<story><title>Neutral Swiss poised to freeze Russian assets – president</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/very-probable-that-swiss-will-freeze-russian-assets-president-2022-02-27/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>turbinerneiter</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s because of Zelenskyy and what he represents.&lt;p&gt;Usually, you&amp;#x27;d expect a state like Ukraine (ex Sowjet) to be corrupt and run by oligarchs with no support by the populace. In that situation, Russia would waltz in, the old depot would flee the country, Russia would isntall a puppet and the populace would be indefferent to it, since it&amp;#x27;s just more of the same shit.&lt;p&gt;But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation.&lt;p&gt;This was Putin&amp;#x27;s big mistake. He believed he could scare away a greedy despot to replace him with another one. Instead, the Ukraine has a true leader and developed a real national identity.&lt;p&gt;For Putin, this is a nightmare. For the west, we finally have someone worth supporting (often we have the issue that we don&amp;#x27;t know how is the bad and the good guy, see Syria, Mali).&lt;p&gt;I have nothing to prove it, this is just speculation, taken from some tweets I saw. It makes sense to me, but I have no social insights.&lt;p&gt;This whole thing could have looked very different under any of the former leaders of the Ukraine.</text></item><item><author>monkeybutton</author><text>What I find interesting is that the sanctions of Russia and support of Ukraine is accelerating faster and faster every day. Had the initial plan of decapitating the government and installing a puppet who signs a peace agreement with Russia worked, I doubt we&amp;#x27;d be seeing the same level of support as now. Apparently the EU is now giving them jets in addition to all the small arms, fuel and anti-tank weapons. With all the economic sanctions it seems like they want to collapse the Russian economy and instigate regime change from the inside. Putin made a risky bet by attacking Ukraine, but the EU collapsing Russia with all their nukes still hanging around and hoping the next government in charge is more stable is a way more risky bet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>verisimi</author><text>&amp;gt; But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s not that clean himself, given that he was mentioned as holding offshore finances in the Pandora Papers leak.&lt;p&gt;Also he invested in the production company (Kvartal 95) that then created the show &amp;#x27;Servant of the People&amp;#x27; where he was shot to stardom playing the role of a teacher elected president.  The company then also paid to create a real party named &amp;#x27;Servant of the People&amp;#x27; and managed to get him elected as president for real!!&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.occrp.org&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;the-pandora-papers&amp;#x2F;pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.occrp.org&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;the-pandora-papers&amp;#x2F;pandora-papers-r...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where he got all that offshore money from is a question we can ponder.  But it seems to me that he was primed for the position he is in.</text></comment>
<story><title>Neutral Swiss poised to freeze Russian assets – president</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/very-probable-that-swiss-will-freeze-russian-assets-president-2022-02-27/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>turbinerneiter</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s because of Zelenskyy and what he represents.&lt;p&gt;Usually, you&amp;#x27;d expect a state like Ukraine (ex Sowjet) to be corrupt and run by oligarchs with no support by the populace. In that situation, Russia would waltz in, the old depot would flee the country, Russia would isntall a puppet and the populace would be indefferent to it, since it&amp;#x27;s just more of the same shit.&lt;p&gt;But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation.&lt;p&gt;This was Putin&amp;#x27;s big mistake. He believed he could scare away a greedy despot to replace him with another one. Instead, the Ukraine has a true leader and developed a real national identity.&lt;p&gt;For Putin, this is a nightmare. For the west, we finally have someone worth supporting (often we have the issue that we don&amp;#x27;t know how is the bad and the good guy, see Syria, Mali).&lt;p&gt;I have nothing to prove it, this is just speculation, taken from some tweets I saw. It makes sense to me, but I have no social insights.&lt;p&gt;This whole thing could have looked very different under any of the former leaders of the Ukraine.</text></item><item><author>monkeybutton</author><text>What I find interesting is that the sanctions of Russia and support of Ukraine is accelerating faster and faster every day. Had the initial plan of decapitating the government and installing a puppet who signs a peace agreement with Russia worked, I doubt we&amp;#x27;d be seeing the same level of support as now. Apparently the EU is now giving them jets in addition to all the small arms, fuel and anti-tank weapons. With all the economic sanctions it seems like they want to collapse the Russian economy and instigate regime change from the inside. Putin made a risky bet by attacking Ukraine, but the EU collapsing Russia with all their nukes still hanging around and hoping the next government in charge is more stable is a way more risky bet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fuoqi</author><text>&amp;gt;But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation.&lt;p&gt;So much BS... He literally done 180 on his election promises, done a lot of unconstitutional moves, and his public support was continuously dropping to the point of losing to Poroshenko on hypothetical elections.</text></comment>