11 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

For evil to triumph all it takes is for good men to do nothing.

Wow, that's original. Not

5 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

Wow, that's original. Not

Did that sound better in your head?

5 hours ago, peterrabbit said:

Putin knows that if he doesn't come out of this with a "win" then he and his cronies are toast!

There will be a pusch and God knows who will be in the Kremlin. 

 

Its high stakes at play, not just Ukraine.

Putin will do anything,anything to stay in power.

Including a nuclear strike.

If it ends up in Armageddon, I doubt that would worry him too much.

10 minutes ago, johng said:

You obviously can't read !   it was Merkel who said what she said.

It's you! I quoted Merkel

7 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

I think you misunderstood my post.

 

If Europe and America banned trade with any country buying Russian oil, that would stop most BRICS countries in their tracks.  They wouldn’t buy Russian oil.

 

However the pain would be immense.  The British have a history of making the right moral decisions resulting in immense hardship.

Trump has made an agreement with India to stop buying Russian oil.

1 minute ago, emptypockets said:

Trump has made an agreement with India to stop buying Russian oil.

somebody please tell India

4 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

The way to end this war in a way that gets territory returned is secondary sanctions.

 

All countries must stop India, China and anyone else from buying Russian oil. 
 

You buy Russian oil, no trade with you. Painful for all unfortunately.

Shouldn't it be all trade not just Russian Oil

US trade with Russia

Fertilizer: The US imported $927 million worth of fertilizer in the first half of this year, US Census Bureau data shows. Last year, fertilizer imports from Russia totaled more than $1 billion.
Palladium: Although palladium imports from Russia have reduced significantly since 2021, data shows that the US still imported $878 million worth of the metal in 2024
Uranium and plutonium: The US has imported $755 million worth of uranium and plutonium from Russia so far this year, according to Census data through June. It imported $624 million worth of those commodities from Russia in 2024.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/14/europe/us-europe-trade-business-with-russia-intl

12 hours ago, novacova said:

Why play chicken to find an unwelcoming answer? None of us here have a first hand read on these red button controllers. The last thing anyone wants is a psychopath believing that the best solution for the planet is a clean-slate where only a few survive, especially if that red button controlling psychopath is boxed in.

 

The innocuous sounding 35th Special Objects Maintenance Directorate (General Staff Reserve Command Post) is the unit that can start armageddon. There is redundancy in the shonky Soviet era system, but this is the key element. Putin's orders would roll into them. While Putin says that the Russian nuclear doctrine has changed to pre-emptive strike, the command and control system is built around a first strike by NATO; a series of sensors, which may or may not work now, that detect missile launches.

 

Of course, such missile systems need preparing and fueling up. One of the errors by the Russians in their missile war with Ukraine is that they have been using very expensive missiles intended for nuclear strikes to blow up tower blocks and Aldi supermarkets. An enormous amount of intel is collected each time they launch, not only the physical locations of mobile launchers (and where eventually said launchers are parked up for the night), but the associated radio chatter, possibly even identifying key unit members. Its called showing your hand.

 

Some information abot their current status:

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00963402.2025.2494386#d1e2162

 

Of course, aside from the CND fear-inspired "the Russians might attack us", whats the view on the other side of the hill, to paraphrase Liddell-Hart? Are the Russians thinking the same, about the Americans, the French and the British. They have particular memories of the British and French. Britain's and France's importance might have lessened over the years, but they remain militarily significant, and Russian politicians do have a particular obsession with them.

 

One thing about striking London or Paris is that Britain's and France's nuclear force is pretty much all at sea. Both the British and French nuclear doctrines are deliberately vague. In fact the British doctrine changes with each Prime Minister, who has to pen the Letter of Last Resort; instructions to the crew, when the subs lose contact with London (which might be to hit back, at pre-assigned targets, hand yourself over to the command of the Americans, high tail it to Australia, and await further orders, or find a nice desert island to hang out until this all blows over).

 

France's doctrine was based on French interests, but it now extended to European interests. Unlike the British, the French system is fully independant of Washington. the French nuclear arsenal is split between submarines and air launched.

 

Of course the British and French forces are much smaller than the Russian forces, but I suspect the Russian brass is less confident about their missile defence forces after their woeful performance in the last year or so against what should be a second rate opponant.

5 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

The way to end this war in a way that gets territory returned is secondary sanctions.

 

All countries must stop India, China and anyone else from buying Russian oil. 
 

You buy Russian oil, no trade with you. Painful for all unfortunately.

September 2025 — Monthly analysis of Russian fossil fuel exports and sanctions

Russia’s fossil fuel exports remain highly concentrated, with China dominating coal and crude oil purchases, Turkiye dominating purchases of oil products, and the EU still the largest buyer of LNG and pipeline gas — showing Moscow’s dependence on a narrow set of key customers.

Coal: From 5 December 2022 until the end of September 2025, China purchased 43% of all of Russia’s coal exports. India (20%), Turkiye (11%), South Korea (10%), and Taiwan (4%) round off the top five buyers list. 

Crude oil: China has bought 47% of Russia’s crude exports, followed by India (38%), Turkiye (6%) and the EU (6%). 

Oil products: Turkiye, the largest buyer, has purchased 26% of Russia’s oil product exports, followed by China (12%) and Brazil (12%) and Singapore (8%). 

LNG: The EU remains the largest buyer of Russian LNG, and has bought half of Russia’s total LNG exports, followed by China (22%) and Japan (18%). 

Pipeline gas: The EU is the largest buyer, purchasing 35% of Russia’s pipeline gas, followed by China (30%) and Turkiye (29%). 

https://energyandcleanair.org/september-2025-monthly-analysis-of-russian-fossil-fuel-exports-and-sanctions/

It wouldn't make sense for example  Thailand to suspend all trade ( including EV's) with China because they are buying Russian fossil fuel

Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania are NATO member countries that border Ukraine Putin knows any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine could trigger NATO's article 5 from any one of them.

 

Putin has most likely already been warned not to go there not only by NATO but probably China as well.

 

Putin may be a lot of things but he's not stupid.

14 hours ago, xylophone said:

But of course with whatever Putin has on/over Trump will ensure Trump remains the TACO that he has become famous for.

Dream on..

28 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Dream on..

"But of course with whatever Putin has on/over Trump will ensure Trump remains the TACO that he has become famous for".

There have been a couple of times when Trump has "warned" Putin about escalating the war, and both times Putin has carried on as per usual (indiscriminate bombing of Ukraine) and Trump's only answer was the very powerful and threatening statement, "I am not happy......... ". LOL, what a joke from the tubby TACO king!

 

On 10/18/2025 at 2:06 PM, 300sd said:

You should follow your own orders.

Even if they are illegal and lay me open for war crimes?

On 10/18/2025 at 8:21 PM, JBChiangRai said:

If Europe and America banned trade with any country buying Russian oil, that would stop most BRICS countries in their tracks.  They wouldn’t buy Russian oil.

No all it would do is bring BRICS closer together and encourage other countries to join the alternative club.

TACO