I'd agree.
There might be some hope that a post-Putin regime would return all kidnap victims and POWs.
It also depends on how much of a backbone Europe has. Would any post-Putin deals for trade/aid be made contingent on the return of Ukrainians. Any Russian regime will probably place more value on those concessions than the lost sons of Tuva or Dagestan.
Government Affiliated Snark
I can't wait to see Putin hang.
Or fall out of a window.
Why not both?
In the historical examples of Gaddafi and Mussolini, they were shot/beaten to death. Then hung in public.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Benito_Mussolini
Government Affiliated Snark
While russia seems on the ropes and the news is very good, we should probably not count our chickens *just* yet. Let Ukraine do what it does and lets worry about putte later.
Meanwhile, a story from liberated Kharkiv
https://twitter.com/InnaSovsun/statu...36595433545730
Yep, russians just gonna laugh at us if we are lenient in any manner here. My voice joins Gabriel's - fuck Russia, harshest possible penalties for their kind. Little Ivans gonna cry for their mamas once they enjoy the extended hospitality of ukrainian prisons with hopefully far harsher treatment than normal criminals.Corpses of civilians were found in the recently liberated territories of #Kharkiv region.
In one of the villages, 4 corpses with signs of torture were already found.
Do you remember #BuchaMassacre? So, this is happening throughout the occupied territory.
#KharkhivMassacre
About that...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killin...uammar_GaddafiThe video reportedly left a particularly strong and consequential impression on Russian head of state Vladimir Putin. A senior diplomat who had served at the U.S. embassy in Moscow under the Obama administration reportedly claimed that "Putin had been appalled by Gaddafi's fate" to the extent that "Putin had watched a video of Gaddafi’s savage death three times, a video that shows him being sodomised with a bayonet."
remember when people thought Gaddafi biting it would be a great thing...and how it actually turned out
You're gonna see that with Russia. Prepare for that in the event of Putin receiving such a fate.
I say… treat them according to all relevant international laws. Hope to exchange them for Ukrainian civilians that were kidnapped.
If they view it as weakness… who cares? They can run back to their crumbling tin-pot dictatorship of incompetency and corruption while the rest of the world helps rebuild Ukraine. They can cluck their tongues and gloat about… how, after losing to what should have been a vastly inferior force and running like cowards, how Ukraine didn’t turn around and torture them when they had Russia caught dead to rights?
No one is going to care what Russia says for a long, long time.
“Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
Words to live by.
I'm sure that decisive counter-attack against the Ukrainian advance is gonna happen any moment now.
Aaaaany moment now....
Sometimes, the light of the moon is a key to other spaces. I've found a place where, for a night or two, the streets curve in unfamiliar ways. If I walk here, I might find insight, or I might be touched by madness.
You don't need to go impaling their heads on spikes to give them justice. It's just that eastern european justice is less lenient than the western one...
Which means life sentences can be closer to life-long, rather than 15 years. And there is nothing vengeful in that, they committed war crimes like none other - they get treated accordingly.
I think you'll find that some Western European life sentences are much longer than the 12-15 years Finland has:
Netherlands: life =life, NO parole possibilities, only the King can order your release.
Belgium: life = life, with parole possibilities
France: max temporal sentence is 30 years, with parole possibilities.
UK: life = life
Ireland: life = life
Germany: life = indeterminate time, parole possible after serving 15 years.
Honestly we should be lifting NO sanctions. Keep assets frozen, wait for international courts to recognize rights to reparations and then allow reparations to be paid through said assets. But minor sanction relief for saving children that were kidnapped would be acceptable.
Europe should not reverse their course of disengagement from the Russian economy whatever the next administration does though.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/vladim...in-ukraine-war
So I guess Putin is retreating, too? Apparently he's delaying planned meetings with military officials.
He's apparently got a very, very busy schedule of avoiding bad news.
Well now...
Last edited by Iphie; 2022-09-12 at 07:22 PM.