Biden takes a risk

Nobody expected a TV comedian to be much of an actual leader. Not even one who made a name for himself by, among other things, starring in a sitcom about an accidental politician fighting Ukrainian corruption by (Russian?) oligarchs.

Everyone forgot that the jester, by necessity, was historically often the smartest person in the throne room.

Certainly, Zelenskyy's charisma and quick wit has had a lot to do with the world not turning yet another blind eye to what Russia's doing in Ukraine.

 

All true but once this war is over and large parts of Donbas are back in Ukrainian hands the vengeance against the Russian speaking population may be horrific. That's my recurring nightmare.

 

I was raised Russian-speaking. Could you'all pretty please stop trying to speak for me?

Large parts of Donbass were all this time and are still under Ukrainian control. Do you see evidence, any evidence at all, of this horrific vengeance? People did become much more nationalistic as the result of the invasion, but talking up some hypothetical atrocities at the hand of the Ukrainians when actual atrocities at the hand of the Russians (who openly declare genocidal intent, mind you) are ongoing is not OK. It's not OK.

Long before full-scale war (but after the war in Crimea and Donbass started; say 2015), I have read a long interview of the two most prominent, at the time, ultra-Nationalist Far Right paramilitary leaders; the famous Dmytro Yarosh and a man with nom-de-guerre "Semyon Semenchenko". The funny part is both of these people were born and raised in Donbass and are Russian speaking. Yarosh cosplays Stepan Bandera and dutifully spoke Ukrainian, Semenchenko didn't bother and spoke Russian during the whole interview. And those are the nationalist fringe.

 

I would imagine that there might be some suspicion of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine for some time. But I doubt that there will be any actual persecution or anything like that.

I mean, there are somehow still some tourists ("journalists"? I forget) from Russia openly visiting Kyiv right now and they're not getting murdered or anything like that. If anyone ever needed an "excuse" to murder or persecute Russian (speaking) people, it'd be now. But all that's happening is the Russians have been getting mad that they're being spoken to in Ukrainian. It's kind of hilarious.

 

Okay, I’ll try and shelve the nightmares.

 

Or, alternatively, focus on REAL nightmares, and not on what victims of REAL nightmares MIGHT do in the future. The whole concern frankly seems taken directly from baseless accusations russian propaganda loves to spread.

 

No. Because no one is speaking for any one individual, just as you don't speak for all people raised speaking Russian. Your background informs your opinions and, potentially, makes them more valuable and insightful. But you don't own the subject.

I'm the only person on this board EVER to have a PhD specializing in the subject of the board. I'm it. That's the list. And I would NEVER ask anyone else to stop talking about the subject, nor would I assume they were speaking for me when they did.

 

Every khuylo's Minister is a Minister of Vranyo. Medvedev is widely regarded as a drunk, so he's denied basic dignity (despite being a former president in name only) and reduced to posting insane rants.
If this last thing is to be taken seriously, it would mean that the use of a nuclear device is likely, almost inevitable, whatever the West might do. In this case, there's no reason NOT to attack Russia right now. Luckily, no one takes Medvedev seriously. For real, the guy is more deranged than insane TV propagandists.

 

Did they bomb your country in the name of protecting you from nonexistent abuses? Because that's what happened to us.

The bitter irony is that vast majority of civilian victims of russia lived in the Eastern and Southern regions and are disproportionally likely to be Russophones. So when Judge Orbourne expresses fear that Ukrainian forces (who BTW are as likely to speak Russian as any random Ukrainian), who are dying to try to save those Russophone Ukrainians from the invaders, would start brutally oppressing Russophones, it's very much out of the left field (or rather, out of the Kremlin liars' mouths). Like, you know, new GOP educational standards on "violence against and BY African Americans".

 

I'm not qualified to discuss that at any length, which is why I don't.

 

Ukraine says Russian drones hit NATO member Romania

Russian drones hit a Ukrainian port across the Danube river overnight, sending warehouses and production buildings up in flames.

But Ukraine said Monday those strikes also detonated on the territory of NATO member Romania - something Bucharest says it "categorically denies".
It's a rare report of stray weapons from the war in Ukraine hitting a neighboring member of the Western military alliance.

Reuters could not independently verify either account.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-says-russian-drones-hit-154053410.html

 

It might be best to take Bucharest's word for it whether that's true or not.

 

The current Romanian government is kind of...

well...

From what I've heard from Romanians, they're kind of sure that if Russia tried to invade them, the government would gladly hand over the keys because "yay Russia". So I'd expect them to hush up being hit by Russian ordinance unless Romanian civilians were killed. Even then... dunno.

 

Each such incident is evaluated by the country and possibly with NATO partnership.
There is a reasonable possibility during war of fighting leaking across the border, a mortar or rocket may explode around the border.
In such case the evaluation will try to figure if the shooting was intentional, who did it, level of damage and what was targeted i.e open field, military, civilian, industrial or other area, etc.
Frequency of the incidents, and obviously there will reach conclusions and some actions taken.

 

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-romania-evacuation-plauru-russian-drone-attack-ukraine-1825483?amp=1

 

The more I think about it, though, the more I'm convinced that triggering direct NATO military involvement is Putin's nightmare. Things haven't worked out as he planned and there's no exit that includes Putin staying in power.

 

At hideous risk the West might end up liberating Russia so to speak.

 

Russia has been free for only a few years in its history. Except for a few years under Yeltsin, it has been one dictator after another. The czars ran things for hundreds of years. Then it was the Soviets. Then a few years of emergent freedom under Yeltsin, then the Putin era.

I have to think they like it that way.