Hmmm, covering your ass to hide your racial stereotyping of Russians me thinks.
Given the standards of the competition, I would not put a particularly huge emphasis on Russia's placing in the Tank Biathalon.
The levels of incompetence on display were utterly astounding.
The Orcs are so keen to find something positive to show back in the glorious fatherland that they have been showing videos of Ukrainian Paratroops training exercises and passing them off as actual glorious combat achievements against Ukraine by their own assorted drunks, rapists, convicts and white goods removalists
So there wasn't 27 millions Russians killed after all , Estimated by the Russians
A military operation is underway on the Kinburn spit in silence mode, OK "South"
On the Kinburn spit in the Mykolaiv region, where the occupiers are concentrating their forces, a military operation is underway in silence mode, Humenyuk.
According to Nataliya Humenyuk, due to the fact that the spit is connected by land with the temporarily occupied territory, Russian troops are able to deliver ammunition there and raise reserves.
Francis will be distraught to learn of these sad developments. May they be victorious. It might be an idea to cross elsewhere,also.
The Prigozhyn youth from the "Wagner" PVC began to rape girls in the Crimea - the Crimean Partisans report
The body of a 16-year-old girl, a beauty raped and killed by mercenaries, was found in Simferopol
The intrinsic degeneracy of the Horde is apalling.
Germany is a perfect example here. This is a country that was made to endure with great trauma the self-defeating nature of imperialist hard power ideology in the new world of all-out destructive mechanised warfare. It learned from those mistakes and instead focused on cultivating its soft power — as indeed did the other fading European imperial powers. This was the basis on which the European Union was eventually perceived, whereby Europe would consolidate and cultivate its soft power rather than pursue the imperialist policies of the past (for the most part).
Russia had the tools like labour market access, linguistic commonalities, cultural commonalities and a plethora of energy resources to cultivate a sphere of soft influence for itself in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. But in contrast to how countries like Germany jettisoned their imperialist prejudices towards their neighbouring countries, Russia has not. It has not marketed itself as a country that its neighbours particularly want to integrate with, in contrast to the Western European powers, because 'integration' with Russia appears more like dangerous interference from Moscow. Its internal reluctance to embrace liberal values in favour of hard man politics and brute force has not endeared it to its neighbours in the way France, the UK and Germany (to their credit, and among others) achieved among theirs.
This is why I find the constant talk of Russia being encircled and the comparisons to US Monroe Doctrine a little tiresome. Russia has done little to modernise its approach to managing its sphere of influence.
In the NATO-Russia founding act and Helsinki accords, Russia has already accepted the principle that Ukraine can join NATO.
NATO-Russia Founding Act covers what weapons systems and bases can be deployed. Those measures are there to avoid escalation and provocation. That is all that Russia is entitled to. This is a canard that has been thoroughly discredited already multiple times on the thread no matter how much whataboutery you try to engage in.
Do you understand how many times Russia broke the Budapest agreements? There is no peace without Ukraine in NATO or under its umbrella. Russia has demonstrated it cannot be trusted to abide by any agreement that is not backed by the threat of overwhelming force.
And your nonsense about Russia being there to protect ethnic Russians was already dismantled yesterday in a direct reply to you which you could offer no response to.
Not in the slightest.
Long article from a few days ago on nasty treatment meted out to workers to encourage "loyalty" to Russia in the Zaporizhzhia power plant.
To bring the power plant under its control and quell political dissent, Russia has detained and in many cases tortured hundreds of its workers, according to Mr. Murashov and more than a dozen of his subordinates interviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The abuse started with lower-level technical and maintenance staff. It has since reached the most senior plant management, including Mr. Murashov, who was taken on Sept. 30 and released last month after lobbying by the United Nations and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Now on Ukrainian-held territory, Mr. Murashov and other nuclear staff who have made it out of internment said that a unit of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, operated underground prisons near the plant, where they struck detained workers with rifle butts and batons, shot them in the feet and elbows, deprived them of food and attached electrodes to their ears and fingers.
Brutal, cruel and ultimately dumb as well (IMO) as usual. What else would you expect at this stage?
From what I can, Putin's invasion has brought nothing but death and destruction this year to the so called DPR and LPR as well as Donbas. The idea of the Russian dictator "liberating" anyone doesn't hold up.
Your post demonstrates vividly what this thread has turned into. Any hint of straying from the party line and the attack dogs are unleashed. So wanting regime change in Russia and hoping Ukraine does well isn't good enough for you?
De-escalation involves Russians getting out of Ukraine. It had no business there in the first place. Everything else posted particularly in reference to historical events of other nations that have nothing to do with Russia illegally invading Ukraine is Whataboutism.
Then the "I hope Russia can turn the corner and get a regime change" type posts. Yes, so do I. But I've seen enough Z rallys in countries to know that alot of Russian citizens lucky enough to have access to independent or pseudo independent media will still cheer their home team. So for now, f**k them. They're the invaders here. There'll be plenty of time worry about Russia's future once the stop trying to snuff out Ukriane's.
Posts calling for concessions from Ukraine is more BS. They didn't invade anywhere. So, to say Russia should make concessions but what about Ukraine. Shouldn't they also? Yep. That's more whataboutism. Talks will happen eventually, but they should be on Ukraine's terms. Any sane observer would hope.
As for, "they had to defend the poor Russians in Donbass". The same ones that were then conscripted? The same ones that weren't let back into the motherland when they tried to flee an advancing Ukraine army? Shelling Kharkiv (supposedly full of Russian people) and countless other areas because Russia protects its own? Take the Russian propaganda nozzle out of your orifices.
Get the thread back on topic.
We must have imagined that mass graves have been discovered in the now liberated towns such as Bucha. The children in Mariupol freely left for Russia too I suppose. Don't get me started on all those Ukrainian people just begging to be raped.
To deal with the other old chestnuts
If the expansion of NATO is such a problem, why isn't Russia now attacking Finland or Sweden?
The ethnic Russians in Kharkiv who have driven the Evil Russians from their city are testament that there is no discrimination. It is just another silly excuse to justify the invasion.
Finally, your opinion is rubbish, you really want us to take you seriously when you claim you'd never heard of the Nazi Wagner group fighting for your side.
In almost ever post. Your technique is to say something like I hope Ukraine wins, but you never say anything positive about Ukraine or it's efforts, just a passing aside to set you up for the Horde isn't all that bad and what about shitbaggery, the latest being some stupid appeal to losing x million in WW2.
Indeed, it has scarcely changed a jot from Tsarist Russia. Total disregard for human rights, personal freedoms, freedom of speech etc - it scarcely seems part of Europe at all under Putin.
Belarus: 2,290,000
Ukraine: 6,850,000
Rest of USSR: 16,825,000
Total Soviet toll: 26,965,000.
Weird, it's a pseudonym that everyone appears to know. Not sure why Susan Webber, who was a prestigious financial person chose to write with a male pseudonym. Yves has good thoughts on finance but is spouting sh1te about Ukraine.
Claimed 27 million which they revise upwards by a few million every few years based off finding Long lost census records,
A village of 100 hundred people,turns into a Town with hundreds of thousands of people missing as claimed by the Russians
Point out where I have defended Russia???
I stand corrected, tovarisch.
It's a pen name.
woman who fights for workers rights.
Good post.
As I've said already, I'd like to see regime change in Russia. How this will come about though, I honestly don't know.
1. End to large scale loss of Ukranian life and extreme violence.
2. Four oblasts and no to NATO
3. Mearsheimer points to the fact that USA would not allow Mexico or Canada to join an organisation with the USA as it's primary enemy. That has been Russia's complaint for a long time. It's already massive, growing bigger risks destabilising it. They did not go in with shock and awe like the USA did in Iraq. They wanted an end to discrimination against ethnic Russian's which Ukraine would not do and now they control the ethnic Russian regions. I could be here all day, I'm sure you understand the ceasefire violation escalations prior to the war? I think the question would be would Ukraine try to reclaim the four regions after such a ceasefire not would Moscow try to conquer more of Ukraine.
4. Very unlikely in my opinion. Maybe some but it looks like they're gearing up for a large offensive. The Russian's have walon all the tank war games etc.
They've won every event since 2015. I don't think they're as incompetent as they're made out to be.
I wouldn't defend Russia's rampant revisionism of it's past, but losing 27 million of one's citizens in a war might have certain side effects.
@correct horse battery staple. "can’t think of any good reasons why anyone would defend these neo Nazis and post whataboutery like you have done".
Do you even bother reading what other people are posting?????
Germany was completely destroyed and dismantled, split in two for an entire generation. It has readily accepted and moved on from its past, all the while ensuring that those historical mistakes are never allowed happen again, into a stronger and fully democratic country that is the pillar of modern Europe.
Putting aside the fact that the Soviet Union visited plenty of barbarity on its own populace from 1922 onwards, as well as those of conquered nations.
Russia hasn't changed in those same 80 years, at least not by those milestones. It still has the exact same zero regard for democracy, equality, human rights, law etc that it did in 1945. Putin is the most corrupt leader in modern Russian history. He has zero interest in Russia, the wellbeing of the country or its population, only in himself.
Talk about whataboutery! Germany has repudiated the Hitler regime in a way that contrasts Russia's enduring attachment of many aspects of Stalinism.
My main thought on it is that someone brought up in the western European tradition would recognise Yves as a man's name.
Russia is not "my country" mate. I said originally that I hope Ukraine comes favourably out of the war. Stop making the thread a simple black v white affair. As for Russia itself, I hope theres regime change eventually. The average Russian deserves a decent government, considering the hundreds of years of despotism they have suffered under, be they Tsars, Communists etc.
Sins of the Fathers, eh? Most people involved in that era of Germany as adults committing war crimes are dead or approaching death.
As Wassie pointed out, modern Germany is a completely different country now, accepting mass amounts of refugees for one.
Meanwhile Russia is attempting to tear it's way through a sovereign nation in 2022.
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