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| Invading Ukraine may never have been Putin's aim - the threat alone could advance Russia's goals |
| 2022-02-19 |
| [AlAhram] An invasion is not the only way the crisis in Ukraine can play out, a diplomatic solution may yet provide an off-ramp for Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... , whose placement of tens of thousands of troops along Russia's border with its smaller neighbor kicked off the current crisis. Indeed, the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have throughout the weeks-long crisis accused the U.S. and U.K. of stirring panic with talk of an imminent invasion. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #7 The dollar could not remain king forever. People would do well to stop being lazy about what constitutes a reliable store of wealth. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-02-19 10:04 |
| #6 Brandon is presiding over the beginning of the end of dollar dominance. Fvcking moron. Oh, by the way, Russia now has $650 billion in reserves. And oil and gas prices are soaring. Good luck with more idiotic sanctions. |
| Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2022-02-19 10:03 |
| #5 'Amid expanding U.S. sanctions, Moscow is putting an emphasis on “dedollarization,”' Russia May Allow Crypto Mining and Gold-Backed Stablecoins, Lawmaker Says |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2022-02-19 08:38 |
| #4 Russian plane video on Twitter Il-38 Ka-27 Tu-22m3 Su-30SM |
| Posted by: 3dc 2022-02-19 01:00 |
| #3 ^ Tom Graham nailed it. This crisis has f-all to do with Ukraine per se. It's all about Russia demonstrating it is a major player that must not be fvcked with and that must be treated as a geopolitical power of the first order, if not a peer to the US and China. |
| Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2022-02-19 00:47 |
| #1 Our sharpest analyst, writing for a Russian international relations journal in 2020: 2020.06.05 КИТАЙ – РОССИЯ – США: ОТНОШЕНИЯ И СТРАТЕГИЧЕСКИЕ ТРЕУГОЛЬНИКИ Т. Грэм "A China-Russia-US strategic triangle will have to be Russia’s handiwork. Neither Washington nor Beijing has a profound reason for seeking one. Their sharpening bilateral competition will play itself out on a broader global stage, where Russia is only one among several other major powers. In Washington’s and Beijing’s eyes, the goal is to build productive partnerships with as many of those powers at possible. "The competition is over the accumulation of major partners, not in gaining any one possible partner in particular, and the edge will go to the country that is the more attractive power across a range of political, economic, technological, cultural, and ideational matters. "To convince Washington and Beijing to think otherwise, Russia will have to demonstrate that it matters in a unique way, that its power is of a different order than, for instance, Europe’s, India’s, and Japan’s. "So far, Russia has failed to do that. And the drama for Russia in the 2020s will concern its effort to *** showcase its continuing worth as a top-tier geopolitical actor. *** |
| Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2022-02-19 00:45 |