The Ukraine war thread

[Renauda]

Normally I doubt there would much appetite for a Western megapower but nowadays…who knows? Perhaps certain a region like Chukotka for purely strategic reasons but nothing much else.

Russian far east though is definitely a desirable backyard sandbox for the Chinese.

[Renauda]

Ukraine groans a collective “WTF?” to Trump’s latest Putin comments:

https://kyivindependent.com/kyiv-groans-a-collective-wtf-to-trumps-latest-putin-comments/

[Mik]

FFS

[Renauda]

General Keith Kellogg speaks:

https://kyivindependent.com/keith-kellogg-says-he-left-trumps-white-house-to-be-free-to-talk-about-ukraine/

[Wim]

And again: the Trump 'kompromat'. Si non e vero, e bene trovato.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/69648

[Mik]

This is an old claim. I doubt he would be stupid enough to misbehave in Russia.

[Renauda]

@Wim

I saw that earlier today. There have been other articles published the past year or so citing Mussayev’s claims. He appears to have been at this for some time.

I am of the opinion that there is nothing there and that Mussayev is conjuring this up to get attention in the hope of gaining recognition as an “expert/influencer” and cashing in on what that role offers in the charged populist dichotomy of our times. Even if there is a grain of truth in his claims, I highly doubt any serious kompromat on Trump involves women of any age group. Rather, it would be of a financial nature involving investments of ill gotten Russian money into Trump family owned properties. Essentially Putin knows and has the paperwork showing who, when, where and how much to the penny was involved in laundering money via the Trump syndicate.

[Mik]

I think you're quite right that financial shenanigans would be much more likely.

[Wim]

The claim that Kazakhstan tried something on Trump in 2017 was -at least for me- a new element.

[Renauda]

New to me as well but, all the same, not at all compelling for the simple reason it places too many people in the know.