Its doubtful now that Putin can retreat from Ukraine without looking weak - which could result in Putin either being killed or overthrown. (Although that may already be on the cards)
Views on the world and things in it. I started writing the blog as a way of keeping track of information when fact checking things and to formulate my thoughts. It is still that, I'm no great writer.
Its doubtful now that Putin can retreat from Ukraine without looking weak - which could result in Putin either being killed or overthrown. (Although that may already be on the cards)
Turkey to implement pact limiting Russian warships to access to the Black Sea
It wouldn't be just Russian it would be both Russian and Ukraine warships however as Ukraine has very limited naval vessels its unlikely they would be going through the straights.
Turkey is a member of NATO could be issues there?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardanelles
Turkey to implement pact limiting Russian warships to Black Sea
https://treaties.un.org/pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=0800000280166981
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/naval-arms-control-1936.htm
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/27/turkey-says-may-block-russian-warships-a76634
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-02-26/card/uDQCa9dMZsNGZLQsfWYg
"This isn't called a war it's called a special military operation in the Donbas," says the Russian ambassador.
Kyiv is 722km away from the Donbas area.
Kherson is over 533km away from the Donbas area.
There are multiple areas of invasion into Ukraine all hundreds of Kilometres from the Donbas area.
Its clear that Putin is lying and this is no special operation, this is an invasion, a war, an act of aggression and an attempt to take over another country.
The Russian Ambassador blatantly lies in the UN and to the world
4. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used;
That doesn't mean if Nuclear weapons are used it means if they are threatened.
Russia has already broken No1 & No2
1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine;
2. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations;
To reiterate How long is Putin's bullying allowed to continue?
I have copied the video to here in case the YouTube video goes missing original link was https://youtu.be/p-zilnPtZ2M
Powerful speech the more I find out about this man who was unknown to me and I wager most of us in the UK the more respect I have.
How many of our so-called leaders would stay rallying the troops and people when the offer of evacuation to safety is/was there.These off the cuff blase comments really annoy me
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said: “We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and are pursuing every option to support them in their defence against President Putin’s unprovoked and illegal invasion.
Sorry Mr Wallace you might be showing support you are not standing shoulder to shoulder. If you were you would be on the front line or at least in Kyiv standing shoulder to shoulder with the Ukraine people and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In response to the US offer to evacuate him Volodymyr Zelenskyy replied as seen in the above tweet
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”
Today the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands leading his country against the invasion of nuclear power, Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former actor and comedian, with no political experience appears to be showing formidable leadership qualities in rallying his countries troops and people in the defence of their country.
Who knows what can be achieved.
Ukraine is fighting for its life, Russian soldiers don't seem to be clear what they are fighting for or even why they are there.
Let's hope that Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine are able to beat the odds.
Fortune favours the brave.
LINKS
Most of Europe does not allow anonymous investments.
The two biggest offshore havens with great capacity to receive anonymous investment are the United States and the United Kingdom.The UK allows anonymous ownership of property.
In May 2016, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron organized a big international conference to oppose anonymous ownership, presumably because of sheer embarrassment. He lamented that 99,000 buildings in the United Kingdom had anonymous owners.
The USA allows not only anonymous ownership of property but also anonymous money transfers.
So either the UK and USA have been complicit in turning a blind eye. Or maybe they have been playing a long game. Allowing Russian investments so that if an occasion such as the Ukraine attack happened, massive amounts of Russian money could be frozen.
Greed or insanely clever?
LINKS
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/07/david-cameron-offshore-trusts-eu-tax-crackdown-2013
https://www.ft.com/content/c1a49662-17a1-11e6-b197-a4af20d5575e?mhq5j=e7
When comparing inflation over the last 12 months, the UK’s rate has proportionally grown more than all but Spain, Belgium and Ireland.
And if you compare the current rate with our closest neighbours, the UK’s CPI is at the upper end of the scale.
However, it is not as extreme as Spain (6.1%), the Netherlands (6.4%) or Belgium (7.59%) and only sits 0.2% above the EU average.
When you take into account the direction of travel of inflation rates, a more nuanced picture emerges.
UK prices grew 0.1% in January 2022 compared to December 2021, which was in line with the EU average.
Johnson's high wage economy is a great plan for the UK. Although maybe "plan" isn't the correct word as we've seen no plan on how this would be achieved.
Lie to parliament or the more politically correct mislead parliament? They are one and the same to me. However, in parliament, an MP cant accuse another of lying, so they have to use the term mislead. One can mislead by omitting detail but Johnson rarely does that he just states incorrect details, which is lying. I'm not in parliament so I'll go with the term lie
Boris Johnson is well documented for lying and I believe has been sacked twice for it.
I always thought Johnson was a pathological liar. The most dangerous type of liar as they actually believe what they are saying is true, even though it's not and they will defend the lie even when its proved to them that what they are saying is incorrect.
However, I've since discovered that the key feature of a pathological lie is that it has no obvious motivation. This is clearly not the case with Johnson as there is always the motivation behind his lies.
In a 1941 article titled “Churchill’s Lie Factory” Joseph Goebbels wrote:
“One should not as a rule reveal one’s secrets, since one does not know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.”
Ring any bells?
Johnson likes to think of himself as Churchill and wrote a book on him, he is also distantly related. Boris and Winston are 11th cousins twice removed!
So why does Boris Johnson lie to parliament and the general public?
Johnson works on the principle of if you tell a lie and keep repeating the lie it becomes the truth in the minds of the general population. Regardless of what parliament thinks, Johnson knows that if he can fool the public they are the ones who vote him in.
Just going by the parliamentary public spending watchdog report the answer has to be YES!
Why would any Government go out and source substandard quality PPE if we had enough?
The tweets were terse and, to the uninitiated, obscure. “Gowns” — “examination gloves” — “green aprons” — read the messages from the accounts of procurement leaders in the UK’s National Health Service. But to their colleagues in other hospitals, each represented a cry for help, signalling shortfalls of key items of personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to keep clinicians safe while they fought a once-in-a-century battle against coronavirus.
Today’s report by the National Audit Office (NAO) finds that government was initially reliant on stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) that proved inadequate for the COVID-19 pandemic. In a rapidly deteriorating situation government made a huge effort to boost supply, but it has paid very high prices due to unusual market conditions and many front-line workers reported shortages of PPE.
10 February 2021
The UK government wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on poor quality and unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) while leaving frontline workers insufficiently protected from covid-19, the parliamentary public spending watchdog has concluded.
LINKS
https://fullfact.org/health/ppe-shortages-first-wave
FT - How poor planning left the UK without enough PPE
BMJ - Covid-19: Government wasted millions on poor quality PPE, spending watchdog finds
NAO - The supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic