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Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

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111–120 of 209 posts

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#111
post #106
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"If there would be no punishment for disrespecting international law, the chaos would come." The list of "disrespecting international law" is pretty big. The list of punishment is way shorter and highly selective.

Could you please list any other war of conquest with that much casualties, armour usage and refugee issue in Europe? And what punishment are we talking about, voluntary economical sanctions? Those numbers of atrocities, stealing children, mass graves - I still can't understand how the international response is so mild.

> in Europe?

This is an interesting little bit on the end of that question.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#112
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as China and Russia remain peaceful and don’t threaten their neighbors with aggression, they can absolutely win the war for hearts and minds and thus assemble a broad coalition to buck the US’s interests. The problem here is that Russia has already invaded its neighbors and proven to be a security risk for Europe, while China is doing everything it can to signal to its own population that war with Taiwan is i…

On other hand. Not getting involved in others' conflicts might go well down in Africa for example.

Russia is heavily involved in Syria, so I don't see any principled reason to believe that "not getting involved in others' conflicts" is a red line for that alliance.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#113
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is the largest oil producer in the world, one of the largest producers of food, one of the top innovators, has relatively healthy demographics, is surround by allies (one of which produces oil and fertilizer), and has the most dominant military on the planet. Your outlook is significantly more gloomy than reality

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Very accurate. The CIA is actively involved in the interference of their 'allies' governments.

Japan didn't break from US in this news article, it received permission to do so, likely so that it can remain in a defensible position against China.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#114

I think we need a HN policy on paywalled articles. I cannot read this -- what's the value of this being on the HN front-page?

Agree, I'm always doing CTRL+F "archiv". Whoever shares these, can they start providing only the archived version? Is there some copyright issue with that?

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#115
post #30
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least one middling positive of the invasion has been a litmus test for the levels of integrity of various countries. Russia annexed Crimea almost a decade ago. If you haven't read the writing on the wall and maneuvered independence you're incompetent or immoral. I can’t really parse this. Why should Japan care about Crimea or Ukraine?

There is a shocking reality of how short-sighted and strategically shallow the opinions of people may be, even very literate ones with unlimited access to information. There are very long tensions between Japan and Russia about the Kuril Islands, that both countries have a claim on. It is very possible, that the same vague claims used on annexing Crimea today, or Donbas, would be used against Japan, and may not stop…

> and strategically shallow the opinions of people may be, even very literate ones with unlimited access to information

The problem with unlimited access to information is that you can find a thousand people arguing for a thousand different opposing things with all that information.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand? The US can disrupt food/oil/financial markets/innovation more than any other planet on earth. All of these can be flexed peacefully

Yeah, but the popular narrative now is that China is the real super power because they have a strong autocratic leader and aren't bogged down by democracy, and don't have to deal with other people's uneducated opinions. Not that they have a mountain of shadow debt built upon the biggest housing bubble the world has ever seen (by far) and an absolute demographic time bomb about to blow up their future...

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Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#118
post #35

The next few weeks/months are going to be very interesting. Saudi Arabia has doubled down on its new direction. Japan/EU seems at edge with the war in Ukraine. China is making new moves in the global financial scene. The US has accumulated significant political debt in the recent years. They have significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony. In this recent conflict, the cost burdened Europe and th…

The US is the largest oil producer in the world, one of the largest producers of food, one of the top innovators, has relatively healthy demographics, is surround by allies (one of which produces oil and fertilizer), and has the most dominant military on the planet. Your outlook is significantly more gloomy than reality

It all depends on the willingness to extract that oil. Alternative energy has its merits, but there is a wing of the environmentalists that have convinced a segment of the population that "keep it in the ground" is a viable short term strategy. If this transition to green energy is not extended to more like 100 or 150 years, we are screwed.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#119
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> two of the more plausible candidates for the beginning of this whole thing are [...] the American invasion of Serbia Are we talking about 1999?

Yeah. Those initial airstrikes really freaked Russia out. Relations were never the same after them. NATO's first military attack really shook them.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#120
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Its joining NATO only makes NATO less secure as a whole, rather than strenghtening it. Why is that?

It doesn't bring additional strength to the table, rather it's a country in need of protection. This means now every other NATO country has a higher chance of being forced in a defensive war if something happens to Finland. On the other hand Finland won't be able to contribute much to protect other NATO countries. Hence, NATO countries are a bit less safe now.

> It doesn't bring additional strength to the table

Strong disagree. With Finland, NATO's control of the Baltic sea is insurmountable. Together with Turkey's control on the Black Sea, this completely cripples any Russian maritime capabilities.

> rather it's a country in need of protection

Also unlikely. The geography of the Finish border is such that an invasion via land is incredibly difficult. Dense forest and mountainous terrain create many easily defended bottlenecks, and the Finns with their outsized artillery are in a perfect position to defend those.

Even without NATO protection, the Finish gave the Russians a very bloody nose the last time they tried to invade. Since then, the Finish military has been re-structured with the single purpose to defend against another Russian invasion, whereas the Russian military is constrained by many other factors. Any Russian advance against the EU now has to come via the Ukrainian and Polish plains.

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