Mooney_Driver wrote:
Because that is what he sais he’ll do if anyone militarily interferes with his ops there.
It is almost certainly a bluff.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Primary step has to be that the fighting in Ukraine stops.
I don’t think so. Once you agree a cease-fire with Russian troops still there, Putin owns Ukraine and that will not be reversed.
Once the enemy crosses your borders, the time for talking is over. One way or another, they have to be thrown out.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Germany is dependent on Russias Gas and they need to pay for it. Take away Swift and they can not. That is why they are balking. I agree that does not work, they have to step up.
Yes, German has to step up. But so do the rest of us. Germany can’t be expected to go without gas when the rest of us enjoy normal supply. He have to share what we have so that we all share the pain.
Graham wrote:
It is almost certainly a bluff.
Do you want to bet your life and most of Europe on it?
Nobody knows for sure until one of our larger cities is gone for ever.
Graham wrote:
Once you agree a cease-fire with Russian troops still there, Putin owns Ukraine and that will not be reversed.
Well, the only alternative is to get NATO to push him out. Consequence: See above.
I never thought I’d say this but I think we all should try to spend whatever time we have with our loved ones. It may well be the last days of what we knew or, in case of a nuclear holocaust, the last days of Europe as a continent.
Some offensive/personal stuff is being posted. End it, please
SWIFT is only a messagering service. You can do the same with TELEX as they used to. You need to stop the money exchange at the source. Stopping SWIFT a) does not do that. b) Russia has already constructed an alternative.
Whether you think Putin will press the button or not depends on whether or not you believe that he is still cold and calculating or whether you believe, like many, he has gone a bit loopy.
But it isn’t just a matter of pressing a button and hitting a city. There are missile defences in some regions. What does appear a little strange, if not loopy, is that someone has sent a bunch of Russian soldiers into the Chernobyl area. Its an area which is not completely safe for more than an hour or so.
I suspect he fears that if he doesn’t control Chernobyl, the Ukranians would do something that would allow a release of nuclear material from it which would surely drift across Russia’s border given the prevailing winds, or use the material in a ‘dirty bomb’. So I’m not surprised Putin wanted to gain control of the site quickly.
So long as you’re not on the grounds of the ruined reactor building, most of Chernobyl just isn’t that dangerous. Anything ‘hot’ enough to be dangerous within an hour outside the ruined reactor and immediate environs decayed years ago (the more radioactive a substance, the shorter its half life). The levels in Pripyat are around 21 microsieverts/hr, while this is significantly above background (which is in most places about 10 microsieverts/day) and you wouldn’t want to necessarily live there – you can certainly remain for quite some time with no ill effects. To put this in perspective, you’d have to remain in Pripyat for almost 100 days to hit the annual exposure limit for American radiation workers.
That being said, there are health risks (e.g. radionuclides being ingested, especially the ones that are chemically similar to elements in the bone, where they can linger for years, or get lodged in lungs etc). and there’s evidence that their activity is kicking up radioactive dust – which will then be getting into their bodies.
We should have a Putin/Ukraine thread 
The ultimate sanction has just been imposed.
Devastating.
gallois wrote:
SWIFT is only a messagering service. You can do the same with TELEX as they used to.
For sure. The issue is that – once again – Germany is weak and wavering in the face of Russia. Putin knows that and exploits it ruthlessly. To the consternation of many I have said for years that Merkel has done more damage to Europe since anyone since Hitler. We are now seeing the consequences of her catastrophic rule. Let’s hope it ends in Ukraine, although I would not bet on that. As an aside, I do not subscribe to the conspiracy theory that Merkel was Putin place by the Russians, although looking back over the past 20 years I’m not so sure anymore.
Peter wrote:
Devastating.
Indeed. Shows Europe for what it is. Nothing.
When Russia invaded Afghanistan, there was a UK etc boycot of the Moscow Olympics. Individual athletes did go. Mrs Thatcher our PM criticised them.
I met 3 Russians in Inverness at that time. Two engineers and their interpreter, supervising the manufacture by AI Welders of welding machines for making aircraft engines.
This contract provided valuable local employment
The AI Welders boss was at that time the prospective Conservative candidate for the Inverness-shire parliament seat.
(The interpreter assured me the machines could not be used to make military jet engines.)
