re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Address the Russian response to the Baltics joining NATO vs Ukraine and Georgia

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Russia has done everything they could to keep them from joining. They know to attack before these countries could park themselves under the NATO umbrella.

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"pure bloods"

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Ask someone using this tag a few basic questions along the lines of these:

How is your blood or immune system different from someone who contracted covid?

How is your blood or immune system different from someone who got the vaccine ?

If you didn't get the vaccine, but had a case of asymptomatic Covid, are you still a Pure Blood even though you have antibodies?

Is there a blood test, RNA test, or other medical test that can determine a Pure Blood from any other person?

What is the annual death rate of Pure Bloods vs people who got the vaccine? Any difference between the two?

I've never gotten an answer on this one....

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Do tell.

Address the Russian response to the Baltics joining NATO vs Ukraine and Georgia

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What? Why can't I address it on its own terms?

The history of Russian-Finnish interactions in the post-CW era is complex, but one of the first mentions of 'Finland and NATO' from the Russian perspective was actually a warning that Russia to Austria about the potential for joining NATO in the mid-90's. This warning was referenced in two separate documents I've read but I've yet to find the specific documentation of this particular warning itself, but in it the Russians praised the Swedes and Finns for their reserved approach towards NATO while advising the Austrians not to join the alliance. The most obvious documentary piece of evidence is from a security policy document published in 2001 by the Russians themselves which stated 'maintaining Finland's policy of non-alignment with military blocs is one of the most important objectives of the Russian diplomacy.'

From then on, we the same repetition by Russia that Sweden and Finland should not enter NATO, which continued to escalate until 2015, which saw the Finns reorganize the defense of their entire frontier with Russia with the inclusion of rapid reaction units to each of their military districts. Notably before this phase of the war, in 2021, Russia warned NATO, Sweden and Finland directly, saying:

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“It’s quite obvious that Finland and Sweden joining NATO … would have serious military and political consequences that would require an adequate response from the Russian side,”

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That's barely even touching the surface on what has been written about this subject in particular, which is of great interest to the Finns it seems, given how many white papers seem to have been produced in the 90's and 2000's about this very subject. You should read some of them.

yep.

Sorry, that is Russia.

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Turkey calling for the attack on Israel is the most perfect example of why Nato membership needs to be closely limited to countries with western views. Time to kick Turkey out and move the nuclear weapons to another country

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Turkey was admitted because it is one of the most important geographical places on earth: it controls the Bosphorus and thus who can enter and exit the Black Sea.

"Democratic rule" is an important qualification for NATO ascension... Erdogan and Orban are undermining democratic rule in their nations, and in the case of Hungary, at least, there is talk of punishing or forcing them out.

ISW Update Aug 1

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Key Takeaways:

Russian forces continue to make slow, steady advances in the Pokrovsk direction (west of Avdiivka), largely enabled by Ukrainian manpower shortages and the terrain in the area immediately northwest of Avdiivka. Russian advances will likely slow further as Russian forces advance into a line of larger and more urban settlements.

Russia's current rate of tactical advance towards Pokrovsk will likely not continue indefinitely, however, as Russian forces are approaching a line of larger and more urban settlements.

Russia's Central Grouping of Forces appears to be more rapidly redeploying and committing forces between different sectors of its recently expanded area of responsibility (AOR) in Donetsk Oblast than has been the norm in most of the theater recently.

The Central Grouping of Forces may have established a more flexible command and control (C2) structure and may be responding more quickly to potential Ukrainian tactical vulnerabilities than other Russian groupings of forces in Ukraine.

A limited number of F-16 fighter jets have reportedly arrived in Ukraine, but it will likely be several months before Ukraine will be able to field the jets at scale.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine will not compromise its sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for a diplomatic resolution to Russia's invasion.

Russia, Belarus, the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Turkey, and Norway conducted a high-profile prisoner exchange involving 26 prisoners from multiple countries on August 1.

Russian forces recently advanced near Svatove, Chasiv Yar, and Donetsk City.

Russian opposition outlet Vazhnye Istorii reported on August 1 that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) may have significantly overstated the number of contract soldiers it claims to have recruited between Fall 2022 and April 2024.

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No Show, No Work jobs, etc.

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I know of one ammunition plant like that which was in St. Louis that made artillery shells in WWII through Vietnam.

He says shite like "Brah" and then attempts to sound intelligent about things like vaccines and geopolitics....welcome to the board Vice President Kamala Harris!

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You repeatedly deny Russia agency in every description of events.
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you don't have a clue as to WTF my view can be boiled down to. You should. But you don't.

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E.g. ...

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In Russia's case that means "victory" in Feb'22 looked very different than "victory" in June'24. At the outset, Putin's expectation was Russia would occupy Kyiv and control most of Ukraine by the summer. Those expectations got vaporized. So Putin and Russia hit the expectation reset button. Now they'd consider acceptance of Russian control over the occupied territories to be "victory."

In reality, the war has been terrible for Russia. The Russians come off as feckless, and conventionally vulnerable. Aside from a complete Ukrainian capitulation, there is no path to a true Russian victory at this stage IMO.
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Putin is a guy who has wolf by the ears. He can't let go.
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That's a fairly apt analogy
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Ending up as a nation under Russian control....
Unless Ukraine makes a serious error, that ship sailed in early 2022 with the collapse of the Kyiv offensive. Putin&Co got their asses impressively kicked there.
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