[Livia]

I'd like to post this article from last September in case anyone was wondering why Jeremy Corbyn has been so quiet...

In 2015 he (rightly) attacked Saudi Arabia's human rights record. He praised the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran. He attacked "the foul and despicable crimes committed by Isil and by the Assad government, including barrel bombs being dropped on civilian targets", but without mentioning Assad's backer, the supplier of those barrel bombs: Vladimir Putin.

In 2016, he attacked Saudi Arabia's war in the Yemen and promised to suspend arms sales to the Saudis and other countries which commit human rights abuses or war crimes. No other international issue was mentioned at all, apart from Brexit, but this was discussed only in domestic terms.
In 2017, he attacked President Trump on climate change. He again attacked the cruel Saudi war in the Yemen, the crushing of democracy in Egypt and Bahrain, and, without blaming anyone in particular, "the tragic loss of life in Congo". He called on Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end the violence against Muslims in her country. He called for the UN secretary general to create dialogue between the United States and North Korea to "wind down the deeply dangerous confrontation over the Korean peninsula", although even here he carefully avoided any criticism of the North Korean dynastic dictator, who has starved and brutalised his own people while creating a long-range nuclear capability. He supported Palestine. He went back to Trump, calling for Britain to be a "candid friend" and publicly attack his policies on immigration, race, religion and pollution.

But there was no such suggestion of candour towards Putin. The speech set out a foreign policy of preaching and even insults for the leader of our biggest ally, and silence towards the leader of our biggest threat.

None of the three speeches gave any endorsement to Nato or confirmed that Britain, under his premiership, would fulfil its obligations towards each member of that alliance. I could not find any such endorsement online either, just a long history of his calls for Nato to be dissolved and for some kind of neutral or demilitarised zone on Russia's long borders. If that policy means anything, it means conceding to Putin a veto over the right of any adjacent country to invite allies to help defend its frontiers.

Since Corbyn has not talked about Putin and Russia in parliament, or to party conference, or during this year's general election, one has to search online for his views on them. I simply could not find a spontaneous, unprompted criticism of Putin.

http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-an...lence-on-putin

[Northern Monkey]

I don’t like the rhetoric i’m hearing on the news tbh.
Saying under international law this would be classed as an armed attack which gives us the right to self defence by force.
This was a guy on Sky News.Is he fecking insane?

[Tom4784]

There's very little we can do, we're in a weak position and Russia doesn't need to pay any attention to anything we say or do. We can't do anything against them really.

[Kizzy]

Hmmm this is very dangerous, what else could w have other than dialogue? Which to me sounds nothing like something trump would say.... the alternative doesn't bear thinking about :/

'The Labour leader “sounded like President Trump” in calling for dialogue with Vladimir Putin when the Russian double agent and his daughter had been left in “mortal danger” by the nerve-agent attack, Mr Miliband warned.'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a8252991.html

[Kizzy]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...is-london-home

[Underscore]

T May has the support of not only America, but NATO and France have also come out in support of her.

She has good clout now

[user104658]

We're blatantly headed for cold war 2.0 aren't we.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

We're blatantly headed for cold war 2.0 aren't we.

Yes we are. Now we've completely disbanded the British Army of the Rhine, Russia seems to be at her most provocative. It was only three years ago that they announced to the world that they have "the grandfather of all bombs" while we're paring down our armed forces and risk a leader who probably wouldn't renew Trident, let alone launch it.

[arista]

Russia has said its 10 days notice
needed.
So by midnight tonight,
not expecting anything from Russia.


Also they asked for a sample
of the Nerve Agent
but no response from the UK.

[DemolitionRed]

@4) Introduce amendments to the sanctions and anti-money laundering bill

The legislation could be amended to allow stronger sanctions against human rights abusers, such as the persecutors of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax accountant who died in jail in Russia after revealing details of massive state-sponsored fraud.

The Foreign Office says it already has full confiscatory powers, but under pressure from Tory backbenchers such as Richard Benyon, and the Europe minister, Sir Alan Duncan, said ministers were minded to support a Magnitsky clause once the bill reaches report stage and the technical legal definitions of gross human rights abuse have been resolved. But ministers see this as a symbolic act to assuage public opinion.

That's ridiculous. All the government need to do is search for Russian companies registered in the UK who remain anonymous and have never traded over here and confiscate those companies. If nobody is willing to report them and its true, a none trading company has to be reported before something can be done, then all they need to do is set up a registered company, make a few transactions whilst finding the culprits, of which they have full knowledge and reporting them!

[jet]

https://news.sky.com/story/spy-poiso...years-11287880

Dr Vil Mirzayanov is a chemist who ran the technical counter-intelligence department in Russia's chemical weapons institute.

He helped make "novichok", the class of nerve agents the British government says was used to poison defected spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The doctor said that even minuscule amounts could affect victims, and that symptoms could develop "in years".

But responding to an inquiry from Sky News, Dr Jenny Harries, Deputy Medical Director at Public Health England, said: "PHE has been working very closely with the police and national experts on chemical weapons since the start of the incident and our risk assessment is based on knowledge of the chemical used.

"Our advice remains that the risk to the general public is low."

Very worrying and confusing, certainly so for those affected.

[Maru]

I don't know that our current administration would retaliate against Russia, but I'm sure one of our future presidents (especially if a Democrat gets elected) probably will for interfering in our elections. The best revenge though is succeed at building cultural resilience. If the US and UK can resolves it's internal problems, then there's not really much harm that a foreign adversary can do (politically anyway)... but if we can't even stop arguing with each other, then how are we ever going to be able to deal with any foreign interference?... it would seem we are quite vulnerable there.

[Beso]

Could whoever did it have picked more russian sounding nerve agent....im going for mi5 or mi6 involvement because of the botched attempt...russia dont mess up like this.

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by parmnion

Could whoever did it have picked more russian sounding nerve agent....im going for mi5 or mi6 involvement because of the botched attempt...russia dont mess up like this.

Well you never know.Russia has asked for samples to test I presume but we’re refusing to give them any.

[Beso]

Originally Posted by Northern Monkey

Well you never know.Russia has asked for samples to test I presume but we’re refusing to give them any.

I would be happier if an outside source tested it...iceland perhaps.

[Northern Monkey]

Just saw a huge military transport plane coming from the airport.Think it was a C-17 training.Hoping They’re not preparing for something