Reading Putin: Unbalanced or cagily preying on West's fears?

During a five-hour dinner between the two leaders, Putin spent more time railing about NATO expansion and the 2014 revolution in Ukraine than discussing the immediate crisis.

Sounds familiar. Did he waffle on about Iraq too?

At his age it is not inconceivable that he is suffering from the onset of dementia. Apparently some medical opinion is that he is evidencing signs of physical ill health. Living in an isolated bubble, surrounded by yes men mirroring his opinions and reinforcing them, perhapse suffering ill health and brooding on perceived injustices and his own position/legacy as a “great man” who will rebuild the glories of the Russian/Soviet empire, it would be no surprise if he ended up more than a tad unhinged. Given his power and nuclear resources is not a pretty picture.

I'm not surprised, he warned the West for years and years but we still have ridiculous articles like this trying to pretend he's mad instead of dealing with any substance

Warned the west what? That he would invade Ukraine and start a war?

The invasion he denied and his supporters here denied right up until he did it despite the West warning it would happen?

That warning?

During a five-hour dinner between the two leaders, Putin spent more time railing about NATO expansion and the 2014 revolution in Ukraine than discussing the immediate crisis.

Yes, because the immediate crisis is a direct result of NATO expansion, the 2014 "revolution", and everything that happened since then. As long as these causes are ignored, this crisis will continue.

Yes, because the immediate crisis is a direct result of NATO expansion, the 2014 "revolution", and everything that happened since then. As long as these causes are ignored, this crisis will continue.

So, instead of addressing the immediate crisis now we should all take a history lesson, fix whatever grievances you have from 2014, which actually go back hundreds of years if you stop to really think about it, then come back and start doing some good about what is happening NOW?

Complaining about people ignoring what happened in the past by ignoring what is happening now is just a little bit hypocritical don’t you think?

You know what happens to the present after a while, right? It becomes the past. Will you complain about it 10 years later?

What Raw Beer and others are thus advocating is for NATO to expel all the members who were once part of the Warsaw Pact and remove all NATO forces to the west of the former Iron Curtain. That is Mr. Putin's demand. That is what Raw Beer and others advocate. Not happening. In fact do not be surprised if within a year Sweden and Finland join NATO. It is telling that even neutral Switzerland, which is not part of the EU, joined in with the EUs sanctions on Russia and ostensibly neutral Sweden is sending a breathtaking 5,000 of their newly developed anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. If Vladimir Putin is angry about former Warsaw Pact nations and former SSRs joining NATO he needs to look in the mirror to understand why this is so. These nations all lived under the Russian jack boot and want nothing to do with it ever again. They know better than the internet fanbois what it means to be subjugated by the Russians. They have first hand experience with their barbarity.

Yes, because the immediate crisis is a direct result of NATO expansion, the 2014 "revolution", and everything that happened since then. As long as these causes are ignored, this crisis will continue.

Before Russia conquered Ukraine it was part of the Ottoman Empire. The native people of the Crimea, the Tartars are Muslim and ethnically very close to the Turks. They are not Russians. After the Ottomans came the Swedes followed by a Polish-Lithuanian confederation that actually ruled Russia from Moscow for a time, attempting to impose Roman Catholicism on the Russians at the behest of the Pope. They were later swept from power and that is when most of Ukraine fell to the Russians. It would however be WWI before the last of the Ottomans were driven from what is now the Ukraine.

So I guess to right all the wrongs of history the southern half of Ukraine should be returned to the Turks and the northwestern part to Poland? Oh wait, I thought people had a right to determine their own fate and establish their own government regardless of any prior history? Silly me.

Putin: Unbalanced or cagily preying on West's fears?

Like a vehicle without braking system, Putin cannot afford to stop the war in Ukraine now, he has to move on, albeit longer than planned.

The final moment for war could be due to West's rejection of Russia's security assurance.. Hence..

The final moment for war could be due to West's rejection of Russia's security assurance

Wow, comedy.

Putin's imagined fears should not be the worlds issues. it is between Putin and his psychiatrist's.

Patient doctor privilege comes into play.

Fear of shadows is normally a childhood affliction. Putin still seeming to suffer with things that are not real.

If Russia stops fighting,

…there’s no war. 

If Ukraine stops fighting,

…there’s no Ukraine.

How about a coup d'etat?

They’re reporting that one of the oligarchs has put a bounty on Putin’s head.

A man who has killed tens of thousands of people and so far gotten away with it? I think he deserves to be called a very evil genius.

They’re reporting that one of the oligarchs has put a bounty on Putin’s head.

More than one, the first batch of assassins failed and were all killed. There are reports that he has a few hundred more assassins trying to take out Zulenskyy and this guy knows he's number one on Putin's target hit list and this guy still won't run, the guy is a bada** for sure. Hope the guy survives, but Putin just wants an end to this man and he just won't stop.

Some cross story happening here? Strangeway commenting on assassination of Putin. Are you commenting on the assassination of Zelensky?

Duly noted, I actually made a mistake on the other thread and meant to say that killing Putin would be difficult to do, not impossible, but definitely not an easy task.

Vladimir Putin is apparently holed up in his "lair in Urals" as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with one security specialist predicting an attempt will be made on his life in the coming days.

I doubt it, there is always a possibility or course, but I don't see that happening.

One assassination attempt against Zelensky failed

And there are more coming.

“The United States has overstepped its national borders in every way,” Putin said

Got that bit right at least, so he is not totally insane.

Don't think the US was kicked out of SWIFT after they invaded Iraq and killed thousands of people.

Like most blowhards, Putin will get his comeuppance. Seems their hypocrisy abounds and most often, goes unchecked until challenged @bass4funk 8:33pm. Seems like it was just moments earlier that these same old hats were advising the up-and-comers in the world to study up & stick with the issues, and not to focus on these dinosaurs continued instances of hypocrisy.

[Putin told an audience “We would be victims of aggression…”] -

Don't think the US was kicked out of SWIFT after they invaded Iraq and killed thousands of people.

The situation was different, there was an objective to "capture a specific target" NOT to invade and kill innocent people. Which many countries "at the time" supported.

With the Ukraine, you have a maniac that lives in a revisionist history cloud that thinks the Ukraine is an illegitimate and breakaway piece of Russia and wants it back and claim it as his. So yeah, he deserves more than to get just kicked out of SWIFT.

The Big man of Russia has now shrunk, his own military is deserting him. He is not the only one to push the button there are others involved who are not foolish enough to do as he ask if commanded to push the nuke button. His Big bark now sounds like a small dog. He has been pushed in a corner and it is very obvious his status with XI has shrunk even further. How can a powerful army like Russia have such a hard time rolling through a small country such as Ukraine. He couldn't repeat the shock and awe. China see this and I am sure they are having second thoughts as they see Russia military struggling.

How many countries has the Soviet Union/Russia invaded since 1945?

Why restrict the criteria to post 1945? The USSR tried to invade Finland in 1939 but became bogged down by determined Finnish resistance. The Fins eventually marched on what was then called Leningrad. That war cost the Soviets over 100,000 dead and hundreds of thousands more wounded or injured by frostbite. If you read about that war the lead up by Joseph Stalin looked an awful lot like the lead up to the Ukraine invasion. The old USSR held a big chunk of Northern China as they wanted to control a railroad out of Shenyang I think it is. There are still some very Russian looking buildings in Northern China. And famously the Soviets and Nazi Germany teamed up to devour Poland. In fact a chunk of what was once Poland is now part of Ukraine as a result of that invasion. But if post 1945 is your criteria the Russian invasions of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland to put down anti-communist uprisings come immediately to mind. And then there was the crushing of Chechnya's brief independence from Russia, the invasion of Georgia and the 2014 invasion of Ukraine that resulted in the loss of territory, particularly the Crimean Peninsula to Russia.

And oh yeah there was that Russian invasion of Afghanistan ....

Most definitely unhinged. Remember when Putin assembled his inner circle to pay obedience? Naryshkin trembling and fumbling? If your own secret service chief is afraid of you, then something's seriously wrong.

Sadly, this does not help in any way. Putin wants his way and he needs to win, and as long as the overpatient NATO steps in, racks up DEFCON and puts an ultimatum on ceasing hostility NOW and removing Russian troops from Ukraine territory within, say, 48 hrs, I fear thousands or more civilians in the Ukraine will lose their lives.

If Putin succeeds to grab Ukraine, he will not stop. In his delusions of grandeur, he will undoubtedly go for the next "disobedient" ex-Soviet state, be it a Baltic state or Poland or whatever. NATO states? No problem, NATO has proved it is weak.

He needs to be stopped now. Permanently.