if it ain't BoZo

[redtrummy]

With all the problems facing the world it has been a disappointing week. Putin has been getting more and more extreme during the last few years, the way he has destroyed the last remnants of democracy in Russia highlights his disturbed mindset.

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by Craig380

A friend of mine is an economic analyst based in Moscow, the company he works at advises investors and traders on Russian market conditions.

Since yesterday morning they've had all their clients screaming "Why the f*ck didn't you tell us this was going to happen?" The answer that most Russian military / economic experts have been giving is, they really didn't expect it: they expected Putin's usual bluff as he'd already achieved what he set out to do (get Ukraine to back away from NATO).

It's not implausible to suggest that Putin actually has lost it in some way.

You didn't need to be an expert to see Putin was going to invade Ukraine, it has been obvious for weeks . What more did people need to see than the build up of Russian military forces on the boundaries with Ukraine !

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by embee

A lot of commentators on the media over the last few days have all said that they met Putin some few years ago and had reasonable interaction with him (all things considered), but he is now a totally different person. He certainly gives the impression of having changed personality quite dramatically.
Sometimes with these sort of characters they go over the line of what even their supporters will tolerate. Mind you, that line is usually pretty extreme, consider Idi Amin or Gaddafi, and anyone even combing their hair the wrong way is likely to get dragged out the back and disposed of.

I do wish our govt and ministers wouldn't adopt the usual tedious jingoistic self-centred flag-waving stance when presenting what is going on. It's not about the UK. We need to openly work alongside the rest of the West and show that we are more co-operative. I'm sure we are, behind the scenes, but it doesn't really come across that way. I don't know why we couldn't agree with the USA/EU as to who/what to sanction and all do it together, we seem to have been one step behind so far. Could it be the Londongrad effect?

Putin is what he has been for years - ex KGB who resented the break up of the soviet union and never accepted it.

[Biker Biggles]

We always get a narrative that the current bogeyman is mad dont we? Well you dont get to be head honcho of a major world power by being bonkers, indeed you dont get to be head of any country unless you are a certain quite common personality type. These people are potentially dangerous but not mad. Putin is simply still playing "The Great Game" which is part of Russian folklore going back a couple of hundred years and involves empire building and land grabs. The modern difference is their newfound relationship with China which represents a sea change in world power structures. Russia has massive natural resources which China needs and China is now the number one world manufacturer. Between them and their client states they account for a large proportion of the world population, GDP and land area.

The other point is that they each have a long term vision for where they are headed, especially China, and that is very different to the West which has no plan other than to carry on with more of the same because we have done fine like that so far. Doesnt bode well.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

We always get a narrative that the current bogeyman is mad dont we?

I don't think it's a case of him being mad, what people who've met him earlier and then more recently seem to say is that his personality has changed. He used to be coldly calculating but now seems more emotional and messianic. His threat to anyone interfering that they will "face consequences never seen before" and now the threat to Finland and Sweden if they try and join NATO sounds odd, almost desperate.

Regarding China's role - this has just been announced:

https://www.bloombergquint.com/globa...an-commodities

I don't know how reliable the source is though, if it's true, they're either playing both sides or realise they sell a lot more stuff to the US/EU than Russia.

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by Seeker

I don't think it's a case of him being mad, what people who've met him earlier and then more recently seem to say is that his personality has changed. He used to be coldly calculating but now seems more emotional and messianic. His threat to anyone interfering that they will "face consequences never seen before" and now the threat to Finland and Sweden if they try and join NATO sounds odd, almost desperate.

Regarding China's role - this has just been announced:

https://www.bloombergquint.com/globa...an-commodities

I don't know how reliable the source is though, if it's true, they're either playing both sides or realise they sell a lot more stuff to the US/EU than Russia.

Putin at the moment might not risk invading a NATO member country but his threat to countries thinking of joining NATO shows he might invade Finland say, because he has now seen he can get away with it with Ukraine without a military response from other European countries. Invade while they are not a member of NATO then NATO does not have to respond !
ps I did hear Belarus isn't the only Eastern European country where he has put Russian forces without being invited. He wants the Soviet Union to be reinstated to how it was before the fall of the Berlin wall. He says NATO broke promises not to expand any further ,but NATO apparently says they did not make any promises. ps I meant Belarus not Estonia.

[svenrico]

China talks in riddles and claims to want to help by mediating in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to achieve a peaceful solution. If they really wanted to help they would just tell Putin to get out of Ukraine and leave the people of Ukraine alone to decide their own future.

[embee]

For anyone interested in a wider view, I'd suggest watching some of the non-domestic media coverage.
I often criticise the BBC, and to some extent the commercial stations in the UK, for very limited, selective, and somewhat parochial approaches to covering/reporting world events, and this episode is no exception.
Try watching channels such as Euronews, France24, Al Jazeera, CNN etc. Their coverage may well be similarly focussed on narrow aspects, but put together you get a much better picture of what is actually happening in the wider view, not just the areas where the BBC has reporters.

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by embee

For anyone interested in a wider view, I'd suggest watching some of the non-domestic media coverage.
I often criticise the BBC, and to some extent the commercial stations in the UK, for very limited, selective, and somewhat parochial approaches to covering/reporting world events, and this episode is no exception.
Try watching channels such as Euronews, France24, Al Jazeera, CNN etc. Their coverage may well be similarly focussed on narrow aspects, but put together you get a much better picture of what is actually happening in the wider view, not just the areas where the BBC has reporters.

Al Jazeera !!!

[garynortheast]

Yes, Al Jazeera. They're not what you may think.