Apparently, the seperatists in Donbass have the ability to print Ukrainian passports and have being handing them out to all and sundry, add to the that the lads that have being trying to get into Poland via Belarus and you can see that there could be a lot of Ukrainians school children with moustaches and dusky hues "fleeing" to safety.
Someone posted a video from "Survival Russia" earlier in the thread, showing shelves in rural shops etc, its a channel I watch on and off. I just had a dig on who he really is, https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Russia-sheltering-Danish-neo-Nazi-leader-Lars-Agerbak-who-was-convicted-in-his-motherland-for-illegal-arms-dealing, you never know!!
She herself has pointed out she's gone on protests, but doesn't any more. That you can be gaoled for even making vidoes or talking about such protests and even body positivity pages online have attracted the wrong sort of government attention. That they need no excuse if they don't like what you say and how this has affected her mental health and how she approaches making her videos. So she's not all sweetness and light about her country. Remarkably balanced actually. And the reality is that even in autocratic states when you live beyond the capital and the politics and problems of same in such a huge nation life for most people is pretty good, or at least not nearly as bad as we might imagine.
My impression of Russians and their culture is that it's very nuclear family orientated and pastoral beyond the urban areas where anyone with a patch of land grows their own veggies, has a few chickens etc, builds and mends rather than just buy the new thing. The way many of us in Europe used to live, not least here in Ireland.
I wonder if China have refused Russian request for weapons, if that could also be a factor in Russia becoming more realistic in negotiations... I think the Russians gave China the impression it would be a limited incursion to secure the disputed area and Crimea hinterland, not a major invasion of Ukraine.
Sorry these are US tanks
The side that will probably re elect Putin in elections
really regret bringing this up now
She actually does do that in some of her videos. She covered a big anti Putin demonstration but I think she has wisely pulled that one though she does mention it a bit here:
and does speak about the corruption at various levels and the political situation and how it affects her. I think there might be more than one video she's made that is no longer on her channel so she may have either realised on her own she should pull it or someone made the suggestion. Personally I was uncomfortable about her covering those topics for safety reasons.
Russia would clearly require changes, this proposes a further Gorbachev type leap. Not impossible. China would not attack effectively the world. You overestimate China.
Get out of the Cities, travel around the Country, the rural areas,,,,,,and you will see the another side of Russia.
The west always projects their morals & values onto others. "They're just like us"..."They want freedom like we do" - that's always been complete bullshit. We made China what it is today with our stupid policies. And we're repeating the same mistake now with Iran.
I get on well with my Chinese neighbour. He told me he can't believe that his younger generation are quite happy with the CCP. People he knows who used to protest, now seem content. The economic wealth WE gave China, has made a dictatorial regime into a monster.
The circumstances that would have to occur for Russia to join NATO are unimaginably unlikely, but even if it were to happen, it would 100% guarantee a war with China.
I don't think that would do wonders for world peace.
Quite few of the recent videos of Russian forces in Ukraine seem to now be better equipped and clothed. This seems to support the suggestion that Putin sent in more poorly equipped conscripts at the start of the invasion.
Sometimes the truth has to be repeated a few times before it sinks in. Based on the ideology that the USSR was based on where all workers were on similar wages - workers on state farms and suchlike -. So how come we end up with a good few very rich people including oligarks. IMO such people were only allowed to exist /get very wealthy if they had the BLESSING of the TOP. Hence a good relationship had to exist. And that blessing was bestowed by more than the exchange of ‘a certificate’
I have never really considered the cold war to be over, just that the west were badly fooled and never seemed to catch on to them using slightly different tactics. Two nasty leopards that didn't change their spots, they just put on business suits.
The head of Interpol is currently headed by a Chinese, which is just incomprehensible to my old cold war sensibilities.
Russia denuclearised and allowed join NATO would do wonders for world peace. Obviously Putin gets a one way ticket to The Hague.
Sanctions continue until...
Looked at two of Natasha’s utubes. The Russia she presents looks so peaceful, attractive very earthy , etc, etc, etc, etc. comes across as a. Idyllic place to live in - especially if you have a little hideaway to go to at weekends, the summer breaks, etc. I saw another tube where a man was driving thru lovely countryside and along a good looking country road. He was goin to sow potatoes for his father , married sister or whoever. The sun was shining. Family members were shown making the drills, spreading ash on the drills , positioning the potatoe seeds and covering them up. Good local food was served for mealtime . Children were happy looking with parents, relatives , friends doting on them. It all looked so seamless, peaceful, earthy, high social /community content, etc, etc. in other words a lovely country to live in
I was just wondering if this kind of presentation SUPPORTED by government to show that the regime in Russia is the right one to live under as against under a democracy with criminals , drugs, strikes poverty, homelessness, etc, etc.
I wonder if there are any utubes available from other Russians highlighting the not so nice side of life in Russia? Maybe such a side does not exist in Russia
A dumb, slumbering beast has been confounded by bravery, intelligence, ingenuity, integrity & co-ordination
Thank God Ukraine was given the means to defend itself
Putin deserves everything he gets if neighbouring nations decide to put the boot in. He has, for the time being, destroyed Russia
The West have been too concerned with staying exactly on the line between doing enough and not doing enough but that strategy may be achieving the desired result
Should Russia now be de-fanged if possible? - A resounding YES!
Pinch of salt required with all such announcements but interesting nonetheless.
Russia can only bomb Poland at the moment. Poland has a choice take bombing now with soldiers and fighting in Ukraine. Or do nothing now and take bombing and soldiers shooting in their country in a few months time. Of course that’s just looking at things from the polish perspective.
Putin better stop this war. Don't think the Russian winter will stop the Germans this time round.
Does this mean Germany are now the worlds second or third largest army?
They could have taken it from captured or dead Ukrainian soldiers like they did in Georgia 2008,or this is probably a special forces unit spetznas that are better equipped.
Hopefully. 🤞
I’ve no idea what point either of you are trying to make and it’s relevance to the ‘special military mission’…?
Of course you don't, you got wound up by the use of "retarded", don't understand the context explained above, want to appeal to authority with your outrage and it's the only reason for your post. The biggest war and human displacement in European history since WW2 and that's what engaged you to post?
Not much more than a decade ago you could find the word and used pejoratively with it, front and centre in a mainstream Hollywood flic. Which in turn became a worldwide meme. Now it's a trigger word for the triggered and a similar inclusion in a flic today would have the Twitterati all a twitter. If I had written moronic or imbecilic or idiotic, even pejoratively, I doubt you'd have posted, or even noticed. Just like retarded all words once used as medical classifications of intellectual impairment and used more often and just as pejoratively, but nope we've decided in the last ten years that retarded is the Bad Word.
It's actually quite a good example of how easily influenced and revved up we can be by culture and context and how personal and cultural narratives are built and spread in societies which has a wider relevance to this conflict too. It's one of the big ways hardline positions grow and are reinforced and autocratic societies use that basic human nature for their own ends. When "don't go full retard" was in a mainstream flic, your average Russian would have seen your average Ukrainian as "brothers" and that was the Truth that suited the Kremlin. Cue changing geopolitical and economic needs in the Kremlin to change that Truth and slowly but surely they became "nazis" that required invasion and after the initial spin to promote that the human nature of large groups reinforced it themselves. Spin in paranoia in an already paranoid enough society and it's remarkably and scarily easy to turn brother against brother and appeal to authority to help you.
Agreed, and Poland might be able to make a huge difference in the war in Ukraine. They risk being on their own though.
Yeah, the end of winter is 2-4 weeks away. Around Kyiv they seem to have a lot of bog and marshland and Ukraine control the bridges in. There's also a question as to whether Russia can even mount a full assault.
I disagree. If Poland attacks Russian troops and Russia enters Poland, then no obligation on NATO to come to Poland defence. That was my understanding of reading up on Article 5 some time ago.
At some point, isn't all that mud going to harden and the Russians will be able to maneuver off road? I'm hoping that it's some weeks away still as it's really helping the Ukrainian defences to have the attackers confined to radial tributaries.
I’d say Poland can see the frontline is in Ukraine and is stalled there. The best way to defend your country is to fortify the front line when it is in a neighbouring country.
If the French and British had got Belgian/Dutch permission to enter Benelux countries and station large numbers of troops there prior to May 1940 they could have stalled the German invasion much further back and perhaps repeated the stalemate of world war 1 and avoided the collapse of France.
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