Re: 60 Suckers
There are two elements that need to be addressed in your trolling, not for your sake, but for others:
Earlier this month, Merkel described Minsk as “an attempt to give Ukraine time” to build up its military. Speaking with the Kyiv Independent, a pro-government Ukrainian outlet, Hollande agreed, saying Merkel was “right on this point.”
The above contains some elements of truth and some fib. It is true, because prior to 2022 Ukraine did receive Western military help, though not to 'build up its military' in the sense of hardware, but to go SOME way towards demolishing old, ineffective Soviet command & control (which we have seen, so spectacularly fail when applied by the Russian army). This was theoretical (training various level of command), and practical (on the ground, tactics, etc.). It might have been a decisive, or less so, factor in successful Ukrainian defence last year. As to why Merkel just 'lies' is that I THINK this is just an attempt at damage limitation, to restore some of her personal glory and true affection the 'Mutti' had in Germany when she was leaving the political stage. She simply tries to whitewash what was, essentially, her doing, i.e. long-term German cooperation with Russia, while Ukraine was just an inconvenient obstacle. That cooperation was good for Germany (and, as a side-effect, good for Europe) - and good for Russia. Minsk agreements were, in fact, to seal this Russian-European business as usual for ever, and fuck the failed state of Ukraine, Russians can deal with it, after all, they built Kyiv, right? ;) Then, despite all the Merkel's effort to save the deal, Putin blew it up with his invasion. Nnd now Merkel looks like a stupid (...) so she tries to offer feeble excuses. But in fact, she's not a stupid (...), nosir, she did all that for Germany (and Europe too), and never mind the little fuckers in between. This is not stupid, this is duplicitous (in light of the public proclamations about values, democracy, self-determination, etc, etc.). Ironically, after the fall of Soviet Union, Germany has built its power on two cornerstones: trade with Russia and trade with Chine. Russia already blew up spectacularly, and while it's not discussed much in public, the Chinese cornerstone also crumbled. Chinese already got from the Germans what they wanted - technological boost, and they already, rather bluntly, tell them to get the fuck out, we don't need you any more. I'm not rolling in schadenfreunde in general, both those strategies were 'sound' from a business point of view, I suppose, hindsight is a wonderful thing, etc.
'USA, EU et al. lied when Russia was eager to sign peace agreements.'
1.
A quote:
Vladislav Surkov, a former aide to the Russian president who was responsible for interaction with Ukraine and supervised the separatists in Donbass [and consider 'Grey Eminence'], said that when he worked on the Minsk agreements to resolve the situation in Ukraine, he did not assume that they must be implemented. The question about the Minsk agreements was posed to Surkov by political scientist Alexei Chesnakov, who has frequently published Surkov's views on various issues in the past. Surkov answered the question briefly: "No."
2.
My view: Russia was eager to sign Minsk peace agreements because they saw it as a way to eventually, grab the eastern territories of Ukraine 'peacefully', by a series of steps. First was, under the pretence of 'right of self-determination' to have the eastern provinces of Ukraine become self-governing, like Crimea. Next: they gave the right to run a referendum (sounds familiar?). Third step - well, we've already had those referendums, right? No need for 'little green men', there's been cctv footage of 'referendum cards' being door to door in the company of armed Russian soldiers. Purely for the fact that you run referendum in the occupied country, not exactly 'safe' ;). So, fast forward a few years, south-eastern and north-eastern provinces: Zaporoshia, Cherson, Odessa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Tschernigov magically experience the same 'shift of mind', as 'business as usual between Russia and the West blossoms, Russia becomes an even more attractive 'Big Brother' to look up to, while Ukraine, getting smaller and smaller, with no major open-sea port to trade from, becomes an ever more 'failed state' in the eyes of its citizens. Who wants to stay on a sinking ship? But all that is so tedious! Would have taken too long for The Glorious Leader to wait before he kicks the bucket. He wanted to be Peter the Fucking Greater in his lifetime, rather than next to Lenin on Red Square. So, as a great expert in history he is, he decided to run another short, victorious war, as the Russian Empire did against Japan in 1905. Ironically, the current war, on top of the bleeding obvious - neither short nor victorious - shows some uncanny similarities about how the Russian operations are / were conducted by the Russian General Staff. Perhaps Putin only got as far as the first couple of paragraphs on how THAT war ran. So here we are, 12 months into a 3-day march on Kyiv.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
