Russia and Ukraine

[The Architect Of Fate]

Well, as always, it's a symbol of "occupation" if you don't think that Crimea belongs to Russia. If you believe that the three referenda in which people voted to join Russia were meaningful, then the bridge is a symbol of interconnection. 

I expect people on this thread have very strong views about that

It doesn't belong to Russia and those referendums were a sham as are elections in Russia itself.

Interesting that you assume the Russians probably bombed their own pipeline. I've heard that from other people, too. Of course none of us knows what really happened. But the fact that the US had far more motivation than anyone else, and the means, and the ships in the area, and the statements made by government officials for years that they couldn't allow the pipeline, seems to point to a non-Russian culprit. 

But we may never know. 

Russia obviously bombed its own pipeline due to the fact they were not able to use it and it would have given them an excuse to play the victim. Russia has the ships and means to blow it up easily and of course, America doesn't want them to have that pipeline but that doesn't mean they blew it up. So no Russia is the prime suspect. These arguments are ridiculous.

As with any war, there are plenty of people who are going to suffer. Only the wealthy elite, who push for war and profit from it, have any reason to hope for more. 

The Russian people so far have not done so badly. The Russian economy is doing well. The fact that Western corporations and financial services pulled out of Russia didn't hurt them --- they just rebuilt with local ownership, which means that the profits stay home. Making your electronic payment systems less dependent on the West helps them with financial independence. Building new financial and communications systems with China and India helps the world toward a multi-polar arrangement, where more and more countries develop their own power independent of US hegemony. The global south is looking with anticipation at a re-aligned world where the US and US-controlled institutions like the IMF can no longer take over their resources and hand them over to US corporations. 

In the long run the most unfortunate people may be the Americans. Since the only solutions that any US government official can think of anymore are military solutions, it means that domestic issues continue to decline. Infrastructure is decaying, the poor get poorer, police get militarized, elections get less and less free and fair. Compare the recent trajectory of life in the US with that in China and the contrast is shocking. China is the future, and the only way the US knows to compete now is to threaten war. 

Of course the Ukrainians will suffer most in the short term. The Ukrainian president before the current one announced repeatedly that Russian-speaking people in the contested regions should be massacred. Now they are finding lots of dead bodies, and since the bodies can't talk the Ukrainians are saying they were murdered by the Russians, and the Russians are saying the Ukrainians murdered the Russian-speaking population who welcomed [what they saw as] liberation. There's a video of a Ukrainian general saying that those Russian-speaking individuals who aided the Russian army had to be "dealt with," but there was no time to take them to the police, so a large number of them "simply disappeared." Of course you and I can't know what's true, and anyone here who says he's sure is simply filling in gaps with his prejudice.

So it's sad to see people discuss Ukraine as if it's a simple fight for territory instigated by this week's newest Hitler. It's part of a far larger global strategy by the US. Largely it can be interpreted through the "Wolfowitz Doctrine," which said that no nation or group of nations must ever be allowed to challenge US economic hegemony. Causing war between Russia and Ukraine keeps Russia limited, with the added bonus that destroying the pipeline wipes out Germany's industrial capacity and pretty much ensures a far weaker EU for the foreseeable future. 

Remember, Kissinger said that the US has no friends or allies, only interests. 

Here's an older video, which explains what is happening now, as it's been planned. 

So a collection of mostly false or heavily distorted talking points all meant to push the narrative "America Bad " " Russia did nothing wrong" "Ukraine had it coming"  and other such Tankie/Jimmy Dore nonsense. All of which has either been debunked or rendered moot by actual facts but is designed to muddy the waters ....