The narrative about the collapsing Russian economy has been way overblown. Russia’s economy once again defies the doomsayers In fact the economy has come to rely on the war Russia’s economy is now completely driven by the war in Ukraine – it cannot afford to lose, but nor can it afford to win It’s actually working out fairly well for Putin, in terms of keeping himself in power.
Agree with every point you made above. I disagree strongly with this last point. The more dependent his economy grows on the war, the less he can afford to walk away with something he cannot sell as a victory back home. Ending the war is going to cause huge economic pains domestically (and that's true for any great power after mobilizing their economy for war). He can't have that while smiting from a strategic loss and hope to stay in power. The longer this goes on without a win, the more precarious his situation becomes.
You know more about this than I do. I agree with you and hope you are right. What I posted and what you are saying aren’t necessarily at odds with each other. It may show that Putin may be motivated to protract the war indefinitely, not too terribly concerned about winning, and content to keep sacrificing old equipment and troops from the rural areas that everybody else apparently doesn’t care about. Ultimately that doesn’t seem sustainable, but it is hard to say how long Putin can drag it out. Your video about Russian weapons was interesting and informative.
His foreign policy record is a lot cleaner than Senile Joe’s. Not too difficult to see now why Putin waited until Senile Joe was in office to make his next move on Ukraine after he made his first move on Senile Joe’s old boss’ watch. Mysteriously, Putin didn’t budge when President Trump was in office.
That’s because according to Biden Trump told Putin go ahead and take it… Still curious that Putin waited until after Trump was out of office to do so. “Number three, we found ourselves in a situation where, if you take a look at what Trump did in Ukraine, he’s – this guy told Ukraine – told Trump, do whatever you want. Do whatever you want. And that’s exactly what Trump did to Putin, encouraged him, do whatever you want. And he went in.”
That one's so easy, even you should have figured it out. Putin was banking on Trump winning a second term with him either pulling the US out of NATO altogether or at least greatly undermining it. Trump could have never gotten the support for Ukraine from the EU, NATO nations and UN that Biden did. Our allies openly laughed at Trump and the only interest Trump ever had in Ukraine was over Hunter Biden and that "perfect" phone call.
trump has had as many foreign policy issues as any other president that have been well documented in this forum and there are several articles about it. Go take a non partisan look at his record. Very little was actually accomplished in his first four years. So the idea that he is going to draft some magic ceasefire that does not involve the capitulation of Ukraine is a wet dream by trump supporters. Imo the entire us government has had far more failures than successes on foreign policy going back several decades so in trumps defense he’s no better or worse than any other admin, from a non partisan standpoint. From a dem standpoint which is fair for a pub to disagree with I think he was a disaster and lacks the statecraft to fix anything that doesn’t directly benefit himself personally.
My guess and it’s only my a guess is that Putin will be firmly in charge of Russia until he is falling out a window. I suspect that will happen in the next couple of years but its timing will be a shock to all.
By cleaner, do you mean "inactive"? Because Trump was certainly willing to let any country do whatever it wanted to for the most part, except for blaming China and Mexico for everyone's problems. Covid? China. Brown people in your neighborhood? Mexico. Competition with U.S. companies? China. Drug addiction? China and Mexico. Global warming, pollution, depletion of natural resources, toxic waste? Doesn't exist--at least, not in Trump's penthouse. Health care? Too complicated (who knew?). Basically, you seem to appreciate Trump for being a simpleton (or a racist, take your pick). Bless your heart.
The EU and NATO supported helping Ukraine for self preservation purposes only it wasn’t some master diplomacy that Biden worked man.
Does anybody really believe this? How is it even possible? Trump held no power once Biden was in office, so how did he tell Putin to "take it?" It's such a wild accusation and we know now Biden will try to slip anything past the American public. If it really happened this way, Trump would have told Putin to take Ukraine in 2017, because it would have made Russia's path much easier and would have given plenty of time for that to become the "new normal." Trump could have provided Putin with cover for at least 4 years. The bottom line is if Putin wanted to take part of Ukraine, he was going to try it whether a former U.S. president gave his go ahead or not. The accusation makes no sense whatsoever.
Yep...and we're still carrying most of the load even though their proximity to Russia is obviously much closer. I'm really fed up with government lying to us about war in general. It's gone on for decades (at least) and it will probably go on for more decades, but I am just tired of it.
You seem to enjoy Russia’s lies, though. “The so-called ‘Ukrainians’ are really Little Russians, yoked down by Nazis and the West, yearning to rejoin their Motherland.” “Our feint toward Kiev was an elaborate deception plan. All of the Russian dead and wounded we left behind along with our abandoned equipment was a necessary part of our calculated ruse.” “We could achieve air superiority. We just don’t want to.” “The Nazi regime has not retaken any land in their so-called counteroffensives that we did not let them take as part of a larger strategy.” I’m sure you can think of many more.
This isn't necessarily addressing the specifics of the quoted, but no doubt about it Russia have told some lies. The problem is I am not Russian and neither are you. I don't care too much about how much the Kremlin lies to Russians. They obviously do. As a taxpayer and citizen of the U.S., I'm only concerned about the lies coming out of Washington to the American people. I think the lie I referenced is particularly damaging, because it's one American president stating that a former American president told a country (who has traditionally been a foreign adversary) to launch a major invasion in Europe. That didn't happen and with all the talk of "unity" and patriotism, it's disgusting that an American POTUS would accuse a former POTUS of something so incendiary. All Biden does is a lot of fear-mongering about Trump and this is just another example. But if you're looking at the situation logically and rationally, you know it makes zero sense that Trump would have told Putin this.
It’s not wild at all considering Trump literally, in public, stated he would encourage Russia to do whatever the hell it wants to NATO members not dedicating 2% of their gdp to defense.