Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Nearing 22 years in power, the poisoning and murders of political opponents, murders of journalists, increasing control over the media, cabinet terrified to speak to him on live TV, rubber-stamp Duma, vast wealth for a state employee (yachts, billion dollar residence guarded by the FSB), all sorts of insane laws to protect him and validate murder of opponents abroad, shut down free press, imprison protesters..

Yet you are confused because you think there are "different sides"..

Jeasus

Whats happening in the Ukraine is shocking but Nazi sympathising is a step to far.

The German atrocities claimed the lives of 6 million Jews, many of which died in the most barbaric ways imaginable.

Kicking doors down as opposed to knocking was the least of their worries

Lucky cameraman

Are you saying what you heard over the media?

The last poisoning that was associated with Russia is poisoning of Skripal's in Salisbury.

It looks like he was exchanged for some spies in 2010 based on Wikipedia:

Why wouldn't Putin kill Skripal when he was in jail? Why would he exchange him in 2010 if he should be killed later on? Would it not be easier to kill him in jail rather than killing in the UK causing outrage on the West?

"different sides" - there are always different sides including the side of civilians on Ukraine, Ukrainian government and Russian government, etc.

If that was true, then China would be in trouble for their camps for Uighur Muslims

What you said was to quote "The truth of their stories or our stories aren't really important. It's just Important to know what the stories are"

When I want some "stories" I read fiction or I watch a film (I should probably stop reading this thread and do that...).

When I want "news" or to know what is happening, I want something as close to the "truth" as possible within all the (often large) limits of biases and failings of humans, and that does matter. What Russia and its mouths like the Ambassador here or its media are giving us as the facts of the matter right now (their "story" if you will) seems to be to be very far from such truth, at much further distance than the Western media "story".

There is an objective reality somewhere out there IMO, even as regards human events and history. 

I feel edit: that fairly deeply and think if we throw our hands up and say its all "stories" + the truth doesn't matter (what is truth etc.?) as quote above from you implies and there is no point trying to get your hands on reality, we are very lost and without hope.

I don't understand relativism or postmodern ideas or such at all, which is I think maybe where you are coming from with your posts (which are not at all appropriate for this thread or indeed perhaps the whole forum anyway, hence why I was sarcastic). I have not studied it or read about it, that is not my background at all so no doubt you'll be full of the quotes and arguments to convince me truth does not exist, there's no objective reality out there etc. 

Yes very much a case of 'the beatings will continue till morale improves'...

Right. The Ukrainians are under invasion, morale is absolutely critical to their survival, of course there will be stories or exaggerations.

The guys on Snake Island did tell the Russians to go "**** themselves", we have an audio feed of the exchange, and they did come under heavy fire right after. It was presumed they died, but new information has come to light that they survived and were captured.

As for the situation, it's not difficult to understand, plenty of global press outlets you can source and follow this from

Do you mean it stands for 'Soldier'? I do not imply this meaning, and like somebody already checked my account was created in 2018. If it is against any Boards rules, can you please point what the rule is and what exactly offended you?

Saw on to last nite a briefing meeting between Putin and two of his top army/navy/ air officers. The two of the. Looked very burly , 65 to 70+ year old, well fed looking, etc, etc. they looked the part - very serious look on their faces . It was not the three individuals that struck me . . What struck me was the long table strategy again . It was nearly as long as the Macron meeting one and it was SQUARE. The second point that jumped out was that the two officers were at the VERY OPPOSITE END of the table - specifically the very last two chairs on the right hand side while Putin sat at the far end of the table. The only reason I think for those ‘positions ‘ to be taken up was because Putin was afraid that he might have been strangled by one/ both of them. If either of the two ‘boys’ made an ‘unexpected ‘ move - especially towards Putin , either by a movement indicating that a gun might be produced , l

dashing towards him to strangle him, he Putin, would have some time to duck, make good his escape, or whatever

the meeting was also in a huge big room.

or was the whole thing a setup to keep us all guessing what kind of a condition he has, etc

it was such a weird looking meeting

the only clue to it being choreographed/staged was the fact that they forgot to use their hearing aids - because of their ages surely at least one of the six ears needed a hearing aid. Also none of the six eyes apparent.y needed glasses - no sign of a glass case in front of any of them. No sign of bottled water in sight AND on the understanding that Putin is paranoid about catching Covid there was not a mask in sight. The two BIG BOYS at the end were sitting beside eachother

Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol are now likely encircled by Russian forces now and Kyiv will also be soon, we are about to witness multiple synchronized massacres across a country, the like of which has not been seen since WW2 or the Balkans war on a smaller scale, genocide?

I mean seriously, they are chalk and cheese examples when it comes to the discussion of propaganda and biased reporting of facts.

Russia is invading a completely sovereign country on the most transparent excuses imaginable and is bombing civilian centres out of sheer desperation and frustration because none of this played out like they expected, or perhaps hoped.

Their own state media aren't reporting anything remotely close to the reality of what's happening.

Ukraine bigging up the accomplishments of their armed forces to boost morale while attacking enemy morale is hardly even remotely comparable.

More generally, do Russian people actually share such a level of paranoia of their President that they think every single country in the free world is part of some enormous global conspiracy against Russia....even countries in continents outside of North America and Europe.

Russia's only true vocal allies in all of this, tiny Belarus, it's dictator saved from being overthrown by Russian intervention recently, and Syria....well, we know how that went.

The simple reality is that Russia invaded it's neighbor on a non-existant pretext, no different to the one Germany used to invade Poland. It's that black and white. That is the narrative, regardless of what fibs Ukraine is telling in terms of its defense capabilities/achievements.

Everything, anything, that seeks to question or deflect that actual narrative, is just whataboutery.

What? Navalny, an opposition figure, was poisoned with Novichok in 2020. He's now residing in a Russian jail

The two men who were caught on CCTV in Salisbury on the day of Skripal poisoning, who claimed on Russian TV they were gym owners or some ****, a story which was backed by Putin, turned out to be two FSB agents (one of whom was decorated by Putin), their photographs left on the wall of the academy

You apparently know nothing about the incident, yet notice how you immediately try to cast doubt on it.

This is why people are sick of the Putinbots who come in here with their "I don't know what's going on, both sides are the same" BS.