 

An alternative explanation is the Western propaganda one, that Russia's professional army has been destroyed as a force in a similar way that the UK's small professional standing army had been destroyed in WW1 by the end of 1914 with conscription following.

 

I feel sad for the N Koreans who have been subjected to extreme propaganda all their lives and probably feel they are doing their bit to fight the Imperialism that apparently threatens N Korea's existence.

Russia isn’t burning through N.Koreans, Ukraine is.

 

You persist assume N.Korea will continue to supply Russia with cannon fodder.

[mokwit]

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Russia isn’t burning through N.Koreans, Ukraine is.

 

You persist assume N.Korea will continue to supply Russia with cannon fodder.

'Russia will burn through N Koreans to force Ukraine to burn through over 25 yr old Ukrainians'

 

Russia is burning through them instead of their own people in an attrition war. I would have thought that was clear from what I wrote to anyone with reasonable English comprehension levels and in the context of discussing attrition war, or were you trying to be funny? (don't, you can't) Your tiresome attempts to flippantly distort whatever other people write don't reflect well on you, it just shows what a dishonest debater you are).

 

N. Korea has reputedly already supplied 10,000 troops and according to  propaganda they have taken heavy casualties in place of Russians. We don't yet know what the upper limit will be from N. Korea, they might even withdraw the remainder if as is being suggested they are being used as human wave cannon fodder without regard to casualty levels. We just don't know, they may already have reached the limit, or it may continue into six figures.

[mokwit]

31 minutes ago, candide said:

I don't think NK soldiers were given any choice.

From what I heard, they are sent first and sacrified to weaken Ukrainian defenses, and then Russian soldiers follow. 

That is effectively what I was saying, but that is probably not what they were told in Korea before they went.

[AndreasHG]

1 hour ago, mokwit said:

One has merely to kick in the front door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down. Is that what you are saying?

 

😂 Actually, politely knocking on the front door should suffice👍 

[billd766]

1 hour ago, marquess said:

It's about a 35% decline. The Russian economy is now the strongest in Europe in terms of purchasing power. Inflation is currently at  9%. A spare 100k would earn a good amount of interest in a Russian back providing the currency remains at its current levels. The Europeans are destroying their own economic wellbeing for the sake of US corp interests and de industrialising.

Do you have any links or facts for what you are claiming?

 

Or is everybody just supposed to take your words as fact and the truth?

[mokwit]

4 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

 

😂 Actually, politely knocking on the front door should suffice👍 

Did you know I was quoting Adolf Hitler speaking in advance of the invasion of The Soviet Union?. How it ended is well known

 

Initially it looked as though that might be the case but Russia is a vast land with a huge population. They moved their tank factories beyond the range of German aircraft because the land was vast enough that they could. They could take losses in a strategy of attrition that bled the German manpower resources dry. The Germans destroyed 7,000 Russian tanks at the WW2 battle of Kursk and the Russians were able to continue mounting offenses.