Fleetinglife

Btw, Breaking News: Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Victoria Nuland confirms in an official US Congressional Testimony Hearing of the existence of 11 US-funded and sponsored Biolabs and Biological research facilities existing in Ukraine, some of them seemingly engaged in the production of biological pathogens such as Anthrax and types of Plague for the purposes of biological warfare - violating article I of the UN Charter on the prohibition of biological warfare usage in war, either for offensive or defensive purposes - that were ordered to be destroyed [the biological pathogens] by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health on 24.2.2022 due to the fear of their capture and seizure by Russian military and occupying forces in their location: Russians obtained and published an article of the copy of the Ukrainian Ministries of Health decree (translated via Google), at the date of the Russian Invasion, for the destruction of some of the biological contents supposedly being developed and existing in some of these Biolabs and bioresearch facilities in Ukraine.

Well, yes this seems to be the direst and most pessimistic prognosis cast out there, slightly favoring the Russian side in their ability to sustain these sanctions in the long term, focusing on how rising prices and shortage of LNG, strategic metals, fertilizers, oil coming from Russia in Europe might impact skyrocketing prices of commodities in Europe and on European financial markets - the possible risk of their implosions and currency inflation and sudden devaluement in some periods in the worst-case scenario if there comes sudden shocks and distrusts in the commodity derivative systems in Europe with Russa and other countries.

Illuminating article by Pepe Escobar, a Brazilian geopolitical analyst, prognosis on the possible economic and financial repercussions of this war perhaps in the long term mostly for Europe and Europeans, what were some of Russa's possible economic and financial goals in the backdrop that it hoped to achieve with it and in possible global re-alignments of the global markets and global economy going forward: https://thecradle.co/Article/columns/7672 Russia's judo kick to the western financial gut Washington's sanctions on Moscow will destroy Europe, not Russia. Washington's 'replacement strategy' for sanctioned Russian oil and gas imports appears to be too cozy up to its oil-producing arch-enemies Iran and Venezuela. ''The battlefield is drawn. The official Russian blacklist of hostile sanctioning nations includes the US, the EU, Canada, and, in Asia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore (the only one from Southeast Asia). Notice how that ‘international community’ keeps shrinking. The Global South should be aware that no nations from West Asia, Latin America, and Africa have joined Washington’s sanctions bandwagon. Moscow has not even announced its own package of counter-sanctions. Yet an official decree “On Temporary Order of Obligations to Certain Foreign Creditors,” which allows Russian companies to settle their debts in rubles, provides a hint of what’s to come. Russian counter-measures all revolve around this new presidential decree, signed last Saturday, which economist Yevgeny Yushchuk defines as a “nuclear retaliatory landmine.” . It works like this: to pay for loans obtained from a sanctioning country exceeding 10 million rubles a month, a Russian company does not have to make a transfer. They ask for a Russian bank to open a correspondent account in rubles under the creditor’s name. Then the company transfers rubles to this account at the current exchange rate, and it’s all perfectly legal. Payments in foreign currency only go through the Central Bank on a case-by-case basis. They must receive special permission from the Government Commission for the Control of Foreign Investment. What this mean in practice is that the bulk of the $478 billion or so in Russian foreign debt may “disappear” from the balance sheets of western banks. The equivalent in rubles will be deposited somewhere, in Russian banks, but western banks, as things stand, can’t access it. It is debatable whether this straightforward strategy was the product of those non-sovereignist brains gathered at the Russian Central Bank. More likely, there has been input from influential economist Sergei Glazyev, also a top former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin on regional integration: here is a revised edition, in English, of his groundbreaking essay Sanctions and Sovereignty, which I have previously summarized. Meanwhile, Sberbank confirmed it will issue Russia’s Mir debit/credit cards co-badged with China’s UnionPay. Alfa-Bank – the largest private bank in Russia – will also issue UnionPay credit and debit cards. Although only introduced five years ago, 40 percent of Russians already have a Mir card for domestic use. Now they will also be able to use it internationally, via UnionPay’s enormous network. And without Visa and Mastercard, commissions on all transactions will remain in the Russia-China sphere. De-dollarization in effect. Mr. Maduro, gimme some oil The Iran sanctions negotiations in Vienna may be reaching the last stage – as acknowledged even by Chinese diplomat Wang Qun. But it was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who introduced a new, crucial variable into Vienna’s final discussions. Lavrov made his eleventh-hour demand quite explicit: “We have asked for a written guarantee…that the current [Russian sanctions] process triggered by the United States does not in any way damage our right to free and full trade, economic and investment cooperation and military-technical cooperation with the Islamic Republic.” As per the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement of 2015, Russia receives enriched uranium from Iran and exchanges it for yellowcake, and in parallel, is reconverting Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant into a research center. Without Iranian enriched uranium exports there’s simply no JCPOA deal. It boggles the mind that US Secretary of State Blinken does not seem to understand that. Everyone in Vienna, sidelines included, knows that for all actors to sign on the JCPOA revival, no nation must be individually targeted in terms of trading with Iran. Tehran also knows it. So what’s happening now is an elaborate game of Persian mirrors, coordinated between Russian and Iranian diplomacy. Moscow’s Ambassador to Tehran, Levan Jagaryan, attributed the fierce reaction to Lavrov in some Iranian quarters to a “misunderstanding.” This will all be played out in the shade. An extra element is that according to a Persian Gulf intel source with privileged Iranian access, Tehran may be selling as many as three million barrels of oil a day already, “so if they do sign a deal it will not affect supply at all, only they will be paid more.” The US administration of President Joe Biden is now absolutely desperate: today it banned all imports of oil and gas from Russia, which happens to be the second-largest exporter of oil to the US, behind Canada and ahead of Mexico. The US’ big Russian-energy ‘replacement strategy’ is to beg for oil from Iran and Venezuela. So, the White House sent a delegation to talk to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, led by Juan Gonzalez, the White House’s top Latin America adviser. The US offer is to “alleviate” sanctions on Caracas in exchange for oil. The United States government has spent years – if not decades – burning all bridges with Venezuela and Iran. The USG destroyed Iraq and Libya, and isolated Venezuela and Iran, in its attempt to take over global oil markets – just to end up miserably trying to buy out both and escape from being crushed by the economic forces it has unleashed. That proves, once again, that imperial ‘policy makers’ are utterly clueless. Caracas will request the elimination of all sanctions on Venezuela and the return of all its confiscated gold. And it seems like none of this was cleared with ‘President’ Juan Guaido, who since 2019, was the only Venezuelan leader “recognized” by Washington. Social cohesion torn apart Oil and gas markets, meanwhile, are in total panic. No western trader wants to buy Russian gas; and that has nothing to do with Russia’s state-owned energy behemoth Gazprom, which continues to duly supply customers that signed contracts with fixed tariffs, from $100 to $300 (others are paying over $3,000 in the spot market). European banks are less and less willing to grant loans for energy trade with Russia because of the sanctions hysteria. A strong hint that the Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 may be literally six feet under is that importer Wintershall-Dea wrote off its share of the financing, de facto assuming that the pipeline will not be launched. Everyone with a brain in Germany knows that two extra Liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals – still to be constructed – will not be enough for Berlin’s needs. There is simply not enough LNG to supply them. Europe will have to fight with Asia over who can pay more. Asia wins. Europe imports roughly 400 billion cubic meters of gas a year, with Russia responsible for 200 billion of this. There’s no way Europe can find $200 billion anywhere else to replace Russia – be it in Algeria, Qatar or Turkmenistan. Not to mention its lack of necessary LNG terminals. So obviously the top beneficiary of all the mess will be the US – which will be able to impose not only their terminals and control systems, but also profit from loans to the EU, sales of equipment, and full access to the whole EU energy infrastructure. All LNG installations, pipelines and warehouses will be connected to a sole network with a single control room: an American business dream. Europe will be left with reduced gas production for its – dwindling – industry; job losses; decreasing quality of life standards; increased pressure over the social security system; and, last but not least, the necessity to apply for extra American loans. Some nations will go back to coal for heating. The Green Parade will be livid. What about Russia? As a hypothesis, even if all its energy exports were curtailed – and they won’t be, their top clients are in Asia – Russia would not have to use its foreign reserves. The Russophobic all-out attack on Russian exports also targets palladium metals – vital for electronics, from laptops to aircraft systems. Prices are skyrocketing. Russia controls 50% of the global market. Then there are noble gases – neon, helium, argon, xenon – essential for production of microchips. Titanium has risen by a quarter, and both Boeing – by a third – and Airbus – by two thirds – rely on titanium from Russia. Oil, food, fertilizers, strategic metals, neon gas for semiconductors: all burning at the stake, at the feet of Witch Russia. Some Westerners who still treasure Bismarckian realpolitik have started wondering whether shielding energy (in the case of Europe) and selected commodity flows from sanctions may have everything to do with protecting an immense racket: the commodity derivatives system. After all, if that implodes, because of a shortage of commodities, the whole western financial system blows up. Now that’s a real system failure. The key issue for the Global South to digest is that the “west” is not committing suicide. What we have here, essentially, is the United States willfully destroying German industry and the European economy – bizarrely, with their connivance. To destroy the European economy means not allowing extra market space for China, and blocking the inevitable extra trade which will be a direct consequence of closer exchanges between the EU and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s biggest trade deal. The end result will be the US eating European savings for lunch while China expands its middle class to over 500 million people. Russia will do just fine, as Glazyev outlines: sovereign – and self-sufficient. American economist Michael Hudson has concisely sketched the lineaments of imperial self-implosion. Yet way more dramatic, as a strategic disaster, is how the deaf, dumb and blind parade toward deep recession and near-hyperinflation will rip what’s left of the west’s social cohesion apart. Mission Accomplished.''

It seems the war is slowly but steadily drawing to a halt as per the Russian demands being reconsidered up for negotiation by non-other than the Ukrainian government and NATO officials themselves, as per some forwarded day by day contradicting official statements coming from their side and also the Pentagon releasing statements on their actual official assessments of the extent and possible casualties of the war (not just the Ukrainian government's Defense Ministry and the Russian MoD) Note these are only the preliminary reports, as I see it not yet confirmed or verified reports coming:

+1 For understanding Russia's survival perspective and dilemma in all this from an outsider's viewpoint almost perfectly to a tee kamaraden ? They were aiming to slowly and step-by-step work on its isolation and complete neutralization of it from a military standpoint in the world and lessen the media influence of its perspective in the developing Global South and Third World for a long time before now, as a potentially dangerous wounded animal to them much before this, when this trend has now simply kicked in full swing now Yeah, I was shocked when I heard that news honestly. Deutschland Erwacheing (don't take offense to this I only mean it exclusively in a sarcastic and ironic way ) and reasserting again and it's resurrecting it's until now carefully hidden the potential Federal Republic of Reichswehr deserved military influence and standing in patience for decades across the globe powered by its economic reach and might across the world

The Russian side of course disputes this being the first domino effect in this 'bad decisions list' starting point that you speak of and composed. They say that the Maidan revolution (or coup as they say since Yanukovych wasn't deposed democratically in an election) and those supporting the political class (that had prior western ties via some Ukranian oligarchs) and part of the population behind the ''coup'' and giving it help and greenlighting it in the US State Department (all the usual suspects on their list) was, in fact, the first thing that had the inevitable aim of dragging Ukraine into NATO as border zone with Russia and that they, in fact, had to and have been forced to invade, hold a popular referendum and annex Crimea since Ukraine, with the government that was being hand picked and selected post-Maidan, would have inevitably weened towards US, EU and eventually NATO membership, and that they had to invade Crimea in order to secure their very important strategic base and entrance on the Black Sea and that the situation simply spiraled out of control and radicalized into the Donbas and Ukraine since then to be even more vehemently pro-NATO because of that, but the Russians thought that they had no choice to leave all their strategic assets out in the open in a country, then unwilling to negotiate and compromise with them, and that they had to leave all their influence over some parts of the country, population and strategic assests crucial to their military budget they invest from their natural resources exports to Europe all from the country, and leave it all to a leadership, state exclusively pro-US, NATO alligned and EU seveering all previous ties it and agreements it had with Russia, that almost speaks the same langauge and has almost the same culture as them, but unwilling to compromise with them on anything and going in it's most developed parts to be exclusively pro-US and pro-NATO alligned in contrast to the whole of it and it's territorial stretch.

Sorry again for being another frustrated reader attempting and wanting to read some of my hurriedly composed posts in that, as a result of me writing in such a way I apologize for causing frustration regarding that? when I write in the hurry what I think about something (when many thoughts come rushing into me about it regarding the topic) and then I only later I have to screen it, attempt to recompose it and correct some of its mistakes in order for it to be more clear, straightforwardly composed and easier to read (unfortunately I do that and usually unconsciously currently and then later notice all my mistakes I made and reading clarity for other's problem that afterward after I write all my thoughts about the topic). Sorry, it seems it is as slight existing neurosis existing while wanting to write and compose my thoughts currently about something, thanks again for pointing towards that fault, problem and error and existing through your difficulty of easily processing what I write and the way I write - I will work to screen some previous posts and re-compose and perhaps where it is needed for reading clarity and comprehension purposes to re-write them in such a way so they can be more easily read, more easily understood and be understandable and more clear in their overall appearance and sentence placement and modification to be more clearly seen for the eye overall. Thanks again for pointing out my mistakes and faults in overall reading comprehension and clarity of what I have written about out ??, and I will work out now on correcting out and re-writing parts of them if necessary some of those I already composed in such a way to be easier to read and more clear for the eye and try again to better and more clearly and easily for the eye to read to compose them in the next posts I attempt to write. ?

The majority of the country (concluding by using assessments and attempts of meritable comparison with from an average Serb's perspective that I am slightly familiar with here and the similar comparison of Serbia and Russia as being on the edge/liminality of Europe/unfinished selves (a borrowed social psychological term from a Bulgarian author Maria Todorova analyst and expert on part of Balkan studies and history, mentality and perception of it in mainstream European and Western discourses about its difference and separation's of it being fully European like them in that regard)) is probably centered overall in Blue (the more of the underdeveloped, isolated, distant and poor regions stretching across the mass of the largest countries on the planet territory still probably in Red to Blue) (a significant advance and development can be noticed about the averages citizens evolution from the Soviet times), while the people in infamous Russian metropolises, centers, and capitals now are probably from to advancement and in a transitionary stage from Blue to Orange (while some of the more social and political activists people also existing there not in small numbers are probably also in early transitionary stage from Orange to Green) right about now with all this recent developments in technology coming from there - the politcal and economic elites, upper classes, most oligarchs and leadership there is also most probably (contrary to most people's belief) at the transitionary/liminal stage between Blue and Orange (an advancement from the heavily Blue centered dogmatistic, though more nuanced/slightly more complex than classical religion, views of the Soviet times present in the overall leadership/political class), while some part of them actually might be heavily grounded in Orange in their views, values and perceptions of the world.

What he is said there proved to be kind of true, from the perspective of his decision and moves being made he ultimately greenlighted for Ukraine, and proved to be a self-fulfilling prophecy for him, regarding his claim about and view on what NATO is, how it operates when push comes to show, how it would act in unison and accordance towards this situation and what it means for them - since one can look at the major nations of the EU, and also members of NATO - and see now their massive increase in the yearly allocation of the government budget for defense spending and buying US produced/NATO hardware when they thought the situation called for it to be done, and all the nations in NATO in Europe having to go along with that decision, almost in sync, momentarily, having to adjust and reorient themselves with that decision being made with defense spending bill increase, and increase in military aid for Ukraine being momentarily passed in the US Congress - and all the talk of the increase and focus in investment for renewable energies, just dropped, has been in these few days observably lessened in its advocacy and presence, and went almost out of the discourse completely as a yearly future focus and main economic concern for those nations, and instead, they got the rightization of their overall political discourse in Europe and the revival of kinda being good now again to be praiseworthy in the mainstream of/for Poland (that they complained about constantly for its anti-EU nationalism, illiberalism, social rights, women's rights and about its anti-abortion laws) to act and be as a social and political equivalent Texas in Europe now suddenly again for the purposes of it's NATO remilitarization towards Russia. The hypocrisy of it all and narrative shift for the purposes of its instrumentalizations, all in real-time now, one can only grin at the deep irony of it all

What are you spotting exactly? That this guy is so psychologically insecure that he is ascribing randomly malicious motive to people who disagree with his stances and claims about NATO and what the Russian side is attempting to do, then what is being forwarded as its motives in mainstream news and media that he consumes there. What he is basically engaging in here is black/white duality, to those who know anything about or attempt to embody and practice what Leo teaches here know is a plainly false way to look at the world, reality, and people in it. He is engaging in demonizations and strawmen of people who disagree with him, while the side he, rightfully or unrightfully, praises in this whole thing lets his biases slide through because he is uncritically praising, sucking up, and siding with them. Why? Well of course out of his bias no being on the other side on this for the benefits of his own identity survival there and being against Russia plain and simple. He doesn't care about finding the truth in all this, what he cares about maintaining the survival of his identity that this threatened by this whole thing happening, revolving around his beliefs about NATO, Sweden, and Russia, while doing this simultaneously using Star Wars cognitive, mental and emotional development level analogies and theories about other people, governments, the world and reality in general. Demonizing and strawman the whole of the Ukrainians there, their cause and struggle are also not true and a false way to look at the world, but uncritically praising and signing laurels about all of them there will also not get you anywhere either into finding constructive ways to resolve this crisis (Russia aggressively attacked but as we know it had some of its own reasons to do so given the perspective of Russia and Russians living there, it didn't attack unprovoked, from its perspective, which is propaganda line repeated in the Western media and NATO countries safeguarding and obfuscating to claim part of NATO's responsibilities and their lobby in Ukraine in all this for refusing and outright denying any possibility of any compromisable solution - Finlandization on this thread was mentioned a lot. Of course majority of Ukranians are innocent civilians in all this who just voted in according with their own conscious and needs for what they thought was the best path forward for them and their country and are now defending their homeland from invaders from Russia, but also there is not small part of Ukranians who were military trained prior, militarized and indoctrinated into their own versions of extreme ideologies to serve as being a sort of anti-Russian vanguard and force in the part of the country where there are people who felt more alligned with Russia and the Russian langage speaking parts of the country, and those people were responsible for some of the attrocities, human rights abuses, massacres and war crimes happening in the the ongoing war in the Donbass for 8 years now, that this is it's now peak escalation and a failed attempt and a deliberate protraction of peace talks on one part stimulated and incentivized by the Ukranian, NATO and US side in order to buy time for them to furrow through eventually their NATO membership, training, arming and militarization of the country in order for them to get out of this what they want (i.e. permanent NATO pressence and membership of the country at some point in time that they hope would help them eventually solve the Crimea and Donbass issue - reincorporating them again fully into the Ukrainian state but now as part of a NATO member so Russia will have to give up on them and so it can't again then try to take them due to the risk of attacking a NATO member now and invoking Article 5 - subtle strategic chess game they have been playing around with this in the background for the past 8 years), international media in the world, mostly in the West, out of their own self-interests and defense lobbying, in part coming from NATO, present in their media ecosystem downplayed and choose to lessen it's coverage about it and now when shit hit the fan regarding that they have all gone into a frenzy about it just now. Before going around and armchair psychologizing and mentally diagnosing people, as a layman in psychology and perhaps at most some amateur reader and student of some psych literature, as all of the rest of some of us here as well, I would point to you to a slight layman's advice, logical personal psychological and ethical issue regarding that here as well, of trying may be at least in asking yourself perhaps, very radically honestly, self-reflectively and introspectively, why are diagnosing and ascribing to one side these psychological traits to one side in this conversation while the other side is automatically virtuous and empathetic to you simply by the fact of praising and supporting one side in this whole conflict, the one side you identify with and agree on, regardless of why they are taking a certain stance in this situation might be to what biases they themselves hold in regards to Russia and not so much the Ukrainian issue as a whole, out of their own self-concern and safety of their own ass, why are you blind in this regard of not seeing the possibilty of the other side holding these traits as well but you are not seeing them because they support the side that you identify with out of their own biases and self-interest in this whole sitauation? What does this constant diagnosing of people serve you? What does it accomplish for you? How does it favor you? Does it favor you, do disfavor for others, or at the expense of others - extending empathy to only one side and denying it completely to the other? Those are the hardest and most bitter questions one must ask for himself if he is to completely rid himself of the falsehoods and false dichotomies that he creates in reality out of his own self-bias born out of the desire for the maintenance and survival of his own identity and that some require some consciousness work and deep honest introspection of what this site Leo created is all about - to finding out the most personally unwarped unbiased Truth existing possible in reality. This doesn't mean that I am immune to all of this of what I as well ascribed to you above, but I am at least willing to admit that I am aware of it and that if I want to work on constructing fulfilling a happier, fulfilling, and conscious life in my short period of existence on this planet as this separate self, that as all others here will cease to exist and be gone at some point forever as I knew it and experienced it. So my only advice to you be, out of concern, is to watch and look out for all this stuff in you as well, that is as our ego is the most self-deceptive and trickster entity and tool existing in reality, that you ascribe to and exclusively demonize onto to others in order to distance yourself from them for the benefit of your own survival and keep the empathy only when it suits the maintaining and keeping intact your carefully constructed self's identity and image of itself - as an empathetic person in contrast to those who are not, and henceforth don't the same extension of such as you and others who are on your side and uncritically support you do, regardless of how much actual empathy and understanding they have that is universal and that can be extended to all sides equally, all people, not being discriminatory towards one when it suits their ego to do so and the survival of their own narrow selfishly cultivated identity.

Now you are starting to sound a bit too much conspiratorial for ascribing such stuff to ordinary people. This is some Star Wars level conception stuff about the "force" "light side" " evil dark side" etc.

Don't take the most of the public there seriously regarding permanently holding on long onto these or some sort of other opinions towards other countries, they mark and shift their positions, rarely any long term consistentcy with some principles and values in foreign policy of them towards other countries, as it suits their nationalism and survival agenda of some of them connected and dependent on it to do so, I can bet you, they might change their tune regarding a powerful country they have some interests or interactions with or do a 180 on their stances toward it in six months to year, once they detect it is more currently aligning and favorable nationally interest and media profitability wise for them to do so in a current realigning or restructing again in the future of the global system, and all the bad blood and past nitpicking of other countries shifting stances towards their country in some distant pulled out historical footnotes of events 50 years ago out of their own reasons and self-interest and not because they care that their country is the center of the world, their nationalist presenters will overblow to as loyalty allegiances and pledges to their guillable and easily influnced, exploitable, controlled and manipulated by nationalism parts of the public which will they then afterward it's over and then when it's more profitable to court and praise that country for profitability, gain and interest, will sweep under the rug and act currently as if the past criticisms or bad blood towards it has never happened or wasn't that important in a few months when they need to reorient themselves as again to be more accommodating towards that country, and line coming from their nationalist political class while be then promoted and reflected in their mainstream mass media they consume and that is pumped into their homes, a large part of the public there they can be easily coaxed by their nationalist channels and TV presenters existing there, that I saw as snip it and excerpt of being plentiful in their media ecosystem, into believing into what is most convinient for the public currently believing in regards to a situation for the political class running the country and the media oligarchs connected to them giving them media exposure to the vast public, and can be easily rallied up into an anger outburst and frenzied, finger pointing, scape gloating and blame game for the purposes of maintaining, preserving and retaining Hindu nationalism as dominant power ideology, as you are seeing vibes of her by detecting correctly the emotionally the "pissness of it", with no consistent principles we shall see in a few months time regarding any country, who knows they might start being disapproving of their north big neighbour China again in a few months, when it doesn't something it doesn't suit them and then suddenly start courting and making up with the US politically again and singing laurels and praises to Kamala Harris for looking out, as part of her ancestry being connected to Hindus, Hindu interests globally when she comes on an official visit to the country, and the again start reinventing and retelling things how part of America and it's political class is actually for standing up and working for Hindu interests globally, we can bet in six moths to a year. They are even bigger, and actual sunflowers much more so than Ukraine and Ukrainians (that use it as one of the symbols for their country) (who actually have shown that they have some heavy principles and values that they are willing, for their saving and preservation under threat, to make heavy, dificult, hard and very risky personal sacrifice for and give their lives to defend) immediately turning towards when they see it is in their opportunity to do so where the Sun currently shines (for them), the international and political irony (maybe by God) for the showing of hypocrisy and the depth of the self - deception and the extent one is willing to go for selfish self-bias in service for self-service, exclusively self-interested and narrow limited short term opportunistic cashing in on self-gain and self - benefit at the behest of who might else it might concern for collective egos (and all individual, small egos a part of them) across the world in all this ?

Yep you are probably right on that, but maybe they probably feared that they shouldn't help, invest too much of their resources into the effort or assist them in some comprehensive economic package aid or deliberate investment way into their economy to help it back up and properly transition and solidify as smoothly as possible into a more prosperous, less corrupt Western style market one, because the country seemed to big and massive to them for them to seem to think that they would get any long term profitable returns and gains from doing that and unreliable to them in that regard in contrast to what Germany and Japan were before the war (economically culturally wise) and proved themselves to be very reliable allies after, and that the country seemed to them too much unpredictable overall in its politics, economy and overall in history and therefore a dangerous risk and attempted risky gamble for them to risk do so to invest much of their precise and scarce resource allocation to do so that they needed and wanted investing into other parts of the world more equally to incorporate them and more easily transformable and better prospects for growth countries into the new global economic system more generally, dispersely and equally, unlikely to succeed in pacifying it as long as it took Germany and Japan, because of it's massive size on the globe, it's past political culture up until that point, relationship with the West and America in general and the fact that it has a lot of nukes, which would be a risk giving it any sort of leverage to the West in that way, and perhaps at some point a fear from them that it developed long enough it would attempt to break free from the one-sided influence as a potentially dangerous near equal power which might cause problems for their vision that they then thought, so better to not help it a lot and keep it in constant subordinate position to the Western economies, markets and finances as long as possible and keep it in check with NATO in former countries near it so it will never rise up as dangerous destabilising influence and competitor for America's world vision and plans and the West's on the global stage, as it once was, might have been some of their thinking then regarding the question and future vision for the kind of Russia they would have liked to see. Well now because of that, progressives and some more pro-socialist oriented people and established parties in the West now think they are forced to, because of Russia, to, I say this with having a deep ironic stance towards this in mind, take the same ironic, German and most other Social-Democrats positions across most of western and central Europe at the time, in WWI, and vote for the equivalent of war credits then, for a pretty large and massive subsequent now yearly increase of government budget appropriated and allocated for defence spending for the military and NATO subsequently (I say very large and massive indeed in contrast prior to the same yearly ammount for that allocated from their overall GDPs for that sector up until this point) , not seeing the slightly deep historical parallels and irony in what they are attempting and purporting to wanting in doing now with that and hoping to achieve, as well as the one and the same then social-democrats believed then they would hope to achieve prior with using those mechanisms by towing the necessity of expanded war budgets line, later appropriated for the service and solidifying economic support and interests for the imperialist war and then later ironically not being able to be implemented in full as it was promised because of the utter economic devastation for Europe's economies and the political rightization turn of large parts of the populations, working to middle class, afterwards caused by and in ill begotten service to that devastating imperialist war for Europe's later development and influence of their economies globally, tying and linking them as reference point, Great Britain's financial sector hegemony in the world up until that point, as best example for that, to US finance and Wall Street and ceding to them the title and passing them stewardship of the most global influential financial power with their currency from 1917 and onwards. I don't see how some of those, justified and unjustified, meritable or not, in this point in history and the way today the economy in most developed countries and across the world is overall structured, we shall see, seeming stark historical parallels and prior precedents in European and world history, escapes them completely, as mentioning them at least as some considerations and precautions to take based on some real precedents from the past in history when similar decisions of this character have been made swiftly and almost as ad hoc without enough public dialogue, discussions of possible alternatives and relevant political opposition, public mobilisation and debate around them especially now due to their past precedents, of some of them at least, when they are fully on board and towing the line completely with some of those decisions that their governments are forwarding as a necessity of being taken, with no other possible routes and options now, for managing relations, approaching, deterring and containing Russia's overly aggressive, some would say triggered, moves and acts.

Well so say, also, currently "the Dollar Scholars or Schollar Dollars" ?, it seems also partially influenced by their current position in the world where they are at from their subjective standpoint, for both Russia and China and countries aligned with them, we shall see how it unfolds, if they are lagging behind, or merely developing more and integrating and solidifying more into their current natural stage of development for their eventual transition into the West ones, but maybe this time on a more equal, voluntaristic and less co-dependent basis at near future point in time ? Also btw, some countries and their people overall being more corrupt than others doesn't make them from a geo-strategic or geo-political standpoint less relevant and worth less than the less corrupt countries and invalidate their national interests, unorthodox current determined possible paths forward for economic stability, growth development and prosperity, and their security and survival interests towards those "more uncorrupted, cleaner countries" that, you can bet, very much sometimes enforce policies in a way to help maintain, take advantage upon, benefit, exploit and imperialize upon the corrupt countries corruption for their own gain and benefiting from it in fact existing in the short term ?

So? Ukraine is not the only country that exists and their people are not the only ones in this world with such concerns, that trump all other's countries concerns that are militarily helped, assisted and protected by in some part by the country Ukraine currently has a security concern with aka Russia, and such feelings towards and with such problems with larger more powerful neighbours. Cuba and Venezuela distrust the US influence and plans for integrating their economies and people completely overnight of the set-up rules of their system that mostly benefits them, and not all their people. But that doesn't excuse Cuba and Venezuela to blame the US for all their corruption and instability problems that exists within their countries due to US economic and financial warfare and siege upon their countries for both not liking their domestic economic policies and the way their governments conduct them and do things regarding that there, and as an excuse to start agreeing on working on putting wholesale Chinese and Russian missiles at some point in the future there that might threaten US military security, defense and influence in that region to operate more relaxed and freely and somehow use that to upend US's policy towards their countries completely in their favour, not taking into account some other global market interests in them and economic and political stability for other countries in the near region or proximity. BTW western monetary way of doing things are not clear as day method of doing things leading to prosperity and economic development of a country in all scenarios, it Ukraine it is more probable due to it's proximity to the EU, and the streams and influences of Western finance in te country in general, but in Cuba and Venezuela those things are at this point of time not clear as day and one day may eventually opt or welcome a more Chinese way of doing things in order to actually develop and build up their economies from the actual base we're further step-by-step more economic integration element to the west may actually over a period of time actually prosper, and not jump into the shark filled waters of the free market with no solid economic base and development prior, to avoid getting totally economically and financially raped in them, straight away, they have learned the USSR's bitter pill lesson even if those countries, Cuba and Venezuela, are not straight planned economies, but more hybrid possessing some markets elements in some sectors of the economy, but regardless need to build up their solid economic base and infrastructure in order to have a fair chance of not botching up that step-by-step, slow and steady transition. Same with Ukraine EU Integration and unfettered NATO presence in their countries cannot be done overnight and imposed ad hoc as must from outside, it needs to be done in a slowly steady consulatation environment with other actors who are also concerned parties, for their own strategic interest and place and economic influence in the country, in such a transition.

I think, of course it will, since it already did as you see from all the hysteria you can see shared and posted massively online each day by useful conductors of such content, but some countries, in my view, need to first solidify and integrate and become self-confident and sulf-sufficient in their input of their own contributions to the world and in their own cultures that achieve such an outcome independently, and not by superficial imitation of western ways of doing things and values (of course more broadly speaking) and non-deep adoption and actual embodiment of them in their own authentic, original way. Separation needs to come where there exists too much a symbiotic, parasitic ally dependent, one side over favoring relationship, and not on actually made on a completely voluntary, cooperative basis - this separation will hurt the West as well, have no doubt about that, it doesn't benefit it completely, as well since it was sneakily, the one side, using it's financial imperialistic coercive power imposition and overall more cultural influence benefiting more from it being set up this way that up until now did, more at the expense of the other parties forced to be involved for their survival and prosperity benefit, who was too much on the scale of being over favoured in this relationship, and scales will be now slightly turn again to a more favourable equilibrium, even it perhaps it seems from the other sides viewpoint, perspective and development that things have regressed in the opposite, lower, before direction and back clashed due to the contratrianism of the other side, not maybe fully grasping, understanding and recognising, that's how general strives towards for independence starts, one point for them from ther standpoint, when one side generally wants to be and feel themselves, not completely influenced and determined by them in their choices and decisions, hence forth to be more free from their perspective, than from others tell them freedom actually is from their standpoint ? BTW I appreciate and thank you for sharing Teals video, seems like an interesting watch on the meta-physics of this very process and phenomenona , I will check it out later ?

Yes but Russia didn't get any defence and security guarantees from NATO afterwards, which it requested and demand, regarding the extent of it's activity and future plans in and for Ukraine, undermining it's own security guarantees, if you actually look at both countries from a geo-strategic standpoint from Russia's perspective on the map, hence the problem of one principle contradicting another countries principle and as result the unfolding and reckless going forward with this quagmire.

Of course as they said they would invade themselves, the Russia to the West of them. Great job and work comrade for the subtlity of the distribution and expansion of hybrid information warfare content online into even more seemingly neutral sites and spaces, now that Russian state media influence is banned from most spaces of US digital tech platform internet, the FSB commends you for your diligent undercover services to the Russian state, people and it's national security interests comrade. 1+ "The Blue Yellow Square operation if you know what I mean ?" https://media.tenor.com/images/27a7c8a8c86fd46ef74aaa962daf9983/tenor.gif

A some sort of revamped version of a more secure Finlandization policy, with perhaps more military power and guarantees behind it now to enforce it, as was with special neutral status of Finland, that the West said it would defend at some point if invasion comes to pass, in the last Cold War, is essentially what I think approximately is the about the line some people are advocating now looking for a compromise and intermediary solution to this crisis.

Exactly, some people are not willing to look a little bit deeper to see, understand, look for and grasp the subtlties, nuances and grasp what's all happening and being planned in the background of these seemingly "irrational" (for them of course, but not from the standpoint of those doing it) decisions being made in the background of all of this ongoing situation. If someone can't go back to the 20th century, what's the alternative for them then in the 21st century? The 21st century American-lead unipolarity and it's financial hegemony, pacification, dominance and subordination? Some people fail to grasp the logical conclusions and implications when making such statements. They say you can't do this, but they fail to offer any other alternatives and also saying something that the endmost drawn conclusions of someone apparent moves and choosen strategic trajectory is the desire to go back to the 20th century is a lazy, unimaginative, historical context lacking way of viewing this from a narrow history repeating itself and historicist ascribing perspective to these two alternative powers to the US, Russia and China, that's being pushed as a dominant view in the Western media to discredit and delegitimize their current goals and wants of favoring positioning themselves better as individual states, from their national state interest and other similar unfavorable, undeveloped state interests whose interests are somewhat tied to them being more economically influential and powrmerful in the world POV in the global system. China, and perhaps Russia now, if it manages with it's political and economic system to survive through all this, well be only of the few states and countries in the whole world currently today, to start slowly decoupling from the global dominance and US lead favorable hegemony of the Western financial sector in the world by weening away slowly in their share and quantities of the central banks reserve currencies from their currencies fixed exchange rates based mostly on dollar supremacy worldwide and as a exclusive most referral currency in the majority of the world's financial transactions and of start to be more relaint on their own currencies strength and other value reserve factors uping it's strength and world value on the global markets in order for them to have protection and more resistance to wholesale and overwhelming Western sanctions from US dollar based and lead world financial sector as means of their pacification and subordination of their political systems and economic policies that they conduct and promote in the world, that domestically for them aim and strive to promote more independence, autarchy, self-sufficiency and self-reliance from the West economically and financially and by proxy it's influence over it's systems, that Western leaders don't like because of its possibility upending, tipping the scales slightly into the favor of the other direction and threatening to call into question their current global hegemony, influence, vision, leadership for the world into by more of an equilibrium position favoring more some other powerful countries rising in some places in the world, that didn't benefit much from this overall in the past 30 years. As a Russian economic advisor to Putin economist Sergei Glaziev (also sharing the view on this with some esteemed US economic advisors and economists on this) said with this daring gambit and risk move that Russia has set itself into with the West, encountering all this relentless Russophobia coming politically, culturally and economically from the West - it is the, how he put, "the tax Russia needed to pay at some point for it's independence" stemming even from even the 2014 sanctions, that as he said put Russia in a monetary subordinate position to the West monetarilly and financially for it to most profit from and exploit based on that in it's trade relationship with Russia, to quote him: "describes the sanctions as “some kind of a tax on independence”, with countries barring their companies from working in Russia under “huge pressure.” "Meanwhile, Russia will be showing the way and have outlined possibilities for Russia to weather the sanction storm. That didn’t even consider the full extent of Russia’s “black box defense”: only self-sufficiency affords total independence. And the Big Picture has also been keenly understood by the Global South: one day someone had to stand up and say, “That’s Enough”. His latest essay, Sanctions and Sovereignty, originally published by expert.ru and translated by Helmer, deserves serious scrutiny. This is one of the key takeaways: “Russian losses of potential GDP, since 2014, amount to about 50 trillion rubles. But only 10% of them can be explained by sanctions, while 80% of them were the result of monetary policy. The United States benefits from anti-Russian sanctions, replacing the export of Russian hydrocarbons to the EU as well as China; replacing the import of European goods by Russia. We could completely offset the negative consequences of financial sanctions if the Bank of Russia fulfilled its constitutional duty to ensure a stable ruble exchange rate, and not the recommendations of Washington financial organizations.” De-offshore or bust Glaziev essentially recommends: – A “real de-offshorization of the economy”. – “Measures to tighten currency regulation in order to stop the export of capital and expand targeted lending to enterprises in need of financing investments”. – “Taxation of currency speculation and transactions in dollars and euros on the domestic market”. – “Serious investment in R&D in order to accelerate the development of our own technological base in the areas affected by sanctions – first of all the defense industry, energy, transport and communications.” And last but not least, “the de-dollarization of our foreign exchange reserves, replacing the dollar, euro and pound with gold.” A consensus seems to be emerging in Moscow that the Russian economy will stabilize quickly, as there will be a shortage of personnel for industry and a lot of extra hands will be required. Hence no unemployment. There may be shortages, but no inflation. Sales of – Western – luxury goods have already been curtailed. Imported products will be placed under price controls. All the necessary rubles will be available though price controls – as happened in the U.S. in WWII. Lethal counterpunches though are not excluded. Apart from completely de-dollarizing – as Glaziev recommends – Russia may ban the export of titanium, rare earth, nuclear fuel and, already in effect, rocket engines. What’s certain is that a new architecture of payment systems – as discussed by Michael Hudson and others – uniting the Russian SPFS and the Chinese CHIPS, may soon be offered to scores of nations across Eurasia and the Global South – several among them already under sanctions, such as Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, the DPRK. Slowly but surely, we are already on the way to the emergence of a sizeable Global South bloc immune to American financial warfare. The RIC in BRICS – Russia, India and China – are already increasing trade in their own currencies. If we look at the list of nations at the UN that voted against Russia or abstained from condemning Operation Z in Ukraine, plus those that did not sanction Russia, we have at least 70% of the whole Global South." source:http://thesaker.is/how-russia-will-counterpunch-the-u-s-eu-declaration-of-war/

Neither was I, my intent was just, out of concern, to point out the psychological dangers for one's wellbeing in the future, being throughly shocked or unprepared of something happening that they didn't want to believe or adequately psychological prepare for happening, of holding onto such belief contradicting or outright denying wider accepted views held by most of the rest of the world on that issue and it's most possible outcome in the future currently. Sorry in advance if the came of as personal attack or character criticism or projection in advance, that wasn't my intent from the beginning, maybe mistake in the few of the inadequate choosen words or phrases to describe my intent and aim I apologise as well for that, but just to point out some of the risks and personal adverse effects when holding an unquestioned, idiosyncratically personally derived view of some future self and possible life changing or impacting issues in the current reality in the world operating on some sort of population majoritarain consensus on things and stuff that impact them and concern them in the future.

Real is what is relative to the person who thinks it is real to them currently, and that can be due to various ego self-deceptive reasons to protect themselves, psychological or physical, for one reason or another, justifiable or not from a wider reality and world perspective and standpoint, while at the same time not being conscious that it is detached from the actual currents of where the world is going in the wider outside their own egoic, personal version. Sounds like you are in some sort of psychological defensive mechanism denial about this with this simple "uh uh you are" retort, but that's okay my intent was not belittle or make fun the merits of your perspective but just point out it is detached and shielded from wider reality currents going on currently and the dangers when of you get personally, psychologically shocked by major events when you get majorily dumbfounded by them actually happening and having an impact on your life, survival and wellbeing.

This sounds like you are living in some wishful thinking, bubbled, shielded personal version of a delusional reality regarding international power relations and the way the global economy and finance is structured and works in the world currently - so you don't get caught off guard when China invades Taiwan (a critical US strategic and economic ally for more than 70 years, that it maybe willing to go in a serious military confortation with the whole of China, including it's military, economy and political leadership to defend) , in the most, some serious military, geopolitical and economic analysts predict and say, complex and largest scale military operation to be carried out in military world history, and don't found yourself to be dumbfounded by the scale of the global economic downfall and shock ripple effects to strike and to hit across all countries in the world that may follow that and the news of US/Japanese naval fleets being in open war with the Chinese military and ones - which seems like an inevitability from both the pre-emptive rhetoric coming from both sides at this point in the near future when China plans to incorporate Taiwan into it's sphere and system. My intent is just to warn you of the psychological shock and potential deterioration for personal psychic and economical wellbeing and collateral damage when holding such a wishful thinking bubbled, denial belief about the world, it's politics and the way it's economy operates and is structured.

This constant ad hominem etiquetting that I saw multiple people here raising again and again in vain and trying to forward again as some explanation or argument of why Leo's supposed (non) position and (non) stance on this is the way that it is or why he is writing and talking about this the way that he is, that doesn't feel right to them or align and resonate with their own unconsciously formed views and feelings on the situation, reeks of some insecure projections regarding this whole situation from their identity survival, self-perception and feelings of them as a human and other human beings and how they perceive and feel about this from their human identity standpoint tbh.

This war has nothing to do with anthropocentricity or the global ideology of humanitarianism, in order to cause the outpouring of sympathy, empathy, help or moral outrage for the Ukrainians, Ukranian men, women, boys, girls and children and the Ukranian independence cause and struggle from Russia, so people watching and seeing the images coming from it can indentify with it's basic human survival, solidarity, care and self-preservation aspect of it's citizens and focus their anger, rage, dismissal and disapproval on only one side causing and being responsible for it, while the other side also in part responsible, and funded by those same citizens, has effectively now hidden behind the curtains of this play, operating in the background, purported to seize the opportunity to claim the moral highground and mantle in this whole ordeal, and has effectively escaped and blocked any criticism and blame for itself and for the responsibility for this crisis, by now openly effectively working with it's lobby groups in the Western media ecosystem, to enforce it's one-sided line and view by punishment of cancelation, ostracization, dismissal, accusations of treason or of censorship, they have effectively ceded all exclusive responsibility for the cause of this ongoing humanitarian crisis to Russia and the Russian people. A masterclass example of the game of intentional and in part also unintentional self-deception and deception on a global scale. See the UK Labour leadership hard-line being enforced towards any semblance of NATO's criticism and calling for it's responsibilty of causing a part of this humanitarian crisis (echoes of Corbyn and his criticism of Zionism and call for viewing the Palestinian side) a by threat of membership cancelation, hence forth ones political career prospects in the party, and British politics more in general (a deeply historically ironic unintentionally reincarnated example of a new remodelled version of a more soft spot, but yet again hard line central command enforcement for a progressive light revival of centralised stalinist liquaditionist policy for party line deviationism with a human, more progressive face for the sake of "insert X" this time global humanitarianism rallying up and policy - how the myopic historic irony escapes them regarding this policy decision doesn't cease to astonish and amaze me at the same time in it's incredibly seeming unconscious historical myopia with it's parallels regarding the position being enforced and stance to be taken and its hypocrisy at the same as the utter gaul of their hypocrisy regarding this decision in comparison to their stance to the taboo of criticism of Zionism and Palestinian problem that exists still within their party) signaling the clear compromisation and corruption of it's claim to represent the truth for the oppressed, marginalised and downtrodden, by defense and weapons industry lobbying and it's foreign politics ideological stance justification extension, a capture and seizure of it's large part by the interests of the capitalist class on this issue and it's ideological upside down view of the world and world politics in order to justify and excuse those same interests, to put it more shortly and bluntly, hence the self-fulfilling prophecy of the truth being the first causalty of war is being manifested and realize this way by the need of furrowing through and allocating a massive increase in defense industry spending from the government budget of all governments now in Europe, a marked shift towards the rightization of the political discourse and culture with the advent of this new clear threat and one sourced enemy. Here is this censorship on the name of noble humanitarianistic narrative management shielding any culpability of the Western defense industry and NATO lobbying on full display: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-labour-mps-nato-russia-b2025240.html%3famp For the Russian leadership this a raw, brutal geo-political considerations game for the survival of it's military power and relevance in the world, they are seeing this exclusively in this light, while the West emphasis is on the humanitarian crisis, they themselves refuse to take any relevant widely exposed blame and responsibility in causing, because the survival of their global humanitarian concern identity hinges also too much by downplaying NATO's blindspots, mistakes, weaknesses and proneness to succumbing and being tempted by opportunistic self-interested imperialism for the most benefit going and gain towards itself again paradoxically, that some other countries, not part of that VIP club, see as a threat, means of western domination, exploitation, subordination and subtle financial and economic enslavement of their up until build up relevance, influence and power in the world to them clear as day, which is too traumatic for the West to expect given its self-image, belief, experience and perception of its self. As, Putin once said (in his "never corner a rat analogy") , a rat being a rat, you can't expect to try and corner it and not expect in any way or any means necessary it might want to try to fight back, escape and free itself, that there is some honest self-reflective position on what Russia position is now and cards are developmentally in comparison to the West and how it must act in order to survive, prosper and save it's skin (very detailed, witty and crafty Soviet era styled allegories on it's position and how it sees it path forward to maintaining relevance and prosperity for itself given it's current position that it's in the world geopolitically and the costs, demands and prices associated that come with that): Regardless of the infactualities perhaps of some the details and description of those events that he forwarded then that turned out later to be false, for dometisc propaganda purposes, the underlying sentiment for the whole of the interests and relevance of the Russian Federation on the global stage remains (getting personally an intermediary stage of rough, brutish hard and not an easy slow, painful, steady evolution and attempt of solidifying the transition to stage Blue to Orange views, values and vibes in the global capitalist world dominated by the western financial sector dominance, setting up most of the rules of the capitalist innovation and prosperity game, in the most and majority of its part still, attempt from this moment onwards, due to the from then increase to Russia's power, wealth and influence in the world) : Also a relevant, insightful article to read on how Putin, his economic advisors and some economists favorable to their perspective and side from their long term national state interest POV see the interests and future visions for the Russian Federation and it's place and position in the global world order going forward from this whole situation with the Western world: http://thesaker.is/how-russia-will-counterpunch-the-u-s-eu-declaration-of-war/