Russia invades Ukraine

Lost in a lost world said:
Hope this is still okay because it’s news, but Trump is expected to make a “major statement” later today.

www.bbc.com

Trump to meet Nato chief ahead of expected ‘major’ statement on Ukraine - follow live

"Putin really surprised a lot of people," the US president said on Sunday night. "He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening."
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

I’m skeptical, particularly given Trump says a lot of things just for headlines, but sometimes bluster countermands bluster. Tbh, I think finding a way for Putin to save face and exit gracefully would be an effective tactic to end the war at this stage. Although, doing so might involve convincing Ukraine to make some concessions.
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Putin has been offered many defacto concessions. They have tried that, but ultimately he isn't interested in anything other than Ukraine surrendering. Putis doesn't seem to be into saving face, but rather, he has doubled down over and over.
 
It will be interesting to see what he does, and then it will be interesting to see how much of the "major announcement" is actually something Trump can wiggle out of down the road.
 
Yax said:
Putin has been offered many defacto concessions. They have tried that, but ultimately he isn't interested in anything other than Ukraine surrendering. Putis doesn't seem to be into saving face, but rather, he has doubled down over and over.
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Well observed, but that’s been with most of the world condemning at arm’s length.

I think it might require raising the stakes and then giving Putin a way out of it.

I’d heard a theory, even before the 2022 invasion, but after the Crimean annexation, that Russia’s interest is really securing a more defensible western border since its ethnic Russian population is aging (much like what Japan and other countries are experiencing) and it will lack enough military aged people to defend its current border.

Here’s a Wikipedia page that illustrates Russia’s “aging crisis.”
en.m.wikipedia.org

Aging of Russia - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Interestingly, although this comment intersects US politics, the high immigration of younger people to the US mitigates it from having a similar aging crisis.

That’s something I seldom hear brought up in the US immigration debate but should be another argument in favor of encouraging legal immigration.
 
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Well, as predicted announcement was rather weak. Transfer of weapons and multiple patriot systems is good but rest? Threat of another potential sanctions in 50 days is hilarious. That big timeframe is designed only for Trump to change his mind around day 25th of said count down.
 
Jer said:
In fairness, it’s a 100% secondary tariff, meaning an additional 100% tariff on all countries that trade with Russia.

Not necessarily endorsing the idea, but the impact of it would be significant.
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Yeah, I was just reading this. By far the largest trading partner with Russia is China, so Trump may be going back to sky high tariffs on Russia if there's no TACO involved. The next two largest trading partners are Germany and the Netherlands.

I'm not sure this is a good plan, folks.
 
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