You do realise that Putins strategy with Trump was to de-power both NATO and the Ukraine to such an extent tat he could walk in whenever he wanted with virtually no resistance. You do remember all the talk of US withdrawal from NATO and the actual curtailing of military aid to Ukraine dont you? With Trump in power there may well have been no war to the current extent, but very quickly there would have been no independent Ukraine, Moldova and a de-powered NATO would have left the Baltics free to ake whenever he wished
Well we say problematic. It is obviously Putin's (i.e. the East's) strategy
Turns out "Flying Without Wings" is about all the Russian aircraft shot down by the Ukrainians.
E17's "Stay Another Day" is obviously problematic.
90,000 British people have now signed up to house refugees. And that number keeps rising.
The live/prerecorded angle is interesting. Given putin has his media locked down I would be quite surprised to discover anything goes out live. That there's either a delay or it's prerecorded to keep control of the narrative in the hands of the state. Though it's also possible, even likely that rolling news segments from their 'trusted' outlets are indeed live if only for purely practical reasons. If this woman was rabbiting pro putin stuff for years she'd be on the list of the 'trusted' so would have access.
Also as we've seen Russian state propaganda is nearly always farcical and amateur hour that looks like it was videoed in the 1990's, so if it were spin it would be out of character for them. And to what end? Plausible deniability for them? The "oh look, we do have freedom"? If that were the case the same Russian outlets would be showing carefully curated segments of anti war protests, and they're not.
Even so, when this is all over and the dust has settled and more facts come out, I'm quite sure we'll discover all sorts of bits and bobs that were wrong, or spin, or outright BS, on all sides with it.
Well, Martin is off for the Paddy's Day jaunt to the WH and Boris would make it all about him. Not much either could do anyway. Welcoming refugees is our main contribution.
I don't think it's a surprise that a Moscow based TV producer would have some English, and I don't think it's a surprise that she would use some of it to help her action get as much attention as possible. Given the Russian media crackdown on dissent, one of the major ways the message of her actions would get to other Russians who weren't watching the broadcast would be though international media coverage of it. I think it's perfectly sensible that she'd use an English language phrase as part of the sign (there's a lot of it in Russian too), and the only people who would find it suspicious would be those going out of their way to find things to be suspicious of.
He already is and failing badly, I don't think people comprehend how big Kyiv is. It is a massive city
Did nobody ask Westlife yet for their input? I also tend to get most of my political opinions from various music bands.
Especially given their name suggests a commentary on life in the West.
I'm not sure whether those East 17 crowd are still on the go to give a strong political counterpoint for the sake of balance
It seems it took a major war and oil crisis for the UK to be forced to fix this. Big news I'd true for her family.
Look up "birds aren't real" and the back story to it. Very interesting, started as an obvious hoax to show how thick some people are, and like flat earthers, covid deniers and anti vaxxers it shows how there are people so stupid that yes they will answer that phone call to the Nigerian Prince and transfer money to them
I was responding to posts at me. The thread is about a variety of things.
Don't get carried away.
Yeah, I understand that they're hurting. But saying all Russians are complicit is like saying all Irish people were complicit in throwing unmarried women into laundries.
Apart from Andrei Kozyrev, I'm not aware of another former official of the Kremlin that has spoken out against the war.
Excerpt from the article:
Dvorkovich, who served at the Kremlin for 10 years, joins scores of chess leaders in decrying Vladimir Putin’s invasion. “My thoughts are with Ukrainian civilians,” Dvorkovich tells me. “Wars do not just kill priceless lives. Wars kill hopes and aspirations, freeze or destroy relationships and connections.”
Dvorkovich was chief economic adviser to President Dmitry Medvedev from 2012 to 2018, chair of the FIFA World Cup Russian organizing committee, and chair of Russia’s state-owned railways, a title he no longer holds and a history he leans away from. “I am not involved with any state-owned commercial companies” anymore, he tells me. “There are some non-commercial public activities I am involved in, mostly in the areas of education and innovation.” His father was also an international chess arbiter—responsible for ensuring that rules are adhered to—a family legacy meaningful to Dvorkovich and part of his incentive for courting the chess world’s support as he seeks reelection as FIDE president this year.
“I cannot say much now, but I will say one thing: I would never want to be in [Dvorkovich’s] place” as a Kremlin-linked, vocally antiwar FIDE president, says Zurab Azmaiparashvili, president of the European Chess Union, who sits on the FIDE council with him. Azmaiparashvili praises Dvorkovich’s chess stewardship. “The discomfort that he experiences is quite obvious” during their meetings, Azmaiparashvili notes, as Dvorkovich navigates the precarious path between his role at FIDE and his place as a former top Kremlin official. Azmaiparashvili, a Georgian national, “did not support” his bid for president in 2018 but now strongly backs him: “We all witnessed that he did [and is doing] a wonderful and effective job as FIDE President!”
No messing about with the Eastern European leaders. I can't see Johnson or Michael Martin busing it into Kyiv.
I took a look at their FB page. It also seems their position is that all Russians are complicit in Putin's criminal actions (and the prior actions of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire against Ukraine), and so it's impossible for any Russian to be taken seriously in any condemnation or protest at all.
Now, I fully appreciate that they're sitting in a basement sheltering from Russian bombs dropping on them, and I'm sitting behind a keyboard, looking out on a lake and pondering the musings of a band I've never heard of, but I think that projecting collective responsibility onto the entire Russian population is both incorrect and unhelpful.
But it is very interesting to see their perspective on it.
Fuckin hell, that's a bold move.
Wonder would the Russians target them
But most people in Ukraine and Russia don't speak English and she made the English part the biggest . It seems her intended audience was the West, not the affected countries.
Perhaps you could bother to post links...
If you bothered to look elsewhere, Ukrainian journalists online have already expressed doubt over the authenticity of the stunt.
Their propaganda strategy is getting a bit desperate, it seems to be to bombard as much meaningless **** as possible in the hopes not that people will believe the individual stories, but that the overall sentiment of 'US/NATO/Ukraine bad' sticks.
On another note, the Polish, Czech and Slovenian PMs are currently in Ukraine on their way to Kyiv. Fair play to them for putting themselves in danger in the name of solidarity. It'll also be a blow to the Russian morale if they can just waltz in and out of Kyiv that easily:
What the hell is that supposed to mean? The TV channel is covering its back in case Putin falls and they can say "actually, we do have a free media, look at what our editor did"? And the woman went along with it, happy to serve fifteen years in jail to make her employer look a bit better?
Makes no sense at all.
I am convinced, and was advocating it from the start, that real intervention will happen. Estonian parliament calling for a no-fly zone is pretty big. Kasparov and Kozyrev are both several orders of magnitude more expert on Russia, the Russian mindset and Putin, than most people on the planet, let alone on this thread.
>Andrei V Kozyrev
@andreivkozyrev
Last week, I read critiques of my position on Putin’s rationality and possibility of nuclear war. Many are not realist enough about the nuclear threat or the right response. I argue in this thread that if we “blink” on Putin’s nuclear threat, we will increase the risk of WWIII. < https://twitter.com/andreivkozyrev/status/1503404009142423558
4th batch of sanctions coming later today from EU. A ban on steel products, gas investment and on any ratings by EU credit ratings agencies among the measures.
Trump would have had no reason to disbelieve Putin that he was de-nazifying Ukraine, even if his own intelligence services were telling him it was rubbish.
The world is full of independent agents (like Putin) with their own plans and timescales. It is not all run out of Washington by a combo of the US president + his cabinet and the CIA or some such!
Ukrainian band that I follow (Stoned Jesus) are harshly critical of the TV presenter, saying it's 100% a stunt and an attempt at saving face. That these shows are pre-recorded so it wasn't this one presenter going rogue.
You don't see courage very often, do you?
They'd need a lot of ordinance for that but it would be the end of the Russian economy. The city size is bigger than Madrid despite having half the population.
No, the Ukrainians would not surrender were that to happen.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w5.vanillicon.com/v2/5117ec177439400b1e5944f4d30acdda.svg)
