Putin - Ukraine

[J o h n S m i t h]

I think Putin is likely to be assassinated by the Ruski elites who've had their ill gotten international assets frozen/confiscated.

AU.S.-based Russian businessman is offering $1 million to any military officer who apprehends Russian President Vladimir Putin "dead or alive" for committing war crimes in his invasion of Ukraine.

Alex Konanykhin, an entrepreneur and former banker, posted the bounty on social media as Russia enters a full week of military action against the neighboring country. Western governments and companies have responded to the invasion by seeking to economically punish Putin and Russia's ruling elite. The bounty offered by Konanykhin, who is now based in the U.S., places an even more direct target on the Russian leader as backlash over the invasion continues to escalate.

Konanykhin said in a Facebook post Tuesday that he promised to pay the officer or officers the money for arresting "Putin as a war criminal under Russian and international laws."

https://www.newsweek.com/wanted-dead-al ... ad-1684337

[Jovial Monk]

US might still have the Missouri mothballed—not sure.

Aircraft and aircraft carriers made battleships obsolete—consider the cases of the Bismark and also the case of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse.

[Bogan]

Vladimir Putin is a new Hitler and the similarities between them are striking. Hitler and Putin are both right wing totalitarians who have the armed forces and the upper establishment on their side. Both Hitler and Putin had massive support from their own people. Both Hitler and Putin are militarily expansionist on behalf of their own racial, linguistic, and cultural groups. Hitler thought he could blitzkrieg the Soviet Union and he was wrong. Putin thought he could blitzkrieg Ukraine and he was wrong. Hitler became a neurotic and drug addicted wreck, and Putin looks like going the same way.

I once agreed with Putin. If he wanted his orthodox Christian country to expand into Muslim countries, especially to protect Russian speaking minorities, I was all for it. Most of those countries were Christian before the evil Muslims conquered them anyway, and converting Muslims to Christians again is no bad thing for the Muslims. Especially female Muslims, who get a much better deal under Christians, and they know it.

But it has become obvious that Putin is using Russian minorities in other countries to create chaos, so that Russia can invade and at least partially retake those independent countries, which were once part of the Soviet Union. If the west does not unite and stop Putin's takeover of Ukraine, Transnistria will be next. Then will come increasing pressure on the Baltic States, who as NATO members, at least have some protection. But whether NATO will intervene if the sizeable Russian speaking minorities in those countries rebel and form Russia oriented breakaway regions, is an interesting question.

This is a time for the whole free world to come together and it seems to be doing just that. Even if it is not enough to ensure a quick Ukrainian victory. Those Polish Mig 29's are still sitting unused on Ramstein Air Base in Germany, while NAO dithers. One ex US three star general (General Jack Keane) has pointed out that NATO will send the Ukrainians almost everything they want, two months after they begged for it. General Keane said that the MLRS and HIMARS rockets should have been sent to Ukraine when the NATO leaders finally got it through their heads to send the Ukrainians artillery and ammunition.

What the Ukrainians need now is western tanks to drive the Ivans right out of their country. Once again, months after the request, a handful of tanks are arriving in dribs and drabs.

Western leaders have to ask themselves whether they want Ukraine to win quickly or do they want this war to go on and on until Putin dies or is assassinated (or deposed)? The idea that this could escalate into WW3 is ridiculous. Russia can not even defeat Ukraine. NATO has 10 times the GDP of Russia and 5 times the military strength. Add Sweden and Finland and it is 6 or 7 times the military strength. How many wars does Russia want to lose at once?

Defeating Russia could have massive payoffs for everybody. How about a democratic Russia? After all, we made it happen in Germany and Japan and it worked a treat. A democratic Russia would be no threat to anyone and the Russian people could benefit from their energy sales to the West instead of most of the money ending up in Putin's oligarch mates Swiss Bank accounts. Russian could and should be, another western nation.

[J o h n S m i t h]

But it has become obvious that Putin is using Russian minorities in other countries to create chaos

Putins end goal is that he wants to restore the USSR.