Let's talk about Russia's long-term futures....

Mr. Putin achieved the rejuvenation of NATO, weakened the pacifist movement in Germany and Japan, caused the CPP to reevaluate the taking of Taiwan and helped consolidate democratic military alliances around the world. Putin, the greatest promoter for NATO ever. Thanks Putin!!! 😀👍

Imagine effing up so badly that you make Finland and Sweden want to join NATO after countles years of neaturality.

“They’re not gonna be back in the USSR” Beau’s t-shirt game is untouchable.

One of the immediate actions which Canada is pushing is to bounce Russia out of the G-20. It would add insult to injury if they invited Ukraine in.

Russia could focus on improving their economy, technology, quality of life etc, so that they become more influential and attractive on the world stage. The problem is the leadership is not interested in doing that.

Need to go after the oligarchs property in the US and start investigation into all compromised politicians

When you look at the inordinate amount of yacht owners in Russia and that some20% of the population doesn’t have indoor plumbing you don’t have to be a genius to think something is wrong

I had the privilege of travelling through the former Soviet Union back in 1988 and at that time it was not a real happy place. There were food shortages and people would need to form long queues to buy any sorts of supplies. There were no supermarkets that had everything. The locals would see a queue form, then the lines got longer and longer. Sometimes they didn't even know what they were queuing for. On our group tour we could not travel freely and had a "local guide" with us the whole time. We had to support ourselves buy buying our own food as we cooked for ourselves most times. I remember standing in a queue for 45 minutes to by 1 cabbage one time. Others in our group had to join other queues in order to get supplies. Our days were filled by exchanging western products with locals, like blue jeans for Russian Fur hats, red star military badges, belts etc. Whilst doing these exchanges we had to go around the corner as the locals didn't want to be spotted by authorities. Then of course everything changed and Russia stood alone without all the other Baltic states. The Berlin wall also came down. As years went on Russia seemed be getting to be a better place. Things became more relaxed and Russians started to become tourists like all other normal people around the world. The threat of nuclear war was in the past, people all thought it was over and Russia started to look good on the world stage, it had respect and everyone in Europe was mostly was living in peace. Then Putin took Crimea in 2014 and things started to go downhill from there. Fast forward to 2022 and a full military invasion of Ukraine happened and I just thought in my mind, why? That this was so unnecessary, the world was at peace. Then of course everything we have seen so far is just so terrible. Every country has a right for them to determine how they live their lives and no one should invade a sovereign nation, particularly as they were peaceful anyway. So Beau is correct, this has sent Russia back 35 years in time if not further. It will take another 35 years to get out of this mess. Seems they have learnt nothing at all from their previous history of wars. They had the golden chance to be just as free and respected as any other European country and now they have blown, and for what?

The really massive shame of Russia is that it could be potentially just a relatively peaceful, immensely wealthy country just by doing its stuff and not shitting up its border areas. I mean in an ideal world of course that would happen, but even if you just got a bit over halfway in terms of making the most of the country, its people are well educated, stop the brain drain and hostility... spending 60bil a year on nukes you probably never use and bring up the overall living standards so its a desirable place to be. It honestly should be a place people would want to go to get in on the action, but the country is so rotten with corruption at every level, by the time you get to someone like Putin its so fetid that you're dealing with a person who will murder opponents without a care, in any country he wants, because he can. That's just not normal, its the extreme end of abnormality that the comparison is now that Russia is just run by a bunch of gangsters that stole everything out of a USSR supply dump and now running roughshod over anything for their own benefit. For so long Russians are poisoned at birth with tales of better times, we suffer to reach better times, we endure the unendurable for better times, like the good old days. There was NO good old days in Russia or the Soviet Union, just degrees of being kind of shitty. So the honest step from this point is for Russians to just dare to dream and act, make the place something your children can look back on your generation now to admire- they made Russia Better Otherwise, the alternative is a very dark, fractured land full of criminals again

I agree that Europe will move faster towards clean energy. It's simple basics of eliminating a vulnerability. This war has sabotaged Russia's future in ways Putin completely missed. Delusions of grandeur tend to create self sabotage situations. At the very beginning of this my son stated that Russia was at risk of making themselves a vassal state of China. Didn't think about the Russian pride aspect.

It's such a shame. Remember how excited and hopeful we all were when the wall came down, the USSR broke up and Russia actually had a reasonable man leading it?

Not just military weakness, but also incompetence

Have to feel sorry for the average Russian. Where Russia is now is the direction US will be heading if authoritarian right assumes control

I can see Putin spitting out his coffee when Beau suggests that Russia snuggle up to china for protection. 😂😂😂

The delusions of grandeur can only last so long. At some point harsh reality will come rolling through.

A second rate power broke, humiliated, corrupt and loaded to the gills with nukes. What could possibly go wrong with that scenario?

Old saying, forget who said it: Nothing happens in Russia for a long time but when it does, it happens fast. Putin may have signed his own death warrant and we could see things happening, that no one predicted.

All kinds of talent is fleeing Russia. Tens, hundreds of thousands of tech and other knowledge workers are decamping. Russia is sliding into autarky. A society where you can go to Beijing but not Barcelona, Mumbai but not Milan, Pyongyang but not Paris is not going to be appealing to strivers and high-value people.

To quote Bismarck,'Starting a preventive war is like committing suicide because you are afraid of death.'

I seem to recall Robert A Heinlein referring to the USSR as "a 3rd world country with nukes" back in the early 1980s.