> Let's not forget that Russia and Ukraine had a ceasefire negotiated in May whereby Russia would have pulled back to the pre February lines, and that Boris Johnson rushed to Kiev to intervene[1].
That is the exact opposite of what the referenced link say:
> According to multiple former senior U.S. officials we spoke with, in April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement: Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries. But as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in a July interview with his country’s state media, this compromise is no longer an option. Even giving Russia all of the Donbas is not enough. “Now the geography is different,” Lavrov asserted, in describing Russia’s short-term military aims. “It’s also Kherson and the Zaporizhzhya regions and a number of other territories.” The goal is not negotiation, but Ukrainian capitulation.
There's a bunch of other things in this comment that also reflect standard Russian propaganda. For example this is straight from Russian claims but has no basis in fact:
> The result of that 7 year effort is that the sanctions politics on Russia have damaged the western economies way more than Russia.
It's true that Russia spent a lot of effort protecting their economy from sanctions. But the personal sanctions on individuals have been effective.
> Russia doesn't only export energy. They export 30% of entire worlds commodities.
Not even close. They are one of the largest exporters (some years #1) of wheat, and largest fertilizer exporter. Most of what they export is petrochemicals. Apart from that they are large in gems, and then some metals.
Basically they are roughly similar to Australia, a country with about 1/6 the the population. Russia’s main advantage in extractive industries is low labor costs and lack of environmental controls. If they lose any of that (and they are not maintaining their oil infrastructure) they will lose any advantage, as price, more than anything else, drives global extraction incentives.
The oil was extracted from Siberia using US know how with aid from the usual suspects Halliburton and Schlumberger. Those companies have since left, so Russia has lost its competitive advantage.
Somehow you've managed to hit all the current Russian propaganda talking points ("8 years", "sanctions not working" and so on). Unless you're getting paid to post this, I strongly recommended to change your information diet. As others have already pointed out, virtually nothing you wrote is true. Other than the totally brainwashed vatniks and the insane talk shows on TV, I don't know anyone who thinks that Russia is winning the war. That's certainly not the mood on Russian business sites nor the mood of their war correspondents. Where did you get your narrative from?
"Putin seems uninterested in a compromise that would leave Ukraine as a sovereign, independent state—whatever its borders. According to multiple former senior U.S. officials we spoke with, in April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement: Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries. But as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in a July interview with his country’s state media, this compromise is no longer an option. Even giving Russia all of the Donbas is not enough. “Now the geography is different,” Lavrov asserted, in describing Russia’s short-term military aims. “It’s also Kherson and the Zaporizhzhya regions and a number of other territories.” The goal is not negotiation, but Ukrainian capitulation."
> Russia and Ukraine had a ceasefire negotiated in May whereby Russia would have pulled back to the pre February lines, and that Boris Johnson rushed to Kiev to intervene
Putin has never wanted to settle thus far. It's not due to Boris, and your single source says nothing of the sort. It's a Russian cover tactic.
Once again this is a complete fabrication. Here's Google translate of the linked section:
But that presupposes also saying what exactly the alternatives were at the time. I thought the initiation of NATO accession for Ukraine and Georgia discussed in 2008 to be wrong. The countries neither had the necessary prerequisites for this, nor had the consequences of such a decision been fully considered, both with regard to Russia's actions against Georgia and Ukraine and to NATO and its rules of assistance. And the 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time.
There is nothing there that even comes close to the claimed quote (and quote marks imply an actual quote).
If russia is so sanctions proof and it's so easy why no one want's to be on that side. Well, I think it's because russia's economy goes down. And this will be happening for years to come. Who will be buying their weapons now when it's clear it's mostly ussr garbage? Look what happens with Urals price. If you think they're ok you have no idea what's happening inside.
It's the second largest arms exporter. You need to stop measuring everything in USD value. Turkey ditched the US air defence for S-400s even at the price of getting sanctioned in return. That's NATO's second largest army by far.
From what I see most of the world that matters outside of Europe has ignored the sanctions on Russia. Even Japan which often acts as the US's chess piece, decided to hold off despite their rhetoric and is silently rolling back their sanctions. Israel announced a realignment with Russia after the last elections and Israel arguably has the worlds most powerful security apparatus. India already told the west they won't play along despite all the bullying that happened in the beginning. China has been increasing their cooperation more and more even though in the beginning they were very careful with their support.
These aren't the actions of countries that think Russia is in a losing position. Nobody worth a dime thinks that Russia's economy is going down. Even The Economist, one of the most pro Ukrainian newspapers has admitted that much to their regret, Russia's economy is ALREADY rebounding.
Meanwhile the US is paying the Ukrainian politics and military's salaries, because Ukraine has no economy left and it basically defaulted a while back with a restructuring announced shortly after.
Greek shipping literally still mixes Russian oil and resells it to Europe. Although everyone is eager to see what will happen to it in the near future
The war goals made by Putin didnt change.
It is still
1.) Denazification (meaning a Putin friendly govt and supressing of Ukrainian culture)
2.) Demilitarisation (no Ukrainian military so Ukraine can not make independent decision in case of revolution)
Thankfully Russia is now only a minor power so Putin wont be a role model world wide.
