what are your opinions about what happened and what the implications are?
It was shot down by a trigger happy separatist +/- Russian help. Either way, the Russians supplied them the missiles, but they’re going to cover it up and play the deny game and this is going to be annoying and stupid.
pretty much what he said
Also a bunch of HIV researchers were on board so this is kind of a blow to medical research
Also, Obama is weak according to Republican US senators for failing to prevent this.
Stealing my own comment from Facebook.
The last time Russia had a conflict involving Crimea, we got the Red Cross, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Iron Maiden’s The Trooper. I can’t wait to see what this one brings!!!
If there’s a silver lining to this, at least CNN won’t spend 3 months trying to find this one in the laziest/most sensationalized bullshit way possible.
OTOH, they’ll probably spend the next 3 months asking the Internet what it’s collective opinion is on whether we should go invade [STRIKE]Iraq/Afghanistan/Iran/North Korea/Syria/[/STRIKE]Ukraine or not.
Classic Curtis.
All that’s missing is SK having giant walls of debate text with someone!
Anyway, I think that Putin has gone off the rails. Even if he didn’t give a direct order to shoot down that one plane, his government was irresponsible enough to get involved with these separatists, who appear to be off the rails themselves. I believe Putin will end up being forcibly removed from power.
Putin’s been off the rails for years now. His previous attempt at appearing ‘democratic’ involved him stepping down to a slightly less important position that was created specifically for him while the new Prime Minister was a puppet dancing to his tune before getting bored with that setup and retaking his position.
The only difference now is that he’s pissing off the West with his piecemeal annexation of Ukraine which is causing Russia’s top capitalists to collectively shit their pants over the loss over their western international trading partners/clients.
Either way though, Putin’s got enough nationalists on his side that nobody’s budging him short of picking up an unfortunate case of HIV.
if by “irresponsible enough” you mean “doing whatever he feels like and not giving two fucks”, then yes
Lol by who? Magical little faeries?
Implications: What Sin said + Malaysian Airlines being f’ed up the A. Now there’s an airline that needs some serious help with their image. Poor sods.
Lol by who? Magical little faeries
It wasn’t meant to be humorous. He would be ousted by political factions within Russia, or perhaps forced to step down because of turmoil within the country. Indirectly, foreign countries could place pressure on Putin by imposing sanctions, which might make him unpopular with the Russian public and with politicians and dignataries within Russia.
Because that worked so well for Iran and Cuba.
Not to mention bullying Russia is an entirely different can of worms than doing that with Cuba.
Right. because he is so very unpopular and Russians are known to find literally everything that comes from the West so very trustworthy. I’m sure they’ll thank the US and EU countries for providing them with “valuable information” on how horrible their head of state is.
Like…? Gazprom multi-millionaires and -billionaires who owe their private jets and bazillions of money wads to Putin? Or do you mean “politicians in power” such as Medwedew? We all remember how that one turned out.
The difference is that the elites of communist Cuba and fundamentalist Iran never had a relationship with the West, so sanctions did not hurt them that much. The Russian elites, on the other hand, have close dealing with the West, getting much money through selling gas to Europe. Sanctions will lighten their wallets considerably(as well as that of the Russian public), creating the support for a coup.
By his invasion of Crimea, Vladimir Putin has not only unified Ukraine as a nation but is provoking the West into taking the kind of steps that will not only alienate many Russians but what is critical many of the chief supporters of his own power, Vladimir Bukovsky told a Polish radio station.
The kind of sanctions against Russia that many Western leaders are now talking about will limit the ability of members of the Russian elite to travel, to educate their children abroad, and to keep their wealth in foreign banks, he said, adding that “This is no way will please Putin’s entourage” (charter97.org/ru/news/2014/3/14/90439/ from radyjo.net/4/91/Artykul/165092). That could lead to a real struggle in the Kremlin, even to the point of violence against Putin, Bukovsky continued. The former Soviet dissident said that one must keep in mind that those around Putin are like a criminal band, a group that operates according to “the simple principle: the head of the band works for the band, and the band for him.”
Furthermore, in those cases, sanctions were in part designed to prevent either country from developing powerful militaries. The same could work in Russia.
lol classic Curtis indeed.