I understand the sentiment, but "illegal invasion" has always struck me as a sort of oxymoron... As of there were laws regulating such things.
Huawei reportedly furloughs Russian staff and stops taking orders
Chinese telecom giant Huawei has issued a mandatory month-long furlough to some of its Russia-based staff and suspended new orders, according to Russian media. "There are no orders, so why should people go to the office – in a month the vacation will either be extended, or employees will be returned from it," an anonymous …
COMMENTS
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 07:34 GMT sreynolds
I thought the 'moron contained a contradiction, like cheerful pessimism (or so google tells me) whereas a tautology means redundancy.
I am no the grammar police, but as Dave Barry said, "I could easily overemphasize the importance of good grammar. For example, I could say: "Bad grammar is the leading cause of slow, painful death in North America," or "Without good grammar, the United States would have lost World War II."
Word can KILL.
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 10:52 GMT A.P. Veening
I am no the grammar police, but as Dave Barry said, "I could easily overemphasize the importance of good grammar. For example, I could say: "Bad grammar is the leading cause of slow, painful death in North America," or "Without good grammar, the United States would have lost World War II."
Word can KILL.
For that there is only one appropriate answer.
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Thursday 14th April 2022 22:31 GMT David 132
Specifically, an oxymoron is "a contradiction in terms" - think "Military Intelligence" or "Safe Danger" as examples.
A tautology is a statement or expression that confirms itself, as best illustrated (in both senses of the word) by XKCD: "The first rule of Tautology Club is... the first rule of Tautology Club."
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 08:01 GMT First Light
Illegal as in without UN Security Council approval.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115592
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_the_Iraq_War
Here's a 2015 piece discussing some conflicts and UN approval or lack thereof.
https://theweek.com/articles/460549/does-un-ever-actually-war
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 10:04 GMT Peter2
I understand the sentiment, but "illegal invasion" has always struck me as a sort of oxymoron... As of there were laws regulating such things.
There are, actually. Created by international treaties and governed by international courts set up specifically to deal with the issues thus arising. (is the International Court of Justice)
For instance, the Hague convention of 1907 says that you shouldn't invade a country without warning; that a declaration of war should be made prior to the use of armed force, and preferably with an ultimatum prior to the use of force stating the reasons for considering the use of armed force to provide a reasonable chance of dealing with issues peacefully via diplomacy <a href="https://pca-cpa.org/en/home/#:~:text=The%20Permanent%20Court%20of%20Arbitration,services%20to%20the%20international%20community>or arbitration</a> rather than resolving issues through bloodshed.
Of course, it only applies to the countries that signed up to it. Russia in fact <b>is</b> one of those countries.
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Thursday 14th April 2022 11:26 GMT Peter2
Churchill observed that good manners and civility cost nothing in one of his books when he included the text of the declaration of war on Japan.
Sir,
On the evening of December 7th His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom learned that Japanese forces without previous warning either in the form of a declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war had attempted a landing on the coast of Malaya and bombed Singapore and Hong Kong.
In view of these wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law and particularly of Article I of the Third Hague Convention relative to the opening of hostilities, to which both Japan and the United Kingdom are parties, His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo has been instructed to inform the Imperial Japanese Government in the name of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that a state of war exists between our two countries.
I have the honour to be, with high consideration,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Winston S. Churchill
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 21:17 GMT Youngone
Cyrus of Persia does not care at all about those rules, and will declare a surprise war just for shits and giggles. In fact if you invade your neighbours without warning he will offer you his friendship.
He does not care who he annoys.
No, I am not confusing Civilisation VI with real life, you are.
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 16:53 GMT HandleAlreadyTaken
In this case, "illegal" could be interpreted as "contrary to international law" - though I'm not a lawyer and couldn't quote the relevant law chapter and verse.
I personally think a moral difference exists between say the Allied invasion of Sicily in '43 and the Putin invasions of Ukraine - so we do need some word to highlight this difference. I believe "illegal" works well enough for this purpose.
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Thursday 14th April 2022 12:16 GMT Peter2
I personally think a moral difference exists between say the Allied invasion of Sicily in '43 and the Putin invasions of Ukraine - so we do need some word to highlight this difference.
Sicily was part of the Italian Empire at the time, and was part of the Axis powers allied to and fighting with Nazi Germany, and a declared state of war already existed between Italy and Britain, America et al.
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 08:07 GMT Len
Russia is a small market, probably not worth the risk
I've said it before, let's not forget that Russia is a small market. It might have an enormous land mass (the largest country in the world, covering over 17,125,192 km2, and encompassing more than one-eighth of Earth's inhabited land area, according to Wikipedia), it has only 145 million inhabitants.
Its economy is slightly larger than that of Spain but the Russian people are 70% poorer than the Spanish people. There is only one EU country with a poorer population than Russia and that is Bulgaria. Moreover, these economic figures are from before some of the harshest economic sanctions the world has ever seen. The Russian economy never really recovered from the sanctions post the annexation of Crimea and those were peanuts compared with the current sanctions. The ruble currency is being propped up artificially but they can't keep that up for much longer and every time the capital controls are eased slightly we see signs of capital flight. Russia is suffering a big brain drain at the moment as educated people are leaving the country to Turkey, Armenia and Georgia.
Regardless of how much the Chinese government wants to maintain a relationship with Russia on a political level, as a Chinese company it is playing with fire to keep doing business with such a small, and submerging, market if the risk is losing custom in the richest parts of the world, Europe and North America.
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Wednesday 13th April 2022 12:46 GMT phuzz
We've noticed that some countries and regions have issued some policies
That's one way of phrasing "most of the world has sanctioned Russia"!
I suppose you have to be very careful about your words when you have to keep both the Russian and Chinese governments happy.
>>> A pint for that PR person and their most weaselly of words!