I was having a good old moan about energy prices last night - then saw this picture. A woman whose parter gave his life fighting against Russia. She was living with her Mum and Dad - who are buried under the rubble. Everyone needs to get their Patriot systems over to Ukraine - they can either let the Ukrainians use them now or wait a little and use them to protect their own lands - the choice is simple. This is reality, this is in 2023 and in Europe.
The Russians may be richer but they no longer have McDonalds, lucky them. Yep, the West has made a proper hash of sanctions.
I can't remember any dispute being solved by sanctions, all they do is alienate the masses and reinforce their view that the West is evil. Putin and his cronies live in luxury and couldn't give a toss if his people go without.
I never understood why the so called West banned civilian flights from Russia. Everyone bangs on about the Russian civilians being brainwashed through carefully curated news inside Russia. So surely it would only be a good thing if they were able to go on holiday elsewhere, where they'll get to hear from other people and other news sources. If I were a Russian civilian, I'd probably be wondering why the West is threatening me, why the West is supporting the neo natzism that Putin rants about, and I'd likely believe it because I can see for myself that the West doesn't want me or my spending money.
Maybe a possible threat of terrorism, but other than that it doesn't seem to make much sense other than tit for tat decisions.
Russia are telling us that they are running a surplus? Lies upon lies. I'm no economist - but I tend to think that things can't be that rosey when your economy depends upon income from fossil fuel sales and by far your largest customer has packed up and gone home. What I want to know is - what is Olaf up to? This is the time to make decisions and to get the heavy kit to Ukraine. Putin won't delay his Spring offensive.
Germany dashed Ukrainian hopes that Berlin would finally decide on Friday to send modern battle tanks to Kyiv’s forces, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arguing there was no international agreement yet on the topic. Looks like it's down to the UK Challenger 2 and the French LeClerc to fend off Russia. I reckon that Poland will send the Leopard 2 tanks anyway. To me this is a 'no brainer' decision by Olaf - but there you go.
You have to wonder about Germany's thinking, they have said they want to stay out of any more wars unyet they decide to build a tank, then put restrictions on the countries that they sell them to. Well that's how I see it.