Russia

[Chilidog]

Alfa bank?

[Kriselda Gray]

BIDEN: "We will freeze Russian assets!"

TRUMP: "It's getting cold in here."

[Foggy]

If there was a lesson America was supposed to have learned by now, it is that you can't allow a madman to get away with invading his neighbors. If you have to go to war to stop him, then you have to go to war.

I'm a peacenik from the 1960s. I don't argue for war unless good cause exists.

And I'm not saying drop the bomb mañana. But this is beyond serious, and somehow Putin must be stopped. I'm scared, but sometimes you have to overcome fear.

[Foggy]

!	Message from: Foggy
	I have created a new forum, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, for threads about this series of events. Will move this thread there, and others related. Don't be hesitant to start new threads, this is the most important thing happening in 2022, even more important than the truckers' convoy to our nation's capital. But please put them in the Invasion forum.

[raison de arizona]

Sportsball:


Russian media field day with Trump's comments, they are also playing various FoxNews segments, especially our friend Tucker Carlson.

BREAKING: Russian TV is now showing Trump’s praise of Putin to justify their invasion.

[raison de arizona]

Good luck with that!

Breaking @cnn: Putin urges Ukraine’s military to overthrow its government.

[Chilidog]

Good luck with that!

Breaking @cnn: Putin urges Ukraine’s military to overthrow its government.

Is Putin really that tone deaf?

[Slim Cognito]

If recent suggestions are true that Putin is just as delusional as trump about his charismatic (not) personality, he believes all he has to do is say it and everyone not only agrees, they jump into action.

[New Turtle]

It fits the plan- doesn't matter who overthrows the government, Putin will say it was Ukranian people who did it. Then he installs a puppet regime and says the Ukranians put them there.

[raison de arizona]

Russia says it will limit access to Facebook, a major platform for dissent.

MOSCOW — The Russian government said it was partially limiting access to Facebook for restricting some pro-Kremlin news media accounts, a move that could make it harder for Russians to share their anger over their country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said Facebook was “involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms” because it had limited access to four Russian media accounts, including that of the state-run news agency RIA Novosti and of the Defense Ministry’s television channel, Zvezda. Starting Friday, Roskomnadzor’s statement went on, “measures are being taken to partially limit access.”

Facebook did not immediately comment. It was not clear what the partial limitation to access would entail, but it could be similar to the government’s move last year to slow down access to Twitter.

Roskomnadzor did not indicate that the partial limitation would also apply to Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta. Major American online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter remain accessible in Russia, allowing a space for dissent that does not exist on television.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/worl ... ebook.html

[raison de arizona]

And now Putin on TV again. Describes Zelensky's government as a "band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that has lodged itself in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people."

stable genius?

[raison de arizona]

Backlash.

Protestors in Dublin attack the Russian ambassador's car on his way to the residence.

[raison de arizona]

The Russians are batshit. Denazify Ukraine? Wha?

[raison de arizona]

Joint Statement on Further Restrictive Economic Measures
FEBRUARY 26, 2022
•
STATEMENTS AND RELEASES
We, the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States condemn Putin’s war of choice and attacks on the sovereign nation and people of Ukraine. We stand with the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people in their heroic efforts to resist Russia’s invasion. Russia’s war represents an assault on fundamental international rules and norms that have prevailed since the Second World War, which we are committed to defending. We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.

This past week, alongside our diplomatic efforts and collective work to defend our own borders and to assist the Ukrainian government and people in their fight, we, as well as our other allies and partners around the world, imposed severe measures on key Russian institutions and banks, and on the architects of this war, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As Russian forces unleash their assault on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, we are resolved to continue imposing costs on Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies. We will implement these measures within the coming days.

Specifically, we commit to undertake the following measures:

First, we commit to ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system. This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.

Second, we commit to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions.

Third, we commit to acting against the people and entities who facilitate the war in Ukraine and the harmful activities of the Russian government. Specifically, we commit to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship—so called golden passports—that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems.

Fourth, we commit to launching this coming week a transatlantic task force that will ensure the effective implementation of our financial sanctions by identifying and freezing the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies that exist within our jurisdictions. As a part of this effort we are committed to employing sanctions and other financial and enforcement measures on additional Russian officials and elites close to the Russian government, as well as their families, and their enablers to identify and freeze the assets they hold in our jurisdictions. We will also engage other governments and work to detect and disrupt the movement of ill-gotten gains, and to deny these individuals the ability to hide their assets in jurisdictions across the world.

Finally, we will step up or coordination against disinformation and other forms of hybrid warfare.

We stand with the Ukrainian people in this dark hour. Even beyond the measures we are announcing today, we are prepared to take further measures to hold Russia to account for its attack on Ukraine.

###
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... -measures/

[Foggy]

My gawd, an American president makes a difference.

[MN-Skeptic]

[Foggy]

Yeah, this week is when the financial pain really sets in.

But here's the thing: I do believe, given Putin's psychology as far as a non-psychologist can tell, that he's congenitally incapable of buckling to financial penalties. If he's all about being a macho man, money is not one of his worries. And the oligarchs? If I was him, I'd say, "You have $50 billion. If they take $49 billion of it away, you're still a billionaire, better off than 99.99% of the human race. You even get to keep your yacht."

And if that doesn't work, you can push an oligarch out a window just like anybody else.

So I don't see financial penalties working on Putin. On the bright side, he might not be physically capable of conquering Ukraine. They might could kick his ass.

More will be revealed, I reckon ...

[Kendra]

Russia's Prosecutor General threatens citizens: "Assistance to a foreign state during the period of a special operation will be regarded as treason to the Motherland."

State TV host Olga Skabeeva spreads this threat.

Putin's well-oiled war machine includes propagandists.

[Suranis]

Of course, the unspoken admission here is that there were Russians assisting Ukraine in sufficient numbers to force Putin to tell them to knock it off.

[Kendra]

huge breaking news at BP:

- BP to exit its 20% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft

- BP chief executive Bernard Looney to resign from board of Rosneft with immediate effect

[raison de arizona]

Russian state TV: “Our submarines alone can launch more than 500 nuclear warheads, which guarantees the destruction of the US and NATO for good measure. The principle is: why do we need the world if Russia won’t be in it?”

[Chilidog]

That's utterly insane.

[Slim Cognito]

Putin, hiding in his bunker for pretty much forever while the world burns, "I won!!! I won!!!! I won!!!!!

[raison de arizona]

People are using Google Maps to change the Russian Consulates into “Public Bathrooms”.
This is terrible and you definitely SHOULD NOT do this.

[Volkonski]