Lee B

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Guess they missed the memo about Russia trying and failing to change regimes in Ukraine for the past few years.

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We just validated that...

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Absolutely! We are coming to their Aide. Betcha Cuba is better off next year.
They can probably afford 70's vintage Chevys and Fords once Communism is destroyed.

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How many billions are we going to send to Cuba to save them? What are we going to get out of it? Cigars?

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Shocked that Citgo Lake Charles and Corpus aren’t on this list. At one time, they got virtually all their crude from Venezuela, as they were owned by their national oil company PVDSA.

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I had to make sure my memory was correct...

Citgo Petroleum Corporation is primarily owned by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), which is the state-owned oil company of Venezuela.

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Venezuela could be a HUGE gamechanger globally and if this clip is true Putin has shite himself more than one today.

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No... Trump wants to have his "sphere of influence" in this hemisphere and he's made it blatantly obvious he prefers Putin to Europe and will let him do whatever he wants... likewise "Xi is a very smart man." China can have the Pacific and Southern Asia...

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Iranians who were there tell me this, not US reports. Go play with you idiot profs who taught this.

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Iranians who were there told me what I said.

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Loss of Iran will definitely impact Russia's abilities on the front.

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I'd hope there would be a Shahed drone shortage, but I think Russia makes or imports most of the parts for those from places other than Iran, now.

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It was Russia who fomented and fed the protests.

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Um... no. Not everything bad for US interests was caused by the Soviets.

Middle-class Iranians had long wanted Democracy and not to be ruled by a King and his elite cronies... they'd deposed him once (in 1953), the CIA and the British(and the oil industry) helped him retake power, which led to some bloody retribution... and that created the general anti-American/anti-British sentiment among the public. I'm not sure the Atheist Soviet Union would be that into installing a Fundamnetalist Islamic regime (trampling Islam inside of The Soviet Union was a big struggle for the U.S.S.R.)... also, The Shah was chummy enough with the Soviets that they viewed Iran as a potential ally...

I know I've mentioned this before, but Americans seem to have no idea that at the same time as the Iranian Revolution, the military dictatorship in neighboring Afghanistan (which had deposed the popular King of Afghanistan earlier in the decade) had been ousted by a People's Revolution, which sought to have the country officially join the U.S.S.R. that bordered it... the CIA funded and trained Saudi Mujaheideen to start a "Civil War" under the reasoning that Communist Athesim was working its way towards the Holy Land and Mecca and had to be stopped early. The Afghan government asked the Soviets to come help, and we Americans were told it was a 'Soviet Invasion'... and we believed it. A guy from Pakistan straightened that out for us in College... some people angrily didn't believe him. I brought it up in a Poli Sci class and the teacher said "yes, that's what happened... it's just too controversial to talk about it... we created a 'Vietnam' for the U.S.S.R. to get stuck in, as revenge." After the Soviets pulled out and the U.S.S.R. collapsed soon after, all those people who were in Carter's cabinet at the time tried to take credit for the idea in their memoirs.

Anyway, if the U.S.S.R. wanted to control/conquer Iran (as the Tsars had always wanted to do), turning it into a militant Shi'ite Islamic regime would not be the way to do it. The Soviets much preferred the secular Pan-Arab/Persian autocrats (Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad) who they understood to religious extremists they didn't. Putin is a bit different because he is not running Russia as an Atheist entity, but uses the Russian Orthodox Church much like the Mullahs use the Mosques.

Iran has long been a powderkeg. The people hate the regime they are under, and most of them had it much better under the Shah.

Ironically, pushing for education and modernization. and creating a growing and thriving urban middle-class, the Shah and others created the very segment of the population that would want them toppled the most. The poor are too desperate and concerned with eating tonight and tomorrow to pine for things like political autonomy.

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It literally doesn't. Russia doesn't give a frick how long it takes if they get what they want.

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But not when it comes to the Baltic States?

"tHeY DoN'T wAnT tHoSe!!!"

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If Ukraine did target Putin's residence...

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That's not allowed?

International Business Times (February 26, 2022): Russia Unleashes Elite Squad of Chechen 'Hunters' in Ukraine to Kill Zelensky and Other Kyiv Officials
According to a Moscow Telegram group with links to the security establishment, each soldier was given a special "deck of cards" with Ukrainian officials' images and descriptions on them.

A large number of Russian special forces, ranging from elite front-line troops to assassination and sabotage squads, have been deployed in Ukraine with the aim of assassinating the country's leadership, according o reports. Among these are over 10,000 ruthless and battle-hardened Chechen 'hunters' who have been unleashed in Ukraine especially with the aim of detaining or killing a group of Ukrainian officials.

These Chechens are also hunting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his family. According to reports, Russia is recruiting and deploying Chechens mainly form their hometown Grozny, escalating fears the battle for Ukraine will turn into a horrific bloodbath.

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Following various incidents — starting with the undersea cables some time ago or the different drone incursions into NATO airspace or aircraft violations — what we've seen is that, in response to reactions from the West or NATO, Russia has taken various measures to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.

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CNN: Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged

Dec 31, 2025, 7:24 AM ET

Finland has detained a ship and its crew after a critical undersea telecommunication cable connecting the country to Estonia was damaged Wednesday, Finnish authorities said.

Finnish police said in a statement that the vessel suspected of causing the damage was found with its anchor chain lowered into the sea in Finland’s waters, while the damage site itself was in Estonia’s waters. The police later named the vessel as the Fitburg, a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines flagged cargo ship.

The Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that all 14 members of the ship’s crew have been detained, adding that the crew are citizens of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.