Russia - US | Ukraine “peace negotiations”

  • Thread starter Thread starter nycfan
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 2K
  • Views: 35K
  • Politics 
Callatoroy said:
Lol at you ford, just admit you are about as clueless as CF. You are Lennie’s dad. Good thing your wife has a skill to support you because you are night bright enough to do so.
Click to expand...
#nightbright enough huh? Maybe after you seek out that therapist for your anger, you can seek out Hooked on Phonics!
 
Callatoroy said:
You don’t know what he would give Putin do you? It’s just your speculation right? Why are you trying to use that as justification for supporting your argument. Clearly that doesn’t look like the best strategy now does it?
Click to expand...
Trump has made clear in his public comments that he believes Russia should get to keep the territory it's occupying and that Ukraine should not expect security guarantees. Do you think he's lying? Or is this just another instance where I should take Trump seriously but not literally?
 
Callatoroy said:
Only for you Dr Bob. Was in my Apple News so I didn’t have the paywall

Sir Keir Starmer and our European allies have issued a lot of brave words and fighting talk on protecting Ukraine and taking on Putin. “We are at a crossroads in history today,” Starmer said after the London summit, announcing a “coalition of the willing” to support Zelensky. “European unity is at an extremely high level not seen for a long time.” Is it, though?


The truth is that Europe last year paid far more money to Putin’s coffers in the form of oil and gas payments than it has given to the Ukrainians – and continues to do so. Europe today imports far more Russian liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from Russia than at the beginning of the war.


Most of the “shadow fleet” Russia uses to avoid sanctions are also owned by European, especially Greek, companies. Germany’s ascendant right wing AfD party is openly calling for a reopening of the surviving branch of Gazprom’s Nord-Stream 2 Baltic gas pipeline. Europe’s big talk of fighting Putin is hypocritical nonsense while they are bankrolling the Kremlin war machine.


Take sanctions. They were meant to bring the Russian economy to its knees and cripple Putin’s war machine. Perhaps they might have, if Europe had been willing to give up the fatal addiction to Russian energy that Trump repeatedly warned about back in 2017. Since the invasion the Kremlin has made close to a trillion dollars from oil and gas sales – much of it from European customers.


Even as bombs began to rain down on Kyiv, and as Brussels passed successive rafts of sanctions, Russian gas was never subject to any restrictions or penalties. It was Putin, not Brussels, who shut down gas exports through Nord Stream in July of 2022 in a crude attempt to squash Germany’s growing arms supplies.


Two months later saboteurs – definitively fingered by German and Danish investigators as Ukrainians – blew up three of the four undersea Nord Stream pipes. All of Europe was forced to scramble for alternative supplies of LNG from the US, Canada, Qatar and… Russia.


In 2024 EU member states bought €21.9 billion of Russian oil and gas – but only gave €18.7 billion in financial aid to Ukraine, according to a report by the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Russia is currently Europe’s number two supplier of LNG, after the US, up nearly 14 per cent in 2023.


Until January 1 of this year Gazprom was still supplying Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia with natural gas through a pipeline that runs through Ukraine. Russia has continued to pay nearly a billion euros a year in transit fees for this gas to Kyiv through subsidiaries in Switzerland. Mind-bogglingly, that made Gazprom one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine for the first three years of the war. Even after the shutdown of the trans-Ukrainian pipeline, though, Southeast and Central Europe continue to buy Russian gas indirectly through Turkey.


It’s a similar story with oil supplies. Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the UK’s new sanctions package recently, claiming that we “continue to set the pace in ratcheting up the economic pressure on the Kremlin.” Among the measures were sanctions against 40 oil tankers involved in “pouring money into Putin’s war chest.”


But that’s a mere 40 of the over seven hundred tankers shipping Russian oil. One would be forgiven for imagining that these “sanctions” on Russian oil exports mean that it is somehow banned. It’s absolutely not. Instead, the US and EU have imposed a $60 per barrel price cap, versus a market rate for Urals Crude of $62 a barrel in December. And even that tiny difference is childishly easy to get around by accounting tricks.


Lammy also claims to have “with partners, already denied Putin access to $400 billion.” What weasel words. The UK holds next to no Russian Central Bank Assets directly. Most are in Belgium’s Euroclear system and the rest in the US – and there’s still no consensus on what to do with those funds or how to legally confiscate them.


But in any case the UK has little to do with this in principle or practice. And as Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk admitted after the London meeting, there was “no unity” on seizing Russian assets in Europe. Though all leaders present agreed it was a good idea, he said that some countries “feared the consequences either for the euro or the banking system”.


The Poles, by the way, have also announced that they will form no part of the Starmer-Macron peacekeeping force. And they are sceptical of Ukrainian membership of the EU for fear of their agriculture being massively undercut by cheap imports. Hungary’s Viktor Orban, meanwhile, has denounced the London meeting’s decision to “go on with the war instead of opting for peace.” This is “bad, dangerous and mistaken.” So much for European unity.


“Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader,” posted EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Sunday. “It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.” Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte claimed that European countries were “stepping up” to make sure Ukraine has what it needs to “stay in the fight as long as it has to continue.”


If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. If European leaders’ tweets were missiles, the Kremlin would now be a smoking ruin. But what Ukraine really needs is a swift end to hostilities and practical help to become free, prosperous and independent. Everything else is just virtue signalling, paid for in Ukrainians’ blood.
Click to expand...
Anyone know why the EU didn't look to the USA, and not Russia, for more of its LNG, at least during the Biden admin? It's puzzling they are still relying on Russian gas, but I'm sure there is a reason.
 
CFordUNC said:
#nightbright enough huh? Maybe after you seek out that therapist for your anger, you can seek out Hooked on Phonics!
Click to expand...
maybe you can give me your therapist's number so I can avoid him/her. Clearly you haven't conquered your political bi-polar issues. What are you today? conservative or liberal? In either case, lacking any applicable knowledge of this issue. Should change your username to BoFord.
 
Callatoroy said:
Cost and logistics would be my guess.
Click to expand...
This was clearly something biden was aware of and allowed to continue. It is beyond absurd for europe to pretend they have any moral or principled high ground here or expect the US to continue funding what turns out to be their war.
 
Callatoroy said:
maybe you can give me your therapist's number so I can avoid him/her. Clearly you haven't conquered your political bi-polar issues. What are you today? conservative or liberal? In either case, lacking any applicable knowledge of this issue. Should change your username to BoFord.
Click to expand...
Lmfao hey look everyone, the fawning president of my fan club is back to obsessing about my political affiliation. I thought that was so last month but appears we have circled back!

Calla, why don’t you tell everyone what I ate for dinner last night, with all that time you spend crawled up my ass! Just wish you would cup my balls from time to time.
 
Healing said:
I truly think your self reflection and 2016 vote short-circuits one of that dude’s 2-3 functioning switches.
Click to expand...
Dude. It is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced. He is obsessed. I am definitely flattered, but it is definitely weird!
 
You know right and just has occurred when callayeahs lose their absolute fucking minds. The Euros’ spinal fortitude triggers the shit out of them because it’s puts their conman, philandering, historically cowardly, demented, sociopathic godking’s supplication to Putin in such stark relief.
 
CFordUNC said:
Dude. It is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced. He is obsessed. I am definitely flattered, but it is definitely weird!
Click to expand...
Such an idiot if you think i give you two seconds of thought beyond how insecure you are. I dont believe in the ignore feature but i'm so obsessed with you that i invite you to put me on ignore. That way you won't be bothered.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top