Hi AC,

You support Russia's right to defend itself?
Against whom? Russia invaded Ukraine not the
other way around. They are the aggressors and
they are in the wrong here. Putin has made it
quite clear that he wants the return of the
Soviet Empire and he will do what it takes to
achieve that. He will use whatever pretext
is necessary - such as communist leaders have done
in the past - "wars of liberation." The strategy
has not changed.

The only way this can come to an end is if the
Russian people themselves take a stand and say
"hell no, we won't go and fight!" And m any
Russians are doing just that. - They're running
away as fast as their legs can carry them.

Hopefully a New Year will see the fall of this tyrant
by the hand of his own people.

He may appreciate your support. I certainly don't!

Hi Foxy,
"Putin has made it quite clear that he wants the return of the Soviet Empire and he will do what it takes to achieve that."
You're saying he wants the return of communism and to take over western Europe, and the Baltic states?
- If and when this looks to be an eventuality I too will oppose it.

"Hopefully a New Year will see the fall of this tyrant by the hand of his own people."
- Then you'd find yourself in good company with like-minded neoconservatives who have caused untold misery all across the globe.

You should go read the book 'The Grand Chessboard' by Zbigniew Brzezinski

Hey Foxy,
As a further comment,
"He will use whatever pretext is necessary - such as communist leaders have done in the past - 'wars of liberation'. The strategy has not changed.
If you go read that book, you'll realise it's the Wests strategy which has not changed.

And FYI, I want you to understand that don't support Russia so much as I oppose what the other side has been and is doing.
- Please don't conflate one thing with the other.

I know your family came from Lithuania and lived there through the Soviet era, and that this has had a significant impact on your thoughts and feelings.

Hey Fester,
I'm not really well versed with all the drones in use on the Ukrainian side.
I know they're using DJI Mavik's as well as Switchblades.
The Russians have Orlan's Lancet's and Geranium-2
(which is the Russian name for the Iranian Shahed-136)
I'm not sure whether Iran is actively supplying those drones or whether the Russians are themselves building copies themselves based upon Iranian designs.

The nature of war certainly is changing with drone warfare, when air defenses can be overrun with drone swarms, and a million dollar tank can be destroyed with a 10k drone.
Some have questioned whether tanks are becoming obsolete, but in any case, ground forces are still required to complete the tasks.

Hi AC,

I read your posts and am always impressed by your interest and depth of knowledge, but I have trouble seeing much sense in your conclusions. I was viewing a program on Spain last night and noted that it had an economy as large as Russia's, bugger all resources, and a population a quarter the size. The biggest hindrance to Spain's economic development since the second world war was the Franco regime.

What makes more sense: All western nations being controlled by puppet US governments and part of a conspiracy to destroy Russia, or Russia being controlled by autocratic cleptocrats pilfering Russia's wealth and justifying their police state by brainwashing the population with wild conspiracy theories and fake news flooding from state controlled media?

As I have stated before AC, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had similar world views to Russia and treated their populations with the same contempt. Their prosperity and place in the world today suggest to me that the greatest assets of a nation are an educated population and a healthy democracy.

Hi AC,

Have you ever read the books of Robert Conquest?
Books like "The Harvest of Sorrow," or anything
by Solzhenitsyn - such as "The Gulag Archipelago,"?
The communist party has gone but the KGB is still
there and as political commentators point out - there
needs to be a memory of the totalitarian past in a
country like Russia. Everything you see is built on
the bones of millions of innocent people and that
should be a really big deal in Russia. Because of
Putin, it's not.

You might try reading - "The Man Without a Face: The
unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin," by Masha Gessen.
Then there's "Putin's Playbook," by Rebekah Koffler.

cont'd

AC, if you think that the old Soviet tactics not longer
exist - are you aware of how many dissidents have been
arrested on Putin's orders? Are you aware of how many
journalists and others who dare criticize the regime
have been killed?

Just to mention a few names:

Alexei Navalny, Alexander Litvinenko, Pavel Anton, Ravil Maganov,
Dan Rapoport, Mikhail Lesin, Boris Nenytson, Boris Berezovsky,
Anastasia Baburova, Natalia Estemirova, Stanislav Markelov,
Anna Politkovskaya Paul Klebnikov, Sergei Yushenkov,
and the list goes on.

Nothing under Putin has changed. And to think it has is absurd.