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Post by theglenbucklaird on Mar 4, 2022 17:20:08 GMT
The one that surprised me in that list was South Africa. I suppose it only surprised me because I don't know much about politics there. There may be reasons for abstentions - for example I would say in any solution to the crisis China has to be involved in some way - as an intermediary, policing a ceasefire or whatever - and so need to maintain an appearance of neutrality. Others of course have no such excuse - Pakistan for example. Well this is because it was third world. Africa has very little to do with USA or USSR during the Cold War and very little now. They simply do not care as most of Africa.Is that bit true? Isn't lots of South African foreign policy formed by the last years of apartheid and who went to bat for them. At the time Raegan and Thatcher were ruling the roost |
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Post by Phantom of London on Mar 5, 2022 1:11:27 GMT
Good mention of South Africa as it prompts me to remember two of my political heros, they were both around at the same time time, the first being Nelson Mandela and the second one being Mikhail Gorbachev, I remember all too well in secondary school of watching with joy that wretched Berlin Wall coming down, which is seeming to be undone by that evil psychopath in Moscow, which started this very thread
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Post by Jan on Mar 6, 2022 11:27:35 GMT
It is ironic that other countries will go to help some countries under attack and not other. We bailed out Kuwait in 1990/91 but if Saddam had pushed on into Saudi Arabia and taken the Holy City I bet the West would have wanted no part of it. That is wrong. There's no way the West would have allowed Saddam to control Saudi oil production and reserves, nor should it have. Oil was part of the reason for Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and part of the reason for Western involvement to remove him. Russian oil production is about the same as Saudi's and look at how much leverage that gives Putin, imagine Saddam with the same leverage. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2022 18:36:29 GMT
The great Mr Gorbachev was 91 the other day. He was a man who could inspire and seemed to bring about a safer world.
And in response to Jan's quote Mr Putin has a much bigger army than Saddam ever had.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 8, 2022 19:24:45 GMT
It was very moving to hear the Ukrainian president addressing the House of Commons this afternoon.
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Post by og on Mar 8, 2022 19:28:45 GMT
It was very moving to hear the Ukrainian president addressing the House of Commons this afternoon. He is a very inspiring leader in many ways. Really has put Ukraine on the map over the last 2 weeks. Can't help but think how differently things may have panned out here over the last few years had we had a leader like Zelensky. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 9, 2022 8:40:04 GMT
The below article demonstrates what can be achieved. Next is Uniqlo, if anyone want to join me in emails and tweets please do 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 BBC News - War in Ukraine: McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Starbucks halt Russian sales www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60665877 |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Mar 9, 2022 8:43:04 GMT
It was very moving to hear the Ukrainian president addressing the House of Commons this afternoon. All I could think about is it was such a shame that it is Boris Johnson's parliament he was addresssing. Led me to count off all my friends who voted for him and were responsible. Missed opportunity |
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Post by crowblack on Mar 9, 2022 9:17:47 GMT
It was very moving to hear the Ukrainian president addressing the House of Commons this afternoon. All I could think about is it was such a shame that it is Boris Johnson's parliament he was addresssing. Led me to count off all my friends who voted for him and were responsible. Missed opportunity I think a reason many couldn't bring themselves to vote Labour at the moment is the suspicion that since the Momentum era, some in the party, especially the younger end, would be siding against 'the West'. Young Labour have had their twitter account suspended since the conflict started because of the nature of their tweets. |
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Post by Jan on Mar 9, 2022 9:48:42 GMT
It was very moving to hear the Ukrainian president addressing the House of Commons this afternoon. All I could think about is it was such a shame that it is Boris Johnson's parliament he was addresssing. Led me to count off all my friends who voted for him and were responsible. Missed opportunity Missed opportunity for the long-term anti-NATO campaigner Jeremy Corbyn to be PM instead ? That was the alternative. How would that have helped exactly ? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2022 10:41:37 GMT
All I could think about is it was such a shame that it is Boris Johnson's parliament he was addresssing. Led me to count off all my friends who voted for him and were responsible. Missed opportunity Missed opportunity for the long-term anti-NATO campaigner Jeremy Corbyn to be PM instead ? That was the alternative. How would that have helped exactly ? Indeed. I would never vote for the Conservatives but I would never vote for Corbyn either, so my vote didn't go to Labour when he was in charge. I wasn't convinced Corbyn was the better of two terrible options so took my vote elsewhere instead even though the person I did vote for was never going to get elected. I live in a safe Labour seat so it didn't matter in that sense, but if I were to be completely honest I probably would have done the same even if I lived in a swing seat, as I don't think I could have had voting for 5 years of Corbyn on my conscience either. I think many others probably felt the same. Starmer in charge makes a huge difference in that regard as far as I'm concerned. |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Mar 9, 2022 11:07:23 GMT
All I could think about is it was such a shame that it is Boris Johnson's parliament he was addresssing. Led me to count off all my friends who voted for him and were responsible. Missed opportunity Missed opportunity for the long-term anti-NATO campaigner Jeremy Corbyn to be PM instead ? That was the alternative. How would that have helped exactly ? I'm a big fan obviously, but you'll fail to convince me the last two or three years would have been worse. All whatifs of course but the lack of disregard for rules this government has displayed has certainly made it the worst government ever. By some distance. |
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Post by og on Mar 9, 2022 12:55:50 GMT
So Russian's have disconnected Chernobyl power plant from the grid and won't stop fighting to allow for it's repair.
It's currently running on a 48hrs backup supply of diesel.
This aint gonna end well...
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Post by Jan on Mar 9, 2022 15:36:37 GMT
Missed opportunity for the long-term anti-NATO campaigner Jeremy Corbyn to be PM instead ? That was the alternative. How would that have helped exactly ? I'm a big fan obviously, but you'll fail to convince me the last two or three years would have been worse. All whatifs of course but the lack of disregard for rules this government has displayed has certainly made it the worst government ever. By some distance. The specific point was about Zelensky addressing parliament. Corbyn and his inner circle are Russian apologists, they primarily blame the West and "fascists" in Ukraine for the current conflict. Corbyn's principal advisor was Seamus Milne - a Stalinst - who would probably have still been his advisor had Corbyn been PM and has published extensively on the topic in the Guardian over the years and his views are virtually identical to Putin's. That is a valid position to hold but I'm suggesting that Zelensky wouldn't have addressed parliament at all if Corbyn was PM - that's even ignoring the fact he's Jewish which would have been another barrier. Here's an example of Milne in action - you would have been fine with this character in No 10 advising Corbyn currently ? www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/05/clash-crimea-western-expansion-ukraine-fascists |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2022 16:27:59 GMT
So Russian's have disconnected Chernobyl power plant from the grid and won't stop fighting to allow for it's repair. It's unlikely to be a major problem. So long as the spent fuel's water pool isn't drained there's no significant risk from overheating, although there is a risk of hydrogen building up to potentially flammable concentrations.
(See pp 113–115)
Still a numbingly stupid thing to do, though.
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Post by Jan on Mar 9, 2022 16:46:30 GMT
So Russian's have disconnected Chernobyl power plant from the grid and won't stop fighting to allow for it's repair. It's unlikely to be a major problem. So long as the spent fuel's water pool isn't drained there's no significant risk from overheating, although there is a risk of hydrogen building up to potentially flammable concentrations.
(See pp 113–115)
Still a numbingly stupid thing to do, though.
It has been confirmed by the European inspectorate there's no safety issue involved here. The Russians disconnected it simply as part of their war on civilians I suppose. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 9, 2022 17:25:57 GMT
I’ll stop digging the bunker…
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Post by og on Mar 9, 2022 17:31:42 GMT
Russian Troops took over the Chernobyl site a few days before they attacked Zaporizhzhia NPP and we all saw how that one went down, with fires in the training facility and sustained damage to the housing of one reactor. Zaporizhzhia is now under Russian Control also. Wonder if similar is planned for ZNPP in the coming days.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2022 21:17:35 GMT
I'm a big fan obviously, but you'll fail to convince me the last two or three years would have been worse. All whatifs of course but the lack of disregard for rules this government has displayed has certainly made it the worst government ever. By some distance. The specific point was about Zelensky addressing parliament. Corbyn and his inner circle are Russian apologists, they primarily blame the West and "fascists" in Ukraine for the current conflict. Corbyn's principal advisor was Seamus Milne - a Stalinst - who would probably have still been his advisor had Corbyn been PM and has published extensively on the topic in the Guardian over the years and his views are virtually identical to Putin's. That is a valid position to hold but I'm suggesting that Zelensky wouldn't have addressed parliament at all if Corbyn was PM - that's even ignoring the fact he's Jewish which would have been another barrier. Here's an example of Milne in action - you would have been fine with this character in No 10 advising Corbyn currently ? www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/05/clash-crimea-western-expansion-ukraine-fascistsOn several occasions the lack of quality of labour policies or leaders have lead to the Tories winning elections - Corbyn was rather like Ed Miliband and Neil Kinnock in being unelectable. To be fair Corbyn does have some friends who were experts in making petrol bombs so they might have assisted the Ukrainians in that venture. |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Mar 10, 2022 11:53:16 GMT
I'm a big fan obviously, but you'll fail to convince me the last two or three years would have been worse. All whatifs of course but the lack of disregard for rules this government has displayed has certainly made it the worst government ever. By some distance. The specific point was about Zelensky addressing parliament. Corbyn and his inner circle are Russian apologists, they primarily blame the West and "fascists" in Ukraine for the current conflict. Corbyn's principal advisor was Seamus Milne - a Stalinst - who would probably have still been his advisor had Corbyn been PM and has published extensively on the topic in the Guardian over the years and his views are virtually identical to Putin's. That is a valid position to hold but I'm suggesting that Zelensky wouldn't have addressed parliament at all if Corbyn was PM - that's even ignoring the fact he's Jewish which would have been another barrier. Here's an example of Milne in action - you would have been fine with this character in No 10 advising Corbyn currently ? www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/05/clash-crimea-western-expansion-ukraine-fascistsWhat's a Stalinist? A psychopathic despot |
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Post by og on Mar 10, 2022 15:25:38 GMT
I thought it worth establishing this thread before opening discussion about a topic I've been thinking about. The UK, US, EU & other nations have all announced various sanctions on Russia and Russian Oligarch's in response to Russia's actions, with further sanctions planned. There's talk online about how else people at a macro level can contribute, boycotts etc. Would you be prepared to boycott any Russian Oligarch's companies in response to this unspeakable war? A potentially interesting aspect relating to theatre goers here is Access Industries (and subsidiary Access Entertainment) owned by Leonard Blavatnik. Access Entertainment recently brought Theatre Royal Haymarket, but also have been key investors in productions like Hamilton, School of Rock, Hello Dolly & Groundhog Day. Whilst considered a British & American Citizen, Leonard Blavatnik was born in the Sovient Union, Educated in Moscow, and has established close ties in both his business endeavours and personal life with multiple Russian Oligarchs & close links to Vladimir Putin. Whilst I might be reading too much into this, I certainly find it fascinating. To me, this all plays together a little too closely for my liking. Further reading online suggests Blavatnik's wealth has come from "Illegal enrichment at the expense of Russian taxpayers due to his close relations to the Kremlin; corruption of the Western elites in the interests of the Putin regime." (source: www.spisok-putina.org/en/personas/blavatnik-2/)I was wondering what your stance would be. If it turned out Blavatnik was in support of Putin's actions, would you boycott any of the theatrical ventures associated with his investment? Interesting development today as sanctions around Roman Abramovich mean Chelsea FC is currently no longer allowed to sell new tickets or merchandise in their shop. Depending on their relations and how things pan out I wonder if this could pan out further to Blavatnik meaning Theatre Royal Haymarket's operations are frozen. |
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Post by Jan on Mar 13, 2022 12:29:42 GMT
This is an interesting article. It is by a Chinese academic and so, we can assume, sanctioned in some form by the CCP (though this is contested). It discusses various potential outcomes from the war and where China’s strategic interests may ultimately lie. Summary: Not good news for Putin. uscnpm.org/2022/03/12/hu-wei-russia-ukraine-war-china-choice/ |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2022 14:53:50 GMT
Not quite sure why everyone lost interest in this, but anyway...
I'm astonished at how inept the Russian army has proven to be. When I was growing up the cold War was still a thing and there was this image of the mighty Russian war machine as an equal to the West. Now it turns out that decades of corruption, oppression and sucking up to the leader have created a shambolic collection of brutal thugs who cause nearly as much damage to their own side as the damage they attempt to inflict on the other.
I'm infuriated by what Putin has done to Russia. I know a few Russians and I've always held the country itself in high regard, and after Gorbachev's reforms it looked as though Russia had a bright future ahead of it. Putin has managed to destroy all that, and because of his callous disregard for the atrocities committed by his forces I wouldn't be at all surprised if "Russian" joins "Nazi" as a catch-all term for unapologetic evil in the not too distant future.
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