Between this, and all the Russian money in the UK and the US that is not being touched, it feels like most of the countries that are supposed to care are not even making the minimal effort. 

 

I wonder if RT is still shut down?

13 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

JMO, but I don't think it has to be an either or...both can be true at the same time. He just seems increasingly desperate and willing to look this way if it gets him to achieve his aims that much quicker, whereas in the past, it just seemed as if the image of looking completely self possessed (and blame-free) was just as important as his ability to pour on the aggression. Putin, after all has always  regarded himself as being well above the likes of Kadyrov, who he regards as something of a brute. Well, his behavior is much closer than ever to the Chechen despot these days.

As for Xi Jinping, they are allies of convenience, as Xi would love to do to Hong Kong and Taiwan what Putin is currently doing to Ukraine. Mainland China has been trying coercion, ethnic cleansing (Tibet, Xinjiang, in particular), pressure tactics, veiled threats (Taiwan) and trying to claim uninhabited islands in the South China Sea (Japan, South Korea, Philippines, etc.). Xi is no doubt, waiting to see what happens and if he can do a similar maneuver with regions it considers to be part of it's own territory. China considers Taiwan to be a rebellious breakaway republic that they want to bring to heel. Hong Kong has a Sinophile for a Chief Executive, so they have made far more successful strides there. Tibet, well.😔Suffice it to say, Xi is watching what happens in Ukraine with keen interest. 

Prior to 2014, I think Putin enjoyed being a heavy on the world stage. Invited to G20 summits etc, he was given pride of place next to Merkel. Putin was always considered a bit of a gangster, but he was a gangster the West felt it could 'do business with.' The view was that he had to be extra thuggish to bring a lawless 1990s Russia to heel and, later, to blanket-destroy Grozny and Aleppo (among other places). He existed to ensure Russian stability.

Then the invasion of the Crimea happened, and Putin/Russia became a pariah. That's when his stance noticeably hardened towards the West and Russia retreated into isolationism. He felt he had been humiliated by a group of governments he viewed as largely weak and stupid.

French president Macron long argued that Russia should be brought back in from the cold, that the channels of cooperation had to be open to Putin. I didn't disagree with him at the time, but now that Putin has made this move (a move that signals he may not stop at Ukraine), bringing Russia in from the cold looks like a pipe dream. And it is a constant pattern of behavior: Chechnya, Crimea. Not to mention the poisoning of defectors and dissidents in other countries.

As for Xi -- 100% agree. China has studiously avoided taking a position against Putin, and that's not because Xi is VP's ride-or-die. It's because they have the same methods and a similar agenda. With this assault on Ukraine, Putin has again highlighted the 'weakness' of the Western democracies which are following the international rules laid down by the UN and geopolitical treaties. He has threatened the nuclear option so that the West backs off. China can easily do the same with Taiwan and HK. Back off, this is an 'internal' situation, we have nukes, too. I am gravely worried for Taiwan.

Putin has not been able to shut down (yet) demonstrations at home against the war, nor Ukrainians on social media tweeting live events, nor Navalny tweeting his condemnation. I worry he will turn to Xi for the infrastructure of a hardcore dystopian surveillance state.

In the days ahead I’d pay close attention to the whereabouts of Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch who is currently under house arrest for treason. He is a close Putin ally (Putin is godfather to his daughter), and if Putin wanted to install a puppet govt, watch this space.

— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) February 25, 2022

2 hours ago, Cat said:

Then the invasion of the Crimea happened, and Putin/Russia became a pariah. That's when his stance noticeably hardened towards the West and Russia retreated into isolationism. He felt he had been humiliated by a group of governments he viewed as largely weak and stupid.

Don't forget though that Putin had the tacit approval of a number of Russians who either agreed with his stance on Crimea or just didn't say anything, believing the issue not worth fighting about. Perhaps their opinions were really the only ones that Putin actually cared about to begin with, that he had enough tacit approval of Russia to "swing" the next election. Putin sort of set the bar for the leaders of many Eastern countries being indifferent to what the West really thinks and how they see them. I genuinely believe that Putin doesn't care what the West thinks, I doubt he ever did. Negotiations and summit appearances were a mere tool to him, to either stall or try to maneuver a way to get closer to what he wanted.

For the past five years, the West has paid and continues to pay minimal attention to the African continent but Putin does. Read on Russia's activities in the Congo.

And even parts of West Africa, in countries where the leadership leans autocratic, but weak.

 

Ketanji Brown Jackson was always the frontrunner for that SCOTUS nomination. She once clerked for retiring justice Breyer.

Good luck to her in the Senate confirmation hearings. I hope the process will not be nearly as contentious as some have contended. Hopefully there will be enough votes for, at the very least, VP Harris to cast the deciding vote.

Who know? Maybe Murkowski and wishy-washy Collins might want to make a nod toward history, in a good way.

EDT: I meant "Who knows?" Geez!

Edited February 25, 20223 yr by DramatistDreamer

Well, it'll do nothing to end SCOTUS's current conservative majority, but at least another door has been knocked down for WOC.

Interesting article, expressing so much of what I had been thinking about how the Russian people viewed Putin during Crimea vs how they view him now: so many are in shock over the man they thought they knew (but was likely there all along).

When I lived in NYC, I went to a Ukrainian restaurant at least once and it struck me, the number of Russians who had eaten there regularly. There are even a number of Russians who concede that borscht is of Ukrainian origin, though they both love it, it just goes to show what I have felt since the beginning of this emerging conflict between governments- ordinary Russian people do not want this war, as they view Ukrainians as kinfolk. That is why we are finally seeing large crowds out in the streets.

Russians awoke in shock after they learned that Mr. Putin, in an address to the nation that aired before 6 a.m., had ordered a full-scale assault against what Russians of all political stripes often refer to as their “brotherly nation.” https://t.co/Z5i5f6J4IM

— John FitzGerald (@TheTweetOfJohn) February 24, 2022

It's like what @Vee (and Kimberly) said upthread: it's not what you think - it's worse.

Jackson seems like an excellent choice. I am wary about whether Manchin will support her, but I don't want him to keep getting his way, all he cares about is attention. 

The "trucker" astroturfing is coming to DC. The media will go wild, of course.