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James McNeill's avatar

It is clear that assurances given by Putin are worthless. There can be no reconciliation with Russia while Putin holds sway. Similarly I don’t believe Russia should be re-admitted to the community of nations while it occupies any part of Ukraine. No sporting, trade, or art links. The Russian people must see their armed forces humiliated. Regarding security guarantees, the Russians will just have to accept we have no interest in an attack upon their criminal state.

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Michael Wild's avatar

This is an eminently sensible and grim read. There clearly can be no lasting peace and security while Putin is in power and his successor would need to do a lot before s/he could gain the trust of Russia’s near abroad. On present indications there is no reason at all to expect such a leader won’t share the same world view or in any case would lack the desire to face the ugly reality that it will never have another empire in the foreseeable future. The only good news is that Russia’s war machine has proven vastly less competent than thought, it has sustained grievous losses and its economy looks unlikely to allow it to be built into anything like what it was in Feb 2022.

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