Reason No. 398,285 why it's not good to have your club owned by a Petro-Oligarch

[southernboy]

Chelsea fans love him

He is a private citizen. His money was welcomed at the time. This action is lawless and will further destabilise the world. It may seriously undermine the global economy rapidly. If you don’t like the gas prices now, watch out

But what’s the alternative? Do nothing?

I guess the hope is that if enough rich influential Russians are sanctioned, there could be enough pressure to force change, maybe by way of a military coup. The top Russian generals might be sycophants but they aren’t stupid. They can see how this is going and it’s not a pretty sight.

This is all the work of one man… a paranoid egotist setting his own country back decades, whilst reducing another to rubble.

[Nineteenx]

But what’s the alternative? Do nothing?

It's all politically motivated though SB, it isn't being done for the reasons the West media and making out

It is true that the Ukraine indiscriminately bombed and attacked areas of the Ukraine that were mostly inhabited by Russian separatists who don't think their life has improved through leaving the USSR for the past 8 years, so as usual with our media, people aren't getting the full story as to why this invasion has happened and why there is the brutality there is, 2 wrongs don't make a right.

And it is highly and grossly hypocritical, we sold arms and bombs to the Saudi Gov to wage and illegal ethnic cleansing war (not really a war, just them bombing the shit out of a defenseless country) specifically and deliberately targeting civilians throughout, trying to eradicate them off the face of the planet - After UN asked for sanctions and for nations to stop supplying them bombs and arms, everyone did, except the UK - But the Saudi Prince is allowed to own Newcastle and is a great guy?

Israel have been in breach of exactly the same international laws as Russia are currently for over 40 years - The are illegally occupying another nations territory, they bomb and kill civilian targets, they bulldoze their settlements flat and then occupy them - Our Gov and MPs take their money, their money's apparently good, Liverpool did a deal with AXA for our new training ground despite their known and well documented complicity in Israel's continuing illegal occupation of Palestine.

Two things my head, how its wired has never been able to stand are hypocrisy and bullying and both are involved in what I'm talking about

Sanction Russian, Saudi, UAE and Israeli Oligarchs, ban them from owning clubs in the UK or financing them, forbid clubs engaging in enterprises with any companies associated or connected with them, across the board if you're genuinely doing it on the grounds you claim to be - I don't believe in one rule for one and one rule for another

[Taksin]

"His money was welcomed"

Only by Chelsea fans, politicians and people directly benefiting.

That's the point. Its hypocrisy. The state did not object when he was investing billions of pounds in the country. He has broken no law. There is no law being used to strip him of his assets. It is lawlessness. Just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right.

Plus, tactically its stupid. Other investors of other regimes will now see that their assets can be stripped at the drop of a hat. I think 38% of Russia's gold is in Europe. If everyone else tries to take their gold out of Europe, it will create a run on the banks. Given that our governments are essentially bankrupt, that's the last thing we need.

Plus we are messing with the energy supply, which will seriously hurt us in the coming months and years. Who knows the outcome.

Plus we are backing Putin into a corner. That corner means he will partner with the Chinese against us (and if he loses, for any reason, it could lead to nuclear war). There are diplomatic solutions and they are being shut down because we are too stupid to recognise we have played a major role in causing this.

[Taksin]

I guess the hope is that if enough rich influential Russians are sanctioned, there could be enough pressure to force change,

sanctions never work. Russia has been under sanctions since at least 2014

[faridtoxteth]

Sanctions worked in South Africa.

[Kev0909]

sanctions never work. Russia has been under sanctions since at least 2014

well these sanctions are on a different level really...

Agree though, it effects normal people more than Putin himself..

[Taksin]

Sanctions worked in South Africa.

You have to watch out for outliers being used to justify the endless use of a futile tactic.. here's the abstract from a paper on the matter:


"This paper considers the economic sanctions that were applied in the mid-1980s to pressure the South African government to end apartheid.

It asks what role those sanctions played in the eventual demise of the apartheid regime and concludes that the role was probably very small.

An alternative explanation for the regime change is offered: the communist bloc combined to bring about the change.

If one is to argue for the efficacy of sanctions, two key obstacles are their limited economic impact and the substantial lag between the imposition of sanctions and the political change.

Since sanctions preceded the change of government, it is impossible to rule them out as a determinant.

However, their principal effect was probably psychological. The implication is that the South African case should not serve as the lone major instance of effective sanctions."


I believe trade is the main motivator for peace between nations, so cutting off trade is very dicey as a tactic

[Taksin]

This is from the geopolitical analyst, M Armstrng

"The stupidity of politicians like Truss is just off the charts.
They live in a fantasy world where they think this is a one-sided game and they are demigods of unlimited power.
Russia can simply;y seize all Russian assets held by foreigners.
These morons are clueless as to the COMPLEXITY that exists in the world economy.
When Russia fell into the hands of the Communists, that ended trade with the West. Russia became isolated by its own choice and thus there was a wave of shortages and economic crisis that swept through Europe.
Europeans were forced to turn to America for food and the cost of importing food from great distances led to civil unrest, rising tempers, and that all combined into World War II.

[Crimson Dynasty]

That's the point. Its hypocrisy. The state did not object when he was investing billions of pounds in the country. He has broken no law. There is no law being used to strip him of his assets. It is lawlessness. Just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right.

Plus, tactically its stupid. Other investors of other regimes will now see that their assets can be stripped at the drop of a hat. I think 38% of Russia's gold is in Europe. If everyone else tries to take their gold out of Europe, it will create a run on the banks. Given that our governments are essentially bankrupt, that's the last thing we need.

Plus we are messing with the energy supply, which will seriously hurt us in the coming months and years. Who knows the outcome.

Plus we are backing Putin into a corner. That corner means he will partner with the Chinese against us (and if he loses, for any reason, it could lead to nuclear war). There are diplomatic solutions and they are being shut down because we are too stupid to recognise we have played a major role in causing this.

What "diplomatic solutions' would those be, exactly?

So far Putin's "diplomacy" has consisted of inviting Ukranians to have talks, while using the time to continue to pound their country with more bombings.
And then humanitarian corridors are proposed to allow non-combatant Ukranians to leave or go to safer parts of the country, and he then proceeds to bomb those corridors.
Or only allow pathways to lead to Russia or to his ally Belarus, from which his staging the invasion.

How is that diplomacy?

And this is aside from the fact that in the weeks leading up to the invasion, every world leader under the sun from Macron to the German Chancellor pleaded with him not to invade Ukraine, even assuring him that Ukraine wouldn't be allowed to join NATO anytime in the near future - with the Ukrainians themselves even offering to commit to not applying for membership.

At this point, since no one seems to really know what he wants out of all this (even his own generals, it seems), it begs the question of what the aim of dimplmatic talks would actually be?

To help him establish a puppet government in Ukraine?
To add Ukraine to its borders as another Russian province?
And how is he going to run that with an Economy in tatters at home?

[southernboy]

sanctions never work. Russia has been under sanctions since at least 2014

So seriously, what is the alternative? Do we just let him him stride into every Eastern Europe democracy? I don’t know enough about the politics or the history, but I do know that innocent women and children are dying in yet another pointless conflict.

It’s a tough one but child’s play compared to what we’ll see if he were to invade a NATO country.