The only good to come out of this is that the mighty Russian war machine appears to be falling somewhat short. They've got the manpower for sure, but equipment and expertise seems badly lacking. Also their soldiers are badly treated, lied to about where they were going and why. They'll defend Russia of course, but I doubt after this that Putin will even consider attacking anyone else given the problems he's got when stepping over the border.

The only good to come out of this is that the mighty Russian war machine appears to be falling somewhat short. They've got the manpower for sure, but equipment and expertise seems badly lacking. Also their soldiers are badly treated, lied to about where they were going and why. They'll defend Russia of course, but I doubt after this that Putin will even consider attacking anyone else given the problems he's got when stepping over the border.

Yet another example which shows up the communist system. Communism is all smoke and mirrors. The whole system is plagued by back covering, blame accounting, figure manipulating and back scratching. They need new tanks, only to find that those in reserve have had parts stolen off them to keep others going in the past. Get the wall and the firing squad ready. Russia doesn't have a volunteer army, which is another inbuilt problem, as most just don't want to be soldiers. Add to that the general backwardness of whole swathes of Russian society and it's just a recipe for disaster.

The more powerful a leader becomes the more they become detached from reality. His "advisors" are nothing of the sort, they simply tell him what he wants to hear. 

Reminds me of the famous comment over the death of Stalin, when his cronies were told he was dead someone said "yes, but who's going to tell him". 

I haven't seen or heard anything from him either, but Farage disapproves of most things.

Good to hear that Putin regards Boris Johnson as his main adversary in leading the call for action and stronger sanctions. 

Meanwhile in the Colonies, we're told Joe Biden is the most powerful person in the world and Putin's greatest fear.

He's my greatest fear too, the senile old tosser. It's like he's got tourettes at times 

I haven't seen or heard anything from him either, but Farage disapproves of most things.

Well, most things the looney left get up to. The left can't win with Farage, he never ever ducks a question, he never gets flustered, he's got a logical and reasonable answer to everything. He talks like the ordinary man in the street, with the same concerns that just don't reach the rarified atmosphere the EU gangsters and our professional political classes in Parliament. He interviews people on tele in a segment called talking pints, where he sits down with a politician or such like, over a pint of beer and he questions them. How many could get away with that stunt? A gimmick? Yes, but one only he could pull off and people love him for it. For me, probably the finest Prime Minister we'll never get.

Russia has fallen back on its only defence - fake news. 

The Russians have been carrying out these kinds of atrocities in Chechnya and Syria for years, but with those victims not being quite as European as the Ukrainians we've turned a blind eye. 

The silence coming from Bernie Sanders is deafening.

All western communists have their favourite mass murders. Turdope is a China worshipper, Sanders and Corbyn are Russian worshippers.

No. NATO stayed out of the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the brief war with Georgia (remember that?) in 2008. It can get involved in conflicts way outside its borders, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were NATO operations despite being in the middle of Asia. 

I forgot about Georgia, yes.  The recent situation is probably going to morph into something I won't like.

And the Russian way of dealing with accusations of war crimes and brutality etc is to simply deny everything, even when the rest of the world knows the truth. 

The only way reality will hit the Russian people is in the number of soldiers who don't come home once the war is over. Putin can cover it up for now by saying they're out of contact on the battlefield, but he can't use that excuse for ever. 

The problem with Russians is that they like be oppressed, it gives them the sense of a strong government. The only time in living memory they had the opportunity of something half democratic was those few years under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, but it ended badly and Putin took over to return Russia back to "normality".

Our government tries to convince us that we too want a strong government.

Great to hear the the Russians have lost the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. Sunk after an accidental explosion and fire they say, the Ukrainians say they hit it with missiles. Putin must be going mad with rage in his covid-secure bunker. They can cover up myriads of things by simply not reporting them, but they can't hide the loss of a 13.000 ton cruiser.