A couple of days ago, former Tottenham Hotspur forward Serhiy Rebrov spoke about the ongoing Russian invasion of his home country, Ukraine. The current manager of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates stated his plan to help those fighting off Russian trips and that he plans to be there once his season is over.
In one aspect of his interview with Goal, Rebrov spoke about the safety of his parents, and the 47-year-old elaborated further, speaking to The Mirror about the concern he has as Russian troops head towards the capital of Kyiv.
With no end in sight to the war, Rebrov discussed the fear he has for his parents, who are in the elderly stage and one with health issues.
“My parents are in Kyiv; they are in their advanced years,” Rebrov said. “My father has health problems. Each day they have to go to bomb shelters underground, like everyone else. I call them every day, and we pray together. Hope that all this will soon be over.”
The former Spurs forward also touched on the sanctions placed on Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and others who have funded Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“I am happy sanctions are affecting people who are funding Putin’s regime. If sanctions involved Abramovich, that leaves no doubt that he was directly connected to Putin. So I support that,” Rebrov said.
Rebrov also stated that he’s getting calls and messages of support from many in the football world, including ex-Spurs boss Tim Sherwood.
Glad you have reiterated the point CS.
The then-Czech president Havel made a concerted effort to get us into NATO exactly for that reason, believing Russia was always going to be a threat to the sovereignty of Central and Eastern European states. How right he was.
100%, the US administrations behave like massive c*nts on a regular basis…
Agreed Finn. However the mega rich operate is often beyond the pale, east west, north or south.
While trying not to repeat myself, and despite the obvious corruption that takes place in the west, there is a huge difference between our parliamentary system (whilst not perfect, what is?) and what everyday Russians have to endure.
I have also been to Russia and despite the propaganda around Putin domestically that has been spun during his many years as president many Russians know what he really is. Many know that he was part of the asset stripping, he is seen by many as a traitor to Russia. This ‘father Russia’ persona they have tried to concoct is beyond parody, it’s a joke.
This is Putin’s power struggle, not the Russian people’s war.
Yeah the US are quick enough to go to war over oil and against weak enemies with mg’s on pick up trucks and women with explosive vests, but when it comes to a real opponent that can match their technology they bottle it big time.
The US are very heroic in the movies.
Agree with much of that Easty and really appreciate the measured and intelligent discourse. Of course we can’t turn back the clocks, but I can’t help but see either opportunism or greed underlying the actions precipitating this: our oligarchs will somehow be making a serious quid!
For sure Putin is now the worlds “John Dillinger” and he and Russia have basically reverted back to the Soviet from what was once a country starting to embrace a whole-of-Europe approach. I doubt many would be convinced of a complete change of mind-set, but I have spent time in Russia and guess what, the average guy on the street has the same cares and woes as any of us. Nonetheless, I can’t see the reputation of Russia recovering for a good while to come.
Whilst I agree with the terms you use about the oligarchs, I don’t think there are that many places where the wealthy and powerful are not so at the expense of the rest of us; in the west we are more wealthy as a whole so the oligarchs, banksters and the corruption in the political classes can hide itself in plain sight and is even admired.
I hope this wraps up quickly, as I said above I don’t think the whole of Ukraine is the goal but east of the Dneiper makes a lot of sense to me in terms of a whole range of goals that Putin would settle for and may even try to to rationalise.
In addition it is feasible that it could be achieved in the short term with a structured sort of peace that may garner him concessions.
There have been no clear objectives spelt out by Moscow but it’s fair to say that Putin may well have expected more progress by now. Like I’ve said before, whatever Putin ‘achieves’ in Ukraine will most likely amount to little more than a power-play.
A power play that ultimately will damage Russia and Putin’s reputation more than anything else. Both internationally and even more crucially domestically. Whatever one thinks of the BBC (for example) blatant lies when war reporting is not happening. I’m suspicious of much of what we hear from the Ukrainian authorities and even more so from Moscow.
A European conflict in 2022 was always going to garner 24 hour coverage and the intense social media activity we are seeing. Just look at Covid, as if the ‘invisible’ enemy wasn’t enough? Now we’ve got shelling and civilian deaths in Europe, the millennials and younger have never witnessed such blatant aggression from another state.
The conflict in the Balkans would have been reported on in the same way, but clearly, with digital technology the world has changed the world fundamentally in this way.
Putin and his mates have become fabulously wealthy from the asset stripping of Russian state assets. Let’s not confuse ourselves that this man is anything other than a mobster. The wealthiest and most powerful people in Russia and their families were all influential people within government and agencies such as the KGB. His links to Abramovic are undeniable, the purchase of Sibfnet from Abramovic for 19bn and it’s sale for 190m a few years before has Putin’s paws all over it.
Putin is not this gruff ex KGB statesman and proud Russian with its best interests at heart. He wants to retain power and resist democracy and Ukraine is the perfect vehicle. An opportunity before they become more allied to the west, the time had to be now for him, and the corrupt dictatorship that runs Russia…
I think most reports are heavily slanted by who is doing the reporting! Few reports are actually cataloguing the Russian advances or Ukrainian defensive resilience in real terms ie, territory, casualties etc. The propaganda machinery as always exaggerates successes and plays down failures…. for example Ukrainians have shot down 20 planes but Russia has only lost 5 planes.
What’s clear and probably new to conflict is the wholesale media approach to how this is being played out. There are no real numbers but a mass tugging of emotional heartstrings by social and web media, such as the personal costs to people, Sergey’s dad, the boy who has dinosaurs on his pyjama’s ……. we hear nothing like this out of Yemen, Syria, Palestine, etc,
This war by social media is blanketing reporting of what is actually happening and ‘news’ as we’d expect it about Russian Advances or Ukrainian defensive efforts has been replaced by anecdotal fluff about Valerie from Mariupol finally getting a loaf of bread or a list of A grade faces upping their profile by telling the world what they are doing about it…..as if any of that made a tangible difference.
Elon Musk Vs Putin?? A soft wealthy nerd against a 6th Dan Judo-ka with an FSM/KGB background? Or Spiderman’s girlfriend with a Calico kitten? We don’t need facts when we are appealing to emotion.
Again I’d be reticent to form opinions based upon anything coming out of even the mainstream media right now and certainly not politicians and talking heads!
As for the end game and a clear goal, my own view is that there are a few strategic objectives, one of which is the management/control of the easily traversable land corridor which Ukraine and Belarus presents between east and west Europe.
The control of territory east of the Dneiper river is (IMO) likely enough for Putin; it takes in as good part of the South Coast, allows the unblocking of fresh water to Crimea that the Ukrainians had cut off and embraces all the ethnic Russian East Ukraine as well as a number of key industrial and mineral deposit sites both on land and Sea.
I think that NATO will not want to admit the remaining part of Ukraine nor will the EU as it will be unstable and any commitment could be explosive on the same basis as them backing away to date. This will leave Western Ukraine as an unsettled territory “in dispute” and a buffer between NATO and occupied Eastern Ukraine: Putin has used this tactic before in Georgia.
There could be a full annexation of the south coast to link with Russian separatists in Moldova again to maintain the territorial edges as blurred and basically negotiable/disputable and altogether fragile to all. Moldova is NATO so this would keep NATO on edge but careful not to tip the balance….. Putin is better at this brinkmanship than Biden/Boris have proved to be.
We may well end up seeing Ukraine as the new East/West Germany, possibly even with a new Checkpoint Charlie.
There were things that NATO said in the early 1990’s that they didn’t stick to but that’s not directly their fault.It was the will of the former Eastern Bloc to distance themselves from Russia.
The Baltic states wanted NATO membership for the same reason a previously neutral country like Finland now are looking to membership. Nobody wants to be ruled from Moscow. Nobody wants to become part of some modern day Tsarist empire. They lived under Soviet rule for long enough to know that they wanted to be free of Moscow in the future.
That’s their choice, none of these countries were forced to join. However many of them have proportion of those with Russian sympathies. Unfortunately for Moscow they’re in the minority of their populations.
Had it not been for the Cold War and Soviet rule, half of them would have got out in the 1960’s anyway. Look at the Hungarian uprising in Budapest and many other attempts to rebel.
The US are massive hypocrites, they try to police the world etc but this isn’t just about that. This is about Putin and the people that took control of Russia after Communism holding onto it. They’re a mafia, a mob.Russia are and have always been run by dictatorships and this one wants to keep it that way. Simple as that…
I’ve read a good few bits & pieces about THFC’s history but surprised to have never come across the bit about what happened in 1935 from this article by Nick Pelling.
https://www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/features/beautiful-game-ugly-times/
I’ve read a good few bits & pieces about THFC’s history but surprised to have never come across the bit about what happened in 1935 from this article by Nick Pelling.
……..ww.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/features/beautiful-game-ugly-times/
Thank you. Read a guy on here saying it’s a defensive invasion that was forced upon Putin by NATO, and my faith in common sense took a near fatal hit. The guy probably spent too much time listening to Lavrov.
The Russians have been murdering civilians and bombing hospitals as well as humanitarian corridors on the territory of a sovereign state. But sure, NATO’s fault.
Putin has always stated that the fall of the USSR was the worst geopolitical catastrophe of the 21st century and that he wants to bring Europe back to where it was pre-1997 (i.e., when the Czech Republic and other Central European countries were not even in NATO), so it makes me feel uneasy whenever someone tries to justify or “understand” his behaviour. They already helped us in 1968, and we don’t want any more of that, thank you very much.
It’s Ukraine now, could be Moldova next (they apparently have a separatist republic in need of help too), and the Baltic states could soon be looking nervously over their shoulders, as could Finland, if it doesn’t enter NATO quickly.
Worrying times.
I think the Chinese will be looking at the west’s response to this. As I understand it, the Chinese government have designs on Taiwan. The more robust the sanctions the more the Chinese might think a little harder about it. The west did very little when Putin annexed Crimea, that may have emboldened him somewhat…
Well it’s who presses the button first lol.
They are more interested in Taiwan and Hong Kong atm.
Putin and his cronies are only doing it to maintain absolute power in Russia. They have to do this kind of thing to distance themselves from the west. Putin is sh*t scared of democracy,
NATO are not a threat to Russia at all, they and the west have no intention of entering Russian territory. Ukraine is not Russian territory, it’s like the British saying any part of its old Empire can just be reclaimed. It’s outrageous and childish, it’s like the British trying to reclaim the Republic Of Ireland. F*cking bonkers…
They had it worse in Afghanistan Than the western forces did more recently. And I think it was a bit of a bloodbath, also as you say a lot of undertrained conscripts.
I’m not sure that China will jump headfirst into this. From afar it looks like a total f*ck up…
China are watching and taking notes as they’ve their own little invasion they want to partake in.
Russia has struggled in most of it’s foreign invasions, it’s a mostly conscript army that doesn’t want to be there. It’s tanks are cheap and cheerful and have proven easily dealt with by 1 man Ukrainian anti tank teams. It’s a superpower on paper only and because it has nuclear weapons.
Gets my back up seeing innocent people die because of Putin.
Surprises me about China, if they help they should be sanctioned – just means the west will have to pay more for stuff but so what – bring back manufacturing to the UK…..Putin is a coward, just has Nuke’s as his trump (no pun) card..
don’t hold back 😯
With the Russians already needing involve Belarusian forces and asking China for help, shows that the might of the Russian army might not be quite as formidable as previously advertised by Moscow. Reports that they’ve softened their stance on negotiations suggests that this has been more of a clusterf*ck then they’re letting on.
What’s Putin’s exit strategy exactly? Did he expect 30 million plus non ethnically Russian people to roll over for him in a country the size of Germany and France combined? Even if the current Ukranian government collapsed, does he occupy it? How does a pro-Russian government keep power without enduring years of civil war with it’s Russian population outnumbered by almost 4 to one?
What intelligence has Putin been working off? Has he been fed lies by his own people, or do you only tell Putin what he wants to hear or end up in jail? I can see no clear strategy behind this.
Whatever geopolitical concerns Putin has with NATO and the West, his willingness to cause death and destruction with no clear goal other than utter capitulation when it’s impossible, just smacks of amateurism.
Get out of Ukraine now you Russian Nazi scum. Putin go to hell.