Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Ah, the Daily Mail. A Bastion of forthright Journalism. Well, well, well indeed.

Once they have utterly wiped out Mariupol, which is realistically only a matter of days away

Been hearing that every day for a month now.

From the Guardian:

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday slammed the west for discriminating against Russian culture, comparing the treatment of Russian cultural figures with that of “cancelled” Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

At a televised meeting with leading cultural figures, Putin said the west was “trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people,” citing the cancellation of events involving Russian artists in some western countries.

“They’re now engaging in the cancel culture, even removing Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov from posters, Russian writer and books are now cancelled,” Putin said.

A number of events involving Russian cultural figures who have expressed their backing for the war have been cancelled, most notably concerts by the award-winning Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, a friend and supporter of Putin, who was part of the meeting on Friday.

Some events involving dead Russian cultural figures have also been cancelled, with the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra removing the Russian composer Tchaikovsky from its programme, a move that was widely criticized by western cultural figures.

 Russian president Vladimir Putin said the west was “trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people.” Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty Images

Putin in his address added that the “last time” such a campaign was waged against “unwanted literature” was when Nazi supporters burned books in the 1930s.

The Russian leader further compared the treatment Russia has received following the country’s invasion of Ukraine with the controversy surrounding British author JK Rowling’s comments on transgender people.

“Recently they cancelled the children’s writer Joanne Rowling because she – the author of books that have sold 100s of millions of copies worldwide – fell out of favour with fans of so-called ‘gender freedoms.’ Today they want to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people,” Putin said.

JK Rowling on Friday distanced herself from Putin’s comments by sharing an article about jailed Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny on Twitter.

“Critiques of western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics,” the British author write, sharing the hashtag IStandWithUkraine.

Putin has in the past repeatedly expressed his disdain of western “liberal” values, comparing cancel culture with the coronavirus.

When asked last year by a Russian journalist about the “cancellation” of J.K. Rowling, Putin said that he “adhered to the traditional approach — a woman is a woman, a man is a man, a mother is a mother, a father is a father.”

Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Center said that Putin’s adress on Friday gave another insight into the “distorted” view the Russian leader had of the west.

“Putin uses the information he receives from advisors and then creates his own reality of the west,” Kolesnikov said.

“He hears about some extreme examples that happen in the west and then convinces himself that this is the trend. He doesn’t like the nuance.”

Kolesnikov said Friday’s meeting with the Russian cultural elite was also meant to show the Russian public that the west was waging a parallel cultural war against the country, four weeks after Moscow’s invasion into Ukraine.

“Putin wants to tell Russians that they are under siege, also culturally. In his eyes, the west is in a relentless war against traditional Russian values.”

Putin in his address added that the “last time” such a campaign was waged against “unwanted literature” was when Nazi supporters burned books in the 1930s.

Ah listen to the muppet, what was one of the first things that the Russians did in the occupied territories back in 2014. That's right they gathered up Ukrainian Language books from the Libraries and Schools and torched them.

If Vladimir Putin and his cronies represent "Russian Values" the sooner we cancel them the better.

I wonder does he actually believe the sh1te he spouts. The west bad for cancelling events while he obliterates a sovereign country causing the death both innocent people and his own soldiers.

What Putin needs to realise is that most of us didn't give a shiite what went on in Russia until they started murdering innocent people in Ukraine a few weeks back. Crawl back under your rock you terrorist.

Possibly; but if the various maps are to be believed and Russia keep throwing men at it I would imagine days is a reasonable estimate.

I'm not even sure at this stage which ending for Mariupol would be "better" at this stage... Ukrainian forces slipping through Russian lines during the night and living to fight another day? Or are Russia going to effectively kidnap the population and force them into Russia in which case do you hope the Ukrainian forces stay to try and delay that from happening?

Somehow I suspect any Ukrainian forces captured are going to have a seriously bad time of things irrespective of whether they're Azov or not.

That seems a great idea. Confront Russian citizens with images of the war and to hell with them if they dismiss it as propaganda or fake news. At least they can't claim after the war ends that weren't told what was going on.

Delusional

Imagine that: a concert changing its planned performances to remove the ones which celebrated Russian military victories whilst Russia was engaged in a land war in Europe. The absolute bare-faced cheek of them!

That concert was shortly after the war had started and some or all of the people involved wanted to make a statement in support of Ukraine and in opposition to Russia and that was how they decided to do it.

Your post somewhat reeks of the same right-wing over-simplification and pearl-clutching that Putin is engaging in by the way; congratulations for that.

In what way? Most have been implemented in some form and the restrictions/measures are only increasing.

Some of those points may be hard to get in practice but IMHO I like the list and agree with them all.

I don't understand Russian but sighs are probably universal so I'm guessing he's not too happy? I'm getting a definite schadenfreude tingle, though the commander getting fragged will be hard to beat.

Apparently there is a large exodus of young (and presumably well-qualified and educated) Russians to places they can get to, like Armenia, Turkey, parts of Central Asia. Certainly worthwhile making them an offer and effectively rescuing them.