Quote from: paxmao on Today at 12:04:59 AM

It seems that what the west is no willing to do in full, Ukraine is managing to do on its own. "Sanctions" have now been applied by effect of a few drones in the port of Ust-Luga, not far from the Letonian border. The port has suspended all operations with gas and oil.

Also, and it is not longer news but it is there... another Lukoil refinery hit.

Quote from: DaRude on January 30, 2025, 05:31:29 PM

Quote from: paxmao on January 30, 2025, 01:29:33 PM

Quote from: tvbcof on January 30, 2025, 09:11:55 AM

Quote from: BADecker on January 30, 2025, 02:51:29 AM

...
He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Cheesy

The trick is fighting or running in shackles. If they ain't gonna fight, why waste the upkeep on them. Execute them. You can always sell their remains and make good money off them... as the Zelensky team seems to be doing long time now.

True. Â The Little Green Goblin can 're-hypothecate' his troops and continue his grift until all of his sponsors are broke (or run out of office although as Romania shows us, it isn't going to happen by voting.) Â Much of Ukraine is now owned by Western financial kinkpins like Larry Fink and they have extensive experience with rehypothecation.

Sadly for Fink, the cherry on top of his grift - the creme de la creme - was going to be that 'Ukraine' was to receive multi-trillion dollars in 'reconstruction' funds to rebuild his newly purchased property at Western taxpayer expense. Â Now nobody has much interest in doing so except a handful of WEF 'young global leader' puppets playing prime minister roles in the Collective West countries. Â And their ranks are rapidly shrinking as people finally wake up to their games.

Investing is not giving away. Europe and the US are always looking for the right place to invest. It is usually a win-win, Ukraine gets proper development, has higher level of independence and get to actually vote, employment gets much much better and obviously "the West" as you call some countries have the expectations of a return.

All this is very basic, but we are all going to see the difference... 100 meters from where Ukraine ends, there will lay a devastated unpopulated land where Ruzzia will do... nothing, they first have to re-build their own oil industry for decades to come.

Ah yes, because desperate poor countries selling the only thing they have left, the rights to their resources to multinational corporations, never get exploited. That's why European/US investments in African resources worked so great for Africans? Wondering if there were people convincing Africans how selling their rights to their resources was somehow a win-win for Africa too. Also, then why is EU/US is so against Chinas belt and road initiative? You funny, as usual

Shall we talk about how the Ruzzian multinationals and the Ruzzian pressence in Africa is affecting the countries that DID NOT choose to have them there?

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2024)757654

Quote

Russia's expanding influence in Africa also plays out through non official channels, such as the use of private military companies (such as the Wagner Group) and information manipulation campaigns. Russia has concluded military cooperation agreements with 43 African countries, and is a major, though declining, arms supplier to Africa. This cooperation is not linked to democratic pledges, and in multiple African countries hit by coups, Russia has continued or strengthened its military cooperation.

So... yeah... the Western capitalism so bad, just takes and does not give... All those multinationals are so terrible but...

How is it that growth arrives when Ruzzia leaves?

lol combined population of those 3 Baltic micro states is like 15% of Ukraine in 2013 And where is Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina etc on the chart?

But clearly on financial field, Russia and US are in different categories. Thus the attempt at financial expansionism via cookies that we're observing now. Thing is, only countries strategically located on the competitors boarder get all the cookies allocated to them, the not important countries the ones away from your competitors are the ones providing all those cookies. If you're willing to offer yourself to the highest bidder have you considered China? But in any case, if current sphere of influence you're under is not collapsing, it will not want to let you go, and claim national security to keep you in by force. Think of the American backyard, Cuba, Mexico, lol even Greenland

"For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity," -Trump

Plus there are other downsides of becoming a vassal, you're first to be sacrificed when your overlord decides to make itself great, or he can just outright annex you

Trump suggests he could use military force to acquire Panama Canal and Greenland and 'economic force' to annex Canada

I'm not saying that this is right or fair or that i agree with it, just that these are realities of how this world operates. And the point of a good leader is to navigate these waters, and get the most optimal outcome for his people considering such geopolitical restrains. That's why if i was in US's place, I'd also probably try to pry some country into my sphere with soft powers as well, and if i was in Russia's or China's place i'd switch to a field i can compete in with US to keep my bordering countries under my sphere, and if i was a buffer country i'd try to play both sides as much as possible, like Turkey. The only one i don't understand is Zelenskyy and why he volunteered to suicide his nation in these games for spheres of influence. The only reasons i could think of is, he's either really dumb, or he just doesn't care about his people and now with Trump in US once he's done with Ukraine he'll just escape to UK with his family.