Hold up. Maybe Putin wants to keep us in suspense. But really he’s already caved.
If you’re saying that sanctions relief would have averted the war, that’s clearly not true. Russia’s goal was to prevent Ukraine from developing self-defense capability to resist Russian aggression.
I’m not saying that. Like, my post said something like assume giving in to these four Russian demands would have prevented a war. And I said that it’s not clear they would have, but assume it. I agree that the US/West arming and training the Ukrainian military was a serious issue for the Russians.
Tucker Carlson Turns a Christian Presidential Forum Into a Putin Showcase
Back to dead for now.
Turkey is the third biggest buyer of Ukrainian grain. China is the first. Putin is unlikely to mess with Turkey’s navy if Erdogan wants shipments to continue. Things could go on more or less as before even if there’s no formal agreement.
Between them, Turkey and China account for ~40% of purchases of Ukraine's grain.China is ready to join the negotiations on the continuation of the Grain Agreement.
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) July 17, 2023
"China hopes that the Black Sea Grain Initiative will continue to be balanced and fully implemented," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning added. pic.twitter.com/LNCr8qbhr4
Russia declares parts of Black Sea ‘unsafe’, Ukraine-bound ships ‘military carriers’
Russia will consider all vessels traveling on the Black Sea heading to Ukrainian ports as “potential military cargo carriers” starting from Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.
The ministry declared in a statement on Telegram that a number of areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea as “temporarily dangerous for navigation,” adding that the flag countries of ships traveling to Ukrainian ports will be considered parties to the conflict on Kyiv’s side.
Not a great move historically.
But the final straw for Putin may have come on Tuesday, when Girkin called the president a “lowlife” and a “cowardly bum” in a blistering post on his Telegram channel.
“For 23 years, the country was led by a lowlife who managed to ‘blow dust in the eyes’ of a significant part of the population. Now he is the last island of legitimacy and stability of the state,” the post read. “But the country will not be able to withstand another six years of this cowardly bum in power.”
Did the Kremlin previously have patience for popular bloggers calling Putin a bum? Weird framing.
I don’t think that many or maybe any pro-war activists have been arrested. These are guys who think that Russia should fully mobilize or like saturation bomb Ukraine or something. Westerners might look at a “do you approve of Putin’s handling of the Special Military Operation” and assume all the no answers are like antiwar people. Lots of Russians who answer no would be dissatisfied from the opposite direction.
Yeah, there been toleration of criticism from the right for much of the conflict so Putin can seem more “moderate.” Girkin finally stepped over the line and/or the rules changed after Prigozhin’s little stunt.
Prigozhin’s line was kill Putin. Putin wants to redraw it short of that.
According to this, there were already plans to make it clear where the line was before Prigozhin went off. They were just a little late in the implemention.
Antiwar types aren’t considered a threat so no need to bother with them. The other extreme is the problem. Scare them so they back off before they start threatening Putin. Beyond those people are some in the “insane” category. Doesn’t say what to do with them. Wait til they’re on their way to the Kremlin with tanks and make a deal to save your ass, I guess.
So Russia is bombing harbour cities including grain silos close to Nato borders with Romania. Are they fkn nuts or just sure enough their bombs and rockets wont miss the targets.
Sure is fucking weird that Russia is bombing food supplies that will affect places all over the world, and the people supposedly upset about cluster bombs have nothing to say about it.
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NATO encroachment on Russia’s sphere of grain influence is to blame. Maybe Erdogan and Xi can eventually talk Putin down and patch up the deal but it looks like he wants to rage for a while.
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Turkey really needs that grain. They might just start escorting ships without Russian permission which is by far the biggest risk of escalation in this conflict.