-TSS-

Putin won't be around very much longer. He is gravely ill. However, that may not be good news as there's no way of knowing what his successor is going to be like.

I wonder are there any people at all who believe that both ideas are bullshit namely that Putin arranged Trump to become president in 2016 and the 2020 elections were fraudulent. After all, most people who think one of those ideas is bullshit think the other one is an unquestionable gospel of truth.

In the Russian system an honest person who doesn't steal and cheat all the time is considered to be just stupid.

I'm not sure if this is a smart move by us in Finland but the more the Russians threaten us with consequences the more resolute people become about the need to join NATO.

Russia is very close to us in Finland but so it is to you in Canada unless you believe in the flat earth-theory.

I never knew who was the foreign minister of Canada but a couple of days ago she made a statement concerning the Finnish and Swedish membership in NATO. What caught my ear was that English clearly isn't her first language. We often forget that Canada is a bilingual country.

With its natural resources Russia should be an economic powerhouse with a standard of living at the same level with countries like Germany and a lot of people would want to live there instead of the current situation that absolutely nobody wants to go there and the brightest people over there want to get out. Of course in such a scenario they wouldn't be a military power. It is either/or. Not both/and. However, in order for Russia to be economically successful they should stop allowing various gangs of thieves governing them.

I'm not sure what war is the stupidest war in history but this one surely must rank very high.

I have once been to Russia. I spent there two weeks in St.Petersburg but that was a long time ago. However, many Finns have said that they have never been to Russia and have absolutely zero interest of going there and that even applies to the people who live close to the Russian border. I understand them absolutely and I wish we could somehow throw out the 100000 Russians living in our country before Putin thinks they need to be protected,

The application will be sent this week and membership should start very soon. Unless of course Russia bombs us to pieces but fortunately they are up to their necks in Ukraine. Traditionally support for NATO-membership has been like 20% but all of a sudden it has jumped to 70%. I wonder why that is.

How is the weather in St.Petersburg? I guess nice and sunny as it is here in Helsinki. Why don't you rather go out enjoy the beautiful spring day rather than spout that ridiculous Putin-propaganda? Time much better spent!

The permanent ideology in Russia is Greater-Russianism. Different forms of government are all just instruments the purpose of which is to serve the main ideology Greater-Russianism. At one point the rule by the Czar was the way to advance the cause. Next the cause was draped in disguise of communism and currently Putin's form of fascism has been the chosen method to advance the cause.

Collapsing regimes are at their most vicious right before their collapse when they themselves know they are doomed.

No doubt that Russia with its resources can hold on quite some time but yet no country can afford to be an internationally shunned pariah-state forever and Russia will be such a country as long as Putin's regime is in power.

The Soviet Union spent 60% of its GDP on military spending but yet they couldn't keep up with the west in the arms race but trying to do so bankrupted them and led to the dissolution of the country. There are similarities to today. As long as the sanctions are in place the Russian economy will keep on sinking and will ultimately bankrupt the country but the Russian leadership seems intent on tackling the sanctions and finding ways around them.

Something big, perhaps sinister, is going to happen within next two weeks. Namely, it is important for Russia to show something which they can claim as victory as May 8th is the annual anniversary of the victory in WW II.

There's a lot of speculation going around that Putin is seriously ill and isn't going to live very much longer. In the recent pictures of him he really doesn't look good at all. Perhaps, perhaps not but that would explain how he doesn't seem to care about the consequences of his actions any more.

I don't think so either. But it is quite astonishing how many people here in Finland seriously believe that Russia is going to attack very soon. I'm more concerned about the coming very high increases in prices of food, energy and petrol. Or gas as you call petrol over there in your country.

Like I said, as Russia is not your neighbour you have a different view of that country. There's Alaska in between you being neighbours with Russia. We who have Russia as our neighbour don't trust Russia at all about anything.

I think it's an interesting observation that in our countries which share a border with Russia, including Finland, Russia is our eternal enemy. Therefore also in the nationalist circles, and especially in the nationalist circles, the thinking applies that the enemy of our enemy is our friend. However, the further away you go from Russia the thinking changes. To some people Russia represents something of a counterweight to western decadence of all this lgtb-propaganda and diversity which has been foisted on us. Especially in the USA and the UK the alt-right people are absolutely not at all supporting Ukraine. They are impartial at best, pro-Russia at worst.

The often repeated platitude is that we in the west don't really understand the Russian mindset. We mistakenly think that Russians think the same way as we do. Maybe so but it seems that it works the other way round too as Russians seem to think that they can dissuade western countries like Finland or Sweden from joining NATO by issuing threats and scaring them with "consequences".

Putin and the war is said to have a 83%-support among Russians. If you are stopped in the street or you receive a phone-call where you are asked do you support Putin which way do you think it is clever to answer?

Just imagine when the Romanian communist regime was overthrown that Ceaucescu had been taken to some international criminal court and his trial would have lasted for years and forces loyal to him could have continued the struggle. They didn't make that mistake and instead straight after having arrested him they executed him and his wife. If and when the Russian regime is overthrown the same must happen with Putin and his closest circle.

If the Russian government had known in advance what kind of of a military, economic and political disaster this war was going to be they most certainly wouldn't have gone ahead. However, how could they not know? Did they really think that the west would only strongly condemn but otherwise just look on? Also, even if peace comes now does anybody think everything goes back like it was before and all this would soon be forgotten?

The language of this forum is English. Or perhaps as this is a Canadian forum they can't stop you posting in French. But that's about it. No Russian allowed.