Since when is Putin flexible?

If more than 5 months still haven't won against a not so strong Ukraine, more like sooner or later Russia will bankrupt.

@beinvested

"The Russians government must have made a projection/P&L because Putin was a KGB leader"

Considering that the Soviets lost the cold war, I wouldn't consider them to be smarter.

@beinvested

1. Tell that to Russia.

2. It's not missing, otherwise, NATO would have already sent troops to fight the Russian, or at least imposed a no fly zone over Ukrainian airspace.

3. Correct. But in Europe/US, head of state come and go, but there's still continuity. The war in afghan/vietnam went on for decades after many US president come and go. If Putin dies, the war stops, because there's no real successor to Putin who will think like Putin. Russian don't even know that a war is going on.

@beinvested

1. Well when it comes to resources, definitely NATO wins lmao. The US can literally print money and get away with it because countries like China loooooves buying the dollar.

2. Both were provoked. NATO managed to expand because eastern european countries were provoked by Russian aggresion, they were scared and wanted protection. Just look at Sweden and Finland who were soo scared of Russia, that they gave up decades of neutrality to join NATO. The question is, is any of the provocation a reason to start invading a country. Of course not, that's why Russia is guilty.

And also, why invade Ukraine? In 1990s, Russia agreed that in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal to it, Russia will not attack, but they eventually did. Recent events proves that one should not trust Russia.

3. The war is illegal, Ukrainian are being robbed of their lives and country, yet you are worried about confiscated Russian assets? Lmao

4. Actually, Russia cannot manufacture a lof of their weapons now because a lot of the parts needed come from western countries who are no longer selling it to them.

And yes, many NATO members do not have oil & gas revenue. That's why they rely on high-value items like machinery, software, hardware, financial services, etc as exports, which are faaaar more profitable. That's why NATO countries have very high GDP per capita.

Germany alone has a GDP more than twice that of Russia. And the United states, the biggest funder has both oil and high-value technology and service exports.

So when it comes to total wealth. NO COMPARISON, NATO are far far faaaaar richer. Everyone knows that. Russia is not even considered a developed high-income country. Heck, its GDP per capita is less than that of us Malaysians, lmao. Most likely far lower now because of the economic damage from the war.

@beinvested

Imagine Malaysia's USD115. 6 billion of foreign reserve suddenly frozen, the pain of that to us would be crazy. That pain is what Russia is currently facing.

@beinvested

"...all those claims that could be totally untrue."

Could be? So you also not sure. Well here are the fact, it's Russian media who say that Russians are not commiting war crimes. The question is, why would you believe the Russian media, when they don't even acknowledged that a war is happening and that Ukraine was invaded? Blatant fallacies, that everyone, even China admits is not true, yet you still want to belive Russian media?

NATO is also suffering, they expected that. But Russia is hurting far far more. You think inflation is painful? NATO consist of rich developed country's, they can bear inflation. Losing you foreign reserve, losing foreign investment, losing supply of vital parts to the point that your local airlines can't fly, that is the pain that Russia is currently experiencing.

@sslee

Here are the facts:

Those 100-days import are no longer representative of the future. On June 3, the European Union adopted a sixth package of sanctions, including a partial embargo on Russian oil. The sanctions will ban seaborne imports of Russian crude oil as of December 5, 2022, and ban petroleum product imports as of February 5, 2023. An ongoing process to de-Russian EU energy reliance.

And you just confirms what I said about Russia being forced to sell its oil at discount prices. "China...importing nearly 2 million barrels of DISCOUNTED Russian oil per day in May. They sell more volume, but at lower prices. Without those sanctions, they could have sold even more volume at higher prices and made more money.

Sri lanka also artificially strengthened their currency, it did not end well for them. So why would it end well with Russia. It won't.

"the sanction gave Russia the determination to sell/export to other markets"

That's because they're losing their existing market. And even in the new markets, they have to sell at a discount to market prices; that's not enriching, that's desperation that they wouldn't have had to resort if sanctions were not imposed.

And the Russian rubble appreciated after strict capital control were imposed and interest rate were greatly increased. The cost will be borne by Russians who now have to pay more interest on their loans. What's the point of having a strong currency if you cant freely use it to make imports. The currency appreciation is an illusion of strength.

So no, the sanctions are not counter productive. They're hurting Russia as was intended.

@beinvested

I really dont get KYY's logic. NATO expected that the sanctions will hurt them to an extent. The reason they still did it is because it will hurt Russia more, which it did, to the point that Putin even had to say that it was fighting an economic war. Stores are closed, their foreign reserves are frozen, have to sell their oil at discounted price,cant get important supplies for airplanes, etc. Those are painful. Unless Russia ends up richer instead of poorer because of the sanctions, we can't really say its counter-productive.

"all wars in the planet" XD lmao

The fact is, Malaysia benefits from peace. A war in Taiwan, the country that produces the majority of the chips that power our technology and whose supply chain is closely linked to ours, will definitely hurt us. So Malaysia must also take active steps to make sure that such a war doesn't happen. It's not just ethical, it's also pragmatic. If a missile hits and destroys those TSMC plants in Taiwan, well there goes pretty much everything that relies on high-end chips, from cell phones to airplanes, cars, data centers, etc.

Funnily enough, America used to say the same thing before WW2. When Germany and Japan started going on an invading spree, they said "its Europe's or Asia's problem, nothing to do with us".

And yet, we all, yes even the chinese, are thankful that the US did eventually get involve and help end WW2.

Or Russia could leave Ukraine alone, that would also end the war. No reason for Ukrainian to lose their country to Russia.

@Tobby

The Chinese do love eating dogs. They have an entire festival dedicated to eating dogs every June. The CCP tried to ban it in 2020, but failed. That's how much the chinese love eating dog, until dictator CCP also cannot stop them.

So whether the poodle belongs to Chinese or not, it is without doubt that all poodles are safer in America rather than China.

@Tobby

"About a decade ago before Chairman Xi took power, talks of Taiwan and China for peaceful reunification was favorable!.."

That's not true. Since 1995, the people who identify as Taiwanese outnumbered those who identified as chinese. And it has grown even more since then. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Most of the people who identified as chinese were those who ran away from mainland in the 1950s and have passed away. The new generation of Taiwanese has only known Taiwan as independent democratic country, so they identify as Taiwanese and don't want reunification. Also, the CCP wants them to give up their lifestyle and serve the party. This is unacceptable to the Taiwanese, especially considering that Taiwanese have better living standards than the Chinese. Taiwan is a high income developed country, while China is only upper middle income and is still developing. The Taiwanese don't want to downgrade their life by joining the PRC. It makes absolutely no sense to them.

----

"In fact pro unification was elected by taiwaneses!"

The person elected was not pro-unification. In fact, in his inaugeral address, he said: "NO REUNIFICATION, no independence, and no war". In other words: maintain the current status quo, Taiwan won't disturb China and China shouldn't disturb Taiwan. Unfortunately, the PRC is hell bent on disturbing them by putting all kinds of trade retrictions and military intimdation to bully Taiwanese into submission. Maybe that's why the more pro-independence DPP party won the election twice in a row now. The Taiwanese were fed up with Xi Jinping's constant bullying and aggresive tactic against the Taiwanese. The US has nothing to do with it, they're against formal Taiwan independence too. For example, in the 2000s, the pro-independence DPP president at the time openly and publicly called for formal Taiwanese independence. You know who shut him up? The US, who warned him that they may not help defend Taiwan if China attacks because he was being too loud.

The KMT party (the party of the Taiwanese president's elected a decade ago) used to be pro-unification a long time ago. But unification as the REPUBLIC of CHINA (RoC), not the PRC. Under their terms of unification, the CCP would need to be disbanded. Anti-communist is written in their party charter. This is the party that fought the CCP during the civil war after all.

@qqq3333

First you denied that the Tiananmen Square Massacre even happened. Now you admit that it happened but that it was the right thing to do.

Now you're saying the westerners want chinese to die, despite the fact that you admit that it's the CCP who shot the Chinese in Tiananmen.

You flip flop so many times, it's smarter for people to just not trust whatever you're saying.

Emm, the CCP doesn't even deny that they sent the PLA to attack the student protestors. They just said it was necessary. Millions of people were there, the CCP is smart enough to know that it can't just pretend nothing happenend.

So you wumaos should at least make sure your lies on what happened in Tiananmen are consistent with that of the CCP's.

@skyriver

One good thing China did? They realize early that following Mao's policies was a mistake and that they need to move away from him and give the chinese more freedom. Although under Xi, I fear China may be going backwards as he is more sympathetic to Mao's ideas.

@xskyriver

And atm, it seems like I'm defending China by pointing out that the PLA did not send more than 500 tanks to kill Vietnamese refugees. No idea why qqq3333 says otherwise, it only puts China in a bad light on false pretense.

They did invade Vietnam though, which means sslee claim that China never invaded a country is just false.

@xskyriver

I have mentioned before (perhaps in another thread) that American military committed war crimes in the middle east.

Qqq3333 is free to criticize the west, I do it too, but he should at least based his arguments on solid facts and reason. Instead, his main arguments is all "cHiNa Is tHe BeST. CaN dO NoThiNg WrOnG. PeRfeCT. AnYTHiNG tHaT SaYs OtHerWisE is anTI-cHiNa and wHiTe SuPreMaCiSt"

What's worst is that he lies and is double standard.

@qqq3333

Now you want to talk about buddhism lah, confucianism lah. The CCP encourages atheism lmao. They called religion the "opium of the people" wat. That's why during the cultural revolution:

The Red Guards laid siege to the Temple of Confucius in Shandong province,

Temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, and cemeteries were closed down and sometimes converted to other uses, looted, and destroyed.

Buddhists were forced to participate in the destruction of their monasteries at gunpoint.

@qqq3333

Lol, you sound stressed. That's why, if you don't want to embarrass yourself with you poor knowledge of China's history, why don't you do more reading instead of spouting rubbish like your claim that the PLA sent more than 500 tanks to kill Vietnamese refugees.

You know so little of China, until you accidently incriminate them for something they didn't even do. Lmao.

@qqq3333

Really funny lah to see you wumaos. You love China soo much, but don't even know its history. LOL

@qqq3333

Religion can contribute to world peace? Tell that to the CCP lah, they encourage atheism. During the cultural revolution, they instituted radical policy of anti-religion and anti-tradition:

The Red Guards laid siege to the Temple of Confucius in Shandong province,

Temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, and cemeteries were closed down and sometimes converted to other uses, looted, and destroyed.

Buddhists were forced to participate in the destruction of their monasteries at gunpoint.

That's why, according to a 2015 Gallop poll, 61% of China Chinese claim to be atheist, with a further 29% saying that they are not religious.

@qqq3333

Lol, if you want to argue that China invaded Vietnam to kill Vietnamese refugees, just be careful when you visit China lah. I don't think their Government would be very happy with you insinuating that China kills refugees with tanks.

Ironically, it's not even the reason China invaded Vietnam. Lol.

@qqq333

If you love China so much, you should at least read up on its history lol. It's invasion of Vietnam also you don't know. You really no shame lah.

@qqq3333

Border skirmishes? China sent more than 500 tanks, and 200,000 soldiers. That's a war, not a skirmich lmao.

And Vietnamese boat people? Those were refugee. If you're saying China sent tanks and soldiers to kill refugees, then that's more reason to believe that China is evil.

@qqq3333

The PLA did lose. They took over Vietnam cities because they were trying to make a regime change in Vietnam. You really don't know China's history lah.

@qqq3333

If you're talking about traditional chinese culture? Sorry lah, the CCP destroyed it during the cultural revolution. Traditional Chinese culture much easier to find outside of the PRC.

@qqq3333

Achieved its objectives? The PLA lost lmao.

@qqq3333

China culture is buddish? The CCP destroyed buddhist statues. Confucianism? They blew up confucious tomb during the cultural revolution lol. The CCP encourages atheism lah, you don't that meh?

@qqq3333

China even managed to take over several of Vietnam cities before they retreated after the Vietnamese retaliate. So the only reason the PLA didn't go very far is because the Vietnam army was too strong. They kicked out the Americans, you think they couldn't kick out the PLA, which at the time hardly had a combat ready airforce. Lmao.

@qqq3333

What limited operation? You send your army across another country's border with the sole attempt to attack them, THAT"S CALLED AN INVASION. Hayooo, simple english you don't know meh?!?

@sslee

China has never invaded a country? It invaded Vietnam lmao. You people really don't know your history lah. LoL.

And now China is trying to steal other countries' EEZ.

@qqq3333

Huh, you really don't know China invaded Vietnam. LMAAOO!!...so ignorant.

@qqq3333

Sending weapons is western culture not Chinese culture? Lmao. China sent a lot of weapons to the communist during Vietnam war, and North Korea during the Korean war. Even now it's arming the Myanmar Junta with weapon that are used against civilians.

It seems despite your love for China, you know very little about its history. Lol. That's what happens when you only read chinese news media, which you yourself has said tells lies.

@sslee

Lmao, you're doing it again. You say western media is lying, yet you use NBC news (a western media) as a source. Lmao.

Logic down the drain already. You wumaos and your inconsistencies, so funny. Cannot play stock market lah if simple logic also don't have.

@sslee

You say western media has been hiding the number of Ukrainian death.

But then you quoted The Guardian, A WESTERN MEDIA, for the 20,000 Ukrainians deaths a month figure.

So how can you say western media hide, when you own source is western media lmaoo.

As I said, you wumao really no consistent lah, always make contradictions. Logic down the drain already.

@sslee

Lol, its funny how you blame the west for the war, when it is Russian forces who invaded Ukraine.

Logic down the drain already.

@mach10

You blatantly, without thinking, claim that US influenced the 2016 tribunal to make China lose. Then explain lah, where was US influence to stop UK from losing the Chagos island?

First you said US lose many international court cases, then you say US influenced the cases to their favour? What logic is that? You're basically saying US influence the court cases to make themselves lose lmao.

You wumaos and your inconsistencies. You never went to school meh to thinking clearly and logically?

@mach10

Lol, you're the one who doesn't know international politics. That's what you get for reading only chinese news media, who your fellow wumao, qqq3333, already admits is bias.

Go read a few good literatures on international politics lah first before you comment. You're only embarassing yourself by making contradictory arguments here.

@qqq3333

"China is democracy in China language because it is people first.........the government take care of the people and the country."

Says who, the chinese news media who you just admit is lying? lmao, you really are useful idi*t to the CCP lah. So gullible. You know they lie yet you still choose to believe them. Logic down the drain already.

@qqq3333

China should just stop bullying Malaysian oil and gas workers lah instead of having expansionary ambitions to steal Malaysian oil resources. You call having our resources taken by China a win-win? You really are a useful id*t to the CCP lah, no doubt

@mach10

Oh now you want to claim US influenced the judges decision? Then explain where was US influence to stop the UK from losing the tribunal for the chagos island, which would ultimately result in the US losing its military base in Chagos?

You yourself said that US have lost many international cases, but now you want to claim the US can influence international tribunals decisions. Are you saying the US use it's influence to make itself lose or what?

And fyi, China has strong global influence too, which acts as a counter weight to US influence.

You clearly lack common sense, which means you are both an idi*t and never had schooling. Go read a book lah for once. You don't know anything at all.

@qqq3333

Being lied to is helping you? Wah, you for sure useful idi*t to the CCP lah.

@qqq3333

Expecting truthful reporting from the press is ridiculous? Seems like China is beyond help already lah if being constantly lied to by your government is considered a good thing.

@qqq3333

Only talking good about China is professional? Lol, you really drunk on chinese news media lah.

Chinese culture? What does the CCP know about chinese culture when they tried to destroy it during the cultural revolution.LOL. Naive lah you. Useful idi*t to the CCP.

@mach10

It is you who is naive. So easy trust Chinese news media, when qqq3333 himself said they only talk good about China.

@qqq3333

For years already talking, China not interested, they just keeps sending ships to bully us. That also you don't know meh. Lol

American war ships? Then go bully the American warships lah, China go harass Malaysian O&G workers trying to extract oil from our own EEZ for what? Qqq3333, use your common sense lah.