>And if the west would send tanks to Ukraine it'd be WW3
that tired misconception should be dropped. West can send any weapons to Ukraine, and volunteers from West, trained tank drivers and pilots, can drive those Abrams tanks and fly those F-16 planes. Russia and China has been doing "volunteer" trick just fine.
World needs to start to learn to deal with such situations. China/Taiwan is coming and total sanctions regime wouldn't be possible with China.
It would be much preferable for Russians as a whole for the West to send tanks to Ukraine to engage the invading troops. And no, it wouldn't automatically be WW3, either. It would be if the tanks crossed the Russian border, but they don't have to do so to break the invasion.
Putin called for the nukes to be put on High Alert before there was any threat of direct NATO action (and there is still no talk of any). What is the next step? "Higher" alert?
MORE direct combattants, _especially_ from other superpowers, is the last thing that we need. Adding additional powerderkegs to the existing fire does nothing to stop it.
To extend on your fire analogy, it's not just a fire, it's arson - and the arsonist is still there, sprinkling gas around and throwing matches. You can't extinguish the fire without dealing with the arsonist.
As for Putin, he's basically a gopnik. There's a Russian word for what these guys do - "быковать", literally "bulling", but it's basically a display of aggression to establish oneself higher in the hierarchy and to make the victim afraid to fight back. If you acquiesce to gopnik's demands, he will come up with more, until the point where he "justifiably" takes away your phone and wallet.
I hate to break it to you, but Russia started a war! Russia, the place where Russian citizens live, protected by an army of Russians. Russia is not some ephemeral theoretical quantity, it's a state governing its people with their consent. The preferences of their citizens are not a priority and, if you feel that consent has vanished, the only one who can do anything about it is you.
I do get the idea of sanctions -- I'm legally prevented by publicly commenting on this due to some Russian law -- but I understand if a foreign business body has to terminate its business relations with a Russian one.
But kicking out paid customers just based on their nationality, knowing that they have no direct control over situation, and still blaming them for it? This is f**d up, I'm sorry.
Please don't cross into personal attack. I know you're under pressure, and other people are in terrible situations. We can't allow HN users to start taking that out on each other.
