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[Owlbread]

If the international community allows itself to be played with, then duh.

This is an excellent point. Russia will come out on top in this over the West, it's just a question about how much the International Community is willing to concede and what exactly they are comfortable with. They may be comfortable with a neutral Ukraine, soundly beaten and traumatised sans Crimea (another warning to Russian neighbours, just like Georgia after the 2008 war) with autonomy in the East and a greater balance in global power between Russia and the States and the EU.

[mainiac]

because it's too busy doing incredibly aggressive actions aimed at restoring the Russian Empire such as calling for the creation of joint contact groups for starting ceasefire negotiations, so dealing with Ukrainian fighter jets will be rather difficult.

Is this some sort of trap whereby someone points out the blindingly obvious Hitler parallel and you use that to say that anyone critical of Russia is an extremist?

Because I for one am not going to just pass by the Hitler thing.  I'm just going to point out that Putin has repeatedly lied in the past with regards to this crisis and we didn't believe him then either.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/04/285653335/putin-says-those-arent-russian-forces-in-crimea

So... are you actually that naive or what?

Akhmetov's (steel magnate)  role in all that shit is very blurry. He is a major player and tries to save his capitals from both Ukrainian revolution and Russian influence and balances between both forces...

Whatever his motivations I think the important thing here is that he is not hostile towards control of the city by the Ukrainian government.  That means that any territory controlled by his forces is territory that government forces dont have to forcibly evict the separatists from and consequently less fighting.  Long term his motivations will matter but I was just talking about the immediate fight.

[Lagslayer]

Careful, now. Remember what happened to the Ukraine thread?

[Helgoland]

Careful, now. Remember what happened all the Ukraine threads?

FTFY

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Spoiler: That forced me to lol (click to show/hide)

 Brazil's defence is like EU sanctions. Promised but not actually present.

[Owlbread]

In Scotland we're still waiting on the next lot of opinion polls. Campaigning has started formally last month or so (so I'm quite active these days) but it hasn't intensified yet. It's still the death-throes of the phony war; that will come to an end when Alex Salmond debates either Alistair Darling or David Cameron after the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

In the meantime I found this article very uplifting.

[Descan]

That is a glorious fuck-up of the BBCode, my dear bready bird.

Edit: YOU WERE TOO SLOW!

[Owlbread]

That is a glorious fuck-up of the BBCode, my dear bready bird.

Edit: YOU WERE TOO SLOW!

Damn and blast. I just couldn't get it in time.

[Descan]

S'alright, s'not like I'm picture perfect when I write bbcode by hand, either.

[Sheb]

Out of curiosity, let's have a Bay12 poll on Scottish independence.

[Helgoland]

How about a third option, "Just to screw over the UK"?

[Sheb]

We can have a second poll later about why you'd vote yes/no.

[Owlbread]

Thus far we have 4 Unionists. If any are willing to come forward (you do not have to, don't worry) I would be more than happy to gently massage your worried brains with my words of reassurance, dispelling whatever fears you may have about independence.

Here is an interesting article by a Canadian-American about his thoughts on independence.

[Sergarr]

I voted independence, because anything that divides our potential enemies is a good thing...

[Owlbread]

I voted independence, because anything that divides our potential enemies is a good thing...

Who says Scotland would be an enemy of Russia? I think we would be the best of friends. I mean, obviously we'd condemn the stuff in Ukraine and the attitude to LGBT rights and human rights in general but business-wise we'd be pretty close.

Though it's difficult to gauge, I can say my views on Ukraine and Russian politics are not mainstream here. People don't really think much about it at all, it's not in their sphere of consciousness. There is a long history of Scottish cooperation with Russia dating back to at least the time of Catherine the Great (she was very fond of Lowland Scottish artisans), or perhaps the mid-late 1600s; this is represented today by the numerous organisations and forums that foster strong links with Russia and Belarus and much of that area.

The most successful one I know of is involved in fostering Belarusian children who were affected by the Chernobyl disaster and general poverty; there are quite a few Belarusian children in my county for this reason.