I must disagree here.
The Russian people have had a generation to get over soviet type of life. There are no excuses anymore.
Just throwing my uninformed thoughts onto this thread...
Finland have played a bad move here.
Now, the borders of NATO on Russia has more than doubled. Obviously, Russia will treat this new border to be militarised. This broadens the potential for a wider conflict. A shift in the geo-tectonics.
Also, how the hell did UK create a security pact with Sweden, with no resort to a mandate from the house, or even people of the UK, which or now under threat should Russia attack Sweden?
Those Russian ships need to replace their deep fat fryers with microwave ovens. Their deep fat fryers are not good for their health.
..
Better to have militarised Russia on your border than Russia invading (again). Finland took the view that Putin was on an imperial quest (Finland was part of Russia for a time, and that's more than enough reason to invade) and thought it best to throw their lot in with NATO and have zero chance of being invaded. Now, based on what we've seen Ukraine doing they probably had little to fear, but this is a belts and braces approach by Finland.
As stated above, I reckon it's not the Russian people who are being referred to as Orcs. Rather the term is specifically being used to describe the Russian army in Ukraine. This from an article in Le Monde on the use of Lord of the Rings terminology following the invasion of Ukraine.
"In early March, in the city of Melitopol occupied by Russian troops, demonstrators protested against the "looting Orcs." A little later that same month, the Ukrainian defense minister vowed in an official speech that his troops "would stand firm against Mordor's assaults." On April 8, Dmytro Jyvytsky, the governor of the Sumy province, announced from the Russian border that the area was now "free of Orcs". He was followed the next day by the mayor of Makariv, near Kyiv, stating on television that the bodies of 132 civilians had been found and that they had been "killed by the Russian Orcs."
"Whether in the speeches of Ukrainian officials, in the country's press or on social networks, the comparison is everywhere: Ukraine, a peaceful country comparable to the Shire in the Lord of the Rings, is defending itself against a purely evil force, the Russian army, compared to the troops of Mordor, which are led from Moscow by a Vladimir Putin likened to Sauron."
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2022/04/23/ukrainian-and-russian-tolkien-fans-battle-over-the-legacy-of-the-lord-of-the-rings_5981383_13.html
If the Ukrainians are calling the invading Russians "Orcs", and considering what they and the world now knows about what the invading Russians are doing in Ukraine, then that's good enough for me
Update on those two security guards shot in the back by Russian forces captured on security cameras.
One survived the attack and died in his hut. Other died straightaway.
Footage of the soldiers knocking back whisky in the garage office.
Interesting thread. It tells us that the Russians have gone in there as a hostile occupying army and an oppressor, definitely not as a 'liberator' - probably akin to Nazi occupation of various countries in Europe in 1940 and later.
You're looking at this from the Russian perspective. I'd like to offer a Finnish perspective.
Finland has been neutral since 1944, but is a sovereign country. In December, Russia declared Sweden and Finland shouldn't apply to Nato (or else..), which was considered an attack on both countries' sovereignity, since it suggested they aren't allowed to decide their own matters. Finland has a population of 5.5 million, Sweden has 10.4 million - neither is a military threat to Russia and support for military alliances has traditionally been low. Now when Russia attacked a non-Nato neighbour in February, support for remaining neutral vanished. This is a complete strategic blunder by Russia.
The border getting militarised is just Russian propaganda. Finland has a standing army of just 21,500 (although there is a wartime reserve strength of 280,000) and there are no troops stationed on the Russian border. When Finland joins Nato, it's up to Finland to decide what (if any) troops will be deployed in Finland - possibly none. Remember, there is no such thing as a Nato army - each country has individual troops, so the notion that a huge army will suddenly threaten Russia is not reality. Finland won't invade Russia and if Russia doesn't attack, there won't be a war. If Russia wants to have troops on the border, they of course have that right. The view in Finland is that joining Nato makes a Russian invasion of Finland even more unlikely than it was before, previously it was considered having a strong army and cordial relations was enough. Now relations are less cordial, but it is thought Russia daring to fight both the Finnish defence forces and other Nato members is not realistic.
Why do you think that Finland joining NATO will broaden the potential for conflict?
We have never seen any direct conflict between any NATO countries and Russia yet. Do you think this will change if and when Finland joins NATO?
It won't, its blustering from Russia - they should learn their lesson from the last time they tried attacking Finland
orcs can resign and return to mordor, without it seems much in the way of penalty. Yet, they seem to prefer to die in their thousands raping, looting and murdering their way across Ukraine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/12/they-were-furious-the-russian-soldiers-refusing-to-fight-in-ukraine?CMP=share_btn_tw
excellent video on the current war situation
Christ..
Mans inhumanity to man, really knows no boundaries...
Conscripts can’t resign.
Have you read the article...
If so, what's your point?
The auld Soviet era trains are painted Yellow & Blue nowadays, the new modern Inter City / regional ones seem to be silver & blue like many in other countries.
I was in Kyiv 3 years ago & there still was very large marshalling yards with load of old stock, I'm assuming some have been brought back for service during the war?
Criticising Finland for joining NATO makes no sense to me, it’s by far the best option to deter a Russian invasion.
Also the rhetoric about NATO expanding to the east being provocative to Russia is baseless. They have no right to veto what other countries do. None. If any country on their borders wanted to join they had every right to do so. The invasion of Ukraine shows why joining was wise.
Criticising NATO for allowing them join shows an imperial mindset, where Russia is entitled to a sphere of influence. Its not, of course.
Russian never had a moral case to object to a country joining NATO. Since it invaded a neutral country it lost a logic based case to persuade someone not to join NATO. It's bully stuff, and if a country backs down against a bully country it may as well become a vassal state... I give you Belarus (although, in Belarus's defence ... they had no defence).
The only reason the Russian government doesn't want NATO countries bordering Russia is because it means they can't expand by invading.
Putin: Let me do whatever I want, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
West: Have a taste of this.
Tbh if there was one nation that Russia shouldn't be shitmouthing it's the Finn's. They gave the RuSSians a seeing too back in the winter war and the continuation war back during WW2 and they'd do it again.
Yep. There's a reason so many eastern European countries joined NATO, it's because they were afraid this very scenario would occur except they'd be the countries invaded. Countries like Estonia wouldn't have had a chance if Russia invaded. Their security lies in collective security.
BTW, Irelands neutrality is kinda based on the luxury of our location. We're at the very edge of the continent and surrounded by water. If we were located next to Russia I would be 100% in favor of joining NATO.
It really doesn't make sense, beyond the simplest of components it's difficult to replace like for like in a proper lab and have a decent chance of it working, never mind in the field as was suggested above. Changing product families? Forget about it. You can't just hack a chip big enough to be recognisable as a consumer component onto a pcb not designed for it and expect it to work, never mind the task of having compatible software to hand and getting it on to it. Even less likely from something scavenged.
I'm part of a properly resourced team trying to do something similar at the moment due to the component shortage, it takes months to do properly as everything needs to be redesigned.
What is WAAAY more likely is consumer grade components have been used from the start, either designed in cause they couldn't get their hands on military grade parts or swapped in at production stage and someone has pocketed the price difference.
That's what I was thinking. And it makes sense to use consumer parts wherever possible rather than custom made chips. It significantly lowers the cost. I'd still imagine in something like a tank, a lot of the electronics would be custom made but there would be a small amount that would be interchangeable. So scavenging the parts from a dishwasher will only solve a tiny part of their supply chain issues. And even then, for those particular parts, it's not a sustainable replacement.
So you’re saying it’s not a war.
No animal would do what these scum have. Humans are the only creatures capable of such depravity
Until your son, daughter, are required to go to war.
You need to get informed not outraged!
Sorry, haven't been able to delete these tweets.
@BR1 when have sons and daughters been forced to go to war for NATO?
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