Can a new Cold War be avoided?

[boneyard bill]

Could my eyes be deceiving me? Russia spending 1/17th as much as the U.S. on miliary shit. We are really in danger here...my my! Who is kidding who here. Gorbachev has it right. We can't avoid hot or cold wars because that is all we are set up to do. All the money put into spying and nuclear bomb "modernization" and meddling world wide to maintain dominance....also all the ignoring of the real human problems in foreign lands and pretending to be champions of democracy. We are pissing away not just our future, but those of about everybody on earth. Our one and only national priority seems to be world domination. So, until we change OUR WAYS, there is no end to the cold and hot wars we will be participating in. This terrorism thing is nothing more than blowback. We all had better get that straight. We believe in peace? It don't look that way to me.

Huh? How does the level of American military spending affect Russian invasion of sovereign countries?

Obviously, the American military plays some part in discouraging any kind of attack on a NATO ally, but it is pure fantasy to think that Putin has any such ambitions. And American military spending has some effect on American military power even though probably half of it is completely wasted. I'll guarantee you that the Russian military is not 1/17th as powerful as the US. We are a lot more closely matched than that.

The problem isn't that we are heading for a new Cold War. The problem is that we are already in one and American policy is the reason. Our actions in Europe have TOTALLY provocative toward Russia, and it started under Clinton, not Obama. We admitted former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and then even extended it to the former Soviet republics in the Baltics. We waged a war against Serbia, the only Russian ally left in Eastern Europe. Then we broke our peace agreement with them and allowed, and even encouraged, Kosovo to become independent.

We started the whole incident in Ukraine. We sponsored the coup against Yanukovich in Kiev, and we stabbed the EU in the back at the same time. The Ukrainian crisis had been a resolved. A new government had been formed. Early elections were to be held. All this brokered by the EU. But it didn't include our puppet, Yatsenyuk, as PM so we turned loose the armed neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalist Right Sector who provoked a shooting incident and eventually took over the Maidan and forced Yanukovich to flee for his life.

That Crimea should choose to secede in these circumstances in hardly a surprise. They were already an autonomous republic. But Putin didn't "invade" as the Western press reported. He merely made his troops available to prevent the Kiev government from acting militarily to prevent secession. In contrast, we bombed Serbia and demanded that she give up Kosovo.

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was the desire of the Russians from the leaders on down to join the West. One big reason for this was fear of China. Our actions since then have been so provocative toward Russia that we have forced them into a "strategic partnership" with China.

And it isn't just Russia. They hate us just about everywhere in the Middle East, and Latin America, which was our loyal ally during the Cold War, now pretty much ignores American "leadership." They're doing deals with Russia and China and were more than happy to sell Russia the fruits, vegetables, and meats that Russia is now no longer buying from Europe as part of their retaliatory sanctions against our sanctions. Our "soft power" is virtually gone. No one trusts the US anymore.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Huh? How does the level of American military spending affect Russian invasion of sovereign countries?

Obviously, the American military plays some part in discouraging any kind of attack on a NATO ally, but it is pure fantasy to think that Putin has any such ambitions. And American military spending has some effect on American military power even though probably half of it is completely wasted. I'll guarantee you that the Russian military is not 1/17th as powerful as the US. We are a lot more closely matched than that.

The problem isn't that we are heading for a new Cold War. The problem is that we are already in one and American policy is the reason. Our actions in Europe have TOTALLY provocative toward Russia, and it started under Clinton, not Obama. We admitted former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and then even extended it to the former Soviet republics in the Baltics. We waged a war against Serbia, the only Russian ally left in Eastern Europe. Then we broke our peace agreement with them and allowed, and even encouraged, Kosovo to become independent.

We started the whole incident in Ukraine. We sponsored the coup against Yanukovich in Kiev, and we stabbed the EU in the back at the same time. The Ukrainian crisis had been a resolved. A new government had been formed. Early elections were to be held. All this brokered by the EU. But it didn't include our puppet, Yatsenyuk, as PM so we turned loose the armed neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalist Right Sector who provoked a shooting incident and eventually took over the Maidan and forced Yanukovich to flee for his life.

That Crimea should choose to secede in these circumstances in hardly a surprise. They were already an autonomous republic. But Putin didn't "invade" as the Western press reported. He merely made his troops available to prevent the Kiev government from acting militarily to prevent secession. In contrast, we bombed Serbia and demanded that she give up Kosovo.

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was the desire of the Russians from the leaders on down to join the West. One big reason for this was fear of China. Our actions since then have been so provocative toward Russia that we have forced them into a "strategic partnership" with China.

And it isn't just Russia. They hate us just about everywhere in the Middle East, and Latin America, which was our loyal ally during the Cold War, now pretty much ignores American "leadership." They're doing deals with Russia and China and were more than happy to sell Russia the fruits, vegetables, and meats that Russia is now no longer buying from Europe as part of their retaliatory sanctions against our sanctions. Our "soft power" is virtually gone. No one trusts the US anymore.

Holy Crap! Not that I don't trust your word, but could you please provide a link from a reputable (and thus verifyable) source that the US "sponsored the Ukraine in Kiev". I had no idea of such a dastardly deed!!

 

[boneyard bill]

Obviously, the American military plays some part in discouraging any kind of attack on a NATO ally, but it is pure fantasy to think that Putin has any such ambitions. And American military spending has some effect on American military power even though probably half of it is completely wasted. I'll guarantee you that the Russian military is not 1/17th as powerful as the US. We are a lot more closely matched than that.

The problem isn't that we are heading for a new Cold War. The problem is that we are already in one and American policy is the reason. Our actions in Europe have TOTALLY provocative toward Russia, and it started under Clinton, not Obama. We admitted former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and then even extended it to the former Soviet republics in the Baltics. We waged a war against Serbia, the only Russian ally left in Eastern Europe. Then we broke our peace agreement with them and allowed, and even encouraged, Kosovo to become independent.

We started the whole incident in Ukraine. We sponsored the coup against Yanukovich in Kiev, and we stabbed the EU in the back at the same time. The Ukrainian crisis had been a resolved. A new government had been formed. Early elections were to be held. All this brokered by the EU. But it didn't include our puppet, Yatsenyuk, as PM so we turned loose the armed neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalist Right Sector who provoked a shooting incident and eventually took over the Maidan and forced Yanukovich to flee for his life.

That Crimea should choose to secede in these circumstances in hardly a surprise. They were already an autonomous republic. But Putin didn't "invade" as the Western press reported. He merely made his troops available to prevent the Kiev government from acting militarily to prevent secession. In contrast, we bombed Serbia and demanded that she give up Kosovo.

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was the desire of the Russians from the leaders on down to join the West. One big reason for this was fear of China. Our actions since then have been so provocative toward Russia that we have forced them into a "strategic partnership" with China.

And it isn't just Russia. They hate us just about everywhere in the Middle East, and Latin America, which was our loyal ally during the Cold War, now pretty much ignores American "leadership." They're doing deals with Russia and China and were more than happy to sell Russia the fruits, vegetables, and meats that Russia is now no longer buying from Europe as part of their retaliatory sanctions against our sanctions. Our "soft power" is virtually gone. No one trusts the US anymore.

Holy Crap! Not that I don't trust your word, but could you please provide a link from a reputable (and thus verifyable) source that the US "sponsored the Ukraine in Kiev". I had no idea of such a dastardly deed!!

We've been over this before. We have the tape of Victoria Nuland's conversation with our Ambassador in Kiev where she proclaimed "fuck the EU" because she didn't like the plan they were sponsoring because it didn't make our choice, Yatsenyuk, the new premier. We also have her speech where she claimed, prior to the coup, that the US had spent $5 billion to "promote democracy" in Ukraine. Note, that Ukraine already HAD a democratically-elected government so why are we spending $5 billion there? Well, Nuland classified those armed neo-Nazi thugs in the Maidan as the "democracy movement." I think there is also evidence that the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA front, was active in Ukraine. And there was the continuing support, after the coup, for the coup-led government and a complete rejection of the EU negotiated government which would have gone into effect the next day, in favor of the government formed, virtually at gun-point, by Yatsenyuk.

Do I have smoking gun evidence that the neo-Nazi thugs were on the CIA payroll? No. But this has Langley written all over it.

 

[Jayjay]

We started the whole incident in Ukraine. We sponsored the coup against Yanukovich in Kiev, and we stabbed the EU in the back at the same time. The Ukrainian crisis had been a resolved. A new government had been formed. Early elections were to be held. All this brokered by the EU. But it didn't include our puppet, Yatsenyuk, as PM so we turned loose the armed neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalist Right Sector who provoked a shooting incident and eventually took over the Maidan and forced Yanukovich to flee for his life.

That's jst bullshit and you know it. There was no deal brokered by EU (and certainly not one that would not have included Yatsenyuk), and the US didn't turn anyone loose.

If anything, the West can be blamed for being too naive as to how far Russia would go to fuck up Ukraine.

 

[Jayjay]

Holy Crap! Not that I don't trust your word, but could you please provide a link from a reputable (and thus verifyable) source that the US "sponsored the Ukraine in Kiev". I had no idea of such a dastardly deed!!

We've been over this before. We have the tape of Victoria Nuland's conversation with our Ambassador in Kiev where she proclaimed "fuck the EU" because she didn't like the plan they were sponsoring because it didn't make our choice, Yatsenyuk, the new premier.

Yes, we have been over this before. The Nuland call says no such thing. The comment refers to US not wanting to wait for EU mediation and rather get a solution sooner. But we know that the US plan didn't actually come to pass. If anything Nuland was 100% right about ineffectiveness of EU efforts.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

One doesn't get to choose the defensive wars one is in.

LOL...yeah right...700% comes to mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
1 United States United States 640.0 3.8
2 China People's Republic of China[a] 188.0 2
3 Russia Russia[a] 87.

And the Martian soil is red.

None of these things are relevant.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The problem isn't that we are heading for a new Cold War. The problem is that we are already in one and American policy is the reason. Our actions in Europe have TOTALLY provocative toward Russia, and it started under Clinton, not Obama. We admitted former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and then even extended it to the former Soviet republics in the Baltics. We waged a war against Serbia, the only Russian ally left in Eastern Europe. Then we broke our peace agreement with them and allowed, and even encouraged, Kosovo to become independent.

If Russia didn't have territorial ambitions the republics becoming part of NATO wouldn't matter.

And Serbia decided ethnic cleansing was a good idea. We warned them to stop it, they kept at it. You think we should have simply sat back and let the massacres continue?

We started the whole incident in Ukraine. We sponsored the coup against Yanukovich in Kiev, and we stabbed the EU in the back at the same time. The Ukrainian crisis had been a resolved. A new government had been formed. Early elections were to be held. All this brokered by the EU. But it didn't include our puppet, Yatsenyuk, as PM so we turned loose the armed neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalist Right Sector who provoked a shooting incident and eventually took over the Maidan and forced Yanukovich to flee for his life.

Oh, come on now. Yanukovich was a Russian puppet. When they lost their inside man they switched to military action.

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was the desire of the Russians from the leaders on down to join the West. One big reason for this was fear of China. Our actions since then have been so provocative toward Russia that we have forced them into a "strategic partnership" with China.

The Berlin wall fell because of the actions of a local official, not Moscow.

 

[barbos]

If Russia didn't have territorial ambitions the republics becoming part of NATO wouldn't matter.

You really have weird concept of causality and reality for that matter.

And Serbia decided ethnic cleansing was a good idea. We warned them to stop it, they kept at it. You think we should have simply sat back and let the massacres continue?

And you know that how? Television said so?

We started the whole incident in Ukraine. We sponsored the coup against Yanukovich in Kiev, and we stabbed the EU in the back at the same time. The Ukrainian crisis had been a resolved. A new government had been formed. Early elections were to be held. All this brokered by the EU. But it didn't include our puppet, Yatsenyuk, as PM so we turned loose the armed neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalist Right Sector who provoked a shooting incident and eventually took over the Maidan and forced Yanukovich to flee for his life.

Oh, come on now. Yanukovich was a Russian puppet. When they lost their inside man they switched to military action.

Right, he was such a great puppet, that's why he would get the last dollar from that base in Sevastopol. At least he was democratically elected puppet, unlike what US currently installed.

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was the desire of the Russians from the leaders on down to join the West. One big reason for this was fear of China. Our actions since then have been so provocative toward Russia that we have forced them into a "strategic partnership" with China.

The Berlin wall fell because of the actions of a local official, not Moscow.

You really ARE a sponge for propaganda.

 

[barbos]

We've been over this before. We have the tape of Victoria Nuland's conversation with our Ambassador in Kiev where she proclaimed "fuck the EU" because she didn't like the plan they were sponsoring because it didn't make our choice, Yatsenyuk, the new premier.

Yes, we have been over this before. The Nuland call says no such thing. The comment refers to US not wanting to wait for EU mediation and rather get a solution sooner. But we know that the US plan didn't actually come to pass. If anything Nuland was 100% right about ineffectiveness of EU efforts.

You are good.
Now explain away CIA director visit to Ukraine

 

[TV and credit cards]

Russian and American military spending as percentage of GDP is about the same, ~4%.

As a percentage of GDP hardly matters here if 4% gets you a tin can and the guy an aircraft carrier.

Holy Crap! So if the US just reduces it's military spending, Russia won't invade any more countries? If so, that's totally cool!!

I'm simply wondering why Jayjay would post such a statistic. How it is relevant when purchasing military hardware.
Your follow-on comment seems nonsensical to me.

When the Berlin Wall fell, it was the desire of the Russians from the leaders on down to join the West. One big reason for this was fear of China. Our actions since then have been so provocative toward Russia that we have forced them into a "strategic partnership" with China.

This sounds like a pivotal moment in time. I wonder why the US would do such a thing?

And you know that how? Television said so?
You really ARE a sponge for propaganda.

And if you are going make statements againt the commonly accepted propaganda, shouldn't you support your argument? If you've done so in the past, I'm sure you have a reference handy.

 

[barbos]

And if you are going make statements againt the commonly accepted propaganda, shouldn't you support your argument? If you've done so in the past, I'm sure you have a reference handy.

It's Loren we are talking about here:
Germany unification - will of the people.
Crimea voting to leave Ukraine and reunite with Russia - that's illegal invasion and occupation.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Russian and American military spending as percentage of GDP is about the same, ~4%.

As a percentage of GDP hardly matters here if 4% gets you a tin can and the guy an aircraft carrier.

Holy Crap! So if the US just reduces it's military spending, Russia won't invade any more countries? If so, that's totally cool!!

I'm simply wondering why Jayjay would post such a statistic. How it is relevant when purchasing military hardware.
Your follow-on comment seems nonsensical to me.

I was mocking post #16 that suggested that higher US military spending will prevent Russian invasions into Europe.

 

[Jayjay]

Yes, we have been over this before. The Nuland call says no such thing. The comment refers to US not wanting to wait for EU mediation and rather get a solution sooner. But we know that the US plan didn't actually come to pass. If anything Nuland was 100% right about ineffectiveness of EU efforts.

You are good.
Now explain away CIA director visit to Ukraine

What's there to explain? That happened months later.

 

[Jayjay]

Russian and American military spending as percentage of GDP is about the same, ~4%.

As a percentage of GDP hardly matters here if 4% gets you a tin can and the guy an aircraft carrier.

Holy Crap! So if the US just reduces it's military spending, Russia won't invade any more countries? If so, that's totally cool!!

I'm simply wondering why Jayjay would post such a statistic. How it is relevant when purchasing military hardware.

Just putting thigns in perspective: the USA isn't a bigger warmongerer than Russia, it's just bigger.

 

[Ford]

I think that it's scary that the tumbling Russian economy isn't stopping the Russians from continuing their invasion of Ukraine in the least.

Allow me to explain - according to the Putin Cheer Squad (some of whom are posting here):


Invasion? What invasion? Russian people in Ukraine (which is run by Nazi thugs) are demanding their freedom! Russia (economy is fine) is sending them flowers and gift baskets. All else is Western media lies!

The Russian economy is tumbling due to the worldwide drop in oil, currency crashing, western sanctions, inflation, and investors moving their money to safer markets.

Russian economy is fine! Western media likes to lie and tell you otherwise, but winter is coming soon, and Russian winter always wins!

I think that Ukraine is gone.

Yes, Ukraine has been ruined by Western media lies, CIA, and Nazi thugs. Russia merely wants Ukraine to stop oppressing Russia and Russian people, not like Western media lies tell you!

To me, the larger issue is where will Russia stop? Do they have plans to invade the Baltics, Poland, or Finland. Why is Russia uniting the Eastern Europe countries against it?

Russia has invaded no one and has no plans to invade anyone ever. Western media lies and CIA tell you otherwise, but Russia just wants freedom for people in long-standing parts of Russia which were stolen by Nazi thugs and CIA led coups. If Russian people in Baltics, Poland, or Finland want freedom, then Russia is glad to send tanks - full of freedom and peaceful democracy - into their streets to help celebrate once they have defeated Nazi thugs and CIA.

p.s. did you know US invaded Iraq based on lies?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

And if you are going make statements againt the commonly accepted propaganda, shouldn't you support your argument? If you've done so in the past, I'm sure you have a reference handy.

It's Loren we are talking about here:
Germany unification - will of the people.
Crimea voting to leave Ukraine and reunite with Russia - that's illegal invasion and occupation.

You don't get to hold others to a higher standard than you hold yourself.

 

[funinspace]

"Can a new Cold War be avoided?" - I don't think the US can afford the Global War on Terror and a Cold War as well. We are already spending on the spy-military-complex at a break neck pace....

I don't think that there are many in the US or in the NATO countries who want a new cold war!

We already spend roughly a trillion dollars a year on our spy-military-complex battling ragtag bands of "Islamists". Maybe you could flesh out what your envisioning in a new and improved cold war? I get images of things like the last one, elevated military and spy spending, and grueling and meaningless proxy wars like Vietnam. You think we can afford a $1.5 trillion spy-military-complex for a couple decades?

But many of us are also against Russia annexing other people's land.

Yeah, me to. I'm also against the illegal Israeli apartheid and land grabs in the West Bank, and the US subsidies to Israel.

 

[arkirk]

As a percentage of GDP hardly matters here if 4% gets you a tin can and the guy an aircraft carrier.

Holy Crap! So if the US just reduces it's military spending, Russia won't invade any more countries? If so, that's totally cool!!

It's Loren we are talking about here:
Germany unification - will of the people.
Crimea voting to leave Ukraine and reunite with Russia - that's illegal invasion and occupation.

You don't get to hold others to a higher standard than you hold yourself.

It's funny. We are mostly a bunch of atheists. We don't believe in gods or other religious theistic bullshit, yet we take sides in clearly nationalistic and religion driven conflicts. Ukraine is just one example of how our world leaders...Putin included act like spoiled children playing marbles. The problem is not just a matter of Putin in Ukraine. The Indians and Pakistanis, the Japanese and the Chinese, the Americans and everyone else excepting of course our demanding ally, Israel. Are there not greater overarching matters of importance in ALL OUR LIVES than this incessant name calling and rock throwing? The only difference between the Palestinians and the Americans...the Americans have MUCH BIGGER ROCKS and they fly by remote control. We humans have been doing this idiotic dance of death and mayhem as long as I have been alive. What question do we have to ask ourselves to even slow the dance a little? I just asked it.

You have to have a GOAL and that GOAL must be PEACE. Look into your arsenal of accusations sometime and you will see such logical inconsistencies as to render every contending political argument irrelevant to the cause of peace. When we build a bomb, we do not use the labor spent making that bomb building a house, or educating a child. Once built, we feel we must not let that labor and treasure go to waste, so what do we do? We see if we can use it as a threat to cajole out of others in the world the very things we have not done for ourselves. The U.S. is not the only country doing this, but to imagine somehow any political ideology (and that does include Capitalism) that demands the application of force can make peace is the ultimate unreachable pipe dream.

We human beings are doing a terrible job on this earth, destroying it for ourselves. A lot of our problems seem based in our utter belief in power and force. It has not done much for us...sure we have computers and vaccines, but mostly, nations are war machines always getting ready to destroy something or somebody. We need to allow people to settle any issue peaceably. That is what the United Nations was supposed to do, but the American and Russian warlords would not allow it the power to do its own job, giving themselves VETO POWER. This veto power is vested in the greatest recent imperialistic offenders only. The rest of the nations of the world are to the United Nations as working class citizens of the VETO POWER NATIONS are to their own government....relegated to spectator status.

I clearly see the war crimes of other nations. It is not just the U.S. It is the worst however ONLY BECAUSE IT IS THE STRONGEST ONE in military terms and is trying to enforce its economic hegemony on the entire world. It will be no more successful than Napoleion or Caesar or Hitler's machine and certainly is not in the least any more MORAL. What is progress is not predictable and never seems to be linear. We are squandering our best potentials by the minute. What a shame.

We have to get out of eastern Europe...and Korea. It is not ours. You cannot "win" a country with military conquest. Haven't we seen ample proof of this in the 20th and 21st centuries?

 

[Harry Bosch]

Holy Crap! So if the US just reduces it's military spending, Russia won't invade any more countries? If so, that's totally cool!!

It's Loren we are talking about here:
Germany unification - will of the people.
Crimea voting to leave Ukraine and reunite with Russia - that's illegal invasion and occupation.

You don't get to hold others to a higher standard than you hold yourself.

It's funny. We are mostly a bunch of atheists. We don't believe in gods or other religious theistic bullshit, yet we take sides in clearly nationalistic and religion driven conflicts. Ukraine is just one example of how our world leaders...Putin included act like spoiled children playing marbles. The problem is not just a matter of Putin in Ukraine. The Indians and Pakistanis, the Japanese and the Chinese, the Americans and everyone else excepting of course our demanding ally, Israel. Are there not greater overarching matters of importance in ALL OUR LIVES than this incessant name calling and rock throwing? The only difference between the Palestinians and the Americans...the Americans have MUCH BIGGER ROCKS and they fly by remote control. We humans have been doing this idiotic dance of death and mayhem as long as I have been alive. What question do we have to ask ourselves to even slow the dance a little? I just asked it.

You have to have a GOAL and that GOAL must be PEACE. Look into your arsenal of accusations sometime and you will see such logical inconsistencies as to render every contending political argument irrelevant to the cause of peace. When we build a bomb, we do not use the labor spent making that bomb building a house, or educating a child. Once built, we feel we must not let that labor and treasure go to waste, so what do we do? We see if we can use it as a threat to cajole out of others in the world the very things we have not done for ourselves. The U.S. is not the only country doing this, but to imagine somehow any political ideology (and that does include Capitalism) that demands the application of force can make peace is the ultimate unreachable pipe dream.

We human beings are doing a terrible job on this earth, destroying it for ourselves. A lot of our problems seem based in our utter belief in power and force. It has not done much for us...sure we have computers and vaccines, but mostly, nations are war machines always getting ready to destroy something or somebody. We need to allow people to settle any issue peaceably. That is what the United Nations was supposed to do, but the American and Russian warlords would not allow it the power to do its own job, giving themselves VETO POWER. This veto power is vested in the greatest recent imperialistic offenders only. The rest of the nations of the world are to the United Nations as working class citizens of the VETO POWER NATIONS are to their own government....relegated to spectator status.

I clearly see the war crimes of other nations. It is not just the U.S. It is the worst however ONLY BECAUSE IT IS THE STRONGEST ONE in military terms and is trying to enforce its economic hegemony on the entire world. It will be no more successful than Napoleion or Caesar or Hitler's machine and certainly is not in the least any more MORAL. What is progress is not predictable and never seems to be linear. We are squandering our best potentials by the minute. What a shame.

We have to get out of eastern Europe...and Korea. It is not ours. You cannot "win" a country with military conquest. Haven't we seen ample proof of this in the 20th and 21st centuries?

Who is "we"?? The US is in Korea; while the Russians are in Ukraine. Anyway, you and funinspace are attempting to derail the thread. I'd like to redirect the topic to can a new cold war be avoided?

 

[Harry Bosch]

Allow me to explain - according to the Putin Cheer Squad (some of whom are posting here):


Invasion? What invasion? Russian people in Ukraine (which is run by Nazi thugs) are demanding their freedom! Russia (economy is fine) is sending them flowers and gift baskets. All else is Western media lies!

The Russian economy is tumbling due to the worldwide drop in oil, currency crashing, western sanctions, inflation, and investors moving their money to safer markets.

Russian economy is fine! Western media likes to lie and tell you otherwise, but winter is coming soon, and Russian winter always wins!

I think that Ukraine is gone.

Yes, Ukraine has been ruined by Western media lies, CIA, and Nazi thugs. Russia merely wants Ukraine to stop oppressing Russia and Russian people, not like Western media lies tell you!

To me, the larger issue is where will Russia stop? Do they have plans to invade the Baltics, Poland, or Finland. Why is Russia uniting the Eastern Europe countries against it?

Russia has invaded no one and has no plans to invade anyone ever. Western media lies and CIA tell you otherwise, but Russia just wants freedom for people in long-standing parts of Russia which were stolen by Nazi thugs and CIA led coups. If Russian people in Baltics, Poland, or Finland want freedom, then Russia is glad to send tanks - full of freedom and peaceful democracy - into their streets to help celebrate once they have defeated Nazi thugs and CIA.

p.s. did you know US invaded Iraq based on lies?

Debating the "Putin Cheer Squad" is like debating fundies!