Putin and Kim-Not exactly cozying up with the folks

[SteveG]

If you were the two most hated men in the world, how close would you let the folks come?


Putin visit Kim


for impressive full scale right click 'open image'

[SteveG]

'roll your own' caption

[steve...]

I'll bet Donnie is jealous and wishes he could've been there with his buddies.

[pdq]

The more I think about this, the more I can’t avoid feeling that this shows a (surprising!) level of desperation on Putin’s part.

North Korea is really the bottom of the barrel. That Putin would suggest he needs Kim to deal with his little Ukraine problem?

I dunno, that’s reminiscent of step one of a 12-step recovery. Like I said, hitting bottom.

[gabester]

steve... wrote:
I'll bet Donnie is jealous and wishes he could've been there with his buddies.

I'm sure they would have welcomed him had he asked to attend... the issue being that it would be a violation of his felony conviction terms to travel internationally, and keeping company like that, I'm told, is likely to get you the extended interview by CBP, Homeland Security, CIA, DoD, FBI, and the full body cavity search. There's a distinct possibility that he would not be allowed to return to the US at all, and might even have to repatriate to his country of origin.

All of that would only be fitting given his politics on people crossing the border.

pdq wrote:
The more I think about this, the more I can’t avoid feeling that this shows a (surprising!) level of desperation on Putin’s part.

North Korea is really the bottom of the barrel. That Putin would suggest he needs Kim to deal with his little Ukraine problem?

Putin's done what no previous Russian leader could do - bring Russia to the brink of irrelevance on the world stage and turn it into a failed pariah state. The only reason they matter at all at this point is because of their inherited nuclear arsenal and the use of their dwindling technical reserves to make new and awful weapons of mass destruction with which to hold the world hostage.

[Spock]

gabester wrote:

Putin's done what no previous Russian leader could do - bring Russia to the brink of irrelevance on the world stage and turn it into a failed pariah state. The only reason they matter at all at this point is because of their inherited nuclear arsenal and the use of their dwindling technical reserves to make new and awful weapons of mass destruction with which to hold the world hostage.

Now if only China, India and most of Europe weren't buying Russia's oil and natural gas ...

[Speedy]

They remember what happened to Anwar Sadat.

They all wear lifts. Note that Putin appears taller than Kim in the OP but they are generally the same height in the other pics. Trump, of course, wears lifts to protect his heel spurs.

[Ombligo]

pdq wrote:
The more I think about this, the more I can’t avoid feeling that this shows a (surprising!) level of desperation on Putin’s part.

North Korea is really the bottom of the barrel. That Putin would suggest he needs Kim to deal with his little Ukraine problem?

I dunno, that’s reminiscent of step one of a 12-step recovery. Like I said, hitting bottom.

I actually think it is rather brilliant on Putin's part, not so much so on Kim's.

No one is going to attack NK unprovoked. So if NK attacks SK, Russia is not obligated to assist them. However, if NATO comes to the aide of Ukraine and attacks in an area that Russia claims, then NK can use it as an excuse to go after allies of the attacking country (which would include SK and Japan). What that means is that the US must be ready for war on the Korean Peninsula if it gets involved in Ukraine. That fact will give pause to the US as NK is a loose cannon and would be crazy enough to employ nukes unilaterally.

It would be the end of NK, but could also cripple both SK and Japan. That would have a devastating economic impact on the West.

So in short, Putin has a major deterrent to the west while giving virtually nothing in return.

[RgrF]

Putin's been using NK as a supply source for some time now. This merely locks that in and adds a guarantee that isn't worth a lot.