Is Putin Mad?

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mattheus
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by mattheus »

Nearholmer wrote: 6 Apr 2022, 7:03pm
At this point it's of no relevance to us - and certainly does not pertain to his "Mad or Not" status.
If he does have cancer, and is undergoing chemo and associated steroid treatment, it might.

The stress that awful combo puts an individual under, and the side affects of the steroids, can cause serious mental health problems. Something like 6% of those treated with steroids suffer anything ranging from depression through to severe psychosis, sadly.
There's a lot of ifs, mights, and tiny %ages in there...

Seems like a very long shot to me. There are plenty more likely things to concern ourselves with.
Nearholmer
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Nearholmer »

I’m not for one moment saying that any of it is the case; how the dickens would I know?

All I’m attempting to do is correct an impression that being treated for cancer has no bearing on a person’s mental state, when it can and often does have a profound affect through the combination of fear, pain, exhaustion, and the side-effects of medication. MacMillan Cancer Support among others do great work helping people through the mental turmoil.
mattheus
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by mattheus »

Nearholmer wrote: 8 Apr 2022, 9:09am All I’m attempting to do is correct an impression that being treated for cancer has no bearing on a person’s mental state,
I don't think anyone gave that impression.
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kylecycler
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by kylecycler »

Certainly steroids could be a factor - after Trump was in hospital for Covid he was on a steroid called dexamethasone and for a few days he was manic - there was one day when he put out over 200 tweets and the content was crazy/scary.

It's pure speculation, of course, and I don't suppose there's anything anyone can do, although if there is anything to it, perhaps Putin's doctors might get wise to it and alter his medication - someone with that kind of power losing the plot, as he quite possibly has, could kill us all.
Nearholmer
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Nearholmer »

Dexamethasone is one of the things I was thinking of.
Stradageek
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Stradageek »

This clip comes with a health warning, if you don't favour strong language, but it clearly exposes the complicity of the British government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAblAQENQhE
Jdsk
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Jdsk »

Ben@Forest wrote: 1 Mar 2022, 7:38pm And it has created a step change. Germany which, somewhat naively, pandered to the Russian bear, is now going through a massive re-evaluation of its foreign policy, it has massively increased defence spending, will spend more than 2% of GDP on defence spending from now on and is exporting weapons to a country at war.

As a Russian-speaker was Merkel just too close to Putin? By building Nordstream 2 was Germany setting up a precursor to a Russian war? And Gerhard Schörder, the former SPD Chancellor who started the Nordstream 2 project and became its chairman after his premiership has refused to condemn Putin. As of right now the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says:

The SPD headquarters said that efforts by the party to persuade Schröder to resign from his positions at the Russian energy companies Nord Stream 1 and 2 and the oil company Rosneft and not to take up a supervisory board position at Gazprom have been rejected. The former chancellor is not ready to consider that.

Merkel's legacy (and frankly she was never quite so well-regarded in Germany as she was here) is being trashed, Schröder's name is rapidly becoming dog-dirt.
"The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder will lose some of his post-office privileges after failing to cut his links with Russian energy companies over the Ukraine war, the Bundestag’s budgetary committee has decided."

"Schröder, who was German head of government from 1998 until 2005, will be stripped of his office and staff, which cost about 419,000 euros (£354,500) in taxpayers’ money in 2021."


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ith-russia

Jonathan
UpWrong
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by UpWrong »

"In a separate development, Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft said on Friday that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had informed them he would no longer serve on their board.

Mr Schröder has faced increasing public outrage over the lucrative role. He has refused to criticise Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who he counts as a personal friend, over his decision to invade Ukraine."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61524933
Carlton green
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Carlton green »

Stradageek wrote: 13 Apr 2022, 10:26am This clip comes with a health warning, if you don't favour strong language, but it clearly exposes the complicity of the British government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAblAQENQhE
Sadly this is too near an accurate reflection of British Politics. That is said without intent to be party political, and then there’s the money poured into the media to influence public opinion. The biggest criminals are not necessarily those who are or have been in prison.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
Biospace
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Biospace »

As national leaders go, not excessively. Outdated in some of his ways of taking over foreign assets to the extent you could almost hear the Chinese Communist Party cringing as the invasion began - for several reasons. But compared with most normal people, yes, he clearly is mad.

Compared with Tony Blair invading Iraq? Compared with Galtieri for seeing a very weak Britain in 1981, run by (at the time) a politically weak leader and invading The Falkland Islands? Putin clearly lacks Blair's slick delivery and influential American friends, acting brutally and appearing to care little for individual human lives, as all most war leaders do, at least to their enemies. But what is it about Ukrainians which makes our media so much more outraged about their fate than that of Syria?

Regaining control of The Donbas and trading routes to the South are clearly part of his strategy to continue to rebuild Russia from the non-entity it became after the chaotic collapse of the USSR 30 years ago, when the country's seaboard was removed to the Arctic and a corner of the North Pacific. This region and Black Sea coast matter more to Putin's Russia than The Falklands or even Wales matter to England, it seems.

Empires are strange things and move people to act strangely. China and the EU are both developing empires of sorts, the EU's rapid expansion up to Russia's borders together with vast amounts of American money and quite a few biological laboratories in Ukraine appear to have spooked Putin into going all out to capture what isn't his. For years, he has been warning this sort of thing would happen if Russia continued to feel threatened and has been testing the West - what did we do when Litvinenko was killed on British soil? Four returned diplomats and a tersely-worded letter?

Putin should be more concerned with China's growth of influence, given the way they treat their own citizens, their ability to create islands out of nothing seemingly wherever they wish and the assertions of their Army generals than the clumsy and inept fumblings of the West. Are we not in great danger of driving Russia into the arms of Beijing, when had we any sense, we would have treated Russia after the collapse of the Soviet empire a little more like we did post WW2 Germany than post WW1 Germany?

Such is the way the world evolves, cash-rich emerging powers watching on as long-established ones increase their debts through war and strife. Moscow, Istanbul and Paris are Europe's three largest cities. 77% of Russians live west of the Urals. As an American friend of mine who has worked in European Russia as well as Ukraine says, "you guys have a load more in common with most Russians and Ukrainians than with any typical American".
Stevek76
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Stevek76 »

Biospace wrote: 6 Jul 2022, 12:20am But what is it about Ukrainians which makes our media so much more outraged about their fate than that of Syria?
Well I'm sure conscious and unconscious bias plays a part here, as does geographical and geopolitical proximity.

But it's worth also bearing in mind that Syria was a civil war/uprising that some countries in 'the West' hopped upon with the intention for regime change. Putin's intervention in support of his ally was typically brutal for civilians but ultimately I think the US and allies can bear some responsibility for the instability. Assad is a horrible dictator but from a net harm and stability perspective, much as with Hussain, generally not a great idea to turf them out and expect it to be magically fine after

Ukraine is a straight up invasion (which really has been ongoing since 2014) by Putin of a relatively democratic country because the people of that country freely chose to reorient themselves away from Russia and towards Europe. A military response to losing a soft power battle for influence makes him the clear antagonist here.
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
Jdsk
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Jdsk »

Stevek76 wrote: 7 Jul 2022, 11:29am
Biospace wrote: 6 Jul 2022, 12:20am But what is it about Ukrainians which makes our media so much more outraged about their fate than that of Syria?
Well I'm sure conscious and unconscious bias plays a part here, as does geographical and geopolitical proximity.
Yes. We should recognise the factors, including that we feel that they are more like us, including how they look and their religious history.

But this isn't some gotcha that once recognised and exposed should be used to oppose support. That should stand or fall on its own merits.

Stevek76 wrote: 7 Jul 2022, 11:29am Ukraine is a straight up invasion (which really has been ongoing since 2014) by Putin of a relatively democratic country because the people of that country freely chose to reorient themselves away from Russia and towards Europe. A military response to losing a soft power battle for influence makes him the clear antagonist here.
Because that remains true.

Jonathan
Mike Sales
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Mike Sales »

I have been an atheist for sixty years, but my Christian education in ethics somehow remains inherent to me.
The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
The point being that the Samaritans were a different tribe.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Biospace
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Biospace »

Stevek76 wrote: 7 Jul 2022, 11:29am
Biospace wrote: 6 Jul 2022, 12:20am But what is it about Ukrainians which makes our media so much more outraged about their fate than that of Syria?
Well I'm sure conscious and unconscious bias plays a part here, as does geographical and geopolitical proximity.

A military response to losing a soft power battle for influence makes him the clear antagonist here.

I agree, perhaps it's in part expected to have a more positive bias towards people geographically closer/more similar appearance and customs?

Putin's old fashioned approach has made it easy for the media to bolster the narrative he alone is the antagonist, something which is always desirable in such a war situation.
Last edited by Biospace on 7 Jul 2022, 2:00pm, edited 3 times in total.
Stevek76
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Re: Is Putin Mad?

Post by Stevek76 »

Biospace wrote: 7 Jul 2022, 12:40pm Putin's old fashioned approach has made it easy for the media to bolster the narrative he alone is the antagonist, something which is always desirable in such a war situation.
Not sure it's really a narrative that needs to be bolstered is it? The idea that he was somehow provoked into doing this is apologetic rubbish. Ukraine has, in elections that were independently observed to free and fair, elected in governments that have leaned towards Europe and away from Russia. For sure, the EU and US would have made that choice an inviting option but that's part and parcel of normal diplomatic politics. There seem to be conspiracy theories around that the euro-maidan revolution was some sort of US deep state operation and that subsequent leaders are picked by the US, that is clearly tin foil hat territory.

Russia pushed Ukraine away, much as it is pushing or has already pushed the other ex-SSRs away by being an authoritarian, oppressive oligarc-kleptocracy. It's not exactly a hard choice for the typical ukrianian citizen to decide which major global powers they want their future to be more aligned when they can see the relative egalitarian prosperity of the EU in one direction and the vast inequality in the other.

If Putin's response to that is use of force then yes, that absolutely makes him the sole antagonist in this situation.
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
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