Russia - threadbanned users in OP

They might give up most of Crimea in a situation like that, but I wonder if they’d try to mimic the Soviets and try to barracade themselves into Sevastopol.

This port is ultimately what Russia wants on the peninsula. However, I don’t fancy their chances maintaining a defence of the city this time if Ukraine block them into a siege.

The irony of Russia losing Crimea through bloody bloody war considering they took it and held it for nearly a decade without firing a single shot 😀

There's idiots like that here too. While walking past the Chinese embassy yesterday, I encountered a lovely gent proudly wearing a "Fuçk the Ukraine" t-shirt (the c was a Russian sickle) and berating the Falun Gong protestors (presumably for their backward swastika logo or some other such nonsense). I alerted the Garda up the street at the UK embassy in the hope they'd remove this stellar specimen from society.

Oh, here we go again - the kind of society I want to live in doesn't include people like the one mentioned. Now, I'd rather this example of backwards evolution sees the error of his ways at some point and re-joins civilisation, but until then he can feck right off and keep going.

Civilisation and polite society has rules, some written, some implied (you might even call the implied rules 'manners'). These are the grease that keep the wheels spinning smoothly and allow large groups of people to more or less get along.

If you want to be in the game, you have to abide by the rules. If you don't like the rules you can either try to get all the players to agree to changing them, or go and find another game whose rules suit you.

Don't start your twattery about 'the poor, ordinary Russians' - if they live in Russia and are not doing anything to better their situation, they reap what they sow, and if they don't live in Russia, they don't have the right to tell everyone else how to live.

Had he committed a crime? Personally, the Russian supporter sounds like a sad sack, as do the Falun Gong crowd. What are they hoping to achieve in Dublin? Theatrical twits.

I assume he had committed a crime, right? Because if he didn't commit a crime, here you are, without a hint of irony or self-awareness, beating your chest for demonstrating that you would have thrived in East Germany or some other Soviet state as an apparatchik or informant.

In Ireland we have a culture that allows people (and sad sacks) to protest and counter protest without informants running off to the police about it. I will assume he committed a crime though, because no one could be so oblivious to Western values while at the same time claiming to defend them.

They have made progress in recent weeks though, regaining territory, breaking first lines of defense in several directions, striking targets deep inside Russia. It's not spectacular, but it's progress by any metric, and they are not done yet. In other words, the current lines are not and will not be the final lines when it comes to any deal, IMO.

It took a long time to navigate the Russian minefield and their entrenched positions. It seems some of these have now been overcome and steady progress has been seen over the past three days.

Important to note. A video recording of Russian atrocities.

Also important to note how the Russian state operates and impresses its people to work as a horde to colonise new land.

Also important to note how the new colonisers don't need to know the former civilians history and culture as they will destroy it and make their own version.

RuSSia.

You really shudder to think what's been going on in all of the towns that Russia has been officially occupying since Feb 2022. It is clear that the Russian government has a contempt of Ukrainian culture and identity quite similar to what the Nazis had of Slavic peoples, if not the same.

For people still talking about negotiation, what is a suitable reparation for Russia to pay regarding the focused ethnic cleansing they have been perpetrating?

Their latest propaganda film has flopped

(from the Guardian feed:)

"The release of Russia’s first feature-length film about its invasion of Ukraine that premiered across the country on 17 August comes on the back of plans announced by the Russian authorities to boost the production of movies glorifying Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

But The Witness is a box-office flop. Set to a budget of 200 million roubles (£1.5m), it has grossed less than 14 million roubles (£110,000) in its first two weeks, with viewers across the country reporting empty cinema halls.

In two hours of screen time, the film covers a wide spectrum of falsehoods that the Kremlin has used to justify its invasion of Ukraine. On the eve of the invasion, Vladimir Putin said Moscow had to “denazify” its neighbour, the lie that Ukraine was infiltrated by dangerous “Nazis”.

At one point, a Ukrainian commander is seen walking around with a copy of Mein Kampf, while other Ukrainian soldiers pledge their allegiance to Adolf Hitler. As a witness to these unspeakable horrors, Cohen sets out to tell the world the “truth” about the conflict."

We have an idea of what's been going on from reports.

But still there's an impression in the West you can't say or do anything in case it upsets a Russian.

What we have instead of is this boil the pot of Russians.

The whole Russian state deserves to be left in isolation for 50 years. Embassies in Europe and around the world closed down. Russian ex pats give a portion of salary to Ukrainian state and people.

And that still would be very light. They've taken thousands of lives while they still have theirs.

At least the Nobel committee was guilted into coming to their senses:

I'd agree with you - there needs to be severe consequences for Russian citizens abroad. And if they don't like it, back to the motherland to sort things out.

The International Olympic Committee would want to take notice and change it's tune very soon. No Russian or Belarussian athletes, no matter what flag of convenience they want to hide under.