Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[RolStoppable]

Ryuu96 said:

Not only did the Russian president manage to snuff-troll the Munich Security Conference with news of the death of his main political rival, Alexei Navalny (“slowly murdered” by his jailers in Siberia, according to the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell); he also scored a well-timed battlefield success when, over the weekend, his troops finally took the town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine following a tactical retreat by ammunition-starved Ukrainian troops who had defended the town since 2014.

According to one participant in Munich, the mood at the gathering of Western security and diplomatic elites — typically a chance to project unity and resolve between exclusive cocktail receptions — was grim. “There is a sense of urgency, without a sense of action,” said Jan Techau, Germany director for the Eurasia Group, a think tank. “It’s a very strange state of affairs.”

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POLITICO

Excellent article. It confirms pretty much everything that had been assumed before.

But I am not so sure about Scholz giving his OK to Taurus. Just this week the German Bundestag had two resolutions for weapon deliveries to Ukraine to vote on, with one being about ambiguous wording regarding long range weapons and another one specifically mentioning Taurus. The former was brought in by the government parties, the latter by the opposition. Only the former got the necessary number of votes, so the German game of ambiguity continues because nobody can or wants to say whether or not that is a yes for Taurus.

Granted, Nawalny's death may be a game-changer. But who knows, really.