Beautiful to see the holy Christian flag of Saint Andrew flying over the fleet!

Shame on the West for supporting the militant/terrorists that shot their way into office ignoring the legitimate elections that recently took place. Research this further as this is what your Western media doesn't want you to know - they want your attention to be on cold war fears that no longer exist!

God bless the Holy Christian Russians in their efforts to restore peace and order to this nation currently being destroyed by the new world order dogs of the west.

you're boycotting Syrian jam? R U Syria's?
why wont you boycott Chinese products then?

Undoubtedly. I can only speak for myself, but have had an active policy of boycotting Syrian products (especially jams) for some time now.

Other considerations - 'legality' - whether such an action is legal according to international law, irrespective of its morality, 'capability' - whether a successful invasion and transition to democratic governance is possible (in terms of troops, numbers, money etc), 'consequences' - simple enough (e.g. the DPRK is by far, the most sinister regime on Earth and yet a war with them would be prohibitively expensive. They have nuclear weapons, a deluded and starving population, and can obliterate Seoul in one night.

Certain things are helpful in making a decision. A democratic movement in the said country, access and support of democratic nations, etc.

Exactly. Cheap and sinister. Typical Russian imperialism

who would you suggest?

russia, belarus and ukraine all trace their ancestry to kievan rus, they're kinfolk, if there's any trouble you can be sure it's instigated and funded by outside parties

Got to make money while they're still buying.

so the Australian government and many if not most Australian large companies are doing business with an illegitimate regime. no doubt some of your favourite brands are among them.

what are these "other considerations" you vaguely speak of?

Pretty much sums it up.

They can take the town of Pripyat for all I care

They might actually have people in that place for the first time in more than 25 years

I understand that, I was referring to the aspect of one country invading another with regards to current international borders and sovereignty in the name of "defense of ethnic Russians".

Defense from what?

I don't see Ukrainians going out and mob bashing the Russians (or are they now?).

All I see, is the previous President they just ousted was pro-Russian and they're worried the new one won't be and that they'd lose their grip on things like the Black Sea base etc.

That was the reason for my comments mainly, not so much about the citizens, but Russians bullshit excuse.

-PB

Apparently Putin has defied the US and Russian troops have not departed.

Can I just throw one out there - this would not have happened on Bush's watch. With Obama in the White House, Putin is feeling free to have a go. Whoever replaces the idiot supposedly leading America today has got a tough job on his (her?) hands.

Anyway, can't blame the Ukrainian navy for not wanting to fight, they'd get obliterated in literally hours.

Ukrainian navy chief has defected.

Am i right in saying the eastern part of the country has less Ethnic Ukrainians due to the Ukrainian famine and later Russian immigration?

Partially. They also have their own language, etc much more departed from Russia than, for example, Belarus.

Point is half the country are linguistic Ukrainian and half the country and linguistic Russian, with the former the majority in the West and the latter predominant in the West and along the coast. I have friends who answer to both. For 99% of the time they get along just fine, work together, catch the metro together and marry each other.

Any minority that suggests Russian speakers shouldn't be able to speak their (almost entirely mutually intelligible) language and are in some way not Ukrainian or should "fuck off back to their own country" are fucked in the head, as are any minority on the opposite side who think the Russian Federation have a right to take over Crimea and other parts of Ukraine.

When Russia had issues with/invaded Georgia in 2008, Ned decided it was too unstable and unsafe for him (and maybe his family as well, from memory), so he left his club in Georgia and returned to Australia.

You're the one missing out, bro.

Been doing a bit of research on this, as I'm seeing many Russians on the E net saying Ukrainians(along with Belarus) have historically been called Russians and part of Russia. Seems similar to Serbia/Montenegro Austria/Germany.

They were the same country for decades as the USSR, there was no need to tell the difference between Russian and Ukrainian citizens then obviously. Go further back towards that to the Russian Empire and the medieval states of the Kievan Rus, etc and they were still intertwined to say the least. Now, very many people in the western half of Russia are not just ethnically Russian and Russian language speakers but also Russian passport holders, like the Prime Minister of Crimea who called for Russian military support.

I'm not advocating one "side" over the other, but simply saying that it's a much more rich tapestry than Country A invading Country B, and certainly much more to it than a case of telling people to "fuck off back to their own country". They're already in their own country. Fuckers on both sides have to learn to get along.

Really? How so? :-k

When Russia invaded Georgia a few years ago, it caused Ned Zelic to retire. These terrible dressers must be stopped before they commit another atrocity akin to Ned's retirement.

Yes, the communist regime is illegitimate. On the question of invasion, read my other post - "other considerations"

so the Chinese regime is illegitimate? when do you think we should invade?

There are, of course, other considerations, but in the main, yes. I consider all non-democratic regimes illegitimate. Do you not?

so its ok to invade any country where its head of state was not democratically elected is your position?

Invading non-democratic regimes - =d>
Invading a democratic country because they removed the president you support (legally according to parliamentary protocol) - :x

Can you tell the difference between the two?

please tell us more, you seem abundantly informed on this topic

I still don't understand how anyone can view this correctly, how the fuck are you allowed to breach borders in the name of defending "Russian citizens"?

If they don't like it, fuck them off back to Russia ffs.

-PB