Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Be careful of making a false equivalence.

What perturbs me about it is how well filmed it is. Could be fake, could be Ukrainian disinfo trying to stir up the locals. A war during the Twitter era...

People use the expression 'orc' for a good reason. Of course we understand there are good Russians, we are not stupid, but Russia is, and has always been, a very sick country and that is what orc means.

I remember reading an article on how monstrous and evil Russia is and that article was written in 1900. I have tried to find the quote but can't locate it. Russia needs a serious cleansing.

I would look to history for the answer. Typically the government falls and is replaced by a more democratic system, or the whole system implodes and a power vacuum pulls Russia into a civil war.

First thing that came to mind when I saw the reports.

I'm sure it will be announced that shooter was a member of the Azoz battalion and he had his unit Id on him at the time, followed by the whole nonsense of see they Ukrainian Nazis are coming to kill our children,we must now escalate the war even further now

It's fun A young man #Nga #Russia mobilized gave his commander what the end of #Ukraine was like by giving his commander 4 shots to the chest. It is better to go to jail than die

Despite the state controlled media, it's surely the case than many of these 140 million citizens can sense a bad smell off this war operation. They have chosen to date out of habit and culture to ignore the odour and carry on their normal lives. Now it's starting the affect them more directly and clearly there is dissent.

But they are complicit in supporting the regime, you can jail several thousand protestors but you can't jail or control hundreds of thousands if they had sufficient backbone. I don't think the EU should facilitate fleeing Russians, let them stay and sort out their own problems.

Personally I don't much care for the description 'orc' for Russian armed forces but it is simpler, quicker to type and more PC than labeling them as 'disgusting pieces of excrement that should be eliminated' which is a more apt description.

Bush sent US troops into Georgia during Russia's incursion, delivering 'humanitarian aid', and basically said if they were attacked or endangered they would defend themselves. Something similar could have done in Western Ukraine, Kyiv, the grain ports etc.

Before mobile phones, there was this morning ritual of exiting your front door, picking up the rolled newspaper that had been thrown onto your front lawn in darkness and collecting the milk bottles.

Not only did the mik have a layer of cream on top and taste much better, the quality of the journalism and news coverage in the paper and on the radio you might have listened to at breakfast while perusing the paper, was much better.

While there was a slightly longer delay in the spread of news, it was better presented and analysed in the better papers.

There was no deficit in communocations prior to the internet. The newspapers, radio and TV conveyed news that was only a few hours old. There was short wave radio and it was pretty easy to hear in real time, news on the BBC world service, Voice Of America, Deutscha Welle, from Australia.

Most housholds wouldn't have a short wave, but there were those that did. I grew up in Australia, which apart from NZ is about as isolated from the rest of the world as you can get, but there was no deficit in news and awareness of world events.

Nobody outside of Russia takes those sham referendums seriously, and I would say Putin privately acknowledges what they're really about as well. Putin would be as well to hold referendums among all Russian diaspora in the former Warsaw Pact territories and falsify the results, if necessary, to say that all this land is rightfully Russia and the rest of the world has one week to recognise that or it will be considered that Russia is occupied by a hostile foreign force and appropriate response will be meted out. The way he's going, it wouldn't come entirely as a surprise if he did do something like that.

That the Red Cross do marvelous work is well understood ( recent prisoner exchanges, Amnesties', safe passages etc ) but to expect them to cover all the bases in a situation like Ukraine is expecting a bit much. Especially when dealing with Putin, who does not have a humanitarian thought in his mind, let alone a humanitarian bone in his body. No, there are limits to what they can do, but within these limits, they are doing fantastic work in Ukraine ( and elsewhere in the world too at the present time, same as in the past )

It's really down to the Russian people what kind of leader would emerge if Putin were to be ousted, but the last few hundred years doesn't fill me with any real hope they're interested in someone open and egalitarian. I've seen the argument made that you can't really run Russia as a western styled democracy, given the diversity of peoples in it, with conflicting cultures and regional interests.

Personally, I don't care how Russia runs itself so long as they keep their cráp within their own borders. If Russia truly looks up to China, they would do well to take the example of how China has emerged as a world power - not by threatening the countries around them (not until recently, anyway), but by becoming an industrial powerhouse.

Nope, not at all. But you should be aware that if you attack me in my home with a 10lb sledge hammer, that I also have a sledge hammer, and it's figuratively speaking a 20lb sledge hammer, and I will use it if I have to. Now what do you want to do? Go on...make your mind up. But don't say afterwards that you were not warned.

Tibet, India, the Uighurs, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc might take issue with the 'not threatening the countries around them' piece! China has become very bellicose in the last couple of decades.

Gary Kasparov is not a good politician, he is too opinionated, and has almost no influence with the Russian mafia elite.

Generally, a dictator is replaced by someone from his inner circle. Usually then there is period of turmoil while the power is redistributed. Examples: Franco's Spain after 1975, the USSR after Stalin. The successor should be a compromise candidate, acceptable to the current elites. The current PM of Russia Mishustin is a suitable candidate -- he does not seem to have any strong opinions and he is not affiliated with the FSB.