Article

2024-04-01 Economy

El País: the German and EU economies have come to the brink of the abyss due to sanctions and Ukraine

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by badanov 2024-04-01 00:00|| || Front Page|| [208 views ] Top

#1 EUSSR kaput?

Posted by Grom the Reflective 2024-04-01 00:19|| 2024-04-01 00:19|| Front Page Top

#2 France to Deliver Hundreds of Armored Vehicles to Ukraine

Posted by Skidmark 2024-04-01 09:49|| 2024-04-01 09:49|| Front Page Top

#3 ^The French military is currently replacing its old VAB armored personnel carriers that started being used in 1979 by a new generation of armored vehicles.

“This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities. We’re talking about hundreds (of vehicles) in 2024 and early 2025,” Lecornu said.

Posted by Grom the Reflective 2024-04-01 13:12|| 2024-04-01 13:12|| Front Page Top

#4 Some might think this is a good thing but I don't think anybody wants it to go so far as another Wiemar Republic. It would be nice if the elites could understand the danger and step back from the brink.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2024-04-01 13:39|| 2024-04-01 13:39|| Front Page Top

#5 This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities.

Along with spare parts, manuals and trained people to fix them?

At Skid's link in #2, there is a quote from Macron: "Russia Cannot be Allowed to Win ‘Existential’ War in Ukraine"
Rhetoric aside, from the Russian point of view, this *is* an existential war. They don't want the West trying a "Thunder Run" to ~~Stalingrad~~ Volgograd or Moscow. They have seen that play before and have no intention of allowing a historical enemy to gain the positional advantage to do it again.
"Oh, pish!", they retorted. "We are the good guys and would never do that."
OK, convince the Russians. How? Perhaps by creating a demilitarized Ukraine and threatening World War III the moment the first Russian unit crosses the border. Putin is smart enough to recognize a win-win situation. And besides, Russia has enough other problems, social and geo-political, to worry about.

Posted by SteveS 2024-04-01 14:16|| 2024-04-01 14:16|| Front Page Top

#6 OK, convince the Russians. How?
OK, you're a paranoid empire-conquering tyrannical regime who threatens world-wide nuclear war, and it's OUR responsibility to reassure you? Right...

Posted by Frank G 2024-04-01 18:28|| 2024-04-01 18:28|| Front Page Top

#7 OK, you're a paranoid empire-conquering tyrannical regime who threatens world-wide nuclear war, and it's OUR responsibility to reassure you?

I use the word "convince" not in the sense of reassurance or a logical argument, but as an unequivocal threat of lethal force. Much like you convince a home intruder to leave by racking your shotgun and declaring "One more step and I will shoot you in the face".

Make no mistake, the Soviet Union was big and evil and a threat to the world. Germany had reason to fear the Red Army streaming through the Fulda Gap. For most of my adult life, NATO provided a necessary and effective counterforce to keep the USSR contained. But the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed, the mighty Red Army is gone. Everyone is better off now, Russians included. One might ask why NATO is still around.

Hugely successful negotiator Donald Trump has said you can always make a deal as long as both sides don't want the same exact thing. In this case, Ukraine wanted access to the European Union for economic opportunity and grift. Russia wanted an end to the civil war next door in the Donbass and security from NATO. Both sides could have gotten what they wanted without a war if the West was determined to make it so.

The story we were sold about Russia's invasion was that Putin the Mad got a wild hair one day and decided to invade their neighbor. But as the details unfold over time, we learn that Ukraine was mobilizing troops and NATO was sending advisors and weapons into Ukraine. Frau Merkel stated in a published interview with a German newspaper that the Minsk Agreements were a sham and only intended to buy time to build up Ukraine. For some reason, that interview did not appear in US media. It pains me greatly to say this, but it looks like we deliberately provoked the Russians.

I find it interesting to contrast our attempts to contain China by integrating them into the world economy vs containing Russia by continuing the Cold War.

Posted by SteveS 2024-04-01 21:28|| 2024-04-01 21:28|| Front Page Top

#8 Both are resisted by perimeter countries tired by their historic Commie Empire overbearing and acreage/power interests

Posted by Frank G 2024-04-01 21:53|| 2024-04-01 21:53|| Front Page Top

23:56 Snoluling Uneating7525
23:45 Skidmark
23:42 Skidmark
21:53 Frank G
21:28 SteveS
20:48
20:27 Super Hose
19:56 SteveS
19:44 Angealing+B.+Hayes4677
19:12 trailing wife
19:07 Mercutiio
19:04 Frank G
19:00 Frank G
18:53 Frank G
18:33 M. Murcek
18:28 Frank G
18:24 Angealing+B.+Hayes4677
18:03 lord garth
17:58 Jack Criling1480
17:13 Skidmark
17:03 Skidmark
16:57 Skidmark
16:54 Skidmark
16:53 Grom the Reflective