Weak and woke responses to Ukraine
Let’s start with the weak, sadly being our own Government. Here is the response from the PM:
Introduce targeted travel bans against Russian Government officials and other individuals associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in line with a number of our partners;
We already have closed borders. So what the means is that the Russian Minister of Defence will be treated the same as a triple vaccinated Kiwi in London trying to get home to see a dying relative, and be told Nyet.
Prohibit the export of goods to Russian military and security forces
We have none. A ban on export of goods to Russia would have teeth, but this is just a ban on exports to the Russian military. I don’t think we sell a lot of 50 year old planes to them.
Suspend bilateral foreign ministry engagement until further notice
Oh no, we won’t respond to their e-mails!
What we should be doing is imposing sanctions as basically every other liberal democratic country is doing – Australia, Canada, Japan, UK, US and all 27 EU members. But the official policy of our Government is that it can only impose sanctions on Russia, if Russia agrees to them! Yep they have twice voted down a bill from Gerry Brownlee that would allow us to impose sanctions outside the UN Security Council framework.
Now we have the woke:
The need to turn everything, even a war, into an intersectional issue is tone deaf. And the statement that we must actively mediate for peace is just ridiculous. You think New Zealand can convince Putin?
But I’ve found someone who looks like they would fit perfectly into the Green caucus with their takes:
And then finally we have this now widely mocked tweet from NATO itself last year.
I reckon that Putin decided to invade Ukraine the day he saw that tweet from NATO.
We also have John Kerry (US Climate Change Ambassador who said:
“…Massive emissions consequences to the war, but equally importantly you’re going to lose people’s focus. You’re going to lose, certainly, big country attention because they will be diverted, and I think it could have a damaging impact,” Kerry said after stating that he was concerned about the people of Ukraine, as well as Russia’s willingness to “change boundaries of international law by force.”
“So, you know, hopefully I think President Putin would realize that in the northern part of his country, they used to live on – 66% percent of a nation that was over frozen land. Now it’s thawing and his infrastructure is at risk and the people of Russia are at risk,” he added. “And so I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.”
So Kerry thinks Putin shouldn’t invade Ukraine as it will produce too many greenhouse gas emissions that will melt the ice in Russia’s north. Yes I am sure that will persuade him.