Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Your knowledge of recent happenings in Russia seem to have several gaps Veda Kind Yak… can it really have escaped your attention the shortages of eggs? and when all the Fuel suppliers were selling their fuel abroad because of the higher prices they were getting, until Putin banned the practice because the whole country was coming to a halt? And even now, they have to import fuel again? What could be wrong I wonder? Why is Putin's marvellous Russian dream turning into a nightmare for ordinary Russians….????

Oh, does it rhyme with 'billeagal bwar'?

Oh and I almost forgot Poon Tank, as if the everyday life for ordinary Russians was not bad enough, they (the ones that can afford and are free to travel, because not everyone is) have to contend now with not only the problems that everyday living brings to them, but now also those damn Ukrainian drones are everywhere, recently, airports in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, and Sheremetyevo are closed for flights due to the threat of drone attacks, causing chaos for travelers. Ah well, maybe better luck with your flights next week……or maybe not!!! Slava Ukraini!!!

I've also seen the classic RU branding on some hard drives and solid state drives and on various PC components. But I do agree with the overall point. It's one of the reasons I think Russia is going to fall behind in this war eventually.

You'd want to be stark raving mad to be thinking of a long term future as computer/electronic technician or software engineer in the Russian state as it is. Indeed a huge chunk of this workforce already absconded abroad when first mobilization was announced. And if any further mobilizations are announced I'm sure that trend will continue.

These people may not be immediately obvious in a war that has thus far relied on grunts sitting in a trench or firing a mortar. But when it comes to drones…. Even specifically AI enabled drones. You know? The kind of drone that doesn't f*cking care if your tank has EW capabilities duct taped to it. These kinds of technologies are in their infant stage right now, but they won't be for long. And that's just one example

If you're too busy hemorrhaging your tech workforce to other countries or using them to soak up 155mm shells then that's going to come back to you tenfold eventually.

Anyways.

I notice a new trend in Russian trolls on YouTube comments trying to distance themselves from the USSR and labeling people as ignorant for associating the two. They are arguing that Russia was “oppressed” by the USSR and most of its leaders were non Russian. And therefore NATO should not exist either seen as their adversary is gone.

The Russian SSR was nearly the entire USSR minus Ukraine , Belarus, the southern republics etc. it was led from the very same Kremlin with power centralized in Moscow. I know modern day Russia is very different to the USSR. But Russia oppressed by the USSR wtf? If that’s the case Gorbachev should be a hero in modern day Russia and he clearly isn’t. But the foreign ,Georgian, oppressor in chief, Josef Stalin is held in higher regard . Putin resurrected the old Soviet national anthem in the mid noughties as well. So it’s clear this is just more scutter for the scutter gun of falsehoods.

Just to add to the Russian Economic growth conversation. That's what happens in war time. Turning their resources over to making things that will be destroyed in Ukraine counts toward GDP figures even though it has limited value to the real economy.

Here's the UK's GDP figures during WWII. Note the 4 years of growth after the outbreak of the war that included a time when cities were being bombed by the Luftwaffe:

Putin is a cuddly teddy bear compared to any Soviet Social Socialist leader, including Gorbachev, who killed about 2 million civilians in Afghanistan and lots more besides.

Putin is a vile orick but the depth and savagery of the USSR is not fully appreciated or ever discussed.

Russians had it better than others but every one was shi7 on the shoe.

Lada were selling to the impoverished Russian people, not the government and oligarchs, hence the disparity.

Weapons manufacturers can make (relatively) technologically advanced stuff because the government funnel money into it, instead of investing in things that help the masses.

Anything they need to import they just pay a premium and someone gets it shipped to Uzbekistan and rolls it over the border to evade sanctions

"still standing strong"… "robust"… You do realise they are the invading force, not the defenders? Your descriptions don't apply to the aggressor in a conflict. This was a 'special military operation' Putin thought would be over in a heartbeat. The fact that they're still in Ukraine, having faced no more than the Ukrainian military, is not something to be overly boastful about.

Hopium indeed… keep dreaming because your arguments on here are deluded.

Edit: I'm loathe to call anyone a troll (even one with such strong views on the war but who has miraculously only signed up to discuss in the last week), but since you pick and chose which replies to engage with and refuse to back up your comments when challenged - numerous times now - I've no interest in engaging with you any further on this thread.

Painting Russia as a nation of lazy, uneducated, vodka drinking inepts as many posters on here have done over the past couple of years is a silly thing to do. Anyone with a grasp of history or who works in IT will appreciate that Russia produces incredibly smart and capable graduates in the science and technology fields. For all its poverty and faults it continues to be one of the world leaders in space exploration. You don't do that if the Lada is the best you can come up with.

People really need to separate their view of Putin from that of the average educated Russian.

Russia since '22 has become heavily sanctioned, had hundreds of billions in assets frozen, lost their largest and more lucrative energy customers, currency has lost approx 30% of it's value, hundreds of thousands of their troops have been killed/injured (and thousands of tanks, vehicles and craft), countless numbers of skilled workers have fled the country, they have been shut out of the most lucrative financial systems and have become global pariahs

Putin is currently attempting to invade a European country (after annexing territory and sparking a proxy war in the region). Plans have been leaked that Belarus, Transnistria and other areas were next in line. He has run a potent disinfo and propaganda campaign for years, meddled in international elections, had no qualms using nerve agent in foreign nations to assassinate people, evening TV news hosts regularly talk of invading and attacking other European countries and cities. Putin by his actions very much wants to destablise and fracture Europe and the West as well invade areas by force

The people who think he will "stop" with Ukraine were similar to those who said he would "stop" with Crimea, and then said he would "stop" with Donbas. In my experience these individuals are most likely to believe Kremlin propaganda whilst projecting that anything to the contrary is "propaganda" (which is also on page one of the Kremlin's playbook)

It's definitely a fair point, and one that's worth being expanded to Russia's military as well. There has to be a certain number of competent and even skilled officers in the Russian Armed Forces, otherwise the whole force would have fallen apart by now due to a complete lack of logistics and leadership. All those artillery shells need to get to the front somehow.

I do feel though as if Russia has fallen behind the USSR in terms of its scientific and technical abilities, even compared to the later Brezhnev era. For all its many faults, the Soviets appreciated science, even if only as another front in the cold war. There was a much freer flow of scientific papers into and out of the country back then than there is today, and the country didn't shy away from testing out advanced and sometimes crazy concepts such as the Ekranoplans and other ground effect vehicles. Meanwhile, much of the output of the Putin era seems to be a rehashing of Soviet era research and systems. They still haven't been able to get a replacement for the Soyuz capsule in place despite working on it for ages. I can't shake the feeling that the modern political apparatus that Putin has built is much "better" at smothering bright minds than the Soviet system was,

Also, it's worth pointing out that Russia has suffered a significant brain drain for much of its post-soviet existence, with loads of the brightest people ending up in Silicon Valley (Sergey Brin of Google fame, anyone)? So while it is undoubtedly true that there are still loads of brilliant minds in the country, as well as a wealth of institutional knowledge, it is nowhere near the juggernaut it once was.

Given the fact it was supposed to take a few days to invade the nation, going pretty terribly. You seem to be a bit of a fan of Putin's goal of genocide though.