A guess as to why Hungary hasn't joined in: Its president is a Putinite mini-me, who has been stripping his country of freedoms. I'm not sure why the Slovaks haven't joined in. Both countries should have people who can recall the fun of Russian tanks invading to shut down dissent. But maybe that's too far in the past for the Hungarians.
UPDATE: Canada has joined in.
UPDATE II: Spain has joined in.
UPDATE III: Now the entire EU has banned all Russian airplanes.
I doubt very much if the Russians imagined that this would go as tits-up for them as it has, both on the ground in Ukraine and the global reaction.
This could end up with Russia becoming a veritable Chinese vassal-state. The Russian ruble may go back to being a non-convertible currency, like the Soviet ruble. They may end up doing their exporting to China and being paid in Chinese renminbi, which, despite being designated as a global reserve currency, is still probably only useful for buying shit from China.
What’s up with the Iberian peninsula?
ReplyDeleteGood question.
ReplyDeleteI called my kids before bed, even the one I'm really mad at.
ReplyDeleteIt is what it is, will be what it will be ...
Not the USA?
ReplyDeleteMaybe to allow Americans to fly out of the USSR^H^H^H^H Russia?
ReplyDeleteRussia stripped its best equipped and trained units from the Far Eastern deployments to attack Ukraine. There are reports of the best Russian troops (Chechen units, paratroopers and Spetznaz) have all sustained heavy casualties in the attacks, and some conscript units may have actually mutinied in response to attack orders. Verified videos have shown TB2 drone strikes on Russian columns and there is clear evidence that the Ukrainian’s pulled that Resistance classic of letting the tanks and APCs go by and then taking out the supply columns, especially the fuel tankers.
ReplyDeleteThe Ukrainians have excellent IT/hacking capacities and are already using Telegraph and VK (Russian Facebook) to send videos of captured Russian soldiers to their families with pleas for them to protest and demand an end to the war so their loved ones can return to them. Even more interesting is the Ukrainians have an indeterminate number of IRBMs that they haven’t made any use of, so if the peace talks go nowhere, a couple of those bad boys lobbed at Russian supply camps might make things interesting.
With the coming financial fiasco, I think Putin’s tame oligarchs are likely to demand he fix things, but it’s not clear if they control enough power to eliminate or remove Putin themselves. As CM notes, the Chinese may be watching with great interest, as the resources of Siberia are certainly very tempting to them, either from a vassal Russian state (Putin loses in Ukraine) or a “freed” Republic (Putin effectively wins, while shattering the Russian Army). Russian newspapers have been amping up the racial angle for a while, with suggestions that between two to five million ethnic Chinese are present, and uncounted, in Siberia versus six million ethnic Russians. Many of those Chinese have old claims to land and maintain old Chinese names for cities in Siberia.
I don't think the geography is quite right for "vassal state". On the other hand, Russia's "possession" of Siberia has always been tenuous at best. I doubt they'll be in any position to hold on to it going forward. The geography for China's increased influence is quite right ...
ReplyDeleteA vicious spiral and paranoia feedback loop....and why you *don't* want a rogue and brutal "intelligence" agency running a country.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why Trump so admired Putin; their behavior should appall and scare the shit out of everyone: mental rabies.
"Borrowed" a little bit of that, CP
ReplyDeleteThe Iberian peninsula people are not interested in being dragged into this stupid war. Don't forget that we speak Spanish, Portuguese, etc. We have other, more urgent agendas.
ReplyDeleteIf this idiot wants to commit suicide and destroy Ukraine at the same time, there is little we can do about it.
Richard, you are aware that Spain closed its airspace to Russian aircraft on 27-2, no?
ReplyDelete