"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
Like, if you noticed since the last few pages to now, I never mentioned nuclear weapons because I don't think that's really the concern with Putin's outburst should he be cornered.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
Reportedly, Putin is not traveling to attend the BRIC summit in South Africa due to allegedly being "terrified" of assassination following the drone strike on Moscow.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
First of all, South Africa already said Putin is a dear friend before. Also, they declared diplomatic immunity should he attend this summit.
Secondly, no one can or wants to arrest Putin for obvious reasons anyway. Besides the nuclear implications someone will probably suggest again, whoever arrests Putin will be on a Russian hitlist anyway; or even on a hitlist of an international scale due to the scope of Putin's connections. And that's assuming they get through his security, to begin with. None of this would be worth the hassle to anyone. That's why the arrest warrant on Putin is just bluster.
Last edited by YUPPIE; 2023-06-02 at 05:51 AM.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
Can people please stop using this thread to dogpile on certain individuals and focus on what it actually supposed to be about - the war in Ukraine.
Its rather frustrating to see the post count advance two pages thinking something major has happened only to open it up to see its full of single line posts making fun of another poster.
Right now it seems only Corvus and YUPPIE are reporting any news - even if it has a strange angle to it.
That said, there is something big happening at the moment, with air raid sirens across the country. Belgorod seems to be getting hit again as well.
And I hope the average South African is furious at their government, cozing up to Putin in such a way, almost having him visit against international law. That would be trading some fuel and oil for the American trade worth billions. Its just bad business.
Belgorod is currently being besieged (again) by the Russian partisans. While the Kremlin has already claimed damage control by saying they wiped them out, I doubt it's over. This has been ongoing for 2 days at least.
"Truth...justice, honor, freedom! Vain indulgences, every one(...) I know what I want, and I take it. I take advantage of whatever I can, and discard that which I cannot. There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
South Africa's largest trading partner is the EU, not China. Germany is the third largest country, but EU trade in aggregate exceeds trade with China.
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/south-afr..._en?s=120#7396
https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu...outh-africa_en
https://www.worldstopexports.com/top...port-partners/
The EU is also South Africa's primary foreign investor. EU/US trade would make up something akin to 40% of South Africa's trade, China coming in third at around another 25%. South Africa is not in the financial position to even consider realigning its economy. Especially as it was included in the EU's preferential trade partner scheme, in which it's currently not paying any tariffs on trade with the EU. That's something the EU could yonk away on a whim.
https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryPr...adeFlow/Import
So if you count for total volume of trade, China is first by a decent margin with a significant trade deficit.
Indeed when it comes to FDI China is behind the US.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator...=true&view=map
Last edited by Nymrohd; 2023-06-02 at 07:08 AM.