Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Iran is probably the biggest foreign policy story at the moment. But we are talking like the last few weeks at most.

 

IMHO, personally, it's what's going on with the Yuan.

 

Yeah today and yesterday that's probably taken over.

 

And before that it was the Chinese stock market/economy - I have money in the markets, after all, while I could care less what the mullahs do with the weapons they'll clearly eventually get.

 

I'd say generally financial news takes a back seat in foreign affairs. Maybe it's important to you, but it's not always going to be headline grabbing

 

Well, depends on the financial news. I'd agree that, for instance, no one cares much about the Petrobras scandal (even though it's basically eating Brazil from the inside), but a complete collapse of China's stock market? That's a different kettle of fish.

 

Hence why it's made news in the past few days. When it starts to hit ordinary people in the states, then they'll care. But Iran was then bogeyman for awhile and nobody in the republican debates is trashing obama's China policy.

 

Um........Trump is.

 

The nonsense about Iran being or not being important to the US and its foreign policy priorities, is to me just that: nonsense. Part of a childish game that resonated in Bigsoccer when nicephoras and his buddies wanted to silence my response to the propaganda image of Iran and issues related to Iran by the AIPAC crowd. To even discuss it is a waste of time.

In this thread, the issue I raised and the issue that is worthy of discussion relates to how the situation in the Ukraine can lead Russia to one of several paths: 1- be the "New Iran" (with the underlying assumption that Iran itself will slowly mend its ties to the west). This is the position taken by the authors in two articles I posted (NY Times article and the article from Radio Free Europe); 2- be a partner in an anti-western alliance which would include Iran and Russia (as well as others such as China) 3- to cry uncle and go back to trying to prove to the west that Russia wants to be a "partner" to the west.

The rest of the discussion I see is a waste of time.

 

No one said that, but you're right, you do come up with a lot of nonsense.

As is the case when you invade threads with Iran talk, you are certainly correct.

 

Huh I was doing a quick check on what Putin has said since his takeover of Crimea and his not so hidden invasion of Ukraine and nowhere has he said anything about Iran. His focus has been protecting Russians and countering encrouchment by NATO. The only iran narrative mentioned has been the missile defense system he opposes which he says NATO is NOT buidling to counter iran but to be a threat to his Nuclear Deterrant.

Otherwise the big boys really don't care about Iran, it is just another pawn in the game of Kings.

 

something something something IRAN something something something …

 

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/...bs-shoulders-with-putin-in-crimea/530050.html

Hail Silvio!!

 

Question for those with more knowledge than me. With President Trump and Putin agreeing to work together on Ukraine how much of Eastern Ukraine would Russia like to have carved out for an independent nation or territory they will defend/control.

 

The Russians are building a bridge across the Strait of Kerch so they won't need a land bridge to Crimea any more. And it looks like the war is heating up in eastern Ukraine again. Russian troops, or maybe it is the "not Russian" troops are have been clashing with Ukrainian troops.

One question I do have is how the Russians have been able to resupply their troops in Transnistria now that they and the Ukrainians are no longer on friendly terms.

 

The new Moldovan President is friendly to Putin.

 

But how are they getting there? I doubt the Ukrainians are giving the Russians ground passage or over flight rights. And even if Moldova is now friendly, they would have to bring in supplies and equipment through Romania (a NATO member).

 

They don't want an actual independent state. They want a cancerous tumor within Ukraine that they can use to hold the rest of the country hostage. So if say the current administration, which is looking more and more like simply a new set of Tymoshenko kleptocrats anyway, were to try and sign a EU trade pact or NATO agreement. Russia could fire up the conflict as needed to destabilize the country and sort of say look Kiev, not gonna happen.

 

They are part of the JCC which is a legal peacekeeping force. They fly them into Chisinau. The moldovans arrest and deport a good number of the soldiers but let a lot them through. The other thing to know about Ukraine is that for the right price you can do whatever the hell you want. So a lot of material still goes through Odessa

 

So the new education law passed by Ukrainian parliament has been signed into law by Petro Poroshenko this week.

As a member of the post Trianon Treaty Hungarian diaspora, I'm pretty attentive to the current events in the Hungarian speaking portions of Ukraine. There are about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the far Southwest corner of the country. Also about 400,000 Romanian speakers. And about 30% of the country who speak Russian.

This law does seem to provide a loophole for privately funded education systems. But the law is still essentially a fatal bullet. In the case of Hungarian, our education prospects in Ukraine were already on life support. Whatever non government funds are available, are already stretched to the limits. Typically the local Protestant or Catholic congregations. And the Hungarian state. But the Hungarian state is already having to sustain a big part of Hungarian education for the 2.25 million Hungarians who have ended up outside the borders. These are 2.25 million people who do not create tax revenue for Hungarian state. This is already a big challenge, even when the subsidies are only a supplement to the existing funds from Ukrainian government. If that Ukrainian government withholds their end of the financial burdens, the Hungarian language schools will become extinct within a generation. Banning native language public education will force pupils to switch from Hungarian program to Ukrainian program. Currently in some places there are already downward pressures on class sizes due to declining birthrates and gradual assimilation.

This is all very disappointing to people who have devoted their entire lives to protecting endangered communities. Allowing this law to take hold will create a complete breakdown of relations with Hungary and Romania. I don't think people appreciate how massive the issue of native language education is inside Hungarian politics. These sorts of things plant the seeds for future wars.

So anyways ... thanks again CIA, State Department and the neocon usual suspects. Replace Yanukovich with a different band of corrupt oligarchs, except this time with a heavy dose of fascism. Because progress ...

 

Wait what? You think Yanukovich was going to defend the Hungarian minority in Ukraine?

 

so it seems Ukraine is going to be in the news

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/23/1075224256/ukraine-russia-border-us-embassy