Well, now we can safely say no invasion of Ukraine is going to happen, because Putin identifies them as "not Ukraine anymore". And is sending troops there for "peacekeeping".

The "nothing is ever going to happen"-cels (including me) are getting blown the f*ck out this year.

"Slime you can't just attach the -cel suffix to anything"

yes I can

Yup so I do believe at this point economic sanctions and embargo can be brought in, they did the same thing to Georgia before they started doing it to Ukraine.

So it's finally happening, no more blue balling the world for months?

"Your Honor, my client did not burglarized that man's home, for he has claimed that the man's living room to be independent from the rest of his house, therefore he did not break-and-enter."

Ok so can someone give me a tl:Dr version of what the situation in Crimea was seeing as I keep seeing people comparing the two.

Also now that they are invading a new video would be appreciated so I can be told what to think

And the middle fingers keep on rising between both sides since Germany essentially told Russia "well fuck you too"

The support for sanctions against Russia grows larger with Japan now joining. At what point do the Russians feel the negatives outweigh the positives for this plan?

To be Debbie Downer

-Russia aren’t too concerned about sanctions from the West since they’re always expecting them. I think their current economy is based upon being stable rather than growth.

-Sanctions play into Russia’s home politics like they do in North Korea - “your lifestyle issues are due to the West”

-More critically to my POV, I think the dependency the West has on Russian gas means that sanctions don’t have enough teeth to really bite at Putin. IMO if Russia don’t push their luck with more Ukrainian territory in this year, the German government will eventually cave for Nord Stream in a similar timeframe.

the sanctions are only half the story; the fact that they're mobilizing their military in such a fashion is a huge hit on their relatively self sufficient economy

combining this with sanctions against their country does actually cause a lot of economic harm to them, possibly enough to slow their advances into ukraine, at least

this is true to a point

if NATO wants to be serious about this they will need to compensate for this by providing what germany needs at a loss from their own side

if we're gonna do this we need to be prepared to do this

concerning russia's push into ukraine, the map of what they consider separatist territory includes plenty of territory currently in ukrainian control (like the city of mariopul, for example); there will be more hot combat, unfortunately

Well Russia did it at this point a full embargo should do it on Russia and any other EU nation that joins in would be a force multiplier. Cut them physically off from financial markets, goods and sever supply chain routes and they'll be kicked back to developing country status in a year or two.

Bet Germany is regretting decommissioning all those nuclear power plants now.

fucking true

Makes you wonder why did they even do that in the first place, I guess that’s what happens when you make a deal with the devil. (in this case, Russia)

Any chance that France might lend them some nuclear energy?

My guess is all the anti-nuclear hippies lobbied them enough. One way to make brains explode is to tell people: if you are against nuclear energy, you support fossil fuels.

Nuclear energy is the greenest and most efficient way to generate electricity outside of natural means such as wind/solar/hydro power. The last three aren't always going to be running depending on the weather, but nuclear energy will.

Honestly, the US could probably have fewer carbon emissions if the Nuclear Regulatory Association would do its fucking job, and if Jane Fonda had kept her mouth shut.

Back on topic, whether France lends them any nuclear energy remains to be seen. If they have any hydro power running, they can use that. For example, Quebec sells excess hydro energy to Massachusetts.

Or perhaps another NATO state can step up?

While nuclear energy is the greenest it's not exactly fool proof or without it's problems if it's mishandled or, in worst case scenario caught up in a natural disaster which would be unlikely in Germany's case. You're more likely to see another Chernobyl if nuclear energy were mishandled in any way shape or form.

You can't have it one or two ways when it comes to energy since there's always a trade off. No matter how "clean" it is.

Probably not, Germany made its bed and it'll lay in it France isn't going to help since it's been an unreliable member of the EU and NATO during Merkels long administration, it's because of her in the first place those power stations were decommissioned and she made that deal with the Russians for natural gas.

On an additional note Norway has an abundance of natural gas and oil Germany could pipeline, if the EU tries to sanction Russia as a whole and Germany tries blocking it they should be considered complicit, and if they keep up this neutrality bullshit they should be sanctioned and have their role as a regional leader questioned in the EU and NATO.

Blame 16 years of Merkel getting absolutely nothing done on the renewable energy front. Even steps backwards occasionally.

Nuclear isn't the future. It still relies on non-renewable resources and produces crap amounts of hazardous waste that we to this day have no idea what to do with.

Lol and being dependent on a antagonistic nation for your national energy supply that effects your foreign policy and European allies is any better,

Of course German domestic and foreign policy has always been ass backwards historically.

We never asked for this role anyway.

Even it nuclear isn’t the future, it’s going to take a long while before renewable resources can match up with the output of nuclear energy. Plus, all that energy would’ve come in handy when Russia is getting all Anschluss-y, and giving them more money for their ambitions is a bad look.

Kind of hard to think about environmentalism when the Russians are trying to reestablish their empire.

Well, just accept that our priorities are different from yours.

To be honest as much as the environmental stance in this situation is a double standard, to make the assumption that we need to be reliant on it is a dangerous one just because renewable energy isn’t up to par with it.

More importantly, I’m concerned to where nuclear energy has much relevance in this conversation with the Ukraine crisis at this point. I question whether or not it’s a tangent discussion best served in another thread, because to be honest no one has brought this up until that one guy figured Germany’s choice on it had any bearing here besides economic impact.

More relevant to this conversation is Would probably be how China is put into a tough spot given its alliance with Russia and hopes for a more diplomatic approach to the situation. Unless I’m reading this wrong it seems like if China decides to throw Putin a lifeline it seems like their role is more of a neutral one.

I don't know if those risks really apply to China. I think that China could give full support and make Russia sanctions-proof without any major consequences.

Our major corporations continue to invest in China, and they keep the manufacturing there as well.

I am thinking about logging my "Made in China" purchases to demonstrate how much I give to China each year through this.

Why would greedy corporations care about a China/Russia Alliance when they can get richer and richer? And many of our politicians have links to those corporations.

If Russia completely takes over Ukraine, and China takes over Taiwan, we will still do business as usual with China, so China would lose very little from supporting Russia's invasion.

do you think there's gonna be a world war 3

And what wonderful priorities they are, I'm sure france and Poland are thankful, of course since half of Germany use to be a Soviet state of course a sizable portion of the population is going to simp for the Russian government and like you defend your natural gas deal with them.

no, this will not lead to ww3

And we're off to the races with Russia announcing a military operation.

It is surreal being able to watch live feeds from Ukraine that show some of the explosions going off in cities. I hope the people of Ukraine stay safe.

CNN catches live explosions in Kyiv

seems like russia's planning on invading the whole country