Mr. Biden has been warned.

[Renauda]

Who cares? Besides, no one will get into Putin's mind.

[Rainman]

Sigh. . . and it's too late to get into Biden's mind.

But Renauda, I care. So, that's one. First stop, Ukraine, next stop, Baltic States. Next stop, no NATO, final stop, no Taiwan. But, lots of summit meetings and saber paper rattling.

Frankly, everyone should care.

[Renauda]

@rainman

If you care, then stop conflating the Baltics with Ukraine. The Baltics are not on Putin's menu now and nor will they be in the foreseeable future. They are of no consequence to Moscow any longer.

Ukraine however is an entirely different animal. There is much more to this festering conflict than meets the eye or ends up discussed in the popular media. Have a read of these two commentaries which, I might add, are much closer to the reality what is actually going on between Russia and Ukraine:

https://carnegie.ru/commentary/84250

https://carnegie.ru/commentary/84308

[Mik]

Thanks, Renauda. I will bookmark that site. We never, ever get any coverage nearly that in depth.

Hell, we don't get coverage that in depth about the US.

[Rainman]

Good read, thanks Renauda!

Found a couple of interesting things to quote:
"He announced the formation of the “Crimean platform,” which is supposed to keep international attention on the fate of the peninsula. The Ukrainian president also presented the country’s new security strategy, which reiterates the aspiration to join NATO"

Join NATO? Sure. /sarc

and. . .
"Russian officials have repeatedly stated the country’s readiness to protect the self-proclaimed republics."
I wonder what "protect" means.

I'm a little suspiscious of the carnegie.ru site. When I was in grad school, Carnegie was a huge, wonderful source, but most definitely left-wing overall. We didn't mind, since everyone cited Carnegie and everyone was more left-wing than the general public.

Thanks for the links, I'll read the second article later.

[Renauda]

@rainman

Obviously I do not at all share your suspicions regarding Carnegie. What is left-wing to you is probably middle of the road or moderately liberal to me.

[Rainman]

@renauda said in Mr. Biden has been warned.:

@rainman

Obviously I do not at all share your suspicions regarding Carnegie. What is left-wing to you is probably middle of the road or moderately liberal to me.

Fair enough!

[taiwan_girl]

@jolly said in Mr. Biden has been warned.:

@rainman said in Mr. Biden has been warned.:

Good picture, Mik.
Sums it up.

And, it is all expected. President Biden, this is your first real test.
hmmmm. Why didn't this happen when Trump was president?

Because they were worried about what Trump might actually do...

What do you think President Trump would have done?

Or mother question, if he were still in office, what things would have done that have (or have not) been done by President Biden?

[Jolly]

@taiwan_girl said in Mr. Biden has been warned.:

@jolly said in Mr. Biden has been warned.:

@rainman said in Mr. Biden has been warned.:

Good picture, Mik.
Sums it up.

And, it is all expected. President Biden, this is your first real test.
hmmmm. Why didn't this happen when Trump was president?

Because they were worried about what Trump might actually do...

What do you think President Trump would have done?

Or mother question, if he were still in office, what things would have done that have (or have not) been done by President Biden?

You tell me what Trump would have done.

You can't.

Neither can they.

And that's the point, isn't it?

[Renauda]

@jolly

I doubt that Trump's infamous unpredictability acted to moderate or as a credible deterrent to Putin's policies in Ukraine or Syria.

[Jolly]

@renauda said in Mr. Biden has been warned.:

@jolly

I doubt that Trump's infamous unpredictability acted to moderate or as a credible deterrent to Putin's policies in Ukraine or Syria.

I don't know.

I think I would have been wary, if I was Putin.