Russian Foreign Policy

Ceist Beag said:
I'm not for a second defending Russia or suggesting they have a right to invade Ukraine here or anything but it is worth considering both sides of the dispute. Fear works both ways. The Ukraine border with Russia almost doubles the combined total of the NATO countries who border it.
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Access to the Black Sea (Their Fleet at Sevastopol) and access to the Atlantic though the Bosporus is far more important. Turkey controls those and they are in NATO. Invading Russia through Ukraine would have little strategic merit.
 
Ceist Beag said:
Of course they are. My point is, aren't Russia entitled to feel threatened by such a move, especially when such a move would allow the US to land on their border? NATO has increased substantially over the years and I can understand why Russia feel threatened by this. The stakes are not purely being racheted up by Russia here, the US are doing nothing to diffuse matters as far as I can see. I think we get a very one sided view of the conflict in our media.
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Ukraine signed an agreement with Russia to give up its nuclear weapons it inherited in collapse of USSR and Russia agreed to respect Ukraines territory.
Russia already broke this agreement once invading Crimea.

A one sided view? How do you think the view looks from Ukraine.
 
“We will not invade Ukraine unless we are provoked to do that,” said Vladimir Chizhov, who has represented Russia in Brussels since 2005. “If the Ukrainians launch an attack against Russia, you shouldn’t be surprised if we counterattack. Or, if they start blatantly killing Russian citizens anywhere – Donbas or wherever.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-of-right-to-counterattack-in-eastern-ukraine

Will a flase-flag be the result of Russia killing its own people? They do have form as we all know...
 
Baby boomer said:
Ha, ha! Yes, there's an element of truth in that. However, there has been progress. It's getting there.....
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From the same link:

"There's huge uncertainty about when fusion power will be ready for commercialisation. One estimate suggests maybe 20 years. Then fusion would need to scale up, which would mean a delay of perhaps another few decades.

And here's the problem: the need for carbon-free energy is urgent - and the government has pledged that all electricity in the UK must be zero emissions by 2035. That means nuclear, renewables and energy storage.

In the words of my colleague Jon Amos: "Fusion is not a solution to get us to 2050 net zero. This is a solution to power society in the second half of this century.""
 
Yes, indeed. I remember writing an essay in first year engineering in the late 70s on fusion, tokamaks, the JET project and all that. I think I forecast with youthful certainty that it would be proven to work by 1990 and certainly operational by 2000!

BTW, it took days of reading books and journals in the library to get what 30 minutes on the internet would give you today. So what the hell do students spend their time doing these days?:p:p:p
 
Purple said:
Access to the Black Sea (Their Fleet at Sevastopol) and access to the Atlantic though the Bosporus is far more important. Turkey controls those and they are in NATO. Invading Russia through Ukraine would have little strategic merit.
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Its amazing that Erdogen another hardman and quasi buddy of Putin's has been very quite through all this. It could be something to do with the huge fall in the Turkish lira and rampant inflation there, maybe he is trying to get back into Biden's good books again by reverting back to Turkey's traditional role in NATO during the cold war. Maybe he is hoping that Putin is about to make a big blunder and he can capitalise by increasing Turkey's role in Syria when Putin is preoccupied with Ukraine
 
joe sod said:
Its amazing that Erdogen another hardman and quasi buddy of Putin's has been very quite through all this. It could be something to do with the huge fall in the Turkish lira and rampant inflation there, maybe he is trying to get back into Biden's good books again by reverting back to Turkey's traditional role in NATO during the cold war. Maybe he is hoping that Putin is about to make a big blunder and he can capitalise by increasing Turkey's role in Syria when Putin is preoccupied with Ukraine
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There's over a half a million automotive jobs in Turkey, Most of those are employed in companies headquartered in NATO countries. Without trade with the West Turkey has no economy.
 
I think Turkey also sent jets to Poland as part of the NATO response, putin wouldn't have liked that because it means that even Turkey is also united even if it is just tokenism. But Turkey responded before Germany did which is telling
 
joe sod said:
I think Turkey also sent jets to Poland as part of the NATO response, putin wouldn't have liked that because it means that even Turkey is also united even if it is just tokenism. But Turkey responded before Germany did which is telling
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The optics of German troops marching East wouldn't be good though, would they?
 
Purple said:
The optics of German troops marching East wouldn't be good though, would they?
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They sent troops and tanks to Lithuania yesterday though but only after alot of pressure and arm twisting from colleagues especially in Eastern Europe. I think the response by Nato has put putin on the backfoot and also that Ukraine is standing firm and staying calm
 
odyssey06 said:
Note for any Trinity graduates, I think he is standing in the by election for the Seanad, although maybe he is of more use elsewhere...
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I'm one of the great unwashed so I am not good enough to participate in that undemocratic process.
 
To put this conflict, and the conventional military resources of Russia and the EU, into context, Russia spends around $65 Billion a year on its military and the EU (post Brexit) spends €270 Billion on its military. Now there is significant duplication within the EU and no command structure outside of NATO but, Ireland and a few others who shirk their responsibilities aside, we have a significant capability to defend ourselves.
 
Watch the EU write a stern letter and prevaricate about sanctions.
Allowing Germany to become reliant on Russia for energy was an act of political and environmental vandalism.
 
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