Excellent, but very chilling, article. Surround yourself with “yes” men, refuse to accept criticism, believe your own propaganda. Putin and Trump have much in common.
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I love the fact that Brits can still use the word scheme in a positive way. 
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Mr Ponzi has a lot to answer for.
We may have positive schemes, but that doesn’t stop Hollywood casting scheming Brits as the bad guys in all their movies.
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Zelensky speaks to US Senate. At about 20 min, a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking video of what Ukraine is experiencing. WARNING: Is tough to watch and contains graphic images
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It’s a bit cringe hearing the speaker of the house repeat a foreign battle cry over and over again… I get why it’s needed and used in Ukraine right at this time, but outside of this context you’d give anyone sincerely shouting “Glory to (insert name of motherland here)” some space in a hurry…
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I suspect that there are cultural and historic nuances to the speech, that were lost in what was clearly a very quick and dirty translation. This is not a high school debate. The Ukranians are fighting for their existence, while their children are being murdered. I would damn well expect fighting talk.
Scratch a Ukranian, and just under the skin, he’s still a Cossack. Something Putin seems to have overlooked (to his cost).
Zelensky does not have the luxury of a plush, stately office. Nor does he have the services of a top–flight PR team to write his speeches. At the moment he’s scooting around Ukraine, dodging Russian assassination squads, and never sleeping in the same bed twice.
Under the circumstances, I thought he put his point over very well.
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I think you misunderstood… It was not Zelensky that made me cringe, it was the speaker of the house shouting “Slava Ukrainiji” at the beginning.
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Ah. My apologies.
No-one will ever accuse US politicians of missing an opportunity for self-promotion.
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The US has over 75% of the world’s guns so what do you expect?
Here are links to speeches made to Candian and UK Parliament. There are different tones to each one.
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The UK media regulator, OFCOM, have banned the TV channel RT (Russia Today), saying it is “not fit and proper to hold a broadcast licence”.
As an aside, I’ve only today discovered that BBC news is available via PBS in the United States.
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24 million views. That worked.
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Yes! And I am so glad! I try to tune in every evening to BBC World News
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Yeah, Arny has a huge fanbase in eastern europe…
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Well phrased, he offers them a way out (emotionally) instead of forcing them onto the defensive.
Alas it doesn’t say whether the 24M viewers were Russians. I hope the viewers passed it on to them via other channels.
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New Bundle
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Let’s hope…
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Well, it seems clear that Putin is trying to make a virtue of a necessity. He tried to take all of Ukraine. Now he sees that will not be easily achieved, he is pretending his goal was the south-east all along.
Russia came and took a chunk of Ukraine in Donbas. It took a chunk of Ukraine in Crimea. Now it has come back, and occupied much of the land inbetween. Russia may say that it is satisfied with the territory it has taken - but it has said that before.
General Rudskoy has indicated that Russia is moving to “phase two” of the invasion, which seems to involve concentration on the territory they have already stolen. But this is likely to be just an opportunity for the Russians to regroup their forces, and bring in reinforcements. There has been no mention of phase three.
I suspect the situation is now more dangerous than ever. Putin has just demonstrated, before the eyes of the world, just how useless the Russian army actually is. Military analysts across the globe will have noted that the threat implied in the annual Red Square parades is not matched by performance on the battlefield.
The Russian military may be successful against largely unarmed civilians, as in Syria, but they have shown themselves to be no match for trained, professional soldiers. Putin relies for his power and position on his image as a strong man. The one thing he cannot afford is to appear weak.
Russia wants its empire back. It wants all the former Soviet states, plus Germany and Austria. If Putin is allowed to succeed in Ukraine, he will not stop there.
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