Russia's Hidden War Debt

Bullshit. 2018 was the year when the FIFA World Cup was held in Russia. Putin obviously didn't want to sabotage them.

Trumpy tantrums did nothing, I repeat. Neither is he going to do anything useful once he gets back into the office. Putin will play him off like a sucker he is.

As a dictator it's much easier to believe the CIA is trying to overthrow you instead of acknowledging that your economic mismanagement has made you unpopular. Surrounding yourself with yes men keeps you out of touch with popular sentiment.

> The colour revolutions (sometimes coloured revolutions)[1] were a series of often non-violent protests and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government and society that took place in post-Soviet states (particularly Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the early 21st century.[2] The aim of the colour revolutions was to establish Western-style liberal democracies. They were primarily triggered by election results widely viewed as falsified. The colour revolutions were marked by the use of the internet as a method of communication,[3] as well as a strong role of non-governmental organizations in the protests.

In the paranoid claims and propaganda of dictators they claim they were something else

If you want to indulge in pointless conspiracies (some of which are heavily pushed by foreign dictators) go ahead

>low budget propaganda

That’s really what it boils down to for people like you: the production values. No contest, the US is unbeatable in that department. Anything but to be seen as a sucker.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%82%D1%8...

Edit: I made the mistake of replying to a "throwaway" that isn't saying something that is secret or potentially harmful to a real person. A fully anonymous account just saying stuff can just argue incorrectly forever and then make a new account no matter any amount of fact checking

Woodward's reporting is classic investigative journalism. He's one of the two reporters who broke the original Watergate story. From the books I've read, he avoids speculation and he only reports what he can corroborate based on firsthand accounts. Regarding what you call "cognitive dissonance" – I assume you're referring to President Biden and not Woodward – this is discussed multiple times in War and Woodward doesn't shy away from it.

Woodward writes about a time when Biden had taken a friend on a private tour through the residences of the White House, and when they came upon a picture of his son Beau Biden, the President seemed to become "transfixed" on it (my words, I'm paraphrasing from memory) and couldn't stop talking about his son for what seemed like an uncomfortable amount of time.

He also wrote about another time during Biden's reelection campaign where Biden went to a private fundraising event in Silicon Valley and seemed so "out of it" (again, my words, paraphrasing from memory) that one of the SV bigwigs there called Biden's chief of staff with grave concerns about the President's health and ability to run for reelection.

The book is well worth the read, whether you're a Trump supporter, Biden supporter or just interested in politics and foreign policy in general.

You can't justify the war with actions taken before the war either, the technical term for that is "unjustifiable".

But what the Ukrainian politicians then did wasn't sensible. They've been broken. They have some of the poorest political leadership we've seen out of any country so far in the 21st century. They've managed to transition their country from comfortable and improving to a smouldering wreck. At every turn they've managed to find an option that leaves them unambiguously worse off than they were before. It is a case study in diplomatic failure and what not to do when threatened by a larger, more militarily competent neighbour.

Why is no one talking about Ukranian debt? Billions of foreign debt that keeps piling on while their Economy is reliant on EU and US donations/debt to even function.

What is the end goal? What happens when Zelenskys friends are no longer in power? How does Zelensky plan to repay his debts during/after war??? Become a satellite state like Japan and S.Korea??

That is saying the same thing from the US's perspective. They've worked out what they are capable of doing and they're working to it. The US military leadership doesn't believe they can go beyond that. If they thought they could do anything more they would.

Also the gentleman's dismissal of red line escalation seems unsound. From a game theory perspective the argument is full of holes.

> See it as Ukraine being drip-fed western weapons in just enough quantities to completely tie up Russia.

Been saying this for years now. A quick win, or a quick loss, means Russia has time to recoup losses and rearm for the next engagement, likely Ukraine round 3, etc.

Instead, keep them tied up and burning through the massive Soviet surpluses of hardware, strain the already shaky economy, and accelerate the already-happening demographic collapse. Russian arms trades are already suffering, and several countries have cancelled their orders -- they know they won't get them, or have seen the goods in action and don't want them. And then there is the shot in the arm for NATO funding -- Europe is re-arming -- and has Sweden and Finland in the club as well.

The Russians aren't dumb and are willing to take some hardship, and have thus far been able to get around some of the demographic losses by using prisoners and ethnic minorities. Trade with India and China has thus far kept up, and China, too, is getting a shot in the arm via cheap oil and an imputus to innovate drone tech. Looking like Spanish Civil War 2.0 in a lot of ways...