alanjjohnstone
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Putin admitted the war could be a “lengthy process”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63893316
He said the annexations had made the Sea of Azov – which is bordered by south-east Ukraine and south-west Russia – an “internal sea” of Russia, adding that this was an aspiration of Russian Tsar Peter the Great.
“As for the slow process of the special military operation, then, of course, it can be a long-term process,” Putin said. “But then you mentioned that new territories had appeared. This is such a significant result for Russia … The Azov Sea has become an internal Russian sea. Even Peter I had fought for access to the Azov Sea.”
“Are there guys who deserted their combat posts? Yes, it happened … less and less now,” he said. “I repeat once again that no cases of such nature [desertions] have a mass character.”
Good news is he confirms there will never be a first use of nukes by Russia
Elsewhere, South Africa’s corrupt president refusing to resign and the so-called “peoples” ANC thwarting any impeachment of him
After the sympathetic coverage of the early days of the RMT strikes, because we have now teachers and nurses and many others who are not viewed as militant industry wreckers, the Tories are trying other ways of discrediting the unions.
As is often the case one or two politicians will put their heads above the parapet with some outrageous comment to see what the public response is and if it is worthwhile pursuing.
Will this appeal to patriotism succeed?
Only with those who are already convinced anti-union and anti-strike.
As someone who worked public holidays including Xmas and New Years Day themselves, I know public transport never operated to any degree on these holidays so all the crocodile tears of the festive season being spoiled by not being able to visit family and friends are hogwash.
We will see less amicable interviews on TV. Silencing the unions is more effective way of undermining them. The media becomes the intermediaries and the conveyor of selective information.
Unfortunately for them, we now have social media, the internet, Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, other ways of getting our message across.
We also have those individuals who follow the concept of the sovereign citizen.
I watched a few videos on YouTube of court cases, usually minor traffic infractions and these self-taught “lawyers” declare themselves exempt from the law.
I long believe in karma – what goes around, comes around.
I know it is irrational because many don’t get the just desserts they deserve and end up getting rewarded by society
As one footballer manager said, yes we were lucky with the result today, but over the season, the bad luck will cancel out this good luck
No War but the Class War
https://libcom.org/article/no-war-class-war-statement-nwbcw-montreal
International Communist Tendency
“While Russia seeks conquest as a means to jump-start its struggling economy and to roll back the loss of its strategic depth, the members of NATO want to drag out the war in Ukraine as long as possible to damage Russian industry and its military- not peace, but victory.”
“…the Norwegian state declared the oil rig workers’ strike illegal in the name of preventing disruption of the national economy steeped in imperialist competition with Russia. At the warfront itself, the Ukrainian state has moved to outlaw any semblance of the working class fighting for its own interests, by allowing company management to arbitrarily and unilaterally tear up existing contracts and by mobilizing all available resources for the war….”
To duplicate the personal fiefdom of Ramzan Kadyrov. What an aspiration.
So bad are conditions that the exiles in the Chechen diaspora refuse to return and outnumber the population of Chechenya
However, you may also have overlooked the existence of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, Sheikh Mansur Battalion, and the Separate Special Purpose Battalion in the Ukrainian army.
TS “Your “scholar” thinks them significant how exactly?”
If you deign not to read the article, then you will never know the answer.
TS “but the trigger was Kiev’s attack on Donbass”
Other than the continued exchanges of artillery fire, there was no attack on the separatist republics by Ukraine that acted as a trigger even though you claim there was preparation for such a planned attack. You are re-writing history with your own facts. Let’s stick to actual events and stop making them up.
“Any hope Putin had of returning Ukraine to being an ally has totally disappeared.” And what are next week’s lotto numbers?
Are you seriously suggesting that I am wrong in saying that Putin’s aspirations declared in his 2021 essay of a comradely union with Ukraine is impossible now? What fantasy are you living in?
But I now want to return to an earlier post where I referred to internal Russian politics.
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova is Professor of Russian Politics and Acting Director of Russia Institute at King’s College London. Author of ‘The Red Mirror: Putin’s Leadership’ and ‘Russia’s Insecure Identity and Political Consequences of Crony Capitalism Inside Russia’ so she is no journalistic light-weight but a scholar.
“The shift of power and influence away from the official security and defence institutions towards non-state organisations, such as Wagner and Kadyrov’s forces (also known as kadyrovtsy), who feel empowered to openly and sharply criticise state officials and army generals, might have significant consequences…”
ORLA Guerin is now in Ukraine reporting.
Let’s cut to the chase and stop piddling about with side-issues
Putin’s three key demands were the end of the expansion of NATO, no deployment of offensive weapon systems close to the Russian borders, and returning NATO to the status quo of 1997.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/01/russia-ukraine-tensions-worsen-00004070
The rest was all window-dressing, the genocide claims, the invasion of DPR and LPR, the De-Nazification. Political fiction to garner domestic support from Russians
Global geo-politics was always the real issue. Ukraine and the separatist republics mere pawns.
Look once again at the beginning of this topic thread and you will find repeated posts stating that the war was provoked by the West’s economic and military expansion.
Russia’s self-interest was to counter it for its own strategic reasons as specified by Putin a year earlier in his famous essay…An expansion of the Russian Federation to include Belarus and Ukraine
We oppose both sides in this war because workers have no vested interest in who prevails.
Has the invasion succeeded in achieving these aims?
More expansion with Sweden and Finland joining. More NATO forces to Poland and the Baltic States with even more integration with all the NATO countries committing increased military budgets. DUH
Any hope Putin had of returning Ukraine to being an ally has totally disappeared.
I can speculate that in Belarus increased opposition to Lukashenko has weakened it.
“I’ve already provided a source that gives a legal defence of the invasion.”
Is your only source legal advice from Ritter?
Russia could easily have gone to the general assembly and appealed to the court of public opinion. Instead, it spent weeks and months positioning its forces under the guise of military exercises, denying its intention to invade Ukraine.
Ritter himself emphasises for a pre-emptive attack, there has to be an imminent threat.
There was no imminent threat to justify an invasion. The majority of NATO nations did not believe Russia would attack despite US intelligence. (The French chief of intelligence had to resign for not fully appreciating the warning signs of a Russian invasion)
All we have is Russian and separatist (and your) claim that Ukraine were preparing an attack whereas Ukraine could explain that they were preparing to defend itself against those threatening Russian troop movements which were a prelude to the war. In spring 2021, Russia began a major military build-up near the border. A second build-up followed from October 2021
Russia was seeking a pretext for invading.
https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-looking-for-excuse-to-invade-ukraine-blame-it-nato-us-2021-12Russia began the evacuation of its Kiev embassy staff beginning of January 2022.
A UN Security Council meeting was convened on 31 January 2022 to discuss the ongoing crisis. Russia tried to block the meeting.
As your link cites talks with Merkel, perhaps her view will be of interest.
Merkel described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “barbaric war of aggression” which constituted a “far-reaching turning point” and the most “glaring breach of international law” in Europe since the Second World War. “My solidarity goes out to Ukraine which has been attacked and raided by Russia,”
Merkel said she had aimed to convene European talks with Vladimir Putin the year before his invasion of Ukraine but in the end did not see any possibility of influencing the Russian president at the end of her term.
She said she had tried to convene European talks with the Russian president and French President Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2021.
“But I didn’t have the power to get my way,” she told Spiegel news. “Really everyone knew: in autumn she’ll be gone,” She added that “for Putin, only power counts”. Merkel said her stance on Ukraine in the Minsk peace talks had bought Kyiv time to defend itself better against the Russian military.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63751688?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
Ritter makes much of the requirement that there must be an imminent threat to justify a pre-emptive strike.
Even under your own scenario (which I don’t accept) Ukraine had positioned an invading army with heavy weapons and been conducting artillery barrages to soften up the separatists. Ample time for Russia to appeal to the UN and furnish the evidence. Can you direct me to any Russian resolution or was it all so sudden that Russia didn’t have the time to provide proof of Ukraine’s intentions? There may well have been such a diplomatic approach at UN level but I have failed to find it. You may have better luck in directing us to such a move at the UN.
Again Ritter says Article 51 was used as the legal justification for the invasion of Iraq. Any nation can claim such a self-defence pretext but does it stand up to scrutiny?
Hans Blix had not completed his investigation and had reported making steady progress. Yet, UK, US, Denmark and Australia nevertheless ignored that fact.
Countless organisations declared the Iraq invasion illegal and numerous have called for Bush and Blair to be charged with being war criminals. Not just individual commentators but well-respected NGOs.
Ritter’s faulty logic says that one illegal war legitimises another.
Ritter, as far as I know, has no qualification in international law so should we defer to his authority as an expert?
So can you link me to someone who practises international law, a credible professional, who declareD the invasion of Ukraine as legal? I am sure there must be such a person and we be interested to read his or her informed legal opinion.
Tessa Khan of Uplift
“This Day of Action is to give a voice to those who want change from this government,” said Khan. “Instead of spending billions of our money subsidizing gas fields and expensive gas imports, which will guarantee bills stay high for years, people want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs.”
“People want those in fuel poverty given the support they need to stay warm this winter; they want help to insulate their homes; and they want this government to unblock onshore renewable energy, which will provide our homes with cheaper energy for years to come,” Khan added. “This is about coming together to tell the government to look after the needs of British people, and not the needs of wealthy oil and gas companies.”
Economic analysis of Russia from a former deputy minister of finance of Russia.
Conclusion – Russia will still be able to afford to continue the war in 2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/12/5/does-russia-have-enough-money-for-war
TS “How many are NATO members I wonder?”
So easy to find out
Five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States,
Albania (2023)
Brazil (2023)
Gabon (2023)
Ghana (2023)
India (2022)
Ireland (2022)
Kenya (2022)
Mexico (2022)
Norway (2022)
United Arab Emirates (2023)I make it two, Albania and Norway with Ireland, a half member.
Scott Ritter offers the imminent pre-emptive threat as a rationalisation and cites earlier illegal wars as justification. He refers to Kosovo, as a non-state like DPR and LPR, yet there were clear UN mandate (Resolution 1244) to occupy it (KFOR) and that was agreed with by Russia who were part of the occupation from 1999 – 2003.
The bombing of Serbia was illegal and had no UN approval. Two wrongs don’t make a right which is Ritter’s flawed legal argument.
Ritter then raises the dirty bomb for the legal pretext which as we know was demonstrated as unsubstantiated.
