-TSS-

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.

One interesting aspect of this war is the high death-rate of Russian generals. After all, in war it is relatively rare that generals get killed. They are usually safely behind the lines drawing lines on maps and sending ordinary soldiers to their deaths. Perhaps Ukraine gets valuable western military intelligence concerning the whereabouts of those generals. On the other hand in the Russian army it is common that generals themselves have to go and kick the troops in the arse or otherwise nothing happens. The generals may also face court martial if the military operation doesnt go smoothly, which prompts them to go themselves to the front-line.

With the exception of China which looks down on Russia and considers it something of a vassal-state all other countries which share a border with Russia hate it intensely. The more far away you get from Russia the more neutral people's attitude towards Russia gets. Canada is probably different in that respect if it really has a vary large Ukrainian population. What I have followed the Anglo-American alt-right scene they are absolutely not pro-Ukraine. Not at all. I don't think it is fair to claim that they would be pro-Putin either but I wonder is it something about considering even Putin preferable to the western decadence or globohomo. Of course for some people it is an insurmountable obstacle to support any country which has a Jewish President.

I have absolutely no idea where that Russian troll has got those quotes in Russian and made them as if I have posted them. I haven't. I don't speak any Russian.

Russia must be absolutely beaten to the ground. Their citizens must be given the same treatment as the Germans were after WW 2 which is to brainwash them to hate themselves. Meanwhile China, Japan and India will negotiate how to break Russia east of the Ural-mountains.

Either way they will lose. Even if they can overthrow the Ukrainian regime they would have to stay there in order to secure their installed puppet-regime which wouldn't last a day without Russians supporting it and that costs a lot of money while the sanctions are eating away the Russian economy. A lose-lose for Putin all around.

Russia is weak but it is also desperate. That's a dangerous combination.

In Russia you must be well over 40 years of age, at least in the big cities, to have any memory of serious economic difficulties and shortages of all basic things. The younger generation is used to an almost western kind of lifestyle. It is going to be a rude awakening to a cabbage soup-economy and certainly not going to make them supporters of the regime and its policies.

When Russian leaders say they are going to restore the Soviet Union you think they mean the borders but actually they mean the standard of living.

When I travelled by train today I noticed that on the fences around the railway there were a lot of Ukrainian flags and signs saying slava Ukraini. That is here in Finland where we don't even have many Ukrainians at all. Over there in Canada you have hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians. This must be a very big thing over there.