Russia & Putin

[Dubbag]

That the fate of thousands could come down to the action of one man is truly chilling, with China a stated friend and his ability to launch cyber attacks at will plus we don't really know how far the tentacles extend into Whitehall is there really any stopping him? He is a major supplier of oil and gas to the West and is reported to have billions in cash reserves.

If they were truly serious about this threat...then they could simply ban all Russian transactions from SWIFT global banking system.
Well why don't they? Probably because the flow of money has tracks in cyber space and possibly a fair few closer to home might not want that....Why?

[Dubbag]

Foreign secretary doesn't rule out sanctioning Russian Tory donors
Sky's Kay Burley has pointed out the Conservative Party has received £2m in Russian cash since taking office, asking whether these donors will still be targeted by sanctions.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss replied that "nothing is off the table in terms of who we're targeting".

"I don't rule out anything," she said.

But as for whether the money would be given back, she was a little less forthcoming - saying all donations are "properly declared".

She added many people who move from Russia to the UK are "not necessarily friends of Vladimir Putin".

[Yarmbaggie]

Surely Putin knows only too well, especially after his earlier annexation of Crimea in 2014 that unless the ‘west’ has a Co-ordinated and lengthy approach to sanctions then their (Russia’s) built up reserves will get them a long way through this conflict.

The problem the west is self interest across countries. Germany as an example gets 30% of its gas from Russia, USA has a huge trade in high tech with Russia. Many countries such as Hungary, Austria, Italy have very strong ties with Russia and probably won’t want any sanctions.

The one big advantage he has he is a committee of one, the west I suspect will be divided throughout and therefore whatever any country does will help but won’t be decisive enough to give him any sleepless nights. He has been learning and plotting for this day since 2014 so has plenty of plans in place I am sure.

No easy fix and doesn’t he know it.

[WBA123]

I'm not sure whether we'll ever truly know the influence and financial interference in our politics that has been driven from Russia.

What we do know is;
- It was in Russia's interest for us to leave the EU, they prefer the EU disunited and divided
- There were some unusual donations to Vote Leave investigated by the electoral commission
- Prominent Leavers Farage, Banks, Daubney have all as recently as this week come out and defended Russia's actions. Makes you question if they are on the payroll. I would expect so.
- Boris gave a KGB officers son a seat in the House of Lords
- The Tories have consistently received donations from wealthy Russian benefactors
- The Government's sanctions are slightly baffling, 'Further sanctions may come'. If you were Russian Oligarch thinking you would be targeted, you would ship all liquid assets out of the UK. Nice heads up warning from the Government there.
- The far left have often been implicated with Russian money, Corbyn was reportedly paid by Russia Today news channel and did not properly condemn them after the Salisbury poisoning
- The Stop the War Coalition (a well known Far Left group) has sided with Russia and castigated Starmer's response of support for Nato.

I heard someone talking on radio 4 recently (who's name escapes me) who said that all private donations to political parties should stop immediately and the larger parties should receive set state funding. Its just too open to abuse and conflict of interest. I would have to agree.

[baggieal]

I'm not sure whether we'll ever truly know the influence and financial interference in our politics that has been driven from Russia.

What we do know is;
- It was in Russia's interest for us to leave the EU, they prefer the EU disunited and divided
- There were some unusual donations to Vote Leave investigated by the electoral commission
- Prominent Leavers Farage, Banks, Daubney have all as recently as this week come out and defended Russia's actions. Makes you question if they are on the payroll. I would expect so.
- Boris gave a KGB officers son a seat in the House of Lords
- The Tories have consistently received donations from wealthy Russian benefactors
- The Government's sanctions are slightly baffling, 'Further sanctions may come'. If you were Russian Oligarch thinking you would be targeted, you would ship all liquid assets out of the UK. Nice heads up warning from the Government there.
- The far left have often been implicated with Russian money, Corbyn was reportedly paid by Russia Today news channel and did not properly condemn them after the Salisbury poisoning
- The Stop the War Coalition (a well known Far Left group) has sided with Russia and castigated Starmer's response of support for Nato.

I heard someone talking on radio 4 recently (who's name escapes me) who said that all private donations to political parties should stop immediately and the larger parties should receive set state funding. Its just too open to abuse and conflict of interest. I would have to agree.

All your post makes sense and not surprising that corruption is rife in the Government and even Royal Family! No time for any of them!

[Johnny on the spot 1]

Not when you put all the other countries together!

Yes that's a great consolation 😳

[Dubbag]

Yes that's a great consolation ��

Yes....I believe the type of nuke you get nuked by, makes a difference to the death you experience....

[Omegstrat6]

Well, it's started now as Russian forces invade Ukraine. Putin claims this is because the Ukraine should never have been an independent country and he talks of wanting it's "de-nazification" whilst behaving himself almost exactly as Hitler did in 1939. The guy is little more than a gangster, but like Xi Jinping and Kim jong un he is also exceptionally dangerous because he is narcissistic, likely psychopathic and, well, a bit mad. Bizarrely, had the similarly inclined Trump still been President rather than the dithering Biden perhaps Putin may not have risked invasion.

Sadly bullies generally only respond to direct physical threats and whilst severe sanctions will undoubtedly hurt both Putin and Russia it will take time for the effects of these to bite and time is something the Ukraine doesn't have. Certainly very worrying times and feel for all those Ukrainians caught up in this.

[Leicesterbaggie]

I honestly believe that Putin is deranged and is potentially a genuine danger to world peace. I believe that our best policy is to make life as difficult as possible for the ordinary Russian people and that Putin's problems come from within. We have to hit them as hard as possible through economic, social, sporting etc. sanctions which makes life as unpleasant as possible for them. They have been fed lies by Putin and if life is made difficult because of these lies then perhaps they could turn on him. The biggest worry is that this is a mirror image of 1939, Hitler and the situation in Czekoslovakia.

[baggieal]

I honestly believe that Putin is deranged and is potentially a genuine danger to world peace. I believe that our best policy is to make life as difficult as possible for the ordinary Russian people and that Putin's problems come from within. We have to hit them as hard as possible through economic, social, sporting etc. sanctions which makes life as unpleasant as possible for them. They have been fed lies by Putin and if life is made difficult because of these lies then perhaps they could turn on him. The biggest worry is that this is a mirror image of 1939, Hitler and the situation in Czekoslovakia.

Very worrying that one deranged person has the power to destroy a country or the world! The comments from Trump praising Putin's aggression as wonderful and Khan the Leader of Pakistan actually landing in Russia then saying it's exciting are absolutely disgusting! Shows what a couple of k nobs these two are!