Lula's stance on the conflict is much more nuanced https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-war-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-mercosur-olaf-scholz/ While he said that Russia committed "a classic mistake" by invading Ukraine's territory, he also argued that neither side was showing sufficient willingness to resolve the war via negotiation: "No one wants to back down a millimeter," he said. While I can't state every interests/relationships countries may have with Russia, some of those reasons are; access to cheaper energy & commodities also weaponry - like the Indian minister pointed out in a video I previously posted. In Africa, you have countries expelling the French or looking to do so like Mali and Burkina Faso and have the Russians take their place - Italian PM Meloni gave a pretty passionate speech on how the French were royally screwing Africa. VIDEO: #Meloni 🇮🇹 on the French exploitation of #BurkinaFaso 🇧🇫 and the migrant crisis facing Italy: “The solution is to free Africa from Europeans who exploit it.” pic.twitter.com/QufZWhjeec #Macron #France #migranti #migrantcrisis #EU #europeanvalues #Africa #lampedusa #Calais— Manchester Chronicle 🐝 (@WithyGrove) November 19, 2022 Of course, there's also the potential implementation of an alternate payment system allowing global south nations to escape sanctions and start the process of dedollarisation. They repeatedly vote at the UN for the end of unilateral sanctions which is routinely ignored by the West. All things I think could be countered and mitigated with a change of our diplomatic approach which is overdue. Having the Global South on our side would "truly" isolate Russia and make our sanctions devastating. We're finding out that we're making things more difficult without them.
One thing that Russia does well - and the old Soviet Union also did well - is spread misinformation. And they've done a lot of it in Latin America. So, leaders like Lula or Bolsonaro (or Kirchner in Argentina) do benefit from pandering to a large segment of the population that sympathizes with Russia.
Europeans didn't always love or trust one another. If China and Russia could fix their issues when they had poor relations until the end of the cold war (we actually pushed them each other's arms due to bad diplomacy), why wouldn't other nations be able to do the same? Never thought Iran and the Saudis would ever try to fix their issues.
Pravda and Izvestia, two main Soviet newspapers Pravda = Truth Izvestia = News there is no pravda in Izvestia and there is no izvestia in Pravda
Diplomacy Greek Prime Minister explained the refusal to supply Leopards to Kiev by strained relations with Turkey. Athens rules out supplying Leopard tanks to Ukraine so as not to disrupt Greek «defensive strategy» (msn.com) U.S. says Russia violating New START nuclear arms control treaty | National Post Economic war Russia Sidesteps Western Punishments, With Help From Friends - The New York Times (nytimes.com) On Monday, the International Monetary Fund said it now expected the Russian economy to grow 0.3 percent this year, a sharp improvement from its previous estimate of a 2.3 percent contraction. Germany Still Years Away From Replacing Russian Gas Capacity - Bloomberg It will take until 2026 for the country to install 56 billion cubic meters of domestic LNG import capacity. New York Gasoline Shortage Brews on EU’s Russia Ban Fallout - Bloomberg EU anti-Russian sanctions may lead to a shortage of gasoline in the US in the summer Egypt, Russia plan to increase share of settlements in national currencies (trend.az) Dollar Dominance Under Threat: 5 New Challenges to the Greenback's Reign (businessinsider.com)
This makes Lulu look like a moron. What, exactly, is Ukraine supposed to be willing to give up? As has been stated thousands of times by people smarter than him, this war could end tomorrow if the Russians wanted it to. None of this has anything to do with Ukraine. If they're having a tough time getting Russian oil, that's solely Russia's fault. They should be putting pressure on Russia. What kind of sanctions regime do they have in mind? And the current sanctions are in no way "unilateral." What would it take to get the Global South on our side in this conflict? I have a feeling the price wouldn't be worth it. Look, I get it, the Global South probably doesn't care much about Ukraine, which is their right. A purely European conflict isn't really their problem. That being said, why should the West care about their concerns? Defeating Russia is much more important than appeasing the Global South.
Your soccer players are just as big of whores for money as any other athlete. No way they'd go for that.
In his view, Ukraine brought it upon themselves by trying cozy up with the West. Mind you he also doesn't approve of Putin's invasion, but he feels that it was a defensive move against Western expansionism and influence rather than Russia expansionism. Interestingly enough, I think Zelensky has placed him under the list of Russian propaganda actors. It's the Bush doctrine of you're either with us or against us that many in the media have been throwing out by labelling any different idea as Russian propaganda. Remember that the US sponsored coups to prop up conservative / military dictatorships in South America to squash any sort of communist / socialist movement. Lula came up in the mid to late 70s about halfway and towards the 2nd half of the dictatorship period. Lula isn't and was never really a communist, but he was viewed and labelled as such. But while he isn't, he is vocally against the American capitalist system and it's imperialistic doctrine of bringing democracy and freedom to countries around the world through wars. So it's understandable that he doesn't really trust the US and its motives.
Well, what I posted now is being confirmed by insiders of the Kremlin https://edition.cnn.com/videos/worl...allyamov-russia-election-ukraine-ebof-vpx.cnn Former Putin aide: Coup a ‘real possibility’ Story by Stephen Neukam • Yesterday 5:25 PM A former speechwriter for Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted that a military coup was possible for the country in the next year, pointing to a deteriorating economy and the growing unpopularity of the war in Ukraine. Abbas Gallyamov, Putin’s former speechwriter who is now a political commentator, said the Russian president could be facing a rising tide of opposition at home as the war wears on, in an interview with CNN. “The Russian economy is deteriorating,” Gallyamov said. “The war is lost. There are more and more dead bodies returning to Russia, so Russians will be coming across more difficulties and they’ll be trying to find explanation why this is happening, looking around to the political process and they’ll be answering themselves: ‘Well, this is because our country is governed by an old tyrant, an old dictator.’” And as people confront this reality, Gallyamov argues, “a military coup will become possible.” “So in one year when the political situation changes and there’s a really hated unpopular president at the head of the country and the war is really unpopular, and they need to shed blood for this, at this moment, a coup becomes a real possibility,” he said. The country is scheduled to hold a presidential election in 2024, but Gallyamov said he thinks there is a possibility that Putin cancels the elections in the face of the war. Western allies in recent days have beefed up their support for Ukraine, with the U.S. and Germany both agreeing to send tanks to the warring country.
@Robert Borden , can you square a circle for me? One of the main themes of your recent posts is that the everything that happens in the world is caused by (broad definition) the West, that the rest of the world has no agency. And yet you think the utterly feeble rest of the world is poised to overtake the omnipotent West. How can both of these things be true?
It has just been announced that the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb for HIMARS and other GMLRS systems is part of the next American aid package for Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-re...with-longer-range-weapons-sources-2023-01-31/
The reason we are not giving Ukraine the ATACMS may simply be that we don't have a lot and we want to keep them. The GLSDB is new build, so it will take time to get to Ukraine in numbers, but it uses the (essentially free) surplus rocket from the cluster bomb weapons we took out of service and 250lb bombs are cheap and common, and the guidance kits aren't very expensive either. The Small Diameter Bomb has some pretty extreme maneuverability. It can go around the target and attack it from the back or any other advantageous angle.