It’s not part of the Balkans either?
Actually, you’re right. Slovenia is a Balkan nation; Slovakia is firmly Central Europe.
Stranger
Slovakia is a member of NATO. Their PM is pro Russian and quite outspoken.
ABC nightly news had video of the shooting. The person was immediately taken down and cuffed.
I believe you missed an “not” between “is” and “a” in your second sentence, but then it is correct.* Slovenia is the one former Yugoslav Republic that is not balcanic. It was also the first one of the former Yugoslav Republics to break free of Yugoslavia and it was OK: it did not trigger a civil war. Serbia did not fight against this so that Montenegro, Macedonia (sorry: FYROM), Kosovo, and so on did not get drawn into a/the conflict.
When Croatia did the same a bit later Serbia did react (or was it just the fool Milosevic and Karadcic and their cronies? Huh… Russia was involved in that too, as was the Orthodox Church. And Germany and the USA and NATO, all quite complex) and the other republics-to-be of the Balcans were drawn into a nasty civil war. Which shows that Croatia is a Balcan country, which was clear anyway.
It would not be the first time a World War starts in the Balcans, but it has never taken this long. Or has it? I guess it depends on when you start counting.
Ah! And thanks for the fuck that guy link! It ought to be a crime… funny and fitting! In Robert Fico’s case I think he is a criminal. “Not he only one” is no excuse. Fuck him!
Now a lot depends on who the shooter was and what propaganda from all sides makes of that. He was taken alive and is in the hands of the Slovenian security forces. Aha. We’ll see.
*My excuses if I am wrong, I frankly believe I am not, therefore I took the liberty to point this out as a certaint fact.
I hope that the Slovenian authorities actually go to the trouble to figure out who he is, why he did it, and whom (if anyone) he’s working with, rather than just rushing straight to a show trial and public execution. Conclusive information, whichever way it goes, will be to the benefit of everyone, here.
Note to the two posters above; Slovakia NOT Slovenia.
Let’s call the whole thing off?
I was answering to Stranger_On_A_Train, who mentioned both Slovenia and Slovakia, but still got it completely wrong. Never mind, my mess. Was not in form yesterday evening, sorry.
And I wasn’t sure at first, so I double-checked the previous post. Oops.
Regardless, I hope they do a real, fact-oriented investigation.
Nice boost for Ukrainian morale and pride.
There have been setbacks at the front for the last couple weeks. Ukraine needed some good news.
UK MP Grant Shapps talks about supporting Ukraine for the next 6 years. Seems like a general expectation that this war is going to go on for a long time.
Putin’s total mobilisation of his economy is simply not sustainable. And he knows it.
If all allies match the UK’s pledge to maintain support to Ukraine for the next 6 years we can exploit this weakness & make it impossible for the Russian economy to maintain its war effort.
Russia seems to have escalating it’s micro-aggressions around the borders of NATO recently.
There have been loads of little examples of this.
Anders Puck Nielsen did an interesting video recently about how Russia will challenge and try to weaken NATO through minor provocations. We already know how risk averse the West has been and Putin is playing on that.
New story and thread for it on Putin’s request for a ceasefire.
This is a great way of punishing Russia and supporting Ukraine. Russia should pay reparations for the damage they’ve inflicted.
The plan isn’t seizing Russian money. It’s collateral for a loan that will be repaid after the war. Assuming that Ukraine is still a independent country.
I’m not knowledgeable about the legality. Banking and finance isn’t known for sentimentality and righteousness.
What happens if Ukraine is overrun and occupied by Russia?
What does the Russia/Chinese alliance mean for Ukraine? Can China supply them enough weapons to ensure victory? (The article does talk about Trump, but it also covers their closeness.)
Cite that China is supplying weapons, at all? So far as I know, that’s one line that they’ve been careful to stay short of. There might be a few small leaks by isolated individuals, and China has supplied some general-use things that can be repurposed in weapons, but they’re not, as a nation, supplying actual weapons.
Remember, China is out for what’s good for China. Having a large neighbor that’s so desperate that they’ll sell you lots of fossil fuels for bargain-basement prices is good for China. Having a large neighbor with lots of military strength and irrational expansionist tendencies is not good for China.
I can give you a cite by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken from ten days ago in an interview with the BBC stating that
“What’s not happening is the provision of actual arms by China to Russia for use in Ukraine.”
However, China has been accused of building up Moscow’s war machine by providing critical components.
Mr Blinken said: “Those are being used to help Russia on what’s an extraordinary crash course effort to make more munitions, tanks, armoured vehicles, missiles.”
I don’t think Putin could survive a two-front war.
Unfortunately, neither would the world, because it would inevitably go nuclear.
Yeah, that’s my point. China doesn’t care about “would the other guy lose?”. Of course Russia would lose. The problem is that everyone, including China, might lose. And being rational and sane, Xi doesn’t want that.