Armchair Critic,
I looked up President Putin's plane on Google & it shows a 4-engined aircraft but I'm pretty sure it's possible that he also has a large twin engine one at his disposal. MH17 was a 777.

David F., mentioned the rhetoric of the Cold War.
I recall Madeleine Albright former US Secretary
of State saying words to the effect that

"The goal of a Europe - whole, free, and at peace
remains as vital today as it did during the cold war."

Putin's actions have brought together the policy makers
and experts from around the globe for a timely decision
of how to achieve that goal for the 21st century.

Ah, yes, dear Madeline Albright. Madeleine Albright says 500,000 dead Iraqi Children was "worth it".....wins Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama.

davidf wrote :"Biden has called for a conference of the democratic nations and has included Duterte's Philippines in his invitation. Duterte is no more a democrat or for freedom than Putin."

I think he's also invited Trudeau. Seems anyone can go.

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I mentioned earlier the obviously unwanted fact that during 3 of the last 4 presidencies, Putin had grabbed territory. Only Trump kept him in check.

This explains further... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMJ_wKnRfD8&t=296s

Overnight Ukraine's foreign minister lamented another president's betrayal. In 1994 Clinton had persuaded Ukraine to give up its nukes based on US security guarantees. Which of course are now useless.

This fact also explains why no other nations (eg North Korea, Iran, Israel) will ever surrender their nukes.

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Part of the problem with Ukraine as to why it was never accepted into NATO is its rank corruption and lack of democracy. That corruption has many causes and beneficiaries but some of those causes and beneficiaries were Western leaders. eg the Biden family....
http://strategypage.com/on_point/20220216161357.aspx

Look at thr reports and videos including putins speech talking about terrorism while himself being a Cheif of terrorism to civillians in Ukraine.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10545641/Putins-gives-chilling-warning-West-early-morning-TV-broadcast.h

Foxy (successfully!!) copied a quote from Gorby....

"Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption."

Historians and those versed in reading politics know that you rarely rely on what politicians say but rather what they do. Gorbachev, in this quote, was talking to party members who were concerned about their loss of power and prestige and he was trying to alleviate their fears. He was also lying to them. Anyone with any knowledge of the period knows that perestroika and, especially, glasnost had a massive effect on Russia.

By chance I was in Moscow the week Gorbachev took over. And I visited Moscow, St Petersburg (called Leningrad back then) and various regional areas (primarily Zagorsk) every 9 months or so for the next 5 years. My own experience, together with other histories, shows that, while perestroika failed to kick start the economy, glasnost had a severe effect of revealing to Russians how badly they'd been lied to over the decades. This weakened the state and hastened the end.

Without glasnost, the USSR might have plodded along for another decade or two. Along-side the pressure exerted by Reagan (and to a lesser extent Thatcher), glasnost was real and one of the major causes for the fall of the Soviet Union.