Comments by "dixon pinfold" (@dixonpinfold2582) on "DW News" channel.

  1. As most Russians like and respect the Scandinavians, I think this will give them much pause for thought and may perhaps hurt their view of themselves. Thus, of all rebukes from the world since the start of the war, this may be to Putin at home the most damaging one.
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  2. Congrats, Germany, on making a good decision. (Now it's time for us to do the same!) 🇨🇦🇩🇪
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  3.  @henrylee8510  It's an economic house full of termites. It looks all right from the street, but inside major structural timbers are rapidly disintegrating.
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  4.  @gdiwolverinemale2745  You sound like you'd beat your wife and children, then say it was justified because they provoked you...by standing up for themselves. Shameful. Well, now her family and the neighbours are going to teach you a lesson, Dmitri.
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  5. It's possible that a new era in the Chinese approach to statecraft has begun. But until recently at least, I think Chinese leaders have preferred to avoid any choices that seal important matters with finality. I mean they were in the habit of hedging their bets, and that may be an understatement. About 50 years ago the premier Zhou En-Lai was asked in a rare interview with a Western journalist what he thought of the French Revolution. "It's too soon to tell," he replied.
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  6. Germany, you took an unnecessary extra month to come to your decision. Don't take another month or more to actually deliver the aid, please. It's needed now.
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  7. Wow, three DW staffers, one steadily neutral in tone on Trump, one though skeptical in his analysis still neutral in tone, and only one both skeptical in analysis and smirkingly dismissive in tone. Not what I expected from DW.
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  8. All these various European leaders—e.g. LePen—who in one way or another bet on Russia absolutely should've known better. And now she is losing her bet. Someone in the UK should pay, too, for making or letting London become such an oligarch magnet. It really smacked of venality. Thanks, DW. Good video.
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  9. Incredible disrespect and rudeness shown by this interviewer, even for a journalist. Pompous and self-important, inconsiderate of viewers and the distinguished general alike. Should be replaced immediately.
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  10. Come on, Germany. Make a contribution to European security proportional to your standing. You fed the Russian bear for decades, making it grow big and strong, with great fangs and immense claws, and now it's rabid. Really rabid. Support Ukraine vigorously, sincerely, generously.
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  11. First, she doesn't have balls. Second, she's outside of Russia. I respect her views, of course. She made cogent points.
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  12. Yeah, it's so important not to hold Russia responsible for anything. What did they ever do?
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  13. Yes, it's important never to say that there's anything wrong with Russian murder of harmless people in a smaller, weaker neighbour. That would be politically slanted.
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  14. Germany: "This is a tragic situation, a great crisis, and therefore Germany will do as little as possible. Security in Europe is the job of the Americans; our job is to eat sausages and keep setting a moral example for them."
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  15.  @Kennon959  Three years ago Russia seemed on a track to prosperity and probably soon having the largest economy in Europe. Though I'm glad that, yes, the people won't starve, all that's ruined now.
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  16. Von der Leyen's threat was chilling. Who t.f. does she think she is, opposing the will of multiple countries' voting publics? I agree with you, she's sounds like one of Germany's NS politicians from a lifetime ago. "You vill listen! Or else! Vee haff vays!"
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  17. "If you're not serious about strategies, you shouldn't do one." She said this one minute after defending Germany's 13th-place ranking in per-capita aid to Ukraine. Ah, Green Party politicians. Such big mouths in opposition, such ordinary faults in power.
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  18.  @Ninjersey1  Quite right. Russia has second- or third-rate weapons which they don't even maintain correctly. We have all witnessed their poor preparedness and organization.
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  19.  @MobileAura  You're predicting the disappearance of more than 4 billion people within ten years? That's interesting. How do you think that'll happen?
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  20. Finland and Sweden are countries any other country would want as allies.
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  21.  @mhlangamlungisi5108  My one-word response to your intimation of Russian military invincibility: Afghanistan.
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  22. Out of spite he would get himself a white dress and make himself Putin's bride. Or Xi's. His personality and character are awful.
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  23. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Turkey were at war with NATO before mid-century, presumably as an ally of China, Russia, or both. They seem like frenemies. Welcome Finland 🇫🇮 and Sweden 🇸🇪! What took you so long? 😊
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  24. That's a lame take, Mr. Li. The EU and the US are not asking nicely. They are warning.
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  25. I am amused by your minuscule cortex.
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  26. Work goes on, genius. You don't think vital infrastructure need to be repaired immediately? You don't think rubble needs to be cleared? You don't think that requires machinery? Proper construction equipment is extremely valuable right now. Few things are lower or worse than a mocking fool.
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  27. First of all, they've never been in OPEC, so you're talking about OPEC+. But even setting that aside, what you say still only makes limited sense. What makes the most sense from OPEC's point of view is following Prof. Hausmann's proposal for squeezing Russia practically right out of markets. OPEC's fondest aspiration is tight long-term supply and hence steady high prices.
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  28.  @xpact83  Ok, bro. Russia is winning. Yeah. Success after success. And I hope they keep on succeeding, if that's what you call it.
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  29.  @waynegabler6570  Ok, Svetlana.
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  30.  @lockk132  He's an astute psycho. Less astute than he once was, more psycho than ever. I don't know what you are.
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  31. Great sarcasm!! 👏
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  32. I never thought I'd say this, but Go, Cancer, Go!
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  33.  @DegenerateStatesOfAmrika  The audacity is on your side, for sympathizing with Putin or Xi or both of them. Sadist.
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  34.  @proudguy  Never leave your fighter aircraft lying around where Canadians might discover them.
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  35.  @SexyGreek26  I always get a kick out of Germans who hate the American flag. Rich. It must be on account of how Americans mistreated Germany so badly.
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  36. A major complication, I am told, is the necessity of removing all NATO (i.e. non-Soviet) outfitting from the jets. This would include copious up-to-date software and avionics which Ukrainian pilots are unfamiliar with. (And could user-interface systems be translated into Ukrainian from Polish/English quite easily? Although I have no expertise in the facts of the matter, it seems questionable.) And perhaps this is what the offer's rejection is really all about, making it in truth not a rejection but a delay. Intuition tells me the transfer of planes will happen sooner or later.
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  37. You can tell when Russia knows it just got weaker. Pooty-Bots instantly flood the Western comments sections.
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  38. Actually the US fears a weak Germany. It's Russia who wants to keep Germany down and dependent on them.
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  39. A cheap title. Low journalism. Here's a title that would be a sort of 'punishment that fits the crime': "How scummy and vile is the journalism practiced by DW?" A less biased title would be "Is Italy's new right-wing government extremist?" Closer to neutral would be: "We examine claims that Italy's new government is extremist" Fully neutral: "What is the nature of Italy's new government?"
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  40. I have observed that strabismus is frequently a sign of high intelligence. JFK had it. You should get it, and you might be clever.
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  41.  @pierman4858  Fair take. Sanctions are not a sword thrust, but slow economic poison leading to anemia, weight loss, more rapid aging. Seldom fatal.
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  42.  @Urbanhunter49  He's stopped most of what you've attempted. Overall he's kicking your a++. You better hope you stop "succeeding" so much.
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  43. He's not satisfied unless he cuts her off. Just when she's building to her point he interrupts her. Bad manners, inconsiderate to us as well as her.
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  44. Many American politicians are far smarter than they'd ever allow themselves to appear in public. It is ordinarily a tremendous advantage to appear simple and down-to-earth in US politics.
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  45.  @catalinxnecula  Thanks, Professor Pooty-Bot.
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  46. "Their opinions matter as well." What an odd assertion. It seems thoroughly foolish.
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  47. And others more qualified who were rejected for the position sit at home watching her. I feel for them.
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  48. I provisionally diagnose you with HGS (humankind guilt syndrome), a common affliction allied to simple misanthropy, typically co-morbid and cognate with depression. While there is no known cure, symptoms can be alleviated by adopting a realistic outlook based on realistic morals. Formation of healthy relationships is essential, but this may be prevented by attempts to compensate with household pets. Consume mass media and social media sparingly. Avoid locales known to be frequented by the politically active young. — D. Pinfold, MD
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  49. Who tf cares how foreigners pronounce or spell the name of your country? It just doesn't matter. Instead of Deutschland the English say Germany and the French say Allemagne. Whoopty-do. Erdogan is just hand-waving to play to Turks' sense of insecurity and grievance. Turkey will remain the word for him.
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  50.  @greentea8852  How can you ask? China announced to the world their belief that the US and NATO are to blame. In case you can't make out the meaning of that, it is that China openly supports Russia. As for who is winning the Ukraine War, for now it is Ukraine. Russia is doing its best imitation of Germany in the spring of 1943. It is wonderful.
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  51. Right, neutral. So when robbers enter a bank and shoot the staff dead, or when a woman is raped, always stay neutral. Maybe the woman provoked the rapist by walking to the store, for instance. Who can say?
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  52. Because Soviet leaders, although just as wicked, had better judgment than this chin implant and high heels guy.
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  53. Be very sure before making war on a country whose men run out of the sauna to roll in the snow. 🥶😄 Good choice, Finland!
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  54.  @patsymontenegro6884  North America can grow enough to feed itself. China cannot, and so buys soybeans, pork, beef and other food from abroad. From North America, notably.
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  55.  @mostlymessingabout  The six country giants all have massive areas which are practically uninhabited, some more than others. Comparisons of population density aren't impossible, but this must enter into the calculation in order for them to mean anything. China being the 27th most densely populated country isn't a very germane fact.
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  56. And you'd think a pandemic would pour cold water on house prices, but no, they've actually picked up steam. Thanks, Fed! Thanks, other central banks! Together they have swelled the money supply to an amazing extent and fuelled outlandish asset price inflation. As time proceeds they shall have no choice but to open the fire hydrant some more, partly to avoid economic collapse, partly to provoke the inflation which alone, with its consequent devaluation of the currency, can do something about debts, public and private, of such enormousness. And enormity. At that point, as now, they are simply postponing a massive drop in wealth and the ordinary standard of living. By doing so they will actually make these things worse than if it happened quickly. Some well-known investors are predicting a lot of wealth destruction in all or nearly all asset classes, btw. Worldwide, and within one to three years. It could begin in the second half of this year.
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  57. That's right.
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  58. Sweden to the US last year: "I hate you so much." Sweden to the US this year: "I hate you so much. Protect me. And may I add, I hate you."
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  59. Free? Are you hi?
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  60. If things continue on this track just a year longer, even those who've spent their lives wailing about 'the evil American hegemon' are going to realize the precious value of the Pax Americana, and their foolishness will dawn on them like a barrage of hard slaps to the face. At that point it might be too late.
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  61.  @KairHatchet  Dude, whatever you're smoking, cut back on it.
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  62. I was trying to eat my lunch. Thanks a lot.
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  63. I hope he gets whatever he deserves, no less than any of us. I think it's clear what that is.
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  64. We don't care where you're from. Anyone siding with a slimeball is a slimeball.
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  65.  @kimwit1307  I realize all that. You're telling me what I'm telling you. (Not that it wasn't worth going into some detail.) Cheers
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  66. Start without us.
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  67. Who can say? It could have been mere theatrics for domestic consumption. The Turkish economy is in dire shape, so any positive distraction is a huge plus for Erdogan. The rest of NATO wears the pants, let's face it. For all Turkey knows, if it were to depart from NATO, it would soon enough have very serious problems with Russia.
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  68. Sure, just like you Pooty-Bots swore up and down Russia wouldn't invade Ukraine for months up until Feb. 24. You Pooty-Bots crack me up. 🤣
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  69.  @syntaxer1984  Asking them what?
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  70.  @CarolineWolterHall  I've known some great Hamburgers! We're fortunate to have you.
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  71. Bro, do you know what a sentence is? You need about 8 fn periods in there, dude.
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  72. I don't see how that's even a point worth making by anyone. Of course no sane person wants Russia's military to be in great shape for their next move. Of course we want its capacities diminished. It all goes without saying.
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  73.  @catalinxnecula  Yawn. The more you Pooty-Bots splutter and fume, the more obvious you know you're doomed.
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  74. Never let guilt run your risk management program. Nor your entire country, for that matter.
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  75.  @sandrabasikbeach2980  I certainly don't think you're worth issuing a warning to, Brandine.
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  76.  @brucewayne3892  Just watch us.
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  77. Her impatience and quickness in becoming irritated are never tolerated in male politicians, not since a lifetime ago anyway. A man with a personality like that could never make it to the post of Foreign Minister. Yes, she reminds me of German rulers and soldiers as portrayed in movies depicting the middle third of the last century.
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  78.    True. They overestimate themselves so badly it's comical. So do many Americans of all stripes, but it goes double for Democrats. (Indeed it's true of many peoples, my own country and maybe me included, but the US has a chronically bad case of it.)
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  79. True up to a point. A lot of moral truth to it.
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  80.  @shewolfee4247  "His" pandemic? It entered the US from abroad, and the unimpressive response to it was a real team effort by politicians of both parties, many institutions, and countless individual Americans, particularly in the heavily liberal states. I am a liberal myself, but willing to admit it the obvious. To you, surely the present storms are "his" hurricanes, too?
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  81. I see the Pooty-bots here are out in full force. Great sign! It means things will be fine. They only come out in large numbers to deny reality. How to determine the truth: Find out what Russians are saying online; believe the opposite.
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  82. Yes, the far left and far right resemble each other in many ways. Extremes Meet.
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  83.  @babblo1389  Sure, Pooty-bot.
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  84. Ok, Pooty-Bot.
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  85. It's doing that anyway.
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  86. "Crazy maniac" seems an altogether too small a term for him. I always go with "complete psycho." Every decent man and woman in the world is with you, Ukraine.
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  87.  @BucketzofBordo  What's not to get, Mikhail? Supporting services within the military are supposed to collect the dead and bring them back to Russia promptly. Soldiers carrying around bodies for several days is a sign that resources were not properly and respectfully allocated to his forces by Putin.
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  88.  @jrkr7357  Omg, how can you ask? Because he has no desire to see the people in the countries helping him to survive freeze in their homes!
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  89.  @Kronosfobi  👏🏻 Haha, an excellent reply perfectly phrased. 👏🏻
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  90. What a childish comment. Without weapons makers we'd be defenceless.
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  91. Thanks for the Chinese Foreign Ministry point of view. Or perhaps you're just enrolled at Berkeley?
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  92. DW is presuming a more knowledgeable viewership than the channels over here would dare hope for. North Americans are generally hostile to the sort of background knowledge one would need in order to find this discussion accessible and interesting. They see such knowledge as in itself deeply boring and nerdy. It also makes them feel inadequate, so it doesn't fly.
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  93.  @greentea8852  "Materially support" does not mean "supply with material." It means "support in a significant way." You can verify this in any dictionary of English.
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  94.  @大汉忠臣曹孟德  You bore me with your PRC Foreign Ministry talking points. Muted. TTFN.
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  95.    Ok, talk to you in five thousand years.
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  96.    Oooooo. Hungary's coming to get me.
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  97.  @fawkesmorque  Germany: "Sure, Russia is beastly, but we like our sausages well-browned over a gas fire, and we like to drive on the highway at 240 km/h. So we will do all we can to help Ukraine, but it has to be extremely easy, extremely safe, and not annoying to Russia. Oh, and Ukraine has to say publicly that we are the grandest people ever."
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  98. That's just wrong. Russia is Europe's poor cousin. Even by a maximally flattering PPP calculation, Russian per-capita GDP is around $20,000 (and falling fast). In Europe it's over $40,000. Poor people are never in a "much better situation." But thanks for your typical, sad and dishonest Pooty-bot post.
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  99. You know all about being trained, I'm sure.
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  100. You forgot 4. Immense capacity is being built for international LNG trade. Just immense. A great number of terminals are under construction or planned worldwide. Huge exports coming from friendly and stable countries. Will be able to supplement and replace many millions of barrels of oil a day.
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  101.  @hobobobobo2065  What canting nonsense. More like she was femsplaining. Hear the condescension first in her reply at 5:12, then even more in the one at 6:10, which culminates in open snark at 6:30. Real thought should be given to dismissal.
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  102. @Lock Down When he said "Good interview," I took it for cheerfully-delivered sarcasm tinged with contempt, since I've never seen a guest treated with such determined rudeness. I actually suspect the producer ended the interview early because it had started to become a spectacle not fit to be aired.
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  103. If there's not enough time for all the questions, perhaps one might ask fewer questions. For me, cutting every reply short was unsatisfactory.
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  104.  @MrTom-kl7hy  What "tax reductions for oil and gas"? From oilfield wellhead to retail gas pump, in fact, the oil and gas industry is a gusher of tax revenue for governments. There are many breaks and exemptions for the industry, but such things are common across the entire tax system, for example mortgage interest deductibility in private individuals' tax assessments. It will be interesting to see how governments replace fossil fuel tax revenues as we say our long good-bye to hydrocarbons.
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  105.  @Sk-po9dx  NATO is devastating the Russian forces just by wiggling its little pinky. If it even used its thumb, its conventional forces could obliterate Russia's conventional forces. And let's face it, nuclear weapons are unusable.
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  106. "Germany has asked [Russia] for written clarification" concerning the payment currency for oil and gas. Omg, what a laugh. As though if you get something from Russia in writing then it's somehow binding on them!
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  107. Wondering the same thing. Is there no way to approach the Russian forces from the west or north? Cannot their positions be attacked with artillery, drones or shoulder-fired missiles?
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  108. I think he's a shoo-in for the gold medal in the hotly-contested category of Biggest Psycho as well.
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  109.  Евгения Едалина  I suspected it was wasted on you anyway but, oh well, others may see it. Glory to Ukraine!
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  110. Nor is she even that, my friend with dim eyesight.
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  111. "Pushing"😂🤣 Yeah, right. Russia is minding its own business and the West is bullying it. You Pooty-Bots totally crack me up.
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  112. "He" with viciously skeptical quotation marks is fitting indeed. The time has probably come, in fact, to make the move to 'it.'
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  113.  @a5cent  Please. He didn't say every Western interview is a tough one. He merely said there are no tough interviews in China or Russia. We've all seen politicians being given softball interviews, but we've also seen the tough, even harassing kind, including, yes, in the US. Trump got hostile treatment at times; Biden gets a hard time from Fox reporters. No need to talk down to us like we're ten.
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  114. You don't understand any of this. And stop yelling.
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  115. Finally some output from DW that matches the quality it routinely attained a couple of decades ago. I had very nearly given up hope. But I suppose we're just fortunate that the subject has nothing to do with "social issues," and I can probably resume losing hope next time. Ah well, a reprieve is nice.
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  116. No, so far their record has been outstanding. Nice try, Pooty-Bot.
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  117. DW shows its viewers disrespect by giving work of this sort to such a young person. The interviewer showed a lack of experience, skills, and judgement at several points during the interview. An assignment like this requires a journalist seasoned over decades and having at least a few grey hairs (figuratively speaking, at any rate), not someone scarcely through their 35th trip around the sun.
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  118.  @karlvonbahnhof6594  Great comment; too bad it's buried in obscurity as a reply in this thread. Copy it, adapt it and re-post it elsewhere as a stand-alone comment in the right spot(s).
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  119.  @item6931  I suppose you mean that's what a chin implant is made of? If so, quite right.
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  120.  @mazlanmdzain2409  You're welcome. It's always a pleasure to speak the truth. You know, truth? You've heard of it of course?
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  121. Nice try, Ivan/Junfeng. Americans are charging reasonable prices for energy. They are also paying enormous sums for European security. I recognize these posts instantly.
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  122.  @tages_matuna  Okay.
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  123. Russians need to prove they are not cement-heads born to be ruled.
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  124.  @torrent1615  A would-be rebuttal totally devoid of relevance, intelligence and soul—in short, devoid of all basic humanity worth anything. Congratulations, that's something they can never take away from you.
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  125. ​ @kimwit1307  I regard GDPs of countries with severely undervalued currencies as being more suitably looked at by PPP. Nominal and PPP both have their aspects of reality and unreality, and are both important, but when an economy grows in domestic terms while shrinking in market exchange rate terms, you know something's not right with the USD-terms picture. Pre-war, Russia's GDP at PPP was just 10% smaller than Germany's, i.e., pretty close to $5trn. All that talk one hears about its economy being "the size of Italy or Canada" stems from a serious lack of understanding and knowledge, and in many cases bias and strong emotions. (Don't get me wrong, Germany's economy was a fundamentally stronger, more advanced and richer one, hands down. But GDP is a measure of size, not quality.) Thanks for your reply.
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  126. Never take on an alliance of countries with 8x your population and 25x your GDP. Good luck, Sergei.
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  127. You are very much outnumbered and outgunned, my friend. Don't kid yourself.
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  128.  @fadil4049  Omg. Fadil, Fadil, Fadil. There's no comparison between the West shutting off a gangster's access to their financial system and markets, and Russia deliberately starving people in Africa and the Middle East. My dear boy, you would morally equate the two? Really?
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  129.  @camocas  Yep, that's how Russian trolls bomb any anti-Putin thread: 'US so bad! My wife screwed neighbour and was American fault!"
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  130.  @minnigmanmad  You conveniently forget all the material aid Russia received from its Western allies.
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  131. That's an exaggeration, although there's some truth to it. Maybe you could start a petition demanding that all countries of the world be very nice.
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  132. Yes, the title is cheap, gleefully low journalism. A less biased title would be "Is Italy's new right-wing government extremist?" Closer to neutral would be: "We examine claims that Italy's new government is extremist" Fully neutral: "What is the nature of Italy's new government?" Journalists are now become activists who killed journalism in favour of their agenda. News articles are now political pamphlets. What Pravda was to the USSR, DW is to Germany.
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  133.  @williamwu8452  Yes, I was glad to hear it a couple of days ago. But just like Germany we need new everything. If we want the 77-year peace to hold, the West has to be properly armed.
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  134.  @LightYerPipe  On a macro scale, how about the Pax Americana? Or keeping the sea lanes safe so that world shipping runs smoothly? (If the American navy weren't keeping them open, it would be a somewhat different world.) Regarding the coronavirus, there seems to be one bright spot: the low case fatality rate in the US. At 3.0% it is far lower than the western European average (roughly 10%) and lower even than in Germany, where it is 3.8%.
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  135.  tasos orfas  The US is 10th (source: worldometers.info) but this includes tiny territories and very small countries. Among countries with at least 5m people, they have the 3rd worst infection rate, behind only Chile and Peru.
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  136.  @lockk132  Wait, I take that back: I do know what you are.
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  137. I will be very surprised if Zelensky travels to Belarus and makes it back alive. He should insist the parley take place by videoconference or even telephone.
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  138. Honest title: Azovstal soldiers surrender, taken prisoner
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  139. Puffiness is often a sign of illness (e.g. a side effect of cancer treatments) and he looks somewhat like a Michelin man. And I agree: if he were 50 this wouldn't be happening. He's in that dangerous legacy obsession phase. (So is Xi. They're both almost 70.)
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  140.  @Лапша-ш5ж  Yep, absolutely. Canada has immense capacity and potential to churn out wheat, oil, fertilizer and all the stuff Russia sells. (Except arms). Just watch Canada turn it up in the coming months and years.
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  141. I agree, but it's 13th, not 30th. As to why, she refused to answer.
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  142. Please, don't say "har-HEAVE". It's HAR-kiv. HAR-keev is all right too, I think. (If you want to give the initial H a gravelly, throat-clearing type of sound as Ukrainians themselves do, that's good but not necessary, since English speakers generally aren't good at making it.)
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  143. Poor Scholz. Even the appalling Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, received him on his tour with a disappointing response. He told him to drop dead. No Canadian energy for Germany.
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  144. I could've listened to an hour of this.
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  145.  @gmf8171  I'm not going to ignore the professional opinion of some dude because he had an affair. Who gives af? I might mind if I were her brother.
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  146.  @gmf8171  That did what it was supposed to do. The Baked Potato in Chief botched the exit badly, though, I won't argue there.
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  147. Ukraine is using a great deal of its Soviet-era weapons and materiel.
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  148. "Russian troops retreating or preparing for another attack?" They're doing whatever Xi told Putin to tell them to do.  Putin is his new bride.  He wore tons of make-up at the wedding. Xi looked hilarious in his Mao suit.
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  149.  @nileshjoshi6669  Oh, that's what you meant.
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  150. Hard to defend…publicly. Perhaps it would be easier if he could speak candidly. We on this side of the cameras do not know what Xi has said to Biden. For all we know he has made repeated insinuations that China will act decisively on Russia's behalf in certain circumstances—or rather than insinuations, has made threats and promises. Then there are the threats of Putin of which we are all well aware. It's easy for us to disregard them, but we are not deciding anything. If we really did have responsibility for making actual choices, you can bet that we would be much slower to decide, much less sure of ourselves. An immense number of lives, even the future of humanity, is at stake.
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  151. ​ @brucewayne3892  The EU countries are crazy and twisted, but far less crazy and twisted than Putin. (No big accomplishment there!) They are far saner, far richer, far more well-armed, far more numerous and far more productive than Russia. They also have the US backing them up, plus a good number of other large or strategically important high-GDP countries (UK, Turkey, Israel, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea—and no doubt India and many others if it ever came down to it). Game, set, match. Five or six billion people are going to vigorously oppose any attempt by China and Russia to take over the world. They all know the Pax Americana is good for them, because it is, and they're not fools.
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  152. @Watcher Nothing but a complete lack of desire. To confuse the Westerners of today with the Westerners of an earlier lifetime who took over Chinese port cities is like confusing the disco dancers of Berlin and Hamburg today with the Waffen SS of 1940.
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  153.  @DegenerateStatesOfAmrika  Haha. I'm nobody's bot, bro. I'm a grown man. Little boys under their strict dad, that's you guys in Russia and China. Little boys forever, and you watch dad beat up mom, helpless. Then you listen to dad brag how smoothly he runs his household. Of course he does! His sons are all nine years old for life.
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  154.  @asianaiart  All right then, don't call it a warning, call it bargaining. Either way, the weak hand is yours. Don't make a move in haste. Keep your cool.
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  155. The US and ISAF certainly did not lose. They were smart enough to know just what would happen against the Taliban. They stayed long enough to show the world what happens when you pull what the Taliban did in hosting Al Qaeda and its training camps…and then they stayed another ten years for good measure. Point made, and the world made far safer for a long time. Partial occupation for 20 years is likely exactly what they planned for.
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  156. Hear! Hear!
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  157. Your comparing Russia's economy to Germany's based on market exchange rates is questionable enough, but comparing their military budgets on that basis is entirely misguided. The nearly worthless ruble makes these things look far smaller than they really are. Russia's economy is nearly the size of Germany's at PPP exchange rates, which consider how much a ruble buys in goods and services within Russia, and ignore what it buys abroad. (The same thing goes for China. Its expenditure is far closer to that of the US than these figures make it appear.) Sorry, this comment deserves zero upvotes.
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  158.  @defendfreedom1390  Germany was naive, not wicked. It hoped and believed that commercial ties with the West would temper Putin's behaviour. Perhaps it was a more realistic hope some years ago, before his outlook changed. In any case, time has shown that Germany mishandled its risks.
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  159.  @irvhh143  None is needed. It is building an LNG port in British Columbia for exports to Asia. It should build one on the east coast too.
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  160. Ms. Davydova was the better guest. No pretentious academic gobbledygook like "instrumentalize" or hipster buzzwords like "space." (As in: "the post-Soviet space." A civilized person would say "the post-Soviet era.")
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  161. Far too many distracting, over-long, close-up reaction shots. When Mr. Vindman is speaking, that's where our interest is, so show him to us please. This is a news interview, not the place for camera work suited to a drama series on evening television. Otherwise a fine segment.
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  162. Analyst. Annalist is a type of historian.
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  163.  @greganderson7216  A very fair guess, I'll allow that. But if it's correct, why did Blinken just say to Poland that he'll replenish their fleet with F-16s if they donate their MiGs? Who wouldn't give her Corolla to her son if her boyfriend promised to replace it with a Lexus?
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  164.  @revlouch  I would keep an eye on Alaska if I were you.
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  165. ​ @greganderson7216  I'm not sure Ukraine is even the main consideration in Blinken or Biden's mind. I suspect they think it's high time Poland had some decent stuff anyway. I found your reply reasonable but I'm very far from ready to regard Putin as desperate. I suspect rather that he is attempting to draw NATO into a trap. His Ukraine tactics have been half-hearted considering the troops and weaponry at his disposal, and this argues that they are for the most part bait. Keep in mind the numerous long meetings and phone calls he has had with Xi in the past year or two, and also that the Indo-Pacific is of greater strategic importance to the world even than Eastern Europe. Far greater. It's the big prize, and an overextended and exhausted NATO could put many significant countries, some of them highly important, within China's grasp, to be either conquered outright or put under domination: Taiwan (home to 60% of the world's semiconductor production),  Japan, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia. And if even two of those go, I don't see how Guam would be likely to last. The countries and peoples of the West have to come together immediately, lest we find ourselves in a fight for our survival. It's absolutely not out of the question.  (So far Germany is setting the best example, despite keeping its head in the sand until the last possible moment.)
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  166.  UFO  I agree there is ample reason to suspect just that, and that Ukraine is a trap. See my reply in this thread to Greg Anderson just now, 4 hours after yours, outlining in part my own reasons. (It begins "I'm not sure Ukraine […]") Cheers
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  167. He's going to take it on the chin. (Chin implant, that is). 😄
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  168. Putin is about to star in the sequel to a movie he saw long, long ago. Its title will be "Afghanistan II."
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  169. DW, you treat these Russian denials of responsibility with absurd generosity. Get a hold of yourselves.
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  170. Ok, Yevgeny.
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  171. Correct spelling of his name (I don't care what anyone else might say): Putzin.
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  172. I have not yet finished watching, but I ask these things anyway: Is liquefied natural gas not available on the open market? Does it not sell for a decent price? Does Germany not have an LNG port? If it doesn't, could it not build one? Does Germany enjoy taking long-term strategic risks?
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  173. Too bad the government of India is callously indifferent to them. I have begun shunning products with Made in India labels. I will no longer reward evil support of evil.
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  174. For the second consecutive election, Trump is the second most misguided, second most dangerous, and second most annoying candidate for president. Thus, he is preferable. (Please, America, see if you can do better in 2024. Do something about your slide.)
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  175. Any German, any Frenchman, any Italian or Dutchman—any Western European—who won't take transit, or pedal, or walk a couple of miles to work in order to deny Russia oil revenues, rather than drive his or her car, deserves the greatest possible contempt. Three simple words for Putzin: P.O.S.
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  176. "Anyone from outside interfering". What? Russia is from outside and it is bl———y well interfering. The more you threaten, by the way, the weaker you sound.
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  177. A preposterous and juvenile conclusion. Actual fascists would be beating people up in the street and forcing opponents to drink castor oil. Thanks Professor Addlebrain.
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  178.  @seanpatrick1243  You're lost.
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  179. Wow, that dude talks the same sort of hipster cant that Justin Trudeau does. Odds are strong that he's one of his idols.
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  180. He's pushing 90 years of age.
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  181.  @baronvonlimbourgh1716  Back to the fragrant cheese named after you, Fritz.
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  182. I thought it wasn't very bright and not what I call thinking on your feet. It was a chance to communicate the German position in a productive way and she sounded merely flippant and irritated. I'm surprised she advanced to this job at a young age with such skills. Or maybe I'm not, when I think about it.
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  183. Thank god his dad is still alive, trying to recuperate in another ward of the same hospital, according to another report.
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  184. Doubtless she does. I knew a man who became a famed biographer of one of Russia's most esteemed composers with under a decade of experience reading Russian. Although Russian, like English, is hard to exhaustively master (even Einstein found mastery of English beyond his reach, although Nabokov didn't after decades of concerted effort) if you're good at languages, not particularly so.
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  185. Ok, Vassily.
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  186. What? Who says "China cannot trade with Russia"?
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  187. It's remarkable how long that's been going on. Word gets around back in the Subcontinent about how bad it is, yet the employers still get their new recruits year after year.  I wish the supply of willing workers would dry up. It's the same in some other Gulf nations, too.
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  188. DW needs to replace its girl commentator with a grown-up man or woman, preferably with a few grey hairs. It's painful to listen to this callow person, whose views need more decades of seasoning. What was DW thinking?
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  189. Watch the cool YouTube channel '1420'—which is all interviews with people on the street in Russia, nearly all in Moscow—and tell me if it looks 3rd-world in the least. Spoiler: it absolutely does not. (But new uploads may soon end, cuz it's obvious the 1420 guy is anti-Ukraine-War and anti-Putin. I mean he might get jailed.) Other than that I agree with every word of what you said. Cheers
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  190. @Clem Fandango Translation: "I hate the West so much that it makes any atrocities committed by others elsewhere quite all right."
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  191. The woman being interviewed is quite right. China is drooling to have an ally on Russia's level. To them, Putin is pure gold. And of course that's what he is—to the Party. For though a thousand years should pass, as long as the Party rules China, China will never have a friend. Having no friends, it will take any psycho as an ally, since any sane country will automatically ally itself with the West.
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  192.  @Eric-lx8hp  That's wrong, unless you didn't know the dark ages were the centuries following the fall of Rome in the West. In certain places and times the average life expectancy might have been thirty, I can accept that. But people would still commonly live past middle age if they were in stable circumstances with adequate food, water, and shelter, and weren't otherwise particularly unlucky. A 30-year-old with kids around ten wouldn't be considered an oldster.
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  193. And yet Biden continues to talk to Iran about green-lighting higher oil production. That would only provide it with many more tens of billions of dollars for funding both nuclear weapons development and more attacks on US supporters like this one. Madness. What has he done to get Canada to raise production? Nothing. I repeat: Madness.
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  194. ​ @mhlangamlungisi5108  Who says Putin didn't back the Taliban? I call that a hypothesis, and a non-falsifiable one at that. And since unfalsifiable assertions are the order of the day, what about the river of capital flowing into Afghanistan during the ISAF action from citizens of Arab and other Mu slim nations? Finally, 'victory' and 'failure' have meanings different in Afghanistan from elsewhere. Unconditional surrender and disarming of the Taliban was never the aim of the US, as indeed pacification of the Mujahideen was of Russia. The Americans knew it was impossible from the get-go, and Bush said as much when he warned from the outset that the war would last a very long time. Thus the US semi-occupation was no failure, for it did exactly what it was supposed to do: It told all the world that if you host terrorist training and then its graduates attack the West, your country will get some very well-armed and unpleasant visitors—and they will stay for a generation if necessary. You may debate whether that warning was worth the price of issuing it. But obviously the question is whether the loss of thousands of lives and supposed $2trn bill prevented additional 9/11s. The 9/11 attack itself cost thousands of lives and surely many hundreds of billions of dollars even apart from the Afghan war expense.
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  195. "First step towards peace." Pffft. Far likelier the prelude to a gigantic new offensive. Putin is the least trustworthy person on Earth.
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  196. Thank you. It is absurd to be neutral here. Who is neutral when the police are closing in on a mass shooter in a school?
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  197. How to make your whole country China's b - - - - permanently, in under 30 days. Nice going, Putin—you just made Russia a minor power forever.
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  198. Pfft. Turkey doesn't GAF about anything but Turkey.
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  199. Yep. Born to be ruled.
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  200. Yes she is a scold, but it's not funny. His questions were quite apposite and he was right to press her for example on Germany's 13th-place support of Ukraine. Coming somewhat close to losing her temper in response to rather mild if persistent probing is a serious demerit in a country's top diplomat. Or anyone, really.
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  201. I agreed with every word he said. Great guest.
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  202. Then you know what you have to do.
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  203. Ukraine: "Excuse me, sir, but you are full of it. We have the right to exist, to affiliate ourselves with whom we want, and to protect ourselves from the psycho in the Kremlin. But thanks for the Russian Foreign Ministry talking points."
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  204.  @drsuzuki6506  Taiwan is China—the Republic of China. The PRC is a rogue province which must be brought back into the fold.
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  205.  @大汉忠臣曹孟德  "Non-aligned". What a laugh. China promptly blamed the US and NATO for the Russian slaughter in Ukraine.
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  206.  @greentea8852  The people on Democracy Now never wash their faces or hair. I doubt they brush their teeth or take showers. They are mentally ill. And I do not watch BBC, CNN or Fox either. It's you who needs advice on what to watch. As for the Ukraine War, Russia will exterminate all Ukrainians at the expense of ruining Russia forever, knocking it back to before Peter the Great and making it the poodle of Xi. This is no doubt what he always had in mind. The new Mao, that's how I see him: egomaniac, psycho, extremist, meat-packing monster.
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  207.  @greentea8852  Every Russian soldier Putin sends, Ukraine will send back to mama in a refrigerated trailer. So far over 15k, hundreds more every day. Plus even more captured and surrendered. Besides that, huge numbers are deserting. Russia's wealth is being devastated. Impoverishment is their destiny. GDP sharply contracting. Every meal will be bread with boiled beets and carrots till 2050.
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  208. Your command of articles gives you away, Olga.
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  209.  @derekbaker3279  I've made up my mind that I'm against government news. People should not get their news from the government. It is sure to end up working in the government's favour and not theirs. I would argue it's now gotten to that point in numerous countries, perhaps every one of them. It wasn't always so bad, but it's 2023, and almost all our institutions are going sour, government news as much as any. (So then why, it will be objected, am I even here? I am here because something like an interview with the estimable Gen. Hodges isn't to be missed, and I would watch him even if he were appearing on Rossiya-1.)
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  210. Possibly the world's biggest psycho and creep since Stalin. Is there a pattern here?
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  211. Perfectly well said.
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  212. In fact Sonnenfeld's analysis on this subject has been featured more prominently across the US media than anyone else's. Mainstream coverage has made his recent paper famous. DW is actually playing catch-up.
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  213. ​ @ugli88  Your GDP comparison uses the flattering PPP method. But the $27k figure plunges to $12k by the unflattering market exchange rate method, which gives a perspective on the country's position in the world, especially in trade and finance. Each method is valid in its way, so I would be inclined to average them and say Russian GDP is about $20,000. It is also falling as the Russian economy shrinks.
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  214.  @renataostertag6051  Yes, of course you are with Russians, and so am I. A splendid people except they're a little bit born to be ruled, perhaps. Otherwise very much to be admired. The Russian government, no. They are out with me. I mean he, Putin, is out with me. It's time this Tsar were thrown out according to custom.
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  215. It's time NATO commissioned a statue of him to put in the plaza in front of headquarters in Brussels. 😉
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  216.  @usa91191  Yer so confused. Finland just got safer. Weird how Russia thinks its neighbours don't know what's good for them. 🤪 They do know. They know what Russia under Putzin is.
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  217. China's government well earns any hatred towards it, and its brutality at home and awful rhetoric on the world stage justifiably makes foreigners feel insecure. Clean multi-party elections would give China a fresh start. Can China not trust its people?
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  218. Putin "wants to see himself next to Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, or Stalin." Yes, that sounds fantastic and I'm all for it: I hope it happens before sunset today!
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  219. 100% of that makes zero sense, plus it's ra syst. 1) Russia has been trying to 'eat Ukraine for breakfast' for 75 days now and so far it has been a failure or a draw. 2) Since NATO is not interested in a war with Russia, Russia's air defence systems are no more a particular concern than they were, for example, 12 months ago. Anyway, there's now ample reason to doubt those systems are very good. Which brings me to… 3) It's Russia's forces that look more like a joke. In its indirect supporting role NATO's equipment, intelligence, logistics and diplomacy are all producing very satisfactory results. Its unity, so far, is outstanding.
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  220. You say this as though China truly is and wishes to remain neutral. Ha! While India actually is quite neutral, China, in contrast, has already publicly blamed the US and NATO for the war, in essence for forcing Russia to murder Ukrainians in self-defence.
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  221.  @cq4fun  You have a queer way of using the word "you." I never said or did any of the things you accuse me of. I never mentioned which country I'm from, either. In fact everything you say is a falsehood in one way or another except that China is the enemy of the West (along with Russia, Iran, and North Korea). Calling the Ukraine War "your war," although everyone on Earth knows it is Putin's war alone, is especially comical.
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  222. Actually it's Russia whose economy is going to get knocked back to the 1930s. Enjoy eating beets three times a day for the next 25 years, Vassily.
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  223.  @hellopeace5675  haha, you are now China's poodle. They own you. Bend over and take it like a girl. Putin, Xi's bride-to-be, is in makeup getting fitted for his white wedding dress. (He's a size 4.)
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  224. India, 2023: "Can I be in NATO, please?"
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  225. Ok, Sergei.
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  226.  @losttribe9107  True. Baerbock is a Green in love with her own authoritarian spirit. See her here on DW scolding the interviewer for bothering her with fair questions about a week ago. "You vill not repeat kvestion! You vill accept mein BS evasion answer! You vill listen! "
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  227. Comparing military budgets based on market exchange rates is entirely misguided. The nearly worthless ruble and undervalued Chinese yuan make their budgets look far smaller than they really are. Russia's economy is nearly the size of Germany's at the PPP exchange rate, which values the ruble on what buys in goods and services within Russia, and ignores what it buys abroad. The same thing goes for China. Its military spending is far closer to that of the US than these figures shown in the video make it appear.
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  228.  @carpenter3069  It's nothing to do with the US holding anybody hostage. The world chooses to conduct trade in US dollars of its own volition, simply because no other currency is as reliable. This would change the moment traders decided to change to another currency, and they are free to do so. It is true, however, that the dollar system prevails for petroleum due to a 1973 agreement between the US and OPEC.
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  229. 140 countries condemned Russia.
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  230. Yes, they are not suddenly becoming allies. No, it is not a mere formality. Ask any Finn.
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  231.  @juliec5309  That type of opinion is unheard of in Canada. No doubt a Pooty-Bot hiding behind a phony account name.
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  232. Vous comprenez moins que rien. La prochaine fois, anglais s.v.p.
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  233. Not true. They prevented an unbelievable quantity of mayhem around the globe, both during the war and for a long time to come. Who is going to host terrorist training on their soil now—now that they know it will serve as an invitation to very unpleasant company to drop by…and stay for 20 years?
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  234. This report is stale. Germany will be paying in Euros.
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  235.  @jager6863  Canada has no LNG. Its first giant export facility comes online in 2025.
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  236.  @Mygg_Jeager  Very much not what I heard.
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  237.  @Mygg_Jeager  Yes, troll, I do know a fighter pilot, although I haven't talked to him in years. I suppose you're a MiG pilot yourself?
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  238. It's where the window is, Dr. Freud.
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  239. Yes, far. If by far you mean months.
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  240. I wish you were a multi-neuron organism already.
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  241. Fanny might be a good journalist but her English is so hard to understand that she should really be working in another language which she can enunciate well.
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  242. Hey man, can I get a hit off that?
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  243. Yes, they are doing everything right so far. Everyone must bear in mind that this is a dress rehearsal for something ten times bigger at least: a Chinese takeover of East Asia and its shipping lanes. Xi enabled Putin in this atrocity. Their many meetings and professions of friendship in the months leading up to the attack on Ukraine were no mere coincidence. In my view, Xi egged him on with promises of support in order to get an idea of what the West would do about attacks on Taiwan, other lands in the Pacific, and the badly-named South China Sea. He also expects Ukrainian grain so he can dispense with Western imports. Cunning.
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  244.  @ufosrus  An unheated cell in The Hague will also do nicely.
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  245.  @pvosoccer1585  You let on, it seems to me, that "CEOs and others" have twisted the arms of the people of the world, forcing them to work productively and become richer. I would say it's closer to humanity finding a way of satisfying its desire to become prosperous. Whether it's entirely wonderful or not (it is not) is beside my point; I'm saying the people of the economically free world got what they were in it for. Not every person in every country in every decade, but largely so. They won't regret it on the whole until it goes bust. Why would they?
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  246. The Ukrainians describe their attacks as "un-coordinated but very destructive." Potent combo, very hard to go up against. 👏🏻
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  247. More than half? No. Only around 35 out of 195. And if you think India is cool with Putin, dream on. They have relations with Russia only to have a source of weapons and oil to fend off their enemy China. In about 30 years if not sooner, Russia will be the poodle of either India or China—unless it comes to its senses and integrates into Europe.
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  248. Smoke one yourself. Go see Putzin and inhale deeply.
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  249. Most people I think would agree with you. But in these comments sections we're outnumbered by Russians. They've solved the problem of poor English by copying and pasting comments and fragments of comments from native English speakers on Western social media sites, then sharing with each other, as well as clearing drafts through a small number of expert users of English. It's a big change from a couple of months ago.
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  250.  @Ryanlexz  It's long past time to stop holding the door open for them.
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  251. Meanwhile the West has yet to issue any threats. You don't have to when you know the other party doesn't doubt your capabilities.
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  252.  @george3697  What part of a threat to use nuclear weapons is not a threat? You waltz in here and announce that a threat is not a threat? Let me guess what else: Men can get pregnant too?. Two plus two equals five?   Sick man, heal thyself.
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  253. Ok, Andrei.
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  254. This can't be one of your better posts, Yevgeny. If it is, you should hang up and try Russian TV journalism. Gen. Hodges is clear that certain conditions must be met in order for Russia to be ejected from Ukraine, and he spells out those conditions. Nothing could be more desirable than such clarity. He goes on to explain why each condition is necessary. Sorry, Yevgeny (Mischa, Oleg, whatever) but expect boss going to not like way you doing job are.
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  255. I strikes me as possible that NATO will go after Belarus if it joins the war as a direct combatant. Has NATO given any hint on such a thing, either way?
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  256.  @thecuttingsark5094  Yes, and for that they should be enjoying a feeling of gladness. I love that they've been so materially, rhetorically and symbolically supportive of Ukraine.
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  257. Make a point or don't post.
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  258. Sanctions aren't bombs or missiles but they do damage nonetheless. The partial recovery of the rouble was achieved at a ruinous cost. They're keeping the living room warm by throwing furniture into the fireplace and there's no more where that came from.
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  259.  @miriamweller812  GDP means financial power, the power to develop or buy resources. With ingenuity you can stretch your money, but only up to a certain point, and no one should suppose that economic output and wealth mean nothing.
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  260.  @francoislechanceux5818  Except that the low value of the rouble at market exchange rates gives a distorted impression of the size of its economy. Prior to the war it was reckoned on the usual alternative measure (purchasing power parity) at about $4.2trn, which is not even 10% less than the GDP of Germany.
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  261. ​ @francoislechanceux5818  Thanks for your reply. I agree with all that. I would add that this war is not just about Putin. Mark my words, this is just the first fruit of the China-Russia alliance. Much larger, much bloodier, much more disastrous proxy wars will come out of it. Direct wars between major countries are also probable within a generation or two, possibly within a few years, even conceivably this year. The first half of the 20th century is storming back. It can't be stopped entirely, it can only be slowed down, reduced in scale. A significant number of countries are going to attack and attempt to impoverish, subjugate and destroy the West; it will have to respond with massive militarization. Enjoy the rest of the Pax Americana while you can. Get your travelling done if you can. A world which in many areas, including the West, are relaxed, open, free and prosperous is likely slipping away. The one we grew up in will be seen as an aberration, and I expect most children will be taught that it was wicked and hellish.
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  262.  @francoislechanceux5818  Nominal GDP means something, to be sure, but it means a lot less when a currency is quite over- or undervalued. All you need to know is this: some years a country's currency goes up against the US dollar, sometimes it falls. But, up or down, the change may be totally irrelevant to what happened to output. From 2012 to 2016 my own country's currency fell from $1.05 to under 70 cents US. Its nominal GDP in USD terms fell sharply. So it had become massively impoverished, right? No, not at all. It had enjoyed steady economic growth the whole time, with rising incomes, rising production volumes, and rising per capita net worth. Both GDP measures describe reality accurately up to a point; neither does it perfectly. I trust I've at least raised serious doubts in your mind about your position.
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  263. Gas storage nearly full, LNG terminals moving rapidly along on schedule, ships crossing the Atlantic with gas purchased at reasonable American prices, winter weather forecast to be mild. Germany will conduct itself with good sense and come through this quite all right. It pays to be rich, to run smoothly, and to have trustworthy friends (unlike certain other countries). Cheers, mate
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  264. All of that's being done already.
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  265. Not bad as a generality, but it doesn't deserve law status. Many questions are not amenable to yes-or-no answers (e.g. "How much should we be paying for X?" or "When will the recession end?"). Yes, however, it seems that over 90% of the time when it's yes or no, the answer is no.
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  266.  @marklittler784  I'm not just saying that. I read someone point it out a couple of years ago and have been paying attention ever since. Turns out it's true for some reason.
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  267.  @ernestkhalimov1007  Russian oil and gas has been banned in the US. The laugh's on you, Ivan.
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  268.  SCPython  lol The reason India is not sanctioning Russia is that it depends on Russia for the weapons and oil it needs in order to fend off China!!
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  269.  SCPython  Yeah, since 1950. Tell me, what was happening over the Himalayas in 1950? Indian people are very sane. They invented sanity ten thousand years ago, as far as I can tell. I bet they even invented Europe and the West. They were not cool with Mao, they are not cool with Xi, and they will never be cool with the PRC. China and India can be tight once Taiwan conquers the mainland, or the Chinese people throw off the yoke of the Party on their own. Either way, but not otherwise. They don't like you the way you are.
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  270. Drunken camera operator? Indoor windstorm? What was it?
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  271. He wants to sound tough. It is simply an intimidation tactic. It could also be meant as reassurance for his army. They know that what they are being asked to do is so awful that it raises the spectre of Western intervention. And they are right, it does. Not today or tomorrow, but at some point. All he's really doing is increasing the odds that certain people will step in and remove him. Seriously, he could be arrested some time this year.
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  272.  @komputasamurai1937  Ha! I didn't mean arrested like that, bro. I meant arrested in the name of Russia by a group of Russians who don't want this psycho bringing nuclear fire raining down on them.
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  273. True enough, but what sort of maniacs stand ready to grab power when Putin exits? 'Be careful what you wish for' sounds trite, and yet...
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  274. Watching and listening to Professor Sonnenfeld, one may get a strong impression of untrustworthiness and oddness, as well as an only dubiously elite level of intelligence. But I've seen him a few times now and I'd say he's doing better with his case than many, many others. It's widely agreed that sanctions are a slow poison, not a sword. So those declaring sanctions a big yawn are rather lazily putting off all the consequences and implications that are, uh, in the pipeline. He's watching just what he ought to.
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  275. real dsls!
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  276. The people on 1420 are not average. They are Muscovites, 75% hipsters, 75% young. The interviewer, god bless him, is also a young hipster Muscovite, and when he approaches people, they are the ones who respond. Close to 90% of Russians do not live in Moscow or St. Petersburg. It's another Russia, where people think more highly of Putin.
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  277. If the reported estimates of Russian men leaving the country are at all accurate, the media shouldn't be making a big deal out of it. It's only one per cent of the eligible draft-age men (i.e. 250k out of 25m). Let it reach 2.5m, or 10%, and then it's quite significant. But that would be ten times more.
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  278.  @timonsolus  Why is your estimate only around a third that of others'? (I.e., mid-point 80k, vs. 250k.)
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  279. Her assessment of NATO's conventional war capabilities in Europe versus Russia's is the stark opposite of what, on this very program 6 days ago, we heard from General Sir Richard Shirreff, former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (2011-14). She says NATO clearly outguns Russia; he said Russia clearly outguns NATO. Naturally I am confused. Perhaps he meant forces that are already on a war footing, but I do not think so. He made NATO sound simply feckless and in need of multi-year rearming.
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  280. Stuff your message. We don't like you at all. Stuff your exports. I boycott you. Stuff your support for the psycho Putin. We won't let him win. Long live a free, sovereign, heavily-armed Taiwan! 🇹🇼 I raise my glass to the US Navy! 🇺🇸 I raise my glass to NATO! 🇺🇸🇪🇺🇨🇦🇹🇷
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  281. All this seems a little too good to be true, and I wonder if Scholz has the same worry. Are the Russian forces really as weak and incompetent as they seem? Since the first week I've been concerned that this is a trap for NATO, a way for China and Russia to team up and draw NATO first into one war and then a second (Taiwan), effectively dividing its resources so that it loses both wars. On this view, China is biding its time for the point when NATO is fully embroiled in Ukraine. If there were shots fired between NATO and Russia, NATO would pour immense resources into Eastern Europe, leaving it in a poor position to engage China on a second front. Then Putin can just unilaterally ceasefire and say "No, we should not go to war directly. This is between us and Ukraine. Back off and I will too, but Ukraine is mine. Otherwise all-out war," and claim to be the reasonable party.
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  282.  bruce parka  I made some important edits to my reply just now, which might have been after you read it initially.
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  283. A hugely exaggerated figure. That would be 30 million barrels of oil a day, or 30% of the world's total supply. Ridiculous. Divide that by about 20.
    1
  284. It is funded by German taxpayers.
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  285. It's absurd what you say about Germany and America. It's Germany with the upper hand, victimizing the US financially decade after decade. Anti-Americans never notice the perennial difficulties the Americans have with their so-called allies. Only the UK sees things the same way with much consistency. (A common vision, notice, not dominance and submission.)
    1
  286.  @user-lm3jo9kn9i  I don't know. Try your front door.
    1
  287. Enjoy having only one customer—China. Advantage: Uncle Jinping. You could've gotten along with Europe with the greatest of ease. Instead Russia will be totally dependent on China and run according to Chinese tastes. Massive blunder, comparable to the non-aggression pact with Germany.
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  288. The shrewd one is the one who doubts he can conceal himself from American satellites. The West has so far allocated about one fifty-thousandth of what it can bring to bear.
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  289. 👏🏻 I'll soon forget what Ralf Stegner said about arms assistance, but I'll always remember with admiration his rare insistence on answering a question after he was interrupted the moment he started. People have to stand up to journalists when they don't behave correctly, but almost no one ever does. 👏🏻
    1
  290. Let's hear from a seasoned specialist with a few gray hairs, please, instead of someone who just ticks all the DEI boxes.
    1
  291. Hilarious. Margaret Thatcher, too, read chemistry.
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  292.  @jimnaz5267  Nothing against the US or you, and unlike most people here in these comments I wish you well, but the US isn't the largest country in the world. It's third in area and third in population.
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  293. Ukraine is the end of the line for Putin and his military adventurism. Anywhere he tries anything more, the victims he targets will be supported vigorously by the outside world, meaning NATO and others. It's time for him to give it all up, settle down, and spend his retirement quietly in The Hague.
    1
  294.  @katedebt9150   I would not care to contradict your friends, but she is (rather, was) a presenter on a channel with 3.2m YouTube subscribers and a claimed 6m monthly active users on its site. (It's unclear to me if TV Rain was on cable or broadcast over the air.) By the way, I didn't say she wasn't a courageous person. On first impression she strikes me as one. I simply pointed out that she resides outside of Russia.
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  295. ​ @katedebt9150  You would have thought similar things about Solzhenitsyn back in the 1970s. There's always people like you. Dull-minded sadists, dangerous and twisted, born to be ruled. Russia is still full of them among older people. Thanks, YouTube, for the mute button.
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  296.  @katedebt9150  In courting possible persecution before the war and the new laws, I think it is very fair to say she showed guts. But less purpose may be served by courting the near-certainty of useless silence in prison at home, than by availing oneself of freedom elsewhere, whence one can at least get messages through to the Russian public somehow. It's not as though in the middle of a firefight she dropped her rifle and sprinted off. That would be different. From abroad at least she can do something. I don't expect you to see it that way, when because of your support for Putin you consider her whole life garbage, mud, dirt, whatever.
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  297.  @dorisshanks7295  Yes. I said the same thing in a different way. She has a number of obvious good qualities and what she says I find cogent.
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  298.  @iankauffman6132  Y.T.M.
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  299.  Евгения Едалина  That's a laugh coming from someone who apparently lives or for a long time lived in Russia. You would do well to distrust your own mind entirely.
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  300. ​ Евгения Едалина  That makes sense. I was once married to a cinnamon danish.
    1
  301. Ok, Ivan.
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  302.  @canadian-girl  You are neither a girl nor Canadian. Just another low-paid Pooty-Bot. How's the price of beets these days?
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  303.  @p_ness  Why do you say that? My remark pertained to the foreign minister and nothing and no one else.
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  304.  @p_ness  By no means do I hate Germany! That's absurd. As a nation it makes political mistakes, but there are countless reasons to admire it. That's the problem with you young people: every time anyone utters criticism you disagree with, you label it as hatred against groups, then pat yourself on the back. It won't last. One day you'll hang your head in shame and regret for this lazy and sanctimonious habit. Btw, get to know the function of the shift key.
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  305.  @obiwankenobi661  Claptrap.  First, those wars are at a simmer. The fiercest battlegrounds are the ones that get the most attention, and people are dying in Ukraine at about 100x the rate in the Congo. And naturally Westerners do not watch news in Asian or African languages! Anyway, there is no war happening in Vietnam. Finally, this war in Ukraine involves major powers and has a real possibility of spreading to other countries. Your remarks reek of hypocritical sanctimony.
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  306.  @obiwankenobi661  1. To prove I didn't upvote my own comment, I will do so at the stroke of the hour, 8 minutes from now. 2. Edit that second remark so it's decipherable, please; then I'll respond to it.
    1
  307. Ok, Oksana.
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  308. He always looks confused. I think his thoughts are always a few seconds behind his mouth.
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  309. Welcome to the Pooty-bot comments pasture. Careful where you step, and don't wear good shoes. 😆
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  310.  @ibiedun156  Hahaha, it's Russian IP that's already down 60%. Don't worry—as a liberal democracy Germany is quite rich and just orders what it needs, not like poverty-stricken Russia, which can't afford toilets. An extra few billion euros is just a pimple for Germany, so try not to lose any sleep on their behalf. See ya!
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  311. Because he is in the throes of a 'roid psychosis.
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  312. Always worth repeating. And yet you received some contradictions from a few people eager to show off how cynically unbelieving they are (or who are just venting frustrations, or who are paid foreign trolls). But try to remember the ratio of likes to sneers. Cheers, friend
    1
  313.  @canada9436  I myself have thought that possibly Germany is so poorly armed that they would indeed have not enough left to defend themselves from Putin with. Too bad no news show has addressed that (as far as I am aware).
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  314.  @slobodanpaunovic3834  No. When Russia's neighbours don't trust Russia—naturally, because they know Russia— and then naturally seek to join NATO in order to sleep better, no "EU colonizing" enters into it. It's just people wanting to feel safer. And look just how sound their judgment turned out to be! They are also simply attracted to the EU way of life—relaxed, free, peaceful, prosperous. Who wouldn't be?
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  315.  @AuntyKsTarot  You probably have no idea you just targeted an immigrant with hatred, nor the ability to accept that you did.
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  316.  @trevtall1094  Your comment was redacted by American censors in Silicon Valley. I wonder what the rest of it was.
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  317.  @Rnankn  You claim Canada is phasing out oil. HA! That is one hundred per cent false…times a thousand.
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  318.  @trevtall1094  An appalling story. Thanks for your reply.
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  319.  @marshhen  To your point about Russia perhaps being able to sell the energy which Western Europe doesn't buy to some other countries instead, I ask you how much that matters in the end. It is like knowing that the restaurant owner raped his waitress. Do you still want to dine on his hamburgers? Is it crucial whether your personal boycott puts him out of business, or even costs him a dollar?
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  320. We get your message: don't believe anything. I recognize these posts instantly.
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  321. Just as from the North Pole all points are South, from the Left Pole all points are Right.
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  322. What proves the value of your comment is the number of Pooty-bots pouring in to contest it. The more of those putzes, the better your comment. 👏
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  323.  @pami333  It's an effort journalists and editors are obliged to make at all times. I for one hate a lack of neutrality equally whether it's in favour of whomever I support or against. The pejorative sense of the word editorialize is surely understood by few young people, for the stigma of the thing itself has disappeared.
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  324. Because the Labour Party and The Guardian = No opinions, no bias How daft.
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  325. If not 110 years: I find him closer to a tsar in some ways than to Brezhnev. Brezhnev had a functioning politburo.
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  326. Ok, Svetlana.
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  327.  @tthex6484  The Russians thought it was a maternity hospital. No doubt.
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  328. These Hong Kongers have no legitimate reason to complain as one of them does around 6:30. Taiwan has an immensely greater duty to protect itself than to make Communist China nationals feel welcome. She should get real. Be careful, Taiwan!
    1
  329. Spain is the lowest out of 30 countries in NATO for military spending at 1.0% of GDP. How can you "stand with" anyone "to support together our free world" if you're unarmed? Please speak to your member of parliament. Cheers mate 🙂
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  330. Ok, Misha.
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  331. Yeah, it was great when he said it 'Isn't it ok for Russia to starve people in Africa and the Middle East because the West is denying them access to its financial system?' (My paraphrase.) How dare the West attack Russia like that? What did poor little innocent Russia ever do?
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  332.  @noil7269  Thanks. But I'm teetering on the edge of a shadowban, so every upvote really helps. Could u please?
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  333.  @ImperativeGames  I hope your psycho president sends you to the front. The Ukrainian heroes will give you a warm American welcome.
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  334.  @mengreat6982  This winter will be very tough for your RF marauders to survive! Mark my words. Order plastic flowers from China now.
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  335.  @madjidbezzaoucha662  Yes, certify NordStream 2 .... for dismantling and recycling! Melt the steel down for armoured weaponry and make a gift of it to Ukraine. They can end some presents by air mail to the Russian front line!
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  336.  @viaceslavmikhailovich9825  The Russian fuhrer has a chin implant and wears high heels. His hobby is slaughtering children.
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  337.  @TheGreatCatsby-pd2tt  Germany hires the US to protect it from Russian National Socialists under the Fuhrer Vladolf Putzler.
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  338. It's Russia that deserves what it's going to get in the coming months and years. Russia population: 145m / Combined Ukraine–NATO–Three-continents rich democracies population: ~1,200m Russia GDP: $2trn / Combined Ukraine–NATO–Three-continents rich democracies GDP: ~$50trn
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  339.  @Angelum_Band  Who said I was speaking for you, or anybody at all? Too bad you don't realize that we're still in the cheap zone here. Later on the bill will be seriously crippling if we don't do something now. Imagine if Germany had been stopped in 1936, or at the Sudetenland. Look at what appeasing him then cost us later. Let a bully run wild in Europe and the world goes upside down.
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  340. Yes! He's so terrible I couldn't watch to the end, even though I was interested in her thoughts.
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  341.  @joshuaagomaa1556  That's right keep it up. Please escalate. Just keep behaving worse and worse.
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  342. @Alexander Rosengrün No, they've just been terrorizing American cities for three months.
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  343.  @slob12  My point was merely that no one ought to have a hard time deciding, that the fence is too razor-thin to sit on top of. I leave it at that, for my opinion as to the actual justice of the matter counts for nothing. (Still, others' opinions interest me, so I invite you to offer your own view.)
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  344. Thank you. May I say it was quite diplomatic of you to complain in this partially complimentary manner, but are you really so sincerely disappointed? I visit this site only now and then (and only because of its prominence) and I expect such disappointment as a matter of course. In my experience it deals in facts, sanctimony and this type of careless thoughtlessness in roughly equal measure. Cheers, friend
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  345. He certainly is! Tough as nails.
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  346. Many Italians do, alas. Not Meloni.
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  347.  @andrekoniger3020  And it ought to be. First of all it has the largest economy in Europe, but even more importantly it's been the largest European financial donor to Russia by quite a margin and for several years...and it continues to be! Face it, Germany made Europe a worse place in pursuit of making itself richer. It received ample warning from allies about what it was doing, and its officials responded with laughter. They literally laughed.
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  348. (Why don't you look up the answer you seek?) In response to growing demand, the makers of the ships, about 90% of which are built in South Korea and Japan, were already boosting their output prior to Putin's war. There are enough to handle the increased European demand, but it will probably be necessary to outbid users elsewhere in order to lease enough of them. New tankers are coming online rapidly.
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  349.  @edwardbarnett6571  Worldwide demand is so healthy that a larger and larger fleet is needed anyway. Nice to see your anxious concern for the shipping companies of the world, but you needn't lose any sleep over the state of their business. Besides, NordStream 2 is dead...dead as a Russian tank commander. Cheers.
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  350.  @mazlanmdzain2409  Stuff your moral equivalency. Muted.
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  351. If the UN could have only one function, that's the one it should be: to beat back invasions of sovereign countries. (Korea, I believe, was such an instance, although communist China did not sit on the Security Council (Taiwan sat in its place as a permanent member) and the communist USSR had withdrawn from it in protest of that arrangement. The USSR nonetheless protested elsewhere at the UN that the Korean War was a civil war and thus communist North Korea had not invaded the Republic of Korea.)
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  352. Before the US was at war with the Third Reich, it provided planes to Britain simply by landing them on roads near the Canadian border as night came down, then driving off. In the morning the planes would be gone, on their way across the Atlantic. The Canadians had come with trucks and tractors to tow them over to their side. (US take note: Be careful what you leave right next to Canada. I would keep an eye on Alaska if I were you. 😜 )
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  353.  @qrsx66  Hey, good idea.
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  354.  @TolgaKarlilar  Turkey owns NATO now? 😄
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  355.  @somerandomasmrr  K. See ya.
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  356. ​ @tages_matuna  Spite? As though he/she offered no justifications? Please. If what he/she submitted as facts are true, those are very good reasons. Here I offer my own: I found her in the quote you gave quite galling, since it came a minute after she dodged questions about Germany's 13th-place rank in the per-capita financial value of support for Ukraine. She was rude and made no case. She showed pique. Why doesn't her flippant response apply to "making a strategy" on Ukrainian aid? As a piece of argumentation it was empty, a show of hypocrisy and shaky integrity. I also don't care for bad manners in a country's top diplomat. Given that reply of yours to @The Sixth, I can see why you like her, though.
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  357. Way to go. Twenty minutes of you looking and talking like you're about to foul your trousers. You're doing Putin's work for him, scaring Westerners. [very slow clapping]
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  358. It's very sly how our host frames his flat assertions as interview questions. He states his case and then adds "isn't it?", "isn't he?", "doesn't she?" etc. He's not debating his guest, of course—oh, no, he's merely probing them, as any good journalist does.
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  359.  @torrent1615  The point flew over your thick head, that's what was wrong. If you have to ask why, you'll never, ever know.
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  360. It will come from Canada. Hey, I hope you can smell the smoke in Russia. Let it remind you of your certain defeat in Ukraine. Does Russia have enough spruce trees for coffins? Canada will sell you the lumber, I'm sure.
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  361. That's normal.
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  362. Why is important news being delivered to us by someone who looks and speaks like a 19-year-old? DW, are you out of your minds? Someone at least tell her not to say "in terms of" every five seconds. Shaking my head.
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  363. Is this your entry in the contest for Least Relevant and Intelligent Comment of the Year? Cuz you have my full support if it is.
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  364.  @bobdeverell  I suggest you look into the source of the IMF data. Hint: The source loves Adidas-brand clothes.😂 Also find out what happens to GDP when a government increases spending.
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  365. Putin: "Omg. I'm at war with NATO, but they've got a way to fire on my army, while I can't fire at theirs. Omg. They have a way to wreck my economy, while I can't do anything to theirs without crashing my own totally. Omg. I made a huge f+++++ mistake." 😃
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  366.  @DarkAngel-pt1cq  It'd be a loss to both, but not so much to NATO if Turkey had already been on the verge of leaving. I'm saying there's no place in NATO for a frenemy. Such a member would be more of a danger inside than out. But I do wholeheartedly agree with your first sentence.
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  367. What on earth happened in the last ten days or so to make so many people suddenly begin saying "YOO-krane"? Wth? The name is "yoo-KRANE". To be clear, in the Ukrainian language itself the country's name is not stressed on the first syllable, so this is not a sudden outbreak of correctness. It is a sudden outbreak of some sort of mass neuroticism.
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  368. I've seen you post this same comment elsewhere. I don't suppose you've done it hundreds of times have you? For my part I don't see why you question people fleeing a war zone if they don't feel able to make a soldier's contribution. Another fine reason for doing so is escorting and accompanying their children out of harm's way.
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  369.  @sandrabasikbeach2980  You think India wants to live in a world where China and Russia have defeated the West? So we're at at 2.4 billion to 1.4 billion to start out with….Brandine.
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  370.  @MrSweetness1983  All quite true. 👏🏻
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  371.  @williamlai29  You, your heroes in Beijing, whoever. It's all a rich tapestry.
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  372.  @sandrabasikbeach2980  Because they're sane, Brandine. You never noticed that about India?
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  373.  @sandrabasikbeach2980  And yes, India is siding with the antagonists of Russia, except publicly. And I've got some other news for you: India is not the least bit fond of China in the present era. That's why it's in the Quad, with the US, Japan and Australia. Damn, Brandine, didn't the brother and sister who conceived you teach you anything?
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  374.  @williamlai29  Your assumption is what is laughable and childish. For my part I expect no one to bow down, but only to follow their human instinct towards justice and refuse to support murder and destruction even if it might eventually benefit they themselves. My own assumption I apologize for, for I thought you were speaking on behalf of the PRC. I've always respected and admired your country over the years and decades—and never more so than in the past few weeks, now that it's sanctioning Russia. Cheers mate. We're natural friends I'm quite sure.
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  375.  @williamlai29  What a laugh! Did the Russian forces intercede to get the gunmen to "sit down and talk it out" with the schoolchildren at Beslan? All of a sudden I wish you a long stay in Xinjiang after a mix-up where they take you for a local. Maybe in the re-education camp you can sort out your moral vision.
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  376.  @williamlai29  I don't slander it. I condemn the detention and re-education camps there. But I guess you just love the fist of unelected government in people's faces—other people's faces, that is. I hope you will grow up t see how messed up your sadism is.
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  377.  @zjc8043  Thank you for the raving psychopath's point of view on global affairs. There might be a desk waiting for you in the Kremlin.
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  378. I don't like the way, day after day, Melinda Crane is lobbying hard for Germany to provide heavy weaponry to Ukraine. Give us journalism, please, DW, not activism.
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  379. Nice disco bondage fashion outfit to wear while bringing us the gravest of world news. Is this coming to us from the DW studio in Ibiza?
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  380.  @djsolace8085  Correct. Putin is a psycho. Just a drop or two of nicotine...
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  381. ​ @wanderer7029  Yours are the words of a deranged, paranoid psychopath. You look at Macron and see Napoleon. You look at Biden and see Hi tler. You should get that checked out.
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  382.  @minnigmanmad  Ha! Here's what you said: "the russians are the reason you dont see europe being entirely German." How tf does that mean "global effort"? You are Putinesque in your honor, troll. Try again, Ivan. Earn your kopeck.
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  383.  @minnigmanmad  Listen to yourself, now singing a different tune. But it's badly off key, bro. Your dog is going to bite you if you go on much longer.
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  384.  @minnigmanmad  Checkmate, Ivan. Go play someone you can beat.
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  385. It's a trap. Putin and Xi made a deal and it's to draw NATO into a war the two of them intend to win. NATO will let Putin take Ukraine and then try to get its act together.
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  386.  @laszlozoltan5021  No, despite a rigged vote.
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  387.    It's gonna be close, and it would be foolish to bet very much on either candidate at this point. I expect both sides have some powder kept dry and ready for use in October, and I'm sure both can count on massive donations. By the way, when the leftist media say Trump might win, they are not "admitting" anything. No, even were Biden polling solidly ahead in EC votes on Halloween, they would still be warning of a possible Trump win. Rather, they are committed to keeping the motivation for the turnout of the Biden vote high. I don't actually buy it. I think they are quite certain Biden will win.
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  388. ​   Thanks for your reply. I daresay you're right that the US will never be the same. We may look back on the bitter divisions of the present moment as a big family picnic by comparison. I, too, wish there were two different candidates.
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  389. Stop the weird-for-the-sake-of-weird camera work. Just stop it. Grow up.
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  390. I bet that, just like Michael Jackson, he has a quack doctor supplying him with Propofol (the general anaesthetic) so he can get the sleep his conscience won't otherwise allow him.
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  391.  @c.rutherford  "Some other reason" Yeah, namely that Xi told him not to do it.
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  392. Hahaha! Fail! The US and Germany are friends and can trust one another. No one on earth trusts Russia, that's why 95% of Europeans are in an alliance for protection against it. (Except who? Serbia and Belarus, who want to join it. Besides that, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria.) The US and Germany are such good friends you should try attacking them and see what happens! Try!
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  393. Uncivilized and far too brutal. Bad for Germany's political and social future to do that. No, if they saw fit to convict her, I say just sentence her cleaning the toilets at stadiums seven days a week.
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  394. We could use a discussion about whether Germans' worldview really is changing. Is what we're seeing right now just going to snap back in a short while?
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  395. It's an anti-aircraft weapon surrounded by armour with a Diesel engine inside it. What's not to get?
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  396. Splendidly clear. Thanks.
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  397. @DEEZ LIKES Wow, can I get a hit off that?
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  398. ​@Vintage Bollinger Two questions at best? Please don't exaggerate: it was a 26-minute interview. Moreover, he set the questions and the pace, and ought to have done so with due consideration to giving her adequate time to speak. Most times he cut her off only to give a monologue of his own, despite it being his job to draw out her thoughts. To me it was evident that he thinks highly of his own mind and believes a main purpose of the program is to show it off for our pleasure and edification. I saw low-key but clear one-upmanship. I say he's an interrupting champ in the top few percentiles among journalists. That brief reply of yours to me I somewhat doubt he would have allowed you to finish.
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  399. They should send payment in Ukrainian currency instead!
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  400.  @Writeous0ne  You guys sound like you work in the Kremlin at the Ministry of Gazprom. I suggest you find work elsewhere. On the Ukrainian front maybe? I hear they're hiring.
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  401. Billions of people would be plunged into tyranny within a generation. It's that simple.
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  402. The d+++heads who said "no way will Russia invade Ukraine" were Putin, Lavrov and the Kremlin spokesmen. Oh, also Pooty-Bots on the Internet like you.
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  403. It doesn't have to be perfect. Every billion dollars it costs Putin is to the good.
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  404.    What? No, Germany is far behind the US per capita. Deaths per million 120 vs. 570 in the US. Cases per million 2,900 versus 18,900. Source: worldometers.info
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  405.    No, the Netherlands is not worse for deaths per capita. Deaths per million 364 vs. 570 in the US. Source: worldometers.info
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  406. This is a strangely unaddressed question. To me the answer is that they foresaw it quite well but were not afraid of unpopularity, nor afraid if the West made moves to arm Ukraine or to impoverish Russia. They have plans for dealing with all that, which involve the withstanding of self-inflicted pain for the sake of eventual victory—victory not necessarily in Ukraine, but in the world. I allude here to the China-Russia alliance, which everyone is avoiding talking about. In my view it explains everything that is happening, everything that is making people scratch their heads in confusion. Russia and China, I fear, have agreed to each start a war in their respective regions and to draw the West into them. They intend also to win them, and thereby to start winning the world whether sooner or later. China at this point would be waiting for a gusher of NATO resources to be definitely committed to eastern Europe before making its move. It expects to soon start receiving reliable shipments of Ukrainian wheat and other grains, a supply which will obviate the need for the Western imports on which it currently relies for putting pork and chicken on Chinese tables. The matter is not simple, but food insecurity is a major factor holding China back from invading Taiwan. An attack would definitely mean the end of Western grain and soybeans except possibly from Brazil. The overall aim would be to strain the West to the breaking point, probably by forcing it to spend immensely on arming itself, as well as by spawning proxy wars in numerous countries. (Recall that outspending the USSR in an arms race is commonly regarded as the way the West indirectly brought about its collapse.) Their long-term aim is less to defeat the West's armed forces head-on than to spread them thinly, and above all to use any means to weaken the West financially, socially and diplomatically, at every step of the way making it thus easier to draw other countries into a China-Russia-led sphere, to be expanded as quickly as possible. Russia as the very junior partner in the alliance with China would finally be free to move back into eastern Europe and indulge in irredentism and revanchism. The rest of Europe, according to this vision, would be so afraid of Russia that it could be dominated permanently. If all or parts of Western Europe decided to make war on Russia (with or without the US) they would have the whole China-Russia-sphere to deal with. (It probably has just Serbia, Iran, Syria and North Korea as auxiliary members at present. Pakistan perhaps. Many others are watching and saying little, not wanting to commit themselves either way before getting a better idea of how things will play out.) Instead of looking at it this way, people are calling Putin irrational. No, he's not irrational at all. He's got China solidly backing him up. You or others may think his plans are falling apart, but I don't know. Perhaps, or perhaps they're going almost exactly to plan. A quick victory over Ukraine would have afforded little opportunity for the West to rack up costs by the tens or hundreds of billions as it has done already (in military expenses, but also including its higher bill for energy and significantly higher inflation, all of which undermine the dollar). Little old me seems to be the only one talking about this, which is mad.  I think it's because people find the thought so disturbing that it calms them to see it as far-fetched.
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  407. Delirious talk like that is sometimes the result of fever. I would get that checked out.
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  408. I've never heard so many superlatives in my life. I don't trust either of these men. I don't believe they are sober-minded, nor are they truly privy to many of the salient facts. I find the whole thing infotainment of a somewhat low sort.
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  409. Yes. But if it does, the odds of the planes being delivered will rise dramatically.
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  410. Did I just hear the host say that a movie shows us how this situation could go? Unreal. Fire him at once.
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  411.  @vule7097  Well observed. I've been thinking for a while now that the Ukraine War is all about China. It wants Putin to put Ukraine's grain on Xi's finger like a wedding ring. Then, with 20m+ tonnes of grain a year secured, China can invade Taiwan and manage without Western grain and soybeans. In a closely similar way the Belt and Road is about China managing without its Pacific ports, which might otherwise in a conflict be blockaded by the US Navy. This is really a proxy war. The people of the world don't know it, but every government does.
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  412. Best postage stamps ever. I want some.
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  413. DW, the people committed to putting a total end to journalism and replacing it with activism.
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  414.  @krollpeter  Just a Pooty-bot troll. He's conveniently forgetting that Russia's population will be down by 25m by mid-century. There are twice as many babushkas in Russia as women in their prime childbearing years, so it's unstoppable. And the population of Russian men is falling by 500 a day. Pooty-poot-poot just can't get it up!
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  415. Definitely! Chase them with guns blazing.
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  416. You'll be fine. If they said it'll be easy, conservation would be discouraged. They have to pretend it's going to be close.
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  417.  @HedgehogZone  Shame on Germany for its spinelessness and corporate venality. Enough neuroticism, enough worrying what your left wing grad students think. Be a European leader.
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  418.  @Anaskhanartist  The US companies will be trustworthy suppliers. Unlike Vladolf Putzler the psycho.
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  419. Only Iran claims they hit 12 buildings. Other sources report merely that 12 missiles landed. Many may have missed buildings entirely for all we know. The Iraqi Kurds do not endanger Iran. Iran should be condemned for this. Leaping to praise Iran as you've done is something only a pro-Iranian, anti-American propagandist would do.
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  420. Clearly most Russians will believe anything they hear from the authorities as long as it is congenial to their chauvinism. As a Soviet-era Ukrainian I once knew described them: "Born to be ruled."
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  421. Then the Finns were formerly hypocrites if you describe their former position accurately. You benefitted from NATO without committing to it. All these years, had NATO evaporated, shortly afterward Finland would have disappeared too, down into the Russian maw.  Canada is afflicted with similar hypocrisy. We spend little on defence, knowing the US has no choice but to protect us, but then make out like we're more civilized for spending less. The Finland you describe is self-serving, and sort of makes me wish NATO would reject you now that you've changed your tune at the sign of danger.
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  422.  @Nonsense010688  On your second point, 1945 was 77 years ago, NATO's formation 74. Surely 74 years is long enough to see the importance of NATO to the free part of Europe and to gain confidence in it. Your third point interests me somewhat, but I just can't comprehend it as you've expressed it. (Btw, what is a muster child?)
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  423.  @smb123211  Well observed, and did you know that in fact those who speak a second language have higher IQs? There is evidence the relationship is causal both ways. Tbh, I don't know how strong that evidence is but there seems little reason for doubt. Verbal intelligence is a leading forms of intelligence and a second language is bound to develop and boost it, surely?
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  424. I see it differently. To the interviewer I say: 'Way to go. Twenty minutes of you looking and talking like you're about to foul your trousers. You're doing Putin's work for him, scaring Westerners.' [very slow clapping]
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  425. I support the parliamentarian's views completely, but I couldn't help finding priceless the way at 12:55 he says "Armament will never be done!"
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