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JonnyCanuck

JonnyCanuck

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Not that we need any more drama in the world, but the die is cast. Russia is moving their own troops into the separatist area of Ukraine under the guise of a "peace keeping mission'. Now, if there is retaliation (real or faked) on the part of the Ukraine military, then Putin has his excuse for full scale escalation. If the Ukraine government sits back idly then Russia will probably set up their own government for that region, and essentially steal another piece of Ukraine.
This is not looking good folks. It has wide spread impact on financial markets, global trade, peace treaties etc.
😬😬😬
 
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I don't know where this is all going to go, but it's going to be ugly. I doubt that diplomacy will work with Putin, maybe it comes down to Russia more or less invading the Donbas region and stopping at that. The west will sanction Russia and there will be a mini cold war again, until there's a leadership change in Russia someday that wants to get back to peace.
 
Poor Ukraine, know a few expats who are super concerned about family back home. I have a feeling this may be the first domino to fall, kind of like the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938.
 
Mountain Man said:
Poor Ukraine, know a few expats who are super concerned about family back home. I have a feeling this may be the first domino to fall, kind of like the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938.
Click to expand...
Unlike 1938, the rest of the free world has drawn a red line. It is the borders of the NATO countries that surround Ukraine and northeastern Russia. NATO has already upped their troop strengths and armaments in those countries. In 1938-39, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland were on their own much like Ukraine is today. Even if Putin was thinking about expanding, he will not be able to waltz into Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Romania etc like he did Ukraine. My fear is that escalation may be not be in the form of conventional warfare ... it could be .... dare I say it... nuclear. Clearly Putin has become unhinged and he made a direct threat about 'retaliation' from other forces.
 
True, though Russia would be more interested in proxying "separatists" in those countries and stoking division within NATO I think. All I can say is thank christ Trump isn't in charge of the US right now, he would be a very useful tool for Putin to try and break up NATO.
 
My fear too. it reminds me pre-world war II with Japan and Germany making making moves. I wouldn't be surprised to see China pull something with Taiwan. I agree about Europe though, I think in this case the line will be drawn at Ukraine due to NATO. It'll be interesting to see what China does. China has territorial conflicts with a number of countries, but mostly small islands or small bits of land that probably aren't worth the fallout...except for Taiwan, which has been their major dispute.

If they did take over Taiwan, the rest of the world (mainly North America and Europe) would need to band together and finally deal with them.
 
The thing about China is that they are tied into the world economy far more than Russia, so sanctions in China could really cripple them. Their reaction to Lithuania calling it Taiwan instead of Taipei is pretty indicative of how they feel about that island though. Makes me glad I don't live in Eurasia.
 
National Post: Adam Pankratz: Ukraine invasion shows why Canada needs to become an energy superpower.
nationalpost.com

Adam Pankratz: Ukraine invasion shows why Canada needs to become an energy superpower

The Ukrainian invasion and obvious Russian energy leverage should make Canada drastically reconsider its role in the geopolitics of oil and gas
nationalpost.com nationalpost.com

Really ties into other discussions on the forum about oil and gas. It infuriates me that Europe is effectively beholden to Russia because of their dependence on Russian energy. This severely limits their ability to punish Putin without destroying themselves in the process.

I've heard speculation from some that this could be the end of globalization, and a part of me is inclined to agree. As good as global trade has been for most countries, I just don't think we can justify being so dependant and beholden to foreign regimes that are openly hostile and have strong expansionist ambitious.

If war were to break out between the Democratic world and Russia/China, we'd be completely incapable of supplying basic supplies in our own nations due to this reliance on Russian energy and Chinese manufacturing.

I'm far from being a protectionist, but I'm starting to think the West needs to be a little more thoughtful about who we're trading with and our domestic energy & manufacturing capabilities.

Hopefully this wakes people up to the need for Canadian energy over other suppliers like Russia, Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc, etc. Probably not best to prop up our nations on such unreliable and unpredictable suppliers.
 
China's economy is extremely export based. Their economy would crash if everyone stopped buying from them. But businesses here would go bankrupt if we forced them to manufacture everything here with how much more it would cost to do so.
 
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