After hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Ottawa on Sunday to show their support for Ukraine, Russia’s foreign ministry demanded that Canada keep its diplomats safe — and threatened retaliation if they failed to do so.
I note for the record that these protesters were not blocking streets with trucks, were not blasting horns, and left after they had indicated that they were not happy with Russia invading Ukraine.
To be blunt, Russia can pound sand. I’m sure that the Russians in the embassy are not used to seeing people disagree with them. Tough shit, snowflakes.
I think that Canada should tell Russia that they have noted that their embassy staff don’t like protests, so they are free to leave. In fact, several high ranking staff at the embassy should be told that they WILL NOW LEAVE, as they are being sent back to Russia. Goodbye, and fuck off.
And there’s also the factor that, certain fringe groups aside, no one really believed that the US was going to annex Iraq, or install a permanent puppet government that would have the same practical effect as permanent annexation. With Russia and Ukraine, there’s very little confidence in Russia’s ultimate goal. If Russia is left unchecked, the Ukrainians face repression under a puppet government at best, and repression under direct Russian rule as a distinct possibility.
As screwed up as US “nation-building” efforts might have been, they were at least sincere in wanting Iraq to be able to stand on its own as a modern nation. Putin has no such desire.
Yeah - I’m flogging a well-dead horse. But every imperialist nation thinks that THEIR situation is different from the bad guys’. And we haven’t even mentioned Afghanistan. Puppet government/regime change, potato/potahto.
Afghanistan I think is even less relevant to all of this, but if you want to keep beating that dead horse it’s fine. Myself, I don’t see a good case being made that either Iraq or Afghanistan is similar in situation to what Russia is doing, has even less justification than the US did, and doesn’t have even the imprimatur of UN resolutions to back it up.
Well, if you are really reaching out to try and make this work, I’d look at the Spanish/American war (taking Cuba from Spain, say, and the Philipines), and the Mexican/American war for something that is a closer analogy…and if you don’t mind going back a bit more. Those are similar examples where the US went to war with the idea of annexing territory directly for our gain or to install a puppet government on rather dubious pretexts. Of course, in both of those cases we run into other issues, but they are more what I think you are grasping for.
Or, we could just agree that two wrongs don’t make a right, and regardless of what the US has or hasn’t done in the past has zero impact on the fact that Russia is in naked aggression mode and what they are doing has no justification. I’m fine with that if you want to just drop the US angle part and we can move onto sanctions against Russia.
Interesting Op-Ed that says the UN may just possibly… maybe…
Not be the toothless wimp that it has been in the past.
Russia vetoed the resolution when it was put to the Security Council, where it sits as one of five permanent members. But for the first time in 40 years, the other members of the body charged with keeping world peace opted to send the resolution to a vote by the UN’s 193 member countries. This was done under the Uniting for Peace resolution, which states that when the Security Council fails to act to maintain international peace because of lack of unanimity, the General Assembly can consider the matter – and can even call for collective measures such as the use of armed force.
Any kind of concerted UN action would seem unlikely but who can predict anything with any certainty anymore.
What does appear to be happening is that the vulnerable nations of the South see the UN Charter as their best defence against arbitrary aggression.
Lloyd Axworthy, Canada’s foreign minister for four years under Jean Chrétien, said perversely Putin has unified the UN.
“It demonstrates the power of today’s modern communications. Every time a Russian soldier puts his head above the parapet, somebody is taking a video. It’s not a war you can do covertly and, as a result, it’s world-wide and everyone puts themselves in (Ukraine’s) position,” he said.
They helped. The Apartheid government basically died because it was destitute. And the morale boost here from knowing at least some of the Western world wasn’t like Reagan and Thatcher also helped a lot.
No, Putin’s the P.W. Botha, whoever ousts him is the de Klerk.
That was their own fault. All they had to do was allow a couple of token black players and it would have been fine and dandy as far most of the West was concerned.
I agree you don’t; the 2003 Iraq War was wrong and the WMD argument was a lie. However, I don’t think it was AS reprehensible a sin. Everything is in degrees.
I am 100% on board with this. Get the fuck out. We don’t need them here, and if they don’t like residing in a free country, here’s an Uber to the airport.
Sports obviously matter A LOT to Russia. Going back to the USSR, they have always seen international sports as a proxy conflict. It’s why the Communist bloc countries became - and in the case of Russia still are - infamous for cheating. To them, beating the free world is critically important. It’s a very political thing to the Russians.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) on Monday suspended Russian and Belarusian teams from its competitions until further notice and revoked Russia’s 2023 World Junior Championship hosting rights.
This includes every international hockey competition at every age grouping.
At the moment, this is just a small move on China’s part. However, they may be well placed to act as a go-between to stop the madness.
If they wanted, China could shut the whole thing down tomorrow if they simply announced that they were willing to go along with the strong economic sanctions that the rest of the world is applying. Russia would be fully and totally isolated at that point, and it would be painfully clear that they would not survive if they stay in Ukraine.
I doubt they will do anything substantial. Note, not that they couldn’t do something substantial, that they will. But time will tell.
I wonder, does anyone know if the Russian invasion has affected things on the ISS or the various resupply flights that Russia periodically does to the station? I haven’t heard anything on this.
Puppet government/regime change, potato/potahto.