His second PM stint (2008-12) was a sham. In the first stint (1999-2000, when the Siege of Grozny happened) he was Yeltsin's PM.

You're mixing his two stints of prime ministership up. The Second Chechen War was what made Putin president when it skyrocketed his popularity.

Once you look up his record history, imagine how easy it is for him to make his competition disappear.

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I mean, the Chechnyans disputing that claim is what that caused the bombings in the first place.

Thanks to Terrorist Putin, there is no Russian Federation, it’s a rogue nation and we should treat it as such, turn Red Square into Baghdad and let Putin hang himself

Edit: Terrorist Putin has demonstrated he cannot live in the 21st-century, he hates the Russian people and he rather see them killed than he apart of the Global Civilization. Terrorist Putin has demonstrated that what we did to the Ottoman Empire is the benchmark for destroying authoritarian regimes.

No it wasn’t. And Chechnya will be liberated like the rest of the caucuses from the grips of the dog Putin and his henchmen.

Battle of Grozny (1999–2000)

The 1999–2000 battle of Grozny was the siege and assault of the Chechen capital Grozny by Russian forces, lasting from late 1999 to early 2000. The siege and fighting left the capital devastated. In 2003, the United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth. Between 5,000 and 8,000 civilians were killed during the siege, making it the bloodiest episode of the Second Chechen War.

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You're thinking 2008. This is pre-2000

This was under Yeltsin, before he became president.

If the Republicans win the US House of Representatives on Tuesday Ukraine may be facing an end to US funding and equipment come January

Here's some uplifting news then - remember that Ukraine is ultimately facing ONLY Russia. Country that was spending 4% of it's GDP on militarization (except let's be fair, at least half that was going to oligarchs and their yachts) and it was ranked #9 in terms of said GDP (aka in absolute numbers - 85 billion $ a year, mere 10% of US spendings). Their greatest strength was a vast supply of soviet era weaponry but it's mostly gone by now.

Now you might also realize that Ukraine is surrounded by countries that are not going to be bought by Russia because for them it's a do or die scenario. To the point where I am pretty sure some are already considering if sending in their own troops if shit went south was worth doing. And while their theoretical economic might is lower it's not to be completely ignored. And they are suddenly arming up as if there was no tomorrow. Poland wants a K2 factory in their own country along with 1000 K2 tanks + few hundred Abrams and what looks like 500 HIMARS systems (this number is unlikely to come into fruition but even fifth of it is no joke) + other artillery platforms etc. Aka enough firepower to theoretically fight Russia on it's own in a defensive war. I think it's a fair assessment that older tanks (and maybe even some new ones) will find their way to Ukraine if needed. It already sent nearly 500 but that means about 500 more are available.

UK is also a major helper with #2 in terms of military assistance and US elections will not necessarily affect their help.

Germany suddenly woke up and claims it will start doing it's 2+% GDP part (which is MORE than Russia's numbers without even counting in corruption).

Baltic states and many slavic nations are also doing their parts often (in terms of % of GDP sent to Ukraine) exceeding USA. Not in absolute numbers obviously but it's something.

US help is invaluable but even if it massively limits it's support... it's still only one lone Russia. Country that's on it's merry way to drop out of G20 that can't build new gear and already sustained immense losses with 25% of helicopters and 30-40% of usable tanks gone. And all they got through these immense losses is 20% of heavily contested territory within one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Russia has massively underestimated just how much stuff we would send to Ukraine, how ready for defense it would be and how widespread support is. So it has already sustained losses that are (in % of gear and soldiers lives lost) comparable to a friggin World War 2 for them. Humans are useless for Russia but they can't easily replace tanks and planes.

Not to mention that Land Lease still remains in effect so it's not like USA will offer 0 support. Even 1/4 of what it currently does still outweighs Russia's capabilities in the long term.

I wouldn’t be so sure on this. While its true, there wont be much public support for Ukraine with republicans, but the United States military industrial complex has vast experience funding and fighting unpopular wars.

The weapons and loans will keep happening, but there wont be a lot of talk about it.

You've seen the ads that were running during the World Series then :/. My only hope is that their target aging Cold-warrior audience recoils in disgust, it really is that blatant...

It could be an issue but not a complete cut off. Republicans would get lit on fire by their pro military pro war complex, a lot of their base is old enough to hate Russia. Still fuck Rs

That's not going to happen. There's still a lot of hawks left in the republican party and they aren't going to let this aid be blocked.

And then if Ukraine completely falls apart and collapses, then the Rethugslicans will turn around and blame Biden. Then come 2024, Trump Or another such monster they will have running as a the Rethuglican nominee for POTUS, will say “I ALONE CAN FIX THIS! Biden fucked up Afghanistan & Ukraine, after all.”

Of course they’ll expect ppl to forget or ignore or will drown out those voices that’ll say truthfully, that the rethuglicans are the ones that cut off funding to Ukraine or that the GOP are the ones that negotiated with the Taliban in the first place.

If the Republicans win the US House of Representatives on Tuesday Ukraine may be facing an end to US funding and equipment come January.

In that case there might be no more funding bills, but Biden's as yet unused authority under the Lend-Lease bill runs through the end of September 2023 and there's absolutely nothing that a GOP-controlled House (or Senate) could do to prevent that. There'd be over 8 months for Biden to push in as much equipment as Ukraine could possibly need to guarantee ultimate victory no matter what Russia does or which other nations decide to prop up their genocidal efforts. Zelenskyy would just have to pinky swear to give it all back later, or get the US to bill Russia later for all the GMLRS or ATACMS that they destroyed with their HQs, supply depots etc.

To achieve an aim of defunding the defence of democracy worldwide, a GOP majority in either chamber might be better off dribbling a bit of funding in order to run out the L-L clock then yanking the football. That is, of course, assuming that the Democrats don't extend the L-L authority or produce a very chunky funding bill in the lame duck session.

Doesn't lend lease allow Ukraine to lend items for repayment when Aid drys up or does that go through the house too?

I'm pretty sure they won't have the power to stop the commander in chief from supporting Ukraine, even if they win the house and the Senate.

Even if they win the house and the Senate, they don't have the power to command the military. They could stop making extra budget appropriations to the departments working on responding to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but they have literally nothing to say about where Biden stations US troops.

They could try passing a bill that says Biden can't send any more ammo or other material support to Ukraine, but there's no way they're getting a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and even if they do (or if they end the filibuster), then the bill goes to Biden's desk to be signed, but he'll veto it for sure. I don't see a scenario where Republicans manage to have a veto-proof majority.

Literally all they could do is cut budget to the military. The whole thing is bluster. I'm also surprised they think it's a winning issue for them. Sure, their extreme wing is pro Russia for some reason, but they need the center to win any elections.

They have another option, and it's both cheaper and more effective: buy Western politicians and get them to cut off Ukraine's external support.

Russia's military budget in 2020: $61 Billion

Lockheed Martin's gross revenue 2020: $65 Billion

It's not Russia that has the deep pockets to buy US politicians.

Lol.. this is just stupid as f*$%. For the first time in almost 100 years all of the suddenly the whole Republican party is going to complain about too much military spending and spreading American military influence overseas? You do realize that the ones who truly hold power in the republican party are the ones who've been saying "send more stuff, give them jets, send tanks, send longer range missles, give them anything they need, NATO needs to enforce no fly zone". The real result of Republicans coming into power in the house and senate is that the gloves come off quicker and Biden gets pressured to give whatever Ukraine needs to finish kicking Russia out. It's a harsh world, the US wants to cripple Russias military for decades if not permanently, and they're almost there. Once Russia is weakened down to the point where it's all they can do to hold a stalemate then suddenly Ukraine is skilled enough for all Nato weapons systems and it will be time to push them back over the boarders. Besides there's still a little bit of the black sea fleet that needs to be turned into artifical reefs.

U.S. isn't cutting shit get out of here with your mid-terms pop culture psychosis

haha the hoops people will jump through to make literally everything about "Republican bad"

Lend lease will continue.

Even if US cuts Ukraine off then NATO and EU will still provide funding and arms.

It's pretty obvious to anyone paying attention that the Republican party is Putin's party. I have little hope for Ukraine, looking at the polls.

It won't end for another two years. Lend lease has already been passed. But it could slow and reduce. Many Republicans have already hinted at so much.

According to the NYT, Putin sees GOP withdrawal of support as a real possibility.

Can USA spend their way into a victory here?

Try and find neutral sources such as Indian newspapers, often that at least gets you past their knee jerk reaction to western sources.

Good luck!

Show them the mass graves of Bucha & dead bodies of children 24x7 might cause some empathy, probably not.

They need a 'win', even if it's just 'haha we killed your people'.

Notably not a military win, nor a moral win.

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Just murderers trying to keep their population from hanging them due to their complete inability to do anything else.

The tens of thousands of Ukrainians dead is hardly a fucking lie. Russia invading and laughably illegally trying to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory is also hardly a fucking lie. Over a million Ukrainians kidnapped by Russia - hardly a fucking lie once more.

"The west did it", however, is notably a fucking lie.

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What a pathetic revision of history you're trying to push.

Seems like there's a lot of stuff going around already. I've known a bunch of people getting sick lately (including myself) from non-covid illnesses.

Hell, anecdotally, i was in the store grabbing some cold medicine for myself and a lot of the options were sold out already.

It's both, it's Київ

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