Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Dohnjoe · 31-03-2022 02:01PM

Another intercepted call, yes take with pinch of salt, but a lot of stuff is being intercepted

https://twitter.com/OlenaHalushka/status/1509177054696284166

Wibbs · 31-03-2022 02:03PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118859960#Comment_118859960

Oh they're sometimes mentioned, but rarely discussed and the spin on them is truly dizzying. Like I mentioned earlier in the thread one Russian told me and with a straight face that the Chernobyl disaster was a CIA plot to bring the USSR down.... You really can't argue with that level of woo. When the HBO Chernobyl series came out it was initially praised by some Russian filmmakers but that faded as "official" Russian voices called it an anti Russian lie. They got their own version of it into production and in that one the story was about brave Soviets trying to catch CIA agents who caused it. Yep.

WW2 is interesting from a spin angle too. For them it doesn't start in 1939, but in 1941 when Germany invaded. Handy that, as they can avoid the whole Stalin/Hitler pact, the carving up of Poland and all that stuff(my general impression down the years is they range from distrust to hate of Poles anyway. Probably because other than the Mongols, the Poles were good at invading them). Stalin himself has had a makeover. In the 90's he had the "Saviour of Russia during the Great Patriotic War, but he was a bit of wanker and despot" reputation, but putin has brought him ever more into the fold in Russian spin and thought.

The overall general gist I've gotten from their media and a few Russians I've met(when such stuff came up) is that "difficult questions" about their past are "answered" as either unfortunate mistakes, or more usually someone else's fault. The latter blame and paranoia of "outside influences" stuff is something that seems to run through Russian culture and history and spin like figs in a fig roll.

cnocbui · 31-03-2022 02:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861048#Comment_118861048

Given I'm reasonably near Shannon, I'd just like to point out to any Russians observing from the sidelines, that it has a Dublin registration.

jmayo · 31-03-2022 02:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860900#Comment_118860900

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%27s_Foot_%28Chernobyl%29

If anyone ever offers to sell you corium I would run, very far away.

Anything around Reactor 4 is on the dangerous side.

BTW I bet people don't realise that a big problem for authorities was people going into the exclusion zone and places like Pripyat to scavange valuable materials and items.

Only problem is some of it may glow in the dark like a dial on an old Timex watch.

Actually the Russians might be stripping down the old equipment used in the clean up to replace all the missing parts that the army need for their kit in Ukraine.

Wibbs · 31-03-2022 02:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860255#Comment_118860255

And like Hitler(until pretty much the end) - and this part seems to be hard for some to acknowledge, or understand - putin has a lot of support among the Russian people, and this war is bolstering that. I'd be willing to bet if they had actual free elections in the morning, he'd get in. His main opposition would be in the under 30's.

cnocbui · 31-03-2022 02:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861024#Comment_118861024

What was the other one? I don't think a set of gates counts.

ArthurDayne · 31-03-2022 02:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860632#Comment_118860632

Partition of Ukraine is looking more and more the only viable option, at least insofar as the probability of NATO involvement is vanishingly unlikely. In a sense, it's arguable that by pushing all the way to Kyiv, the Russians will have successfully made themselves to be seen to be "pulling back" (i.e. conceding) in any partition scenario. As such the very act of pulling back is seen as major concession allowing them to more justifably seek the only concessions that they may have been looking for the whole time.

My own sense is that Putin may well get a lot of wins out of this battle, but Russia will ultimately lose the war (the "war" in this regard being Russia's war to regain its old strength. It is now beyond clear that Russia is not to be trusted as a supplier of energy, and will use its position as supplier for adversarial purposes rather than cooperative. The West cannot be subject to dancing on the end of such flimsy strings and the question of weaning itself off Russian dependency has now gone beyond a question of economic inconvenience to one of strategic imperative.

On the level of softer power, Putin has finally burned his bridges with the West's agitators-in-chief: the Trumps, Farages and Le Pens of this world. A divisive figure previously, and admired by many on the right (and the left in some instances) for his hard man, anti-woke, get-sh*t-done, mAiNsTrEaM mEdiA cAnCeL cULtUrE grrrrrrrr demeanour, he is now toxic to all on the political spectrum.

Ukraine will shed a troublesome region, embrace the Western economic sphere and eventually join the EU. Russia will stagnate ever more.

Hobgoblin11 · 31-03-2022 02:12PM

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/29/tributes-funeral-irish-journalist-pierre-zakrzewski-ukraine#:~:text=Pierre%20Zakrzewski%2C%2055%2C%20a%20cameraman,was%20injured%20in%20the%20attack.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861117#Comment_118861117

"Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, a cameraman and Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, 24, died in gunfire earlier this month in Horenka, on the north-west outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. The British correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured in the attack"

cnocbui · 31-03-2022 02:14PM

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1509509759363428353

Go spain! Hear that, Poland? You know what you need to do.

Wibbs · 31-03-2022 02:19PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861135#Comment_118861135

No, they're sending aircraft with weapons, not fighter aircraft. And Poland has done quite a bit for Ukraine and her people. Overall probably the most of any European nation.

Padre_Pio · 31-03-2022 02:19PM

Planes? Or planeloads?

cnocbui · 31-03-2022 02:20PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861159#Comment_118861159

Bummer - my bad. Certainly Poland has, but those Mig-29s are sorely needed and they don't even really want them.

brickster69 · 31-03-2022 02:21PM

Gas must be paid to Russian Rouble account from tomorrow or gas will not be delivered. Putin just now on Sky News

GM228 · 31-03-2022 02:24PM

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1509423718128308224?t=0XcRxIvOwzDJHdLrlBC7hQ&s=19

Dohnjoe · 31-03-2022 02:30PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861172#Comment_118861172

Interesting flipflop, yesterday they backtracked and said they didn't require payment in roubles.

20 hours ago

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1509219143496650758

ArthurDayne · 31-03-2022 02:32PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861102#Comment_118861102

Hard to know for sure but that statement does seem to line up with an excellent YouTube channel I've been following since the war started called "1420". Seems risky but essentially the guy asks ordinary Russians (well, Moscow-dwelling Russians anyway) their views on things like the war and while lots of younger seemingly student-age to 30 odd population seem critical of it all (or at least, they suggest criticism without always outrightly saying it) some of the noticeably older people seem to sway more towards the official line of the State.

I suppose maybe there are a few sides to it: they are old enough to feel a perception that Putin is the man to have truly stabilised Russia since the downfall of the USSR, old enough to remember a deeper fear of annihilation at the hands of the West, and old enough to feel a sense of shame at the Soviet downfall but that Putin has restored Russia's pride in its place among the great powers (even if in reality this is highly caveated).

There's also a very prevalent machismo culture in Russia (almost painfully visible for example in much of their society's masculine insecurities when dealing with the "issue" of gay people) which Putin plays to absolute perfection.

So I'd probably agree Putin has more support than it seems fashionable / comforting right now in the West to assume. Remains to be seen if the next year or two will change that.

Wolf359f · 31-03-2022 02:41PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861229#Comment_118861229

Could be a setup for an April fool's day joke by Putin!

Dohnjoe · 31-03-2022 02:46PM

Europe, especially Germany, really needs to wake up to the fact that Putin is in a full on economic war with us.

Gatling · 31-03-2022 02:46PM

800 danish troops + equipment to be moved as soon as possible to the Baltics , wonder if something is changing

https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1509525791188688900?s=20&t=x3QD9jR3auZ1N2X71iwMMQ

Podge_irl · 31-03-2022 02:48PM

As such the very act of pulling back is seen as major concession allowing them to more justifably seek the only concessions that they may have been looking for the whole time.

It doesn't look like a major concession, it looks like a major defeat

31-03-2022 02:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861194#Comment_118861194

Who does this recognition tarnish the most, the terrorists or... the terrorists?

31-03-2022 02:58PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118861091#Comment_118861091

You are lucky,Russian only goes for civilian targets

GM228 · 31-03-2022 03:02PM

https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1509514180923379718?t=rCFCfdDLwlmM2ULSvGVDlQ&s=19

And in English:-

https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1509514186249969664?t=1cDzju5vBwtGSNdPNoPUlA&s=19

briany · 31-03-2022 03:02PM

@ArthurDayne

Ukraine will shed a troublesome region, embrace the Western economic sphere and eventually join the EU. Russia will stagnate ever more.

Getting rid of Crimea would be, I'm guessing, not too much of a sticking point for Ukraine, if it came down to it, but getting rid of Donbass might be a sorer point. Before the invasion, Russian separatists only held about a quarter of that entire region. At the least, it would have to be considered that there are/were a whole lot of people there who want no part of Russia, and maybe even less than before the invasion.

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Russia focus efforts into the east of Ukraine in order to depopulate that part of the country and make it easier to 'claim'. Drive people from their homes, bus Russians in, hold a referendum and, hey presto, more Russia.

Dohnjoe · 31-03-2022 03:02PM

From the Guardian:

"Germany and France again reject Russian demand to pay for gas in roubles

Germany and France have again rejected demands by Russia that European countries pay for its gas in roubles, saying it was an unacceptable breach of contracts and amounted to “blackmail”, Reuters reports.

Speaking during a news conference, Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said he had not yet seen a new decree signed by President Valdimir Putin mandating gas payments in roubles, adding that Germany was prepared for all scenarios, including a stoppage of Russian gas flows to Europe.

The French finance minister, Bruno le Maire, said France and Germany rejected Russia’s demand."