Russian Tensions
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Why did think Winston Churchill ask Montgomery to launch the invasion toward Eastern Europe? Pacts among capitalists have always been violated. There are evidences indicating that the war could have been shortened and Germans and Japanese made peace offers and they rejected
Did they say 6 am?
So I can have a coffee and watch Everybody Loves Raymond first, to settle me before switching on the news.
Look out the window first, to see if everyone has been fried.
If you expect ‘credible reports’ from the Mail, Jeez
“De omnibus dubitandum” [doubt everything] Marx.
Also by Søren Kierkegaard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_omnibus_dubitandum_estWhat window? Will there be one?
This whole development must be placed in the geo political context.
Historically Russia has been hamstrung by geography; access to warm water ports has reduced its ability to develop blue water naval capability. Previous conflicts that have been stoked up by that issue have been the Crimean War, the Russo Japanese war of 1904-5, the Balkans wars, the Dardanelles Campaign, the Yugoslav wars, etc.
Following the collapse of the USSR, Russia’s strategic position (or more correctly, its capitalist class) has been in retreat. The minerals boom in the last 20 years has strengthened the Russian hand and this has increased their defence situation. Putin stated, “naval ambition broadened in scope and aimed at re-creating a large blue-water navy”. The Syrian conflict is a sign of this, Russia has developed its Naval facilities in Tarsus in Syria.
Crimea and the Eastern Ukraine are also a big part of Russia’s strategic interests. It is a natural assumption that USA and its allies will oppose this. Hence the US support for Syria, opposition to Iran, etc.
The Baltic flank is effectively secure for Russia because they still have access through Kaliningrad and it has a major naval port in Baltiysk. Although Kaliningrad is an exclave, at some point access to it might become a pressure point (Like Danzig was to the Germans in 1939).
It is also worth bearing in mind that in terms of finance and influence Russia is at its high tide. Moves away from fossil fuel are likely to hit the Russians hardest. As late comers on the world oil boom they have not had the time to build up sovereign wealth funds like the some of the middle east countries. Putin may think the time to push for concessions to the West is now, a mew arms race with the West at this point may have a similar impact on Russia as it did on the USSR.
The last factor is that Biden, Johnson and Macron are very unpopular, with Macron due to be at the polls this year. All three would like to pull a rabbit out of the hat and may well be creating the feel of a bigger issue, so that they can claim to have sorted it out.
Put in context the Russian “threat” is not as huge as it once was. Russia total defence spending is $61.7 billion, in comparison the UK, France and Germany’s spending is nearly $170 billion. Even before you take into account the inflated price western countries pay for armaments, this is a huge gap, which doesn’t include Italy £28.9 billion, Canada with $22 billion and the USA with $778 billion (even the smaller countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Portugal, etc, add huge war power to Nato. Nato far exceeds Russian expenditure, equipment, manpower and technology.
My guess is that Putin would be happy with a redrawing of the Eastern frontier of the Ukraine to ensure safe passage to the Crimea and The Findlandization of the Ukraine and Georgia.
The West’s problem is to try and sell that to the Ukraine and to pass that off as a victory for the West.
Thise who think this will end in a 3rd World War need to see that strategically, Hitler’s gamble in 1939 was always doomed to failure; the German economy was too weak to sustain it. Germany’s geographic position, military might and technological development was similarly weak.
Putin is in a less powerful situation than Hitler, his strength it appears is that he doesn’t havw the same profound lack of strategic understanding, knowledge of economics or geography & military intelligence that Hitler had. He also does not have the level of popular support or capitalist backing that Hitler did.“So I can have a coffee and watch Everybody Loves Raymond first, to settle me before switching on the news.”
If the Russians do take over, at least they might have funnier sitcoms than the Yanks and we will be spared having been force fed shite like “Friends”
Russia has moved some long-range artillery and rocket launchers into firing position, threatening Ukraine, according to a U.S. official.
Some Russian units have left their assembly areas — the bumper-to-bumper formations seen in satellite photos — and are beginning to move into “attack positions,” according to the official.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-attack-by-end-week/
And just to say I always preferred King of Queens with my morning cuppa
Another day and still no invasion. But I forget D-day’s not until tomorrow. It looks as if the Western bloc is going to blink first. They seem to be shifting from Ukraine actually joining NATO to the abstract right of Ukraine to aspire to join at some point in the distant future. The editorial in today’s Times says:
“Kyiv does not have a right to join NATO, for there are stringent criteria for accession. It certainly cannot meet these criteria when part of its territory is under occupation. But it has every right to aspire to membership even if there is scant likelihood of it acceding in the foreseeable future.”
That sounds like a well-crafted face-saving formula.
Misdirection? Or mission accomplished?
Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konoshenkov, who described ongoing exercises that involved forces from “practically all military districts, fleets, and the airborne forces”.
“Units of the Southern and Western Military Districts, which have accomplished their missions, are boarding trains and trucks and will head for their garrisons later today,” Konoshenkov said in the statement. The defence ministry also released a video of some Russian tanks and other heavy weaponry being loaded on to railway cars.
Washington and London deliberately led an assault on our mental health over the past month. Disgusting! Now they’ll pretend that they faced Russia down. Russia said all along it never was going to invade. Even Ukraine asked why all the fuss.
These politicians don’t care a jot for people’s mental health. They manufacture anxiety.Why nationalists in Ukraine fly the anarchist black and red.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/anarchism-in-makhnos-homeland-adventures-of-red-and-black-flag/
Carrying a flag does not mean anything, in the same way, that the flag of the Soviet Union did not represent the world working class. Real anarchists are not nationalists and they do not advocate the concept of nation-state. There are hundreds of Anarchists tendencies, most of them are not anarchists and most of them support the conspiracist theory like Bakunin who was a proto Leninist
If you read the article, it says anarchist-communists are not nationalists.
This time Russia does not have 20 million workers willing to die for their ruling class, the only choice that they have is to retreat and they can not spend the same amount of money as the West on military hardware as the soviet union did which in part produced the collapse of the soviet union
You may find the views of present-day anarchists in the region of some interest.
If you read the article, it says anarchist-communists are not nationalists.
Therefore, carrying a flag does not mean anything, that will answer your question
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