[fhdowntheline]

Here's an example of how media likes to milk the situation: A leading daily newspaper had a Front page, first headline about the Indian student's death. Meanwhile, a young woman who was killed in a hit-and-run in a Pune locality was relegated to 3rd or 4th page. Both cases are equally unfortunate. But media knows the politics behind the first one.

[lancia_fanboy]

Originally Posted by joe1980

Exactly, would USA be complacent enough when Russia says it is setting up its military base near Mexico and other South American countries? I do not want to justify what Russia is doing in Ukraine, but I'm starting to ask myself what the root cause of the current conflict is and it points out to this very simple argument that NATO / USA wants its military base to keep Russia in check and Russia fears this.

We actually saw an example of USA being non complacent in Cuban Missile Crisis.
Infact, the expansion of NATO, rather the non-expansion, was a verbal agreement that was decided between Gorbachev and Baker ( I think he was the US secretary of state back then) during the fall of the wall. US and NATO though have been vehemently denying the existence of a verbal agreement.

US have been slowly expanding NATO into a lot of eastern countries slowly and this was bound to put Russia at the edge.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by navrddy

I don't understand, why Ukraine did not agree with Russia's requirement of not having NATO on its soil.

Absolutely correct. It will be the end of the war if Ukraine announces strongly that it will not join NATO at any cost and does not allow NATO troops to use their soil for any military operations.

A few words about the USA,

No doubt it is a great country-truly global in all aspects, but like Narayan Sir clearly expressed, they started doing policing, which has started creating problems for the world.

[Gokuljayaraj]

The US is as terrible as Russia but there’s an alarming number of people who take Russia’s side blindly on social media as if their invasion is justified. Just because your neighbouring country decides to lean west doesn’t give you the right to invade them under the pretext of national security. Using the mistakes made by US to justify supporting this invasion is disgusting and only shows how little many people care about innocent human lives.

India doesn’t have a choice of picking one country to support on the matter as we depend on Russia heavily for our military needs. But no everyday man must support Russia on this invasion, just because the world stayed silent when US invaded Iraq. I’m not saying you need to support Ukraine, but supporting Russia actively (I see a lot of it on social media), is extremely disheartening.

[deetee]

Let's say, China comes and establishes a few bases in Srilanka in the name of development of that nation, what should India do then? May be the UN is also being biased here. There should be universal clause in UN membership to prevent expansions of military bases and weapon establishments beyond native soil. That can alleviate lot apprehensions and preemptive actions.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by Nissan1180

This war is showing us the problems associated with digital and financial monopolies. Companies situated abroad can suspend services or terminate digital accounts unilaterally. This development will intensify efforts to localize the digital infrastructure.

Well said. This should be the biggest learning for India.

Tech Companies like Google, Facebook shutting down the other side propaganda thereby taking sides will make sure internet is split by country boundaries in the coming years. China has already done that. Russia tried but could not complete.

And these international financial systems SWIFT (and CHIPS) deciding to cut off another nation unilaterally shows it is just the Western Rich Nations club. China well understood this and other financial weaknesses and have created/creating alternate systems wherever possible after the 2014 Flight of Capital crisis.

Though Russia too tried to create alternates, it does not have the economic heft to push this through. China has that which makes it a real possible.

This will be ominous warning sign for India in a China dominated world. I am sure our policy makers are watching and hope we get our set of protections in place.

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by joe1980

Exactly, would USA be complacent enough when Russia says it is setting up its military base near Mexico and other South American countries? I do not want to justify what Russia is doing in Ukraine, but I'm starting to ask myself what the root cause of the current conflict is and it points out to this very simple argument that NATO / USA wants its military base to keep Russia in check and Russia fears this.

The West led by USA was basically testing waters using Ukraine. They very well knew what the outcome would be of such an endeavour with Russia (Georgia and Crimea to be precise). But they had a faint hope that just in case Russia didn't show any aggression Ukraine would have been a NATO member with US nuclear missiles on their land pointing at Moscow.

There was no harm in trying as per the West as they gave false hopes and backing to Ukraine to take on Russia at the global stage. Their intention was never to fight Russia directly and in case things got escalated they would back off and let Ukraine take the brunt of it.

Ukraine's EU membership request being declined is the first eg of the West's actual intent and NATO not coming in to support them is the second. NATO conveniently said Ukraine is not a member country and hence cant support them directly but conveniently want the world to forget how the US dragged them in their war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

European countries have to get their heads together and introspect their losses thanks to this US lead idiocy. If you just focus on Energy sector BP and Shell have to now write off billions in their investment in Russia and also take a huge hit on their margins going forward as Russia is the third largest oil producer and now they have lost access to this market, which was a good % of their overall portfolio.

The European aviation industry which can't access Russian airspace and the leasers of planes to Russian airlines have to write off billions too as they just can't walk into Russia and fly their planes out. This is an industry which is still recovering from covid shock and has added on huge debt to stay afloat and now has a new financial knife hanging on them.

Sanctions on Russia is going to take away billions from the global financial markets and we will see the true impact of it in the coming days/months.

[joe1980]

I could not hold my laughter seeing this:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-address.html

You cannot afford to make mistakes being in such a position, well at least when delivering a speech on something that is as sensitive as it is right now.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by navrddy

I don't understand, why Ukraine did not agree to Russia requirement of not having NATO on its soil...

Easy. Sovereign state making its own decisions about its own future.

It might have been easier to take a different course, but, if it was us making concessions to China, how would you feel?

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Here's an example of how media likes to milk the situation: A leading daily newspaper had a Front page, first headline about the Indian student's death. Meanwhile, a young woman who was killed in a hit-and-run in a Pune locality was relegated to 3rd or 4th page.

And other deaths in Ukraine barely get a mention.

I guess this is what media does. Everywhere. It used to be a long running joke that something like a major air crash, with hundreds dead, would lead to British headlines like "Three Britons die in Air Crash."

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Easy. Sovereign state making its own decisions about its own future.

Like Cuba deciding to allow USSR to place missiles in their country?

US has their Monroe Doctrine, Russia expects the same in their sphere of influence.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

For those readers who can remember the media in 2003.....how bravely and gloriously the Americans bombed the retreating Iraqi armies on what they proudly termed the highway of death,

Offtopic.

Same parties sir, but I believe you misplaced the year of the incident.
The highway of death happened in the First Gulf war.

Used to hear about it when family members would talk about the missile attacks and refugees coming into Riyadh during the first Gulf war.

[RaghuVis]

The Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was today quoted saying that "Third world war would be nuclear and disastrous"
Hint of desperation or gamble statement or reality. Nothing works out well for the people of Ukraine currently from the disaster.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Gokuljayaraj

India doesn’t have a choice of picking one country to support on the matter as we depend on Russia heavily for our military needs. But no everyday man must support Russia on this invasion, just because the world stayed silent when US invaded Iraq. I’m not saying you need to support Ukraine, but supporting Russia actively (I see a lot of it on social media), is extremely disheartening.

That is something you cannot help. It takes a lot of sagacity to remain neutral and balanced in this situation in all aspects. And you are talking about us ordinary people who easily get swayed on social media with toolkits and whatnot. In fact I have been watching RT in the past few days out of curiosity and they seem to actually be a bit balanced (or atleast give an impression), certainly more than the much vaunted woke liberal media giants who toe the familiar my-way-or-highway line.

[aaggoswami]

Amidst the conflict, one nation that stands out : USA.
They had no business in Iraq, wonder what is going on in Syria and why Pakistan, even after finding Osama Bin Laden from Pakistani soil, retains USA fighter jets.

Libya, what was the objective of USA ? If I am not wrong, either Libya or Lebanon had French jets bomb them. Why so ? And all of a sudden any movement by Russia is seen as a bad, cruel move ? Agreed the human loss of lives is highly unfortunate, but what were options that were left behind for Russia to opt from.

That said, India needs to tread very, very carefully. On one hand we are having Ukraine that stands against us, and we have China which isnt our friendly neighbor since long. So this leaves us with very little scope and walk on the sword of neutrality. We need to develop defense technology but its a long walk plus talk. Appreciate the courage of Russia here, they also gave opportunity via talks before actually flexing muscles.

[Amrik Singh]

The war will end
The leaders will shake hands
The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son
And those children will wait for their hero father.
I don’t know who sold our homeland,
But I saw who paid the price.

— Mahmoud Darwish