Another Thought.. Putin is a puppet for XI and the CCP. They are both linked together in an effort to destroy the "west". This is nothing more than a distraction and trial run for Taiwan. Putin is claiming this was traditionally a Russian state and he is taking it back. Xi will use the same claim to take Taiwan. Feel free to discuss....
I expect this will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes but for anyone interested in learning something this is worth reading. It’s NOT ABOUT TRUMP YOU FOOLS it’s about Putin and his megalomania. Tom Nichols is a well respected scholar who has specialized in the Soviet Union and Russia and knows Putin. He has taught at West Point. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/putin-chooses-forever-war/622875/
i just watched the emergency UN meeting about this. our lady from baker LA was speaking for us, our ambassador to the UN. she isnt the most skilled person at reading out loud. albania, france, mexico, the US, some other countries told russia to calm down, china told both parties to calm down without taking sides. i think what will eventually happen is that now that russia has declared luhansk and donetsk independent, they will take any effort from ukraine to keep those places as war, and "peacekeep" them dead until ukraine stops and lets russia have those regions. then over time russia will claim those places want to join russia of their own volition (which may be true), or just have them be quietly de facto russia with no announcement. then, long term, russia will encourage more settler colonialism in more western regions until those places break away as well, with russian majorities. but they will never take kiev, or start any trouble in the baltics. this is a prediction, i could be wrong, but i am fairly well educated on it.
Biden has imposed the first set of sanctions against Russia. While it does cut Russia off from the banking system and target some of his cronies I doubt it’s enough to deter Putin. ANALYSIS How U.S. sanctions against Russia work Russia has started to invade Ukraine, according to President Biden. Yet Congress left town last week without passing a bill to impose sanctions on Russia if it did. The Biden administration still can and is imposing sanctions on Russia, but they might not be as effective as if Congress had passed a package of hundreds of sanctions targeting Russia’s elite and banks all at once, says an international sanctions expert. Here’s how U.S. sanctions against Russia work. What sanctions are They’re essentially an economic alternative to using military force to try to compel a country to do (or not do) something. There is a long list of economic punishments that the United States, especially working in concert with other countries, can put together. It includes: “trade embargoes; restrictions on particular exports or imports; denial of foreign assistance, loans, and investments; blocking of foreign assets under U.S. jurisdiction; and prohibition on economic transactions that involve U.S. citizens or businesses,” writes the Congressional Research Service. At any given time, the United States has sanctions levied against a dozen or more countries. Right now that list includes Iran, North Korea, Syria, Burundi, Belarus, Cuba, Libya, Venezuela, Russia and many more. Who imposes them Sanctions are generally the purview of Congress. But over the past half-century, lawmakers have handed much of that power over to the president — not unlike Congress’s ability to declare war, which it has largely abdicated. Many lawmakers don’t want those responsibilities; others argue that the president can be much more flexible in implementing and removing sanctions than 535 lawmakers can. The ability to quickly lift sanctions if a condition is met is one key concern. “White Houses often don’t like sanctions that are negotiated by Congress. They like to have the full leeway,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told Politico recently. In the Trump era, Congress took back some of its authority to impose sanctions, specifically on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election. Lawmakers from both parties didn’t seem to trust President Donald Trump to get tough on Russia, so they passed legislation requiring the president to institute those sanctions. Now with President Biden in office and Russia massing troops on the Ukrainian border, Congress tried and failed to put together a sanctions bill. It fell apart after weeks of negotiations, mainly over the fact Democrats wanted to impose sanctions only after a Russia incursion, and Republicans wanted some preemptive sanctions in place to try to deter Russia. Lawmakers also ran up against a long break, saw Russia inching closer to invading Ukraine anyway and decided not to pass anything. The Senate ended up approving a resolution simply saying the senators “condemn” what Russia’s doing in Ukraine. How to react to Russia is now entirely up to Biden. Presidents can issue sanctions unilaterally because Congress gave them that power in a 1970s law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, that says the president has the authority to impose sweeping economic sanctions to “deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat” abroad. Get the Post Most Newsletter The most popular and interesting stories of the day to keep you in the know. In your inbox, every day. Congress doesn’t seem particularly upset about handing things over to Biden. Some Republicans are criticizing Biden for not imposing stricter sanctions sooner, but overall, there’s bipartisan agreement that Biden is uniting NATO and the West against Russia the best he can. What sanctions the U.S. has imposed so far He started off cautiously and has ramped up. Over the weekend, Russia recognized the sovereignty of two rebel-held parts of Ukraine and started sending troops there, in what many saw as a precursor to a larger invasion. Biden responded with targeted sanctions saying Americans couldn’t do business in those regions — a move some foreign policy experts derided as symbolic at best. On Tuesday, Biden started targeting Russia itself. He said the U.S. is sanctioning two of Russia’s largest banks, cutting it off from getting loans from the West, and imposing sanctions on Russia’s elites and their families. (“That’s one thing that I think is very bipartisan,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday, of targeting Russian oligarchy. “I want to see cops go in and take apartments, fine art, and seize yachts from a bunch of thugs and crooks.”) Biden said he worked with Germany to halt (at least temporarily) a big gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that was all but ready to go. And he promised more sanctions to come. One question we had: Why were Biden’s first sanctions targeting regions in Ukraine, and not Russia? Maria Shagina, an international sanctions expert based in Helsinki, said that’s just how the ladder of sanctions goes. Biden appears to be deciding whether what Russia did counts as a full-scale invasion, reports The Post’s Ashley Parker. He is likely reserving the tougher stuff for when Russia sends troops deeper into Ukraine. It’s similar to what then-President Barack Obama did in 2014 when Russia annexed the region of Crimea from Ukraine. He first limited trade and business to the region, then eventually targeted Russia defense companies, six of the country’s largest banks and the inner circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin. So far, Putin doesn’t seem deterred Shagina said what Biden can do alone might be more flexible, but it will be less effective than a sweeping package of sanctions from Congress. In addition, Putin does not seem deterred by Biden’s strategy of a slow escalation of sanctions. “It is clear that the sanction threats have failed to deter Russia,” she said, “and any lukewarm response will likely embolden Russia rather than contain it.” She suggested that the Biden administration shift the red lines to imposing the tough sanctions now, because, she warned, “after the full invasion might be too late.” This has been updated with the latest news. Amber Phillips explains and analyzes politics and authors The 5-Minute Fix newsletter, a quick analysis of the day's biggest political news. 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