Comments by "Geoff Lepper" (@geofflepper3207) on "The Icarus Project" channel.

@ManiaMac1613 That sort of makes sense except that when Ukraine uses American weapons against Russian forces in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops Russia has the same opportunity to examine what survives of American missiles, shells and drones and try to reverse engineer them.
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@corvus4135 One can say that Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands had empires and still also say that Russia had an empire and is still an empire and still has the mentality of an empire. No contradiction there despite what you seem to think.
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@corvus4135 Actually it seems that you are the person who gets very upset by the truth that Russia has been an empire at least since the year 1500 and is still an empire. The fact that there have been other empires doesn't change that fact one bit but your attempt to distract from bad behavior of Russian governments is par for the course for Russian trolls.
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Hold on and wait a minute. The Finns built St Petersburg and were its first inhabitants so you'll have to ask them if they are willing to give it up. I say let them have the city again. The Russians have a big enough country - they'll be fine without St Petersburg.
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It reminds me a little of the 1950s movie The Harder they Fall with Humphrey Bogart. A shady boxing promoter creates a campaign to become a top contender for a South American giant who looks intimidating based simply on his size but is not a skilled boxer on offense and defence and wins fights only because they are fixed but gets destroyed in a fight when the opponent refuses to take a dive and intends to fight for real. Though there is a difference in that the giant boxer in the movie is a noble man with courage and decency and no desire to hurt or cheat anyone and no greed. That's not how people describe Russia or its military.
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Very interesting. I can see how some people of Russian background left over from the Russian empire might wish for the "glorious" Russian empire to come back just as some people of British and French background may have wished that the colonies they lived in stayed in the empires but that's not how it is supposed to go when an empire is dismantled. Anyone left over from an empire can always go back to their motherland if they don't like being in an independent country and that includes Russians in the Baltic states and Ukraine. If someone is logical it would make no sense to leave thriving democratic countries like the Baltic states and Poland to go to a poorer, stagnant country like Russia which is run by a brutal dictator and which has a vast gap between regular impoverished people and the few very rich people and which is constantly going to war and which has become a pariah state.
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@RickDeckard6531 Presumably if those of Russian background in the Baltic states had wanted to live in Russia then they likely would have already done so because nothing and nobody is stopping them. I believe that most "immigrants" to Russia are of Russian heritage or from poorer central Asian countries and given the demographic problems of Russia I'm sure that Putin would be happy to have them come to Russia.
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@SlavicCoffee Not Germany please. I don't want Germany and Poland arguing about the possibility of a German corridor from Kalingrad to the main part of Germany. We've been through that before and it turned out badly.
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By a 100 years from now most of the world will have forgotten tinpot dictator Putin. Ukrainians will remember Putin with anger for all the terrorist acts he inflicted on Ukraine mixed with pride for how Ukrainians responded to Putin's unprovoked imperialist invasion by becoming a stronger, more independent, successful country with immense solidarity and pride and with one of the strongest, most capable, talented (defensive) military forces in the world. Russians more than anyone will vividly remember Putin with immense hate for the man who destroyed their country.
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I belueve it was Covert Cabal that reported that Russia has already taken almost all of its anti-aircraft systems away from its border with China. (though that information was provided to Covert Cabal by a third party who looked at satellite imagery of Russian bases in Asia) That could turn out to be a stupid decision. Ukraine and NATO aren't going to invade Russia but China might.
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Putin's government and Russian trolls keep claiming that Russia is fighting in Ukraine because of NATO expansion that was a "threat" to Russia and yet Ukraine is not in NATO and when Finland joined NATO Russia responded by withdrawing most of its troops from its border with Finland. Clearly despite its rhetoric and lies the Russian dictatorship understands very well that NATO is a defensive alliance that poses no threat to Russia.
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Things are actually worse for the Russian fossil fuels industry than mentioned here. As well as the problems outlined in this video Russia also has trouble maintaining and repairing energy infrastructure without western workers and western parts - though Russia is evading sanctions by getting parts through third parties that makes things complicated. As well without western help Russia is struggling to build LNG export ports. As well, according to some sources, without western help Russia is struggling to design a system to "pump" natural gas through pipelines. As well Russia is struggling to maintain heating and electricity infrastructure in its cities - presumably due to a shortage of skilled workers. Evidence of this was seen in the fact that many Russian citizens found themselves freezing in the dark in their apartments last winter. If the war continues this problem will continue to get worse year by year. As well Europe has been developing renewable energy at a rapid pace and has decreased its demand for natural gas. And of course everywhere in the world renewable energy will continue to get cheaper and cheaper. As well the United States and Qatar have plans for vast increases in their exports of natural gas over the next ten years and countries are signing very long term contracts with Qatar for natural gas, a product that Qatar can produce at low cost. Some say that it will take ten years for the Russian gas export industry to recover. Some say it will never recover - that seems the most likely scenario.
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Putin certainly has created disaster for Russia with his unprovoked imperialist invasion into Ukraine but I believe that it's actually the case that the Russian government is spending over 30% of total government spending on the war, not over 30%: of GDP. Also, I've always heard the figure of a million men fleeing Russia, not three million men. But you could add a lot of other things that have gone wrong for Russia. Being a pariah state. Struggling to build LNG terminals or new gas pipelines without western help and finding that China is only willing to buy a small amount of gas and only if the Russian government heavily subsidizes the price of the gas. Being stuck with a lot of Indian currency Russia has no use for while Russia's foreign assets are frozen. Russia's exports of military equipment collapsing. Etc., etc.
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@rose-mariemukarutabana9001 So caring for all people of all races in Russia was why the Russian government focused on conscripting men from non-Russian ethnic groups to fight and die in a pointless war in Ukraine? Strange way to show affection. For that matter if the Russian government cared about any of its people it would bring in freedom and democracy and stop repressing its citizens and would stop its stupid pointless invasion into Ukraine and its interference in Moldova, Georgia, Chechnya and Syria and would also work to change the country from a kleptocracy to a more equitable state in which the billionaires have less money but regular people are brought out of their impoverished conditions. I have no delusions that Putin cares for Russia or for anyone but himself.
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@_Epsilon_ You say that Russia has virtually unlimited resources and yet Russia can't keep the electric power on in its cities and all it gives a lot of war widows is a refrigerator for the loss of their husband, hopefully a refrigerator that hasn't been stripped of its components by a Russian military desperate for machine parts. I don't believe you.
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I would think that Putin like Xi would be very nervous about giving up any of his country's territory because of the possible precedent it would set for other regions with people who might like to separate from their country. Though, it is interesting to look at old maps and see huge countries and empires that ended up disappearing or shrinking immensely and someday Russia may be one of those countries. The actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was born into an Austro-Hungarian empire that by European standards was huge and which was powerful but shortly after she was born all that was left were two regular countries that were not particularly big or powerful. She died just a few years ago in 2016. Or to give a bit more of a recent example the British empire was huge until the late 1950s and then very quickly became very small. Perhaps Russia will at some point split up into small states and then 80 years from now someone will be looking at an old 2024 map and will say with surprise, "Hey, look at this. Russia used to be a huge country".
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@ares8866 Actually everyone including India and China would be upset if Russia used nuclear weapons. And it's clear that the United States has told your head terrorist Putin that there will be immense negative consequences for Russia if Russia uses even one nuclear weapon. Likely at a minimum that means that American airforces would quickly destroy terrorist Russian invaders in Ukraine. And why the heck would Russia try to start a nuclear war anyway? Nobody has attacked Russia and if Russia starts a nuclear war there's a high chance that everyone in Russia will quickly die including Putin and including you. You Russian trolls seem to love the idea of a pointless, unnecessary nuclear war even if it means that you and everyone you know will die. That's not normal.
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