Spot on Geof.
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Looks like you and Geof are out of touch with real Europeans -
Why so Tim?
I don’t think John or I have commented on public opinion in Europe, have we?
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What does that mean Tim 
I’m out an about and have had time to only scan the article, so I won’t respond in any depth Tim. However I think the graphic titled “People in Poland have the strongest belief their country should defend Ukraine from a Russian invasion” says a lot tor me.
It’s a question of historical perspective. Even the most basic reading of history would lead someone outside Russia to conclude that you would have to be mad to try to invade Russia. The same reading of history would lead most Russians to conclude that Russia has been regularly invaded by mad people.
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Also if you click through to the actual study, you’ll see that it’s not really about ‘Europeans’ at all - just 7 countries (there are 44 countries in Europe). Poland is a hawkish outlier - as is France in the other direction (more people saying it’s definitely not worth defending Ukraine). But it’s just an online survey with only 500-1,000 respondents in each country. In other words it’s pretty meaningless. Surprised The Guardian reported it.
Me too. Shoddy journalism.
The Guardian shares a number of blind spots with the BBC particularly on foreign affairs to do with Russia, China and Israel, and particularly when things incline towards the military.
The reporter behind this piece - Henley - is based in Paris, and - I guess because I and my family are here in France and actually know what’s going on - I often find his articles misleading.
Where The Guardian wins out over the BBC is that it regularly publishes articles by real experts, not just journalists, whereas the BBC only allows these mediated voices.
When you actually listen to the Ukranian view of the troops on their border they are saying that it is Putin’s attempt to cause dissent between the European countries and their allies.
It seems as though he is doing just that.
Perhaps all our politicians should be listening a bit more to Ukraine instead of telling them what we will do if they are invaded?
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Anyone think that cartoon is funny now?
Not a question I’ve seen asked… wonder what the White House would be?
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Kennedy threatened WW3 if a ship believed to be carrying Soviet ICBMs docked in Cuba back in the day and I doubt he would have been happy with Mexico and Canada joining the Warsaw Pact.
@Geof_Cox , and yet today war begins.
Today, without regard to all intelligent thought, or conversation; people are being killed.
Fuel and essence prices will rise, along with sundries of various natures.
- and I wish I had crystal ball to tell me how China will respond in kind with regard to Taiwan and Korea.
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So, Olga, can you explain today’s news? Perhaps you can in some way justify the Russian government’s actions?
I suspect you won’t post a thing.
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Hi Mark, I will gladly respond. The Ukranian government is run by outsiders (UK/US) and was getting ready to be accepted in NATO. NATO is a direct threat to Russia, because as I said before, this game is not about Ukraine, but about Russia, its territory, and natural resources - all wars start for money and power. Money not for us, Mark, but for those in power. There are two ways for Ukraine’s existence, either to be with Russia or to be in NATO. Russia will not allow the second way.
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Ever the Putin fan, I take it you think that NATO wants to invade Russia 
, I suppose all those years getting brought up with Putin’s propaganda was always going to have a brainwashing effect.
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So it’s Vlad’s way or um Vlad’s way, and you said he wasn’t a dictator. 
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So are you saying that Putin views the Ukraine government as a puppet of UK and US. And that Putin fears the UK and the US will use Ukraine as a (presumably, military) base from which to reach out and grab Russia’s resources? Which would deprive the oligarchy (Govt, people in power, mafia, businessmen) of continued access to those resources?
And so Putin is proactively putting his own Russian military in Russia, so that agencies of the West (NATO being a provocation, to Putin) cannot put their military on Ukraine territory?
I think you are very brave to post a reply like this at a time when Russia, who you claim has never invaded other countries, has invaded another country. NATO is a peacekeeping organization, not an invasion force & at this time Ukraine is not even a member, so at this moment there would be no reason for Russia to fear for itself.
Russia has no right to decide what organizations a sovereign state might choose to join any more than NATO does.
However I am aware that you enjoy a freedom to express your views here in the West, a luxury that many of your countrymen do not have at home. Maybe you still live in fear that if you actually expressed an anti Putin opinion you too might end up being poisoned or arrested & locked up if you visited your homeland, so to ensure the safety of any family members still living there you need to promote Vlad “Sputum” as a benevolent leader rather than the mad dictator he actually is.
The West is not so short of natural resources that it needs to take them from Russia by force when it can buy what it needs - war is expensive so it would not make sense.
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