The Anti-war socialist perspective.

 The very same people who quite rightly, expressed outrage at the fact that Nigel Farage and his bunch of British deplorables wanted to deport Polish and Romanian emigrants out of uk during the Brexit debate are now chomping at the bit to deport all Russians, seize their assets, cripple them with sanctions and stop them from engaging with the Market by cutting off their access to standard banking platforms. Which won't hurt the oligarchs one bit but will seriously effect regular Russians and their businesses.  If I were Russian today I'd be starting to consider turning off the gas on Europe.  I wouldn't be too surprised if in a couple of years time, russian voters were looking for someone "way to the right" of Putin. Like an actual uncontrollable Mad-Man rather that someone who is ruthless but rational and prepared to negotiate.

 I saw a friend from social media make a public statement about wanting to join as a volunteer to fight alongside ukrainians against Russia. He mentioned human rights and how the Ukrainians are our fellow European citizens. He mentioned his family lineage  which included both maternal and paternal grandfather's fighting against Hitler. His passion was admirable, I related to it in more that a few ways.  I thought to myself this is what it was like for those british and irish young men who felt so moved by the Spanish civil war, that they left their families and sacrificed their lives to help defeat fascism. That was a complicated war as well.  Some poor unfortunates from over here actually got the story arseways then too. Some poor feckers went to fight alongside Franco, against communism. They were quickly disabused of the anti-communist romanticism they held. My friend the would-be volunteer isn't someone who I'd consider foolish. On the contrary, he is a passionat...