Russia will use this as bargaining for Russia to be allowed to compete under their flag rather than the individual neutrals that’s has been previously agreed and lob some cruise missiles at Odessa when everyone is watching the 100m final.

In all likelihood Russia will continue its murderous campaign on the region Olympics or not.

Massive respect to Simo Häyhä and the whole of Finland.

The significance of Finland and Sweden joining Nato is huge especially after reading about the Winter War .

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: history is repeating itself with Russia in Ukraine.

The thing is that Russia Ukraine is history repeating itself.

Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union (pretty much Russia so I’ll refer them as Russians) in 1939 resulting in the Winter War . This started Nov 1939 and ended in March 1940.

The Finnish put up one hell of a fight that caught out the Russians despite their superior numbers and military strength. It was the intention of the Russians to take over the whole of Finland but they suffered large losses.

The outcome resulted in Finland conceding land bordering Russia and signed the Moscow Peace Treaty. .

This is why Finland was reluctant to join Nato until now. Finland now in Nato is a big thing when you look at the past.

Consequently, Finland has a military that is finely honed to take on a Russian invasion.

Does this ring any bells?

Whoosh

… a school desk.

Removed by mod

This Trump, Orban, Putin triangle makes me think of the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale where the US slides into civil war and global isolation. Instead of the Sons Of Jacob you have Trump.

Seriously, if Trump is besties with Orban and he beats Biden to the Whitehouse the US is heading for very dark times.

When you pause to think that we still use an effectively 120 year technology to move us along yet tech in other areas has soared and superceded others it makes you wonder if it’s deliberate to help keep the oil industry going.

This is an interesting read.

I imagine the urge to visit family is strong but what was she thinking? With many young Russians desparate to leave Russia she decides to go there as a dual US/Russian despite being warned, despite the shit that is happening.

Putin and Russia. Simples.

This is a remarkable turn around of two years ago when Macron warned about not to humiliate Putin.

Meanwhile in other more important news…

Good news day.

What’s a concern here is the lapse in German operational security. The Russians probably already knew that British troops are involved long before this happened.

So yes this is a propaganda information tactic to undermine confidence.

A complete fuck up none the less though.

The Lithuanian foreign minister has summed up the situation rather well with this Tweet.

" Putin is prepared to cross borders, subvert democratic governments, ignore treaties and rewrite the past in an attempt to legitimise the invasion and annexation of his so-called “lands of historic Russian interest”."

" And what about our response? We have taken every opportunity to declare what we are NOT going to do. We have imposed red lines on ourselves and announced them openly, while our adversary operates without any. "

The Lithuanian foreign minister sums up the response thus far very well here.

“We declare red lines for ourselves, but not for Russia. We publicly tie our own hands while leaving Putin free to pillage, rape and destroy. We create strategic transparency, not strategic ambiguity. It’s time to change course.”

It’s time to stop the procrastinating in the hope that this will all die down and have an ending where everyone shakes hands and never speak of this again.

Russia needs stopping.

The Lithuanian PM has summed up the situation here …

’ “Now it seems like Europe understand this is Europe’s problem,” she said, but added that some countries still seem to have a hope that things will be sorted out by themselves.

Šimonytė also said that European countries must give everything they can from their arsenals, as well as ramp up manufacturing." ’

Go for it Germany.

Russia comes across as the playground bully smacking kids in the mouth and then cries when they find out that one of the kids is ready to give them a smack down.

Fuck off Russia.

The US contribution is 0.33% of GDP, UK 0.37%. Estonia meanwhile tops the contribution at 1.26% of GDP, not surprising when they have Russia on their doorstep… as does the US with Alaska.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303450/bilateral-aid-to-ukraine-in-a-percent-of-donor-gdp/

Yeah right. We’ve had next to no wage increases over the last 15 years but workers still carry the can. Totally ignore the energy companies raising their prices significantly based on costs yet still make huge record profits. Ditto supermarkets.