And America with its atrocities around the world has not proven itself to be a worse tyrant, monster, bully & pirate?
Lets look at the record of fire bombing of Hamburg & Dresden, 2 atomic bombs in Japan, Bombs in the Pacific, Agent orange in Vietnam, Landmines in various SE Asian countries, Depleted Uranium in various countries, financing & protecting Israel to enable it to use phosphorus cluster bombs on middle East civilians, fostering the overthrow of many governments not toeing the American line, . . .
Let me refresh your memory with these probably pornographic photos:

And you by the CIA?

@FrayedBear Stupid retort - but to be expected from someone who is trying desperately to defend the indefensible.

@Petter and yet again "Stupid retort - but to be expected from someone who is trying desperately to defend the indefensible."
Don't you get tired of having to criticise yourself Petter?

Please compare and contrast American behaviour in 1964? under JFK when the Russians sent missiles to Cuba to today's situation of America, EU & NATO countries sending armaments, mercenaries & insurgents to foment trouble in Ukraine. The people in the Donbass region have for 8 years been subjected to genocidal assault because of this external behaviour.

@FrayedBear 1964? The Cuban Missile Crisis was, as we all remember, in October of 1962. Your inaccurate recollection of historical events belies your intentions.

@p-nullifidian which intention is that? I really cannot be bothered whether it was 62, 64 or 72 the fact that America in its paranoia acted with extreme prejudice & aggression.
Why should Russia be any different 60 years on?
I really have a problem with your arrogant imbecility & disdain for the rest of humanity.

@FrayedBear Oh please. I am neither disdainful nor arrogant, and am always open to new information and willing to reconsider an opinion. My simple point is this: by making the United States the bogeyman for all the world’s ills, including what is happening in Ukraine, one runs the risk of oversimplifying the situation as well as ceding more power (not to mention competency) to the US than it actually has.

Russians don’t lay awake at night worried about being attacked by NATO any more than the Swedes, who decided on a “go it alone” defense strategy decades ago. Putin is a gangster, a thug, a mobster who is angry at the potential of losing his influence over Ukraine. This former KGB officer is an evil bastard who assassinates people who disagree with him, and has crushed Georgia, as well as invaded the Crimea and Donbas. Much like a drug lord, Putin views Ukraine as a member of his cartel that, after years of being in business, wants to go straight and leave the drug business.

But hey, don’t take my word for any of this. What do the majority of countries in the region have to say about Vladimir Putin? What are the opinions of most of the former Warsaw Pact nations? How do the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia feel about living under the ‘influence’ of the Kremlin? Why does Ukraine itself prefer the EU over Moscow? Even the Brits could understand this choice!

@p-nullifidian " is an evil bastard who assassinates people who disagree with him" - isn't that projection of America?
You obviously haven't read the incomplete list:
[wikispooks.com]
From your Monroe doctrine on you cannot accept that others do not want your so called civilisation of poverty, homelessness, lack of medical care, slavery through a monetarised criminal system, drug dependence & the associated social & criminal crimes, gun deaths, corruption, duplicitous politicians & political parties, duplicitous trade agreements, obscene proselytising & control freak religions out for tax exempt wealth, and self induced paranoia to name but a few of your traits that some are not prepared to sit & say nothing about.
I will remind you of a Lutheran pastor's statement from over 80 years ago:
[en.m.wikipedia.org]
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

That is the British version not the American Jewish version of the poem. Both however discriminate against the homosexuals, the mentally ill & the congenitally deformed and most importantly the Sinti & Roma who were also exterminated in the gas chambers.
As you mention the Swedish were you aware that a favourite race purification practiced by them used to be to leave deformed & mentally defective babies outside in winter to sleep their lives away? There are many citizens of Swedish origin in America.

@FrayedBear Wait, so you’re comparing the assassination attempts by the United States against foreign adversaries (a practice I don’t condone, with the possible exception of Osama bin Laden), and Putin’s hits against his fellow countrymen, even if they’ve moved to another country (i.e., Britain)? That would be like Donald Trump ordering the poisoning of Joe Biden, an act that even the deranged man of orange wouldn’t have sanctioned! Can you say, “false equivalency?“

I have never heard this about Sweden, but would greatly appreciate your source for this practice, which reminds me of the fabled custom of indigenous cultures to place the elderly or infirm on an ice sheet and allow them to float out to sea.

In the spirit of remaining on point, the bottom line is this: Do you support Vladimir Putin? Do you think he is a decent person? Do you not recognize the evils he has perpetrated? I appeal to you not as an American, but as a citizen of the world and an observer of Russia’s immediate neighbors.

@p-nullifidian I neither support nor actively work against him.
I once was anti Gadaffi until I saw what American & American directed NATO did to Libya and then saw the consequences with the current shithole in Libya & the mass invasion of Europe.
People are currently gasping at the possibility of 7 million Ukrainians claiming refugee status. I'm concerned at the thought of 145 million Russian refugees or genocidal deaths. America & American led NATO have not thought this through or are deliberately driving to this sort of abomination of an end game. Covid 19 has not achieved much of a world depopulation so let's do it with nukes?
I'm just trying to get what little pleasure I can out of what little life I have left.

@FrayedBear “I'm just trying to get what little pleasure I can out of what little life I have left.”

Amen brother! Bottom line is this, we can fight and argue over political and philosophical points, but at the end of the day we need to recognize that we’re all human beings with the same hopes and concerns. Peace

@p-nullifidian as a long dead friend once said after that disastrous tsunami "if you can't get to safe ground, grab a bottle of Johnny Walker, a willing woman & start drinking & fornicating".
Unfortunately I don't drink like that or been with a willing woman for 20 years.

@p-nullifidian last year I used the below as my avatar. It is actually from my standard letter closure. This year I have gone back to using the extended version before my signature - "May Health, Peace and Fulfilment be your constant companions on life's journey. Courtesy of my landlord's agents & others mine left and have not yet returned. I do however strive to not be one of Professor Cipolla's stupid people, avoiding them however is becoming increasingly difficult."

Joe, your personal abuse of me does nothing to disprove what Putin believes.

Interestingly the RT that I read off their app primarily contains reports from Ukraine, EU, and American sources. Are you still able to read RT in America?

My stating that Assange & Putin have challenged US information does not indicate that I'm pro one or the other any more than my nom de plum states that I'm of Russian nationality.

@FrayedBear I wasn't trying to abuse you, just disputing your opinion and your sources. Of course RT can be read here, along with a lot of media that is critical of the government and our president. Almost abusive of our president. We have 1st amendment freedom of the press in the USA, unlike Putin's Russia where people are jailed for criticizing him. That is a fact.

@barjoe that must be why American Anon is busy hacking into Russian media sites closing them with their propaganda?

Do you remember the quote of Niemöller a German Lutheran priest?

[en.m.wikiquote.org]

Even Niemöller showed his prejudice against the mentally ill, the Russians, the Sinti & Rom by not including them.