(N.B. When “Russia” is used throughout this post, most of the time it will be used in place of Vladmir Putin. At no point am I trying to insult Russia as a country or the Russian citizens themselves. This post is about Vladmir Putin. I feel the need to include this.)
This could, no, will be a sensitive issue and it’s a shame about what is happening in Ukraine. Let’s hope everything works out and this whole situation doesn’t end up like Nazi Germany. I feel that I should talk about this and I feel I shouldn’t but let’s do it! One of the problems is that you should really be talking about things on balance – even Hitler gets the positives and negatives thing thrown at him – but this time it’s hard to find any positives, in that there is non. Russia has invaded Ukraine causing (possibly) a fourth major European War in 200 years.
Okay. First things first, Russia as a whole is a great place. The people are friendly and it has some great cities. Since the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russia was seen as being a more liberal place and then Russian leader Vladimir Putin has decided to go back in time because the post-soviet experiment obviously wasn’t working in his eyes and now wants to reclaim “Russian” land from their “tenants”.
Now Russia has had some backlash from the media and other world leaders (not calling it “West” and “East” as they’re just points on a compass [Dr No reference]). However, the rest of the world although condemning Russia and Putin aren’t really doing much to stop him are they? Last week Britain and the USA withdrew their troops from Ukraine despite saying Russia would face the consequences if they invaded. Not sure about you lot but nothing deters your “enemies” more than seeing your troops being withdrawn. The rest of Europe has just abandoned Ukraine to Russia and for what? Oil? UK and US – the two countries that like to police the world – actually withdrew troops from Ukraine? They basically just handed Ukraine to Putin.
4You can say the rest of the world won’t buy Russian goods or accept Russian money but let’s be honest what these people say and do are two completely different things (as we have constantly saw with Boris Johnson). Only time will tell if they are true to their words, but do you really think Europe will really stop buying Russian oil (and Vodka) – something they rely on enormously? Germany stopping the new pipeline is something and stops my statement in its tracks, but how do we know that no secret deals aren’t taking place?
No one wants to do anything to Russia because they need their oil (and of course Russia can fight back – unlike Iraq! [We’ll get right on that one]). This is like when the US invaded Iraq. Bush made excuses for the Iraq on Saddam Hussain and his weapons being a threat. Well Hussain may have been a tyrant but there was no weapons. The whole war was an excuse to gain access to Iraq’s oil because Iraq was weaker than the rest of the oil-rich countries. Just listen to the Iraqi people and they have said Iraq was better under Hussain than US protection. The countries did the same with Afghanistan in 2021. Instead of keeping peace they just let the Taliban back in and revert straight back to the norm. USA likes to think they are the pinnacle of the “western” world but they just cock everything up.
The UK and US aren’t going to act on Putin because they need Russian oil and Putin knows that. They’re saying they are going to put economic sanctions on Russia but what good will that do? Those sanctions will hurt us more than Putin. Putin is basically laughing at the “Western leaders” – didn’t Russian journalists mock Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’ diplomacy (I mean they’re not wrong, even the UK laugh at them). When you have people like Boris Johnson and the Conservatives you know they’re bent and will do anything to keep hold of all that Russian money but at the same time you need to watch them as a war is exactly what Johnson will eventually lead to, as a means to move on from his deceitful, treasonable acts. You just cannot trust anyone in this world.
“Boris Johnson this may be a nice little distraction for you but when is it enough is enough? Forget oil now is the time to take action. It’s war now whether you like it or not! Send in the army now & other countries may follow.” My tweet responding to Sky News 25th Feb
So, what about the reasons behind Putin’s actions? What were they again? Oh, about how Ukraine wants to join NATO wasn’t it? Firstly, as we have seen, what good does NATO do anyway? NATO countries are just standing by watching Russia go to war with Ukraine. Wasn’t NATO originally designed to keep the peace in Europe and to stop any uprisings of Germany and Soviet Russia? As pointed out above, NATO doesn’t seem to have any problems invading other countries when it suits them (And yes when I mean NATO I am actually referring to the US!).
Let’s be honest the US is the only one that cares about NATO. The group in the 21st Century is absolute meaningless and why Ukraine would like to join is beyond me, then again they may not want to join – that could be just the “western” media trying to make out their livelihoods are better. Or, it could be “Russian” media trying to use that as means of excuse to invade and attempt to get “their land” back. What exactly is the purpose of NATO today? You have the UK sucking up to the US. France and Germany are competing to see who can be the EU leader (sorry France but Germany beats you 2-1) and the EU (a group consisting mostly of NATO members) don’t seem to be in any hurry to let Turkey (a NATO member) into the EU. NATO has internal problems and Putin is just taking advantage! Here’s an idea, let’s scrap NATO as it’s an outdated concept that only America is interested in and only when it suits America’s interests.
Through this crisis we have seen just how effective NATO really is. NATO – containing the “worlds greatest” military force (the US) won’t protect defenceless countries (but they enjoy invading countries). You can say they don’t want to see a nuclear war but let’s be honest, despite showing his true colours, Putin isn’t an idiot. Putin can release nuclear bombs on the “allied nations” but can he bomb all the allies at once? As soon as Russia bombs an ally the other allies can bomb Russia – in particular Putin’s residence. As a stated before it is hard to find the balance argument here, but here’s one for Putin. Putin has exposed just how weak and redundant NATO is and how reliant Europe and the developed world is on Russia.
As I write this Putin has ordered his nuclear division to be on standby but I do think that is a threat. I just can’t see this war (and yes this is a war) going nuclear. I can’t see the war having air raids either. Despite reports saying this conflict could last for years but I just don’t see this lasting beyond this year (maybe early next year tops). Putin is a dickhead but just like the French, Russians like to take things into their own hands and this could lead to another Russian Revolution. We’ve already seen the protests in Russia. The Russian people are against and there are some reports about Russian soldiers not being happy. The Russians could very easily turn on Putin and their government possibly bringing in a new era for Russia.
Let’s move on to the “Western” and “Eastern” tags. Going by geography, depending on where you’re looking from, Russia could be classed as “Western” and the US “Eastern”. Countries cannot be summed up by East and West, North and South. Take a look at Europe. Western Europe may have richer countries but that doesn’t make Western Europe better.
Eastern Europe has some pretty amazing places. Some of the countries may not have “the money” like Germany or France but the countries in Eastern Europe aren’t third-world countries. What’s more they are more traditional will stand together as opposed to competing with one another like the “Western side”. These terms were first used as a way of referring to Russia, China (and Asia) and the US but these are really American terms which really make no sense, considering China is western to them (As well as Russia – Russia is only a few miles a part from them!). In the 21st Century the terms “Western” and “Eastern” are just offensive and just a way of viewing certain countries as “Superior” to others. Let’s start referring to countries by name and regions and not by these insulting terms that mean nothing.
Historically Russia has been one of the allies – Napoleon and Hitler – like Germany (without Germany [Prussia] Britain wouldn’t have won Waterloo) yet because of the inferiority complex the US had post WW2 Russia has been perceived as the “bad guy”. Post WW2 the US were the ones who tried to be the “super-power” taking part in the Korean War and Vietnam War, whereas Russia stayed quiet with the exception being the Afghan war. The Cold War was basically two countries in check with both looking to see who would make the wrong move first. If anything was going to happen it would have been the US who started it with Russia just retaliating. When you go through history despite being the largest country, Russia has never really been that successful in wars (In contrast despite being a “tiny little island” Britain has been rathe successful in wars – albeit sometimes with a little help from France, Portugal and some of the colonies).
I’m not saying the allied countries would win a war against Russia as it’s a different time but unfortunately Putin needs to be stopped by force otherwise he’ll just continue. Look at Georgia, Crimea and now the rest of Ukraine. We should take action now and put an end to Putin’s regime whilst we can.
Something that could be another reason behind Russia’s invasion is the revolution that removed former President Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych went into exile in Russia and as he is pro-Russian putting him back in charge of Ukraine would be a great way of boosting Putin’s allies – with Belarus. Zelensky is clearly a fighting leader and will not give up his leadership but there is only so much that he and the Ukrainians can do in fighting off Russia. Zelensky wants talks with Putin but that is not going to happen and unless other countries fight with Ukraine, there’s a possibility that Yanukovych could be restored as leader of “Soviet” Ukraine.
Now, these sanctions on Russia and all of these companies suspending operations in Russia and/or stopping the sales of Russian goods should stop. These measures aren’t hurting Putin but rather hurting the Russian people – with the majority voicing their objections to the war. Take McDonalds for instance. Closing down branches (okay temporarily at least) is putting Russian people out of work. These people are suffering due to Putin losing all sense and stopping their employment, their income, is not the way forward. Yes the Russian government take taxes from the businesses but wartime governments will also find a way to fund their war operations. You can argue that Putin is doing the same to the Ukrainian’s but the age old adage “Do two wrongs make a right”? We can’t punish innocent people for some tit’s actions.
Before we finish here’s another twist to why the rest of the world is just standing by allowing Putin to invade Ukraine. I may have mentioned this in my coronavirus GraveTalk (the last one) but there’s a theory going around about how COVID was purpose-made to “thin-out” the global population (I may have started it with my GraveTalk but doubt it) and as that was a complete disaster, since about 98-99% of people recovered from it, what’s the next best thing? War! War is pretty much guaranteed to reduce population numbers. You can talk about Russia’s nuclear weapons (but these worried countries also have nuclear weapons and are allies with other countries with nuclear weapons) and Russian oil reserves but that’s what makes this theory work. What other country could get away with starting a war? None. The world could make an agreement about Russia invading a country. Unfortunately, for Ukraine, they are the scapegoat given the history and tensions between them and Russia. It would be quite the genius move in regards to the population and climate issues. Now, this obviously isn’t the case but it’s a thought that will be going around certain groups of people.
I hope you enjoyed this GraveTalk. I know that I have not included some things from the Russia-Ukraine war but I wasn’t sure whether to do this and then when the war started I decided that I should probably do it. There isn’t a new schedule for GraveTalk articles but I would like to get one in each month. There may be two more to come in March. The next ones should be a little-less controversial.
Thanks for reading!
#StayStrongUkraine
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