K2-HMFIC said:

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Irish 2.0 said:

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Taking them off SWIFT would be an economy stopper

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Did we get the Germans to agree? Huge deal if so.

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Germans are on board. EU/NATO countries in lockstep. As I said before, with Germany's stance on weapons support they have to compensate for that by being willingly aggressive on the sanctions front even when it's to their extreme detriment.

The Intel declassification has gotten inside Putin's OODA loop and really screwed with their timelines.

Furthermore it slows down the Russians plans because they then realize we're all up in their systems.

Rossticus said:

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benchmark said:

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US intel is going to happen regardless of who's POTUS. So now with US intel, the Ukrainians now know what time the law sprinklers will come on within +/- 5 days. Still not sure what this POTUS has done yet to merit recognition ... albeit not being very talky is certainly praise worthy.

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A lot of it has been to keep step with Russian disinformation publicly to prevent him from getting out ahead with any false provocation narrative. That's been the benefit. The entirety of NATO has been in agreement on this strategy and was directly spoken to by NATO Sec General during MSC.

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Seems like a no-brainer ... so I'll cede Biden full credit for that high-risk executive decision. ;-)

Let's say Russia invades and there is follow through with the severe economic sanctions.

Russia would basically have to tie themselves to China for trade and financial support. Is this really what Russia wants to do over the long term?

Captain Positivity said:

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Let's say Russia invades and there is follow through with the severe economic sanctions.

Russia would basically have to tie themselves to China for trade and financial support. Is this really what Russia wants to do over the long term?

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I would think that Putin trusts China less then he does the West

Captain Positivity said:

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Let's say Russia invades and there is follow through with the severe economic sanctions.

Russia would basically have to tie themselves to China for trade and financial support. Is this really what Russia wants to do over the long term?

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EXCEEDINGLY good question.

Blue stars for days!!!!!!!

Eliminatus said:

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It's incredible what the OSINT groups can do these days.

Warfare won't be the quite the same anymore. The daily reports of embedded newsies during Vietnam are replaced by neck beards with keyboards and satellites.

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At least til the lasers fire up

Putin turns off the gas spigot to the Euros if things get testy.

So Russia invades Ukraine, the US takes them off the Swift system, Russia then switches from petrodollars to a Bitcoin standard, and BTC goes to 200k.
?????
La Bamba Profits

Just saying'

Or the yuan. Whatever.

The facts on the ground will remain the same. They’ll just end up discussing the arms control proposals and transparency proposals. Moreover, are those BTG’s at jump off points on the border meant to maintain high readiness for weeks to facilitate such a potential meeting? 2/2

— ELINT News (@ELINTNews) February 21, 2022

The meeting between Putin and Biden kinda reminds me Chamberlain and Hitler but in this meeting, more to determine the aftermath of the invasion. Slap each other for a few months with insignificant sanctions. Europe needs Russia oil especially Germany.

With socialism in Europe along with immigration issues, don't see a lot of rah rah against the Russia if they continue on with their press to bring the old states back n their fold including Poland.

Don't know how if Americans would sign up to go fight Russians in somewhere like a Poland, a draft maybe?
Germany doesn't really have an army and the French are divided with their issues of immigration. UK has become another France with issues of their own.

Sorry I am so cynical with the western powers reaction to Russia but these last few years have been an eye opener.

La Bamba said:

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So Russia invades Ukraine, the US takes them off the Swift system, Russia then switches from petrodollars to a Bitcoin standard, and BTC goes to 200k.
?????
La Bamba Profits

Just saying'

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In Russia the coin bits you

New BBC piece on French brokered talks with Putin:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60454818

There is NO CHance that nato will extend membership to Ukraine

That would literally be a world war

LMCane said:

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There is NO CHance that nato will extend membership to Ukraine

That would literally be a world war

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That Russia would then be forced to start, if they wanted to, and paint themselves plainly as an authoritarian aggressor against a sovereign NATO nation, which makes them toxic to the rest of the world… including China.

Would Putin REALLY wage a war, solo, that he has zero chance to win? I'm skeptical. He wants a return to Russian greatness. Waging war against the rest of the world with virtually no allies is guaranteed destruction. The polar opposite.

If you want to project strength (the only thing that Putin respects) as an alliance, that's how you do it.

You stare him in the eye, don't blink, knowing that you have the ultimate advantage, and signal that we will not capitulate and we will burn you down if you try to violate our right to function as independent nations to establish alliances with who we choose.

You say, "**** around and find out Vlad". That's the language that Putin speaks and he's smart enough to know that if NATO fully sacks up, his choices are to behave and go home or walk into a meat grinder that will leave Russia in ruins and him out of power.

Excellent pod from today. Probably the best pod I've listened to overall to-date. Very plain spoken, independent, and comprehensive discussion of all points from Ukrainians who have a lot of US time under their belts.

They also discuss the Russian figure skating doping scandal and another couple of points of Ukrainian interest sandwiched between the meat of the discussion so don't bail early. At 27:00 mark advance to 42:00 mark to skip the cultural stuff.

Episode 14 by @bartaway and @VagrantJourno: Russia begins a barrage of both artillery fire and misinformation to drum up any excuse to go to war. Their claimed "troop withdrawal" turned out to be just another misdirectionhttps://t.co/tCzhpZoMg5

— Ukraine Without Hype (@HypeUkraine) February 20, 2022

https://www.podparadise.com/Podcast/1537219548

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-14-artillery-fire-from-the-east/id1537219548?i=1000551684176

He's inflicting maximum confusion with diplomatic and media noise while simultaneously providing himself with the largest array of options.

I do not understand this meeting. The West is dug in on against what Putin really wants and Putin has been disingenuous from the start in diplomatic talks. Nothing I have seen to date gives me confidence that Biden is going to out-negotiate Putin. Putin hasnt been in power for over 20 years because hes dumb, and Biden is JAG.

EastSideAg2002 said:

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I do not understand this meeting. The West is dug in on against what Putin really wants and Putin has been disingenuous from the start in diplomatic talks. Nothing I have seen to date gives me confidence that Biden is going to out-negotiate Putin. Putin hasnt been in power for over 20 years because hes dumb, and Biden is JAG.

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At this point I really think it's more about optics than anything else.

DallasAg 94 said:

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Rossticus said:

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Damn. Shade.

Sweden has never imported natural gas from Russia or allowed any pipeline from Russia in spite of massive Russian lobbying because all Swedish governments have considered the security risk connected with Russian gas excessive. #Germany

— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) February 20, 2022

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Now do the US and China.

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Still doesn't make him wrong.

And just to frame all of this, all Ukrainian servicemen on the eastern line are under standing orders not to fire under any circumstances so as not to give Russia any justification to advance.

The Russian proxies are literally the only ones shooting and blowing things up. Ukrainians are being shot at and dying, purposely not defending themselves by firing back so that Russia has no pretext to invade. Thats some rock solid heroism.

Filmed at Belgorod water reservoir

Белгородское водохранилище pic.twitter.com/Q3lkIR8aXE

— IgorGirkin (@GirkinGirkin) February 21, 2022

Latest from BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60454795

US warns Russia has compiled a list of people in Ukraine to be killed or sent to detention camps after an invasion

In a letter sent to the United Nations, and seen by US media, the US said it had "credible information" of the list

In Belarus, which borders Ukraine, some 30,000 Russian troops will stay on despite finishing military exercises

Boris Johnson tells the BBC that the economic sanctions being prepared by the West would hit Moscow "very, very hard", but he says that this might not be enough to deter Vladimir Putin from starting the worst conflict in Europe since 1945

He forgot "yuge" and "beautiful". I think he has Donald envy.

Looks like they really are intent on lying their way into a war. This is complete, shameless, evil, Nazi level bullisht. Holy isht. Anyone who would actually do this has no limits other than what they think they can get away with. Hopefully he pulls the plug.