Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

It doesn't matter how easy it is to get around. The point is that the Germans are refusing to play ball.

Nordsteam 2 hasn't moved a whiff of gas yet.



The EBU has kicked Russia out of Eurovision this year.

(25-02-2022 17:43 )HannahsPet Wrote:  SWIFT is a red herring its easily to get around especially using the chinese system

Not at all. No major Western counterparty would try to skirt a SWIFT ban as they would quickly find themselves in trouble with their own regulators & the US would block them from using Dollars for any transaction anywhere in the world. Remember British Banks closed entirely legal Iranian business when the US said if you don’t we will close you down in the US.

and how many banks in the last 15 years have been fined for Sanctions Busting

including Standard Charter and barclays

Lots! (I speak as someone who worked for a bank who “settled” with the US authorities) You need to extend your timeline though.

(25-02-2022 11:51 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  Tusk finally grows a spine. Never thought I'd see the day when I agreed with this wanker.



Germany are an utter disgrace. The Western half enjoyed decades of expensive protection from NATO but they're preventing Russia from being frozen out of the Swift payment system. I guess they think the 5000 helmets they offered is enough.

I agree? To be honest, I always thought there must be some reason, some sort of deep plan underlying their relentless nice-making and mutual entanglement with Russia. I also thought the Germans must have a capable military and that they were just being low-key about it. Basically, I thought that the Germans had it all together. I couldn't take very seriously the idea that they were addicted to 'free-riding' and incapable of playing any coherent part in international relations, beyond selling people stuff.

My faith in the essential wisdom and competence of the new German state was first shaken by their response to the Greek debt crisis, which was insanely, cruelly, counterproductively parochial and inward-looking. They seemed to me then to have no understanding of what a currency union with other European states actually required. It would be like the northeastern U.S. insisting on deflationary monetary policy, because export earnings in Massachusetts were still high and a recession in the rest of the country ostensibly had nothing to do with them. Just blind.

But, wow. In broader terms, it now sounds like the Germans have gone on contentedly 'not-fighting the last war' (learning only the lesson of not being Nazis, which isn't actually that difficult to do) for so long that they are genuinely flummoxed by contact with anything outside their preexisting game plan of peacefully prospering. I don't understand how they could be so oblivious. I watched panel discussions about Russia and Ukraine on Deutsche Welle earlier this month that left my jaw hanging open—at the sheer amount of wishful 'Putinverstehen-ing' by apparently respected commentators on German TV. Obviously their self-involvement is one of the reasons Eastern Europe is now at threat.

In the short term, they should completely change their approach to military spending and planning, and work hard to draw Austria, Sweden, and Finland into NATO. This problem isn't going away even if Putin drops dead tomorrow—the international system is too corroded already, by Erdogan, Xi, Modi, Brexit, Trump, and the wannabe Putins in Hungary and political parties throughout the West.

Finally, a sanction that's going to hurt

Apparently Pornhub has blocked Russia

^Wanktion.

Putin already threatening Sweden and Finland which were never part of the Soviet Union

(25-02-2022 23:41 )The Silent Majority Wrote:  Finally, a sanction that's going to hurt

Apparently Pornhub has blocked Russia

It's actually the other way around. It was Russia that blocked Pornhub and the site had to introduce age verification in order to get unblocked there.

I tried accessing Pornhub on a Russian VPN just now and access is certainly blocked but with nothing more than an age verification portal.

There hasn't been anything from Pornhub on this anyway. Wouldn't they have made a statement and grabbed some publicity if the story was true?

You could well be right. But, in the grand scheme of things this week, who cares.

I know a couple of guys who served in the 1st gulf war. They are of the opinion this isn't going well for Putin. Trying to take Kyiv is a big mistake. They should've bypassed it, cut it off, and carried on.

From what they've heard on the military-based chat rooms, there are people from here, and the rest of Western Europe, actually heading into Ukraine just now. People who know what they're about, and can use the equipment that's being sent to Ukraine.

The French Navy have intercepted a Russian cargo ship loaded with cars, in the Channel. Doesn't look like Putin's going to get his new Merc...

This isn't going to be over any time soon, whichever way it goes.