I never thought I'd see the US aligning with Russia

[VolcanoJapan]

The US appear under Trump to be aligning with Putin and Russia more and more.

What was until recently referred to as our greatest allie is moving close to Russia in many ways, carving up Ukraine for Russia, trade deals with Russia.

It's bizarre.

Aibu to think it's bizarre or was this always coming when trump was elected?

Apparently there were high level meetings in the military before the election as they suspected something like this.

Massively increased military spending, which will either mean tax increases, cuts in other areas, or more borrowing. Now that the (by far) most important member of NATO cannot be relied on, the European members need to hugely step up and follow Poland’s lead in taking defence seriously.

Joining an EU customs union would go some way to softening the blow but I can’t see it happening under Starmer.

Really good interviews on the radio this morning.

With Ukrainian former PM and ex MI6

Hard to convey the level of insight and give it justice, a few things that stood out

Putin is much weaker than US

Ukraine are happy to work on rare minerals deal but need security

US has bargaining power rn

The west didn't do well with Ukraine as it was just letting them lose slowly so disruption to that not overall bad

We need to spend loads more on defence

Strategy is interesting, I very much feel for Ukraine

Actually might not have been that title for Ukraine spokesperson, some dc interruptions

My key take was it's difficult, interruption to how it was going isn't all bad but US is stronger than Russia economically and strategically

I agree with you in regards to increased military spending. However, that could be a much needed injection in growth. As well as security.

This is the 21st century. Threats to our security are different. We need a different approach.

Yeah, somewhat ironically military spending is one of the best “bang for buck” of any form of state spending in terms of job creation, tax revenue and export revenue.

25% tariffs on products from the EU, because the EU was specifically created to annoy Trump (in his narc perception). That comes from the federal country USA.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/trump-european-union-tariffs

Soon enough the Russian Federation will invade Alaska just to shut him up.

And Trump wanting to sue the media for a story he didn't like. I guess he did not listen to his VP's preaching to Europe about free speech at the Munich Security Conference. I wonder what JD Vance makes of this.
www.theguardian.com/media/2025/feb/26/trump-wall-street-journal-tariffs

Yes free speech....but I believe the White House will now control who attends press conferences and therefore likely have less attendees who pick on the Donald....

The experts on the radio show I was listening to last week (discussing this) seemed to be of the opinion that Russia can afford to keep losing men at this rate because of how vast it is.

Russia isn’t that vast though. Its population size is only just over twice that of the UK (143 million).

@EasternStandard which radio station was that please? I would like to have a listen.

@bluewanda I usually listen to BBC WS or Times Radio for analysis and it was the latter I think, on Sunday morning

Since then more talk of minerals deal with Ukraine, and the line on security which everyone is hanging on, so far doesn't give it.

true, they are controlling who is in the press corps, too, but this is about any articles which criticize any of his decisions; the journalist do not need to be in the press corps for that.
And threatening to create a new law about the media - as in the link I provided - sounds very much like he'd prefer censure - just like his buddy Vladimir.
When North Korean and Russian politicians start to sound reasonable by contrast it's clear there is a problem.

Well well well. Guess what I came across today? (From 2022.)

‘Troll factory’ spreading Russian pro-war lies online, says UK
St Petersburg outfit hijacks discussions on Twitter, TikTok, world leaders’ social accounts and media websites, as well as manipulating opinion polls
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/01/troll-factory-spreading-russian-pro-war-lies-online-says-uk
[...] Social media accounts of bands and musicians including Daft Punk, David Guetta, Tiesto and Rammstein appear to have been targeted by the disinformation operation.