quote:

Originally posted by dking271:
What is Russia’s biggest export? Oil.

When Russia Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in Feb/March 2014, the world was suffering from fatigue from the endless wars in the ME. A boots on the ground offensive to push Russia back would have been political suicide. Instead, the US backed a coup in Ukraine and started an economic war/assault on Russia.

In Feb of 2014, Oil prices were $135 a barrel. I never believed we would see oil consistently below 100 again. [b]Russia invades Ukraine and annexes Crimea for strategic reasons citing their belief they had historical claims to the land. The world gasps, places sanctions on Russia and the Obama administration plots an economic assault. By Feb of 2016, oil was down to $44 a barrel. How did this happen? Well, shortly after the invasion, Obama quietly stopped off in the ME (Saudi Arabia) on his way to a summit in Japan. Lo and behold, the OPEC nations ramped up production and the price of oil began dropping. Check the charts and the timeline. Crushing oil prices was the one way to hurt Russia, and hurt Russia it did. Interest rates in Russia got up over 18 percent, however the support for Putin was still enormously high. During this period we also supported a regime change in Ukraine and the Washington elites which included the like of Pelosi, Romney, Kerry, and of course the Bidens began their grift. Ron Paul wasn’t a psychic, it was out in the open for all of us to see but the average person doesn’t pay attention. Unlike Russia, our country thrives on cheap energy. We were all elated to have cheap gas to put in our cars. Important to note, US was finding Oil reserves deeper than imagined and extracting. The Balkan oil fields and the Permian Basin represent the 2nd and 3rd largest oil discovery in history.

Fast forward to now. Sleepy Joe gets installed as POTUS, and in the name of climate change starts his assault on oil. Cancelling Keystone, stopping drilling, making permits unobtainable, etc. Oil prices jump, inflation soars (transitory my ass), Covid supply chain issue, etc.,and democrats are baffled. The US shows an enormous amount of weakness in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal and it emboldens a Russia now benefitting from higher oil prices. They invade Ukraine and we piss away resources and money to prolong a fight that was never going to be won. We have weakened our dollar and status on the world stage like never before in history. Ukraine is the bread basket of Europe and should have been Europe’s problem, but the UN has grown more powerful than our puppet government and we keep siphoning our wealth and transferring it to other countries.

My answer is still NO MORE. I don’t give a shit about Ukraine and I don’t give a shit about Hamas. Let them do what they need to do, and let’s start taking care of the mess created here. Between now and January, I believe we are to witness the craziest time of our lives.

You need to adjust your timeline a bit there...Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in RESPONSE to the US backed coup in Ukraine! That was kinda the final straw/red line for them, and the followed a couple of decades of 'meddling' by the US (State Dept & CIA, as well as NATO) in the region.

quote:

You need to adjust your timeline a bit there...Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in RESPONSE to the US backed coup in Ukraine! That was kinda the final straw/red line for them, and the followed a couple of decades of 'meddling' by the US (State Dept & CIA, as well as NATO) in the region

You are correct.

quote:

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in RESPONSE to the US backed coup in Ukraine! That was kinda the final straw/red line for them, and the followed a couple of decades of 'meddling' by the US (State Dept & CIA, as well as NATO) in the region.

What people have to realize is that the more we 'help' Ukraine the worse things are for the Ukrainians.

The only people who benefit are those in on the grift, like Zelensky and the Bidens, and military contractors to the gov.

I don't think Trump will end this conflict by just cutting off aid. The main issue is that other NATO nations will continue to keep Zelensky on life support. Trump is a maverick and I predict that the moment he takes office the US will withdrawal from NATO and Zelensky will find himself on the receiving end of a Russian cruise missile thanks to an anonymous source. Western Europe is one giant cesspool of beggars and self-hating leftists. A strategic realignment is in order.

I seriously doubt Trump would leave NATO, but I can see him playing hardball with the freeloaders and denying them support.

https://www.rt.com/russia/5947...-mall-mass-shooting/

No surprise here... A desperate Ukraine resorts to terrorism when US aid dries up. I won't be surprised if Western weapons are found on the attackers.

"19:55 GMT
Law enforcement officers with detection dogs were spotted inspecting a suspicious white van bearing old Ukraine-issued license plates parked near the mall."

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
https://www.rt.com/russia/5947...-mall-mass-shooting/

No surprise here... A desperate Ukraine resorts to terrorism when US aid dries up. I won't be surprised if Western weapons are found on the attackers.

"19:55 GMT
Law enforcement officers with detection dogs were spotted inspecting a suspicious white van bearing old Ukraine-issued license plates parked near the mall."

Why does my malware alarms go berserk whenever you post up one of these russian propaganda news sites. "Ukrainian issued plates". Yeah, that would easily get into Russia. Does this attack come after documented missile attacks from russia against apartment buildings AGAIN? Or the complete razing by russia of whole cities?

Oh look.

Anybody with a bone to pick with russia is going to have at it with russia.

I believe NOTHING coming from either side.

https://apnews.com/article/rus...df17b6cbd04a3250faa1

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
https://www.rt.com/russia/5947...-mall-mass-shooting/

No surprise here... A desperate Ukraine resorts to terrorism when US aid dries up. I won't be surprised if Western weapons are found on the attackers.

"19:55 GMT
Law enforcement officers with detection dogs were spotted inspecting a suspicious white van bearing old Ukraine-issued license plates parked near the mall."

ISIS claimed responsibility.

Even if it had been Ukraine, could you blame them? They've been fighting a war for the past two years. Russia wanted the war? Bring it to them.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
https://www.rt.com/russia/5947...-mall-mass-shooting/

No surprise here... A desperate Ukraine resorts to terrorism when US aid dries up. I won't be surprised if Western weapons are found on the attackers.

"19:55 GMT
Law enforcement officers with detection dogs were spotted inspecting a suspicious white van bearing old Ukraine-issued license plates parked near the mall."

ISIS claimed responsibility.

Even if it had been Ukraine, could you blame them? They've been fighting a war for the past two years. Russia wanted the war? Bring it to them.

You do realize that Ukraine is plumb out of military aged meat to throw into the grinder? You have to be kidding that you want the US to put boots on the ground for a spot of the globe that has zero strategic value. If you want to bring it to the Russians you can sign up. Ukraine is now taking foreign enlistments. Enlist Now

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
You have to be kidding that you want the US to put boots on the ground for a spot of the globe that has zero strategic value.

Can you point out where I said that?

^^^ OK, you're right my apologies. You support terrorist attacks? Bring it to them?

US urged Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries

https://archive.ph/wv1Y3

The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning that the drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The repeated warnings from Washington were delivered to senior officials at Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, and its military intelligence directorate, known as the GUR, the people told the Financial Times.

Both intelligence units have steadily expanded their own drone programmes to strike Russian targets on land, sea and in the air since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

One person said that the White House had grown increasingly frustrated by brazen Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck oil refineries, terminals, depots and storage facilities across western Russia, hurting its oil production capacity.
Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election.

Washington is also concerned that if Ukraine keeps hitting Russian facilities, including many that are hundreds of miles from the border, Russia could retaliate by lashing out at energy infrastructure relied on by the west.

This includes the CPC pipeline carrying oil from Kazakhstan through Russia to the global market. Western companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron use the pipeline, which Moscow briefly shut in 2022.
“We do not encourage or enable attacks inside of Russia,” an NSC spokesperson said. The CIA declined to comment. In Kyiv, a spokesperson for the SBU declined to comment. Officials at GUR and Zelenskyy’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

After the Financial Times published news of the US warnings on Friday Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, was asked how Kyiv had responded to the Biden administration’s appeals to stop attacks on Russian refineries.

She said: “The Ukrainian side responded, I think, precisely by achieving its goals and by very successful operations conducted on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

“We understand the appeals of our American partners,” Stefanishyna told an audience at the Kyiv Security Forum. “At the same time, we are fighting with the capabilities, resources and practices that we have today.”

Ukraine has stepped up its air attacks in recent weeks, as its drone programmes expand and the ground war shifts in Moscow’s favour. It also follows growing discontent in Kyiv over what is seen as the west’s ambivalent approach to curbing Moscow’s energy revenues.

There have been at least 12 attacks on major Russian refineries since 2022, and at least nine this year, along with several terminals, depots and storage facilities, according to a military intelligence official in Kyiv.

Helima Croft, a former CIA analyst now at RBC Capital Markets, recently noted that Ukraine had shown it could strike most of the oil export infrastructure in western Russia, putting about 60 per cent of the country’s exports at risk.
The US objections come as Biden faces a tough re-election battle this year with petrol prices on the rise, increasing almost 15 per cent this year to around $3.50 a gallon.

“Nothing terrifies a sitting American president more than a surge in pump prices during an election year,” said Bob McNally, president of consultancy Rapidan Energy and a former White House energy adviser.

More at link

For fuck's sake

Win the war, but don't win it that way. Win it some other way.

Buncha fucking clowns, you're supporting a lost cause. If you don't want Ukraine to strike strategic targets, then stop propping up Zelenskyy and his cronies.

I swear to God.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
https://www.rt.com/russia/5947...-mall-mass-shooting/

No surprise here... A desperate Ukraine resorts to terrorism when US aid dries up. I won't be surprised if Western weapons are found on the attackers.

"19:55 GMT
Law enforcement officers with detection dogs were spotted inspecting a suspicious white van bearing old Ukraine-issued license plates parked near the mall."

ISIS claimed responsibility.

Even if it had been Ukraine, could you blame them? They've been fighting a war for the past two years. Russia wanted the war? Bring it to them.

Yes, if it was Ukraine, I would absolutely blame them. Sending armed gunmen to murder innocent civilians is wrong no matter who does it. This was a very strange post, you really think being a terrorist is OK if Ukraine does it?

You do realize russia targets civilians, right?

They murdered thousands of non-combatant civilians to loot their appliances.

There's no telling who shot up that place, there are too many with a score to settle. Ukraine is just the favorite scapegoat. Russia has a severe breakaway rebel problem that is taking full advantage of the chaos.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
You do realize russia targets civilians, right?

Yes, I do realize that. Is your opinion that because the Russian government commits wartime atrocities that it is acceptable to murder Russian civilians?

So whether or not it is OK to murder somebody depends on where that person was born, not anything that person has done?

If that is your opinion, I disagree and reject your logic. When Russia intentionally sends a rocket barrage into a civilian area to kill them that is wrong. When Ukrainians blow up a dam to intentionally flood a civilian area and drown school children that is wrong. When ISIS walks into a theater to randomly shoot guns at innocent people that is wrong. I feel no obligation to go all over the world correcting wrongs like some international policeman, but on the other hand, I will not financially support people who embrace such tactics. And if they do it to me and mine, I will kill them ruthlessly and have done so at scale already.

But at no point in my pursuit of legitimate military targets will I acquiesce to intentionally killing civilians simply because they are of the same national origin or ethnicity of my enemy.

Turns out Ukraine was directly involved. Per the Russian Government:

“All four terrorists” were detained in Russia’s Bryansk Region within several hours as they tried to escape by car towards the Russian-Ukrainian border, the FSB said. The suspects intended to cross into Ukraine and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side, it added"

Please post links so we can at least identify whose propaganda is being commented on.

I don't believe word one coming out re: what's going on over there, regardless of who's saying it, but at least then we know who's interests are being promoted.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Please post links so we can at least identify whose propaganda is being commented on.

I don't believe word one coming out re: what's going on over there, regardless of who's saying it, but at least then we know who's interests are being promoted.

Russia detains 11 suspects after Moscow concert hall shooting leaves at least 115 dead

https://nypost.com/2024/03/23/...es-at-least-93-dead/

Eleven people have been detained after gunmen stormed a concert hall in Moscow and opened fire on the crowd, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service told President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said four people among those detained were directly involved in the attack.

They were stopped in the Bryansk region of western Russia, “not far from the border with Ukraine,” it said.

More at link

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Please post links so we can at least identify whose propaganda is being commented on.

I don't believe word one coming out re: what's going on over there, regardless of who's saying it, but at least then we know who's interests are being promoted.

I'm with you on news credibility. I does appear that ISIS is claiming responsibility. Do I believe it? NO.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/...11-suspects-arrested