Good. The Ghost was shot down but managed to eject (people thought he'd died for about 5 hours), so he's looking for another plane.
I didn't forget him. Putin was still running the country when Medvedev was in office. Putin served as "prime minister" during Medvedev's term, making him the #2 on paper, but in reality, Putin was still running the country as confirmed in Obama's hot mic moment with Medvedev in 2012.
Former men's #31 in the world Sergiy Stakhovsky enlists in Ukranian reserves and is returning the Ukraine to help fight the Russians. He moved his family to safety and is now trying to get back to Ukraine. I have the utmost respect for athletes like this, who could use their money to just walk away, but he is willing to put his life on the line for his country. Sergiy Stakhovsky: Ukrainian tennis player says he is ready to fight for his country
The geopolitical strategy of not adding new member states in the vicinity of the Russian border to NATO.
Lukashenko is less sane than Putin. There was talk at one time of Belarus and Russia uniting. Talks broke down when Lukashenko insisted that he be the #1 over all of Belarus and Russia. Obviously, Putin just laughed at the proposal. It looks like now, the Kremlin is basically running Belarus. It's telling that the Russian delegation wanted to meet with Zelensky on Belarussian soil. They would have likely arrested Zelensky or worse.
Yeah, I agree with that but I just mean you won’t see bodies being unloaded from air carriers which is a very strong visual.
The way that country is run, I doubt anything is sent back. The families will never know the real truth.
If the premise is that we shouldn’t let countries on the border of Russia decide for themselves who they want to align with because it might upset Russia, the problem isn’t the neighboring countries or their would-be allies. Other countries shouldn’t have to cede part of their sovereignty simply because, historically, Russia has always had severe paranoia and a massive inferiority complex.
Conversely, Putin is invading a neighbor on the basis that their country should belong to Russia, so it sounds to me like expanding NATO was a good thing for any of the democratic nation members near Russia. But hey, you're welcome to excuse Putin's lunacy.
Wouldn’t have mattered. Putin would have gone after those states anyway, as he has Georgia, Chechnya’s and now Ukraine. None are members of NATO and Georgia and Chechnya were never going to be. You need to learn to ignore the lies of dictators.
FWIW...I did not say Putin was justified in his response. I don't think the US would be justified in attacking Canada, Mexico, or Cuba in the hypothetical scenario where China built military bases in those places either. If those bases were built through non-coercive, cooperative, peaceful means, then I think the US would not justified in attacking a foreign country. From our perspective, though, it would be quite alarming if it were to happen. That is the point. We put a dictator who is former KGB into a situation where he did not make an irrational decision. Putin was wrong to do what he did, but switch the teams and consider an identical scenario with our greatest adversaries setting up military bases on our doorstep and the decision does not look totally irrational or insane.
I'm not excusing his actions (I think he should pay with his life), but his actions are not completely irrational and psycho.
This woman (who's name I won't attempt to spell or pronounce) ran for President of Belarus (and finished 2nd) after her husband who was running was arrested. She has declared herself leader of Belarus and says she is forming what sounds like a shadow government or government in exile. At the least she may provide a focal point for whatever resistance exists in Belarus. I wish her luck.
