Hubcapped

Don’t worry dude, you aint missing much. Its just one bot constantly posting and is so narcissistic that it thinks views equal influence despite the fact that NO ONE responds to it, and another dude that multiple people have stated they can’t understand and talks about himself in the third person. Its actually quite entertaining to watch them flounder around, not answer questions that hurt their narrative, and get so worked up they are either rude to people or just straight lie with no integrity. Apc good times right here

METO Guido

You left out immaturity…for the record.

“Mrs. Boeing, Hubs poo-poo’d his own thread again”

Excargodog

Except the current political climate in Europe has pretty much gelded their "green transition". Even their advocates are facing that reality:

https://www.eiu.com/n/global-outlook...mate-policies/

https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/green-transition-and-public-finances-balancing-climate-mitigation-and-fiscal

https://www.eurobiz.com.cn/green-politics-in-flux/

And it's fueling the rise of the populist right throughout much of Europe:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/unite...climate-policy

https://theloop.ecpr.eu/how-urban-climate-action-is-fuelling-populist-backlash/

https://www.eurozine.com/whats-next-for-the-european-green-deal/


Like Germany's belated effort to actually spend 2% of the GDP on defense, a lot of the European Green Deal proposals are falling afoul of economic realities as well.

As far as Russian oil and gas revenues, China and India will keep them going for a long time, longer I fear than Ukraine can maintain their current manpower attrition.

Excargodog

Views certainly equal interest. Influence is a different issue. Will APC forum views actually change the outcome of the war? Certainly not. Nor will Safety articles change the course of previous mishaps. Those who have open minds may learn something from them however.

CLazarus

Meh, the populist right is always being fueled by something (immigration, inflation, etc.). Last I checked, the Tories got obliterated in the U.K. and the far right in France got the football pulled away yet again. I don't think changes in individual ruling parties in Europe or even America are going to derail the bigger picture - renewables are rising fast and oil/gas is going to start an epic slide. I don't see oil/gas going away completely (especially not in aviation), but petrostates ruled by strongmen had better start diversifying yesterday.

Excargodog

Well, clearly the Arab petrostates have been diversifying for years. But that doesn't mean the Europeans are actually going to be able to pull off their green plan. And even in the unlikely event they can, plenty of customers out there in the Global South to keep the petrodollars rolling in.

And with the likely resurgence of nuclear power, Russia stands to benefit there as well.

https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...ration%20(EIA).

the problem with trying to sanction the largest country in the world - a land mass composing 11% of the total land mass of the Earth - is that it also has about 11% of the total natural resources of the earth. And at the right price, they will always find a buyer somewhere.

CLazarus

And yet the Soviet Union was even bigger in terms of landmass, not under such evolving sanctions, and suffered a fraction of Russia's Ukraine casualties in Afghanistan. Not sweating it.

Excargodog

Apples and oranges. Afghanistan was not a first world country with visions of joining NATO. H€LL, after 20 years of OUR effort and $2.3 Trillion of OUR money they still aren't even civilized. The way some of their warlords treat some of their own people would make Kim Jung Un look like a nice guy.

CLazarus

Rather than cliched comparisons of fruit types, I think the important thing to take away is that Russia is once again spending vast amounts of money and lives on a needless conflict. That can't go on indefinitely.

A couple of years back I read Ian Toll's sweeping history of WWII in the Pacific. The mountain of lies told to the Japanese people justifying a war of aggression and conquest reminded me of what Putin has said justifying his own war crimes. Both countries basically claimed 'we need to attack to protect ourselves and our culture'. In both cases it was a lie to justify building an empire. An important difference is that Russians today are far more connected to the outside world than the average Japanese citizen was back then. I'm sure things will not end the same way either (hopefully), so no need to remind me of demographics or Russia's vast natural resources.

Lowslung

You keep talking about Russia's landmass as if it's significance is far greater than it is.

Let's talk about some stats that are far more important: Russia's population is 144 million, or about 1.7 percent of the world's total. That population, like many developed nations, is aging. Russia faces some challenging demographic shifts in its near future. Russia's GDP is about 2.2 trillion dollars, ranking it number 11 worldwide, just ahead of Mexico, and behind Canada. US GDP is 29 Trillion. China's is 18T. Russia's place will likely slip further in the coming years as it's wartime economy takes its toll. According to transparency.org, Russia's corruption score is 26, ranking it 141 out of 180 countries scored, behind bastions of virtue like Mali, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone.

I could go on, but I think most here will get the point. Sure, Russia's landmass can be a strength. Makes it hard to invade & ensures it will always be relatively rich in natural resources. But, to this day, Russia has not built a reliable transportation system across it's own territory, struggles to extract resources from its most remote areas, & has trouble maintaining political control and stability in non-ethnic Russian regions. It's landmass has not made it powerful. Hell, Canada is number two in landmass & no one has ever accused them of being a powerhouse in anything except maybe hockey & waffle toppings. By all accounts Russia is, to use the language of our ex president, a $%!thole country. Stop acting like being number one in landmass lends it some sort of extra legitimacy or importance.