Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

Rajma said:
Zhyve Belarus! I’m so sad you guys did not manage to overthrow “chik chirika” but looking back you had no chance with Putin set on invading Ukraine through your territory. I was there though rooting for your free people:
https://www.euronews.com/amp/2020/0...chain-in-lithuania-in-solidarity-with-belarus
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Sadly, realistically peaceful protests - no matter how huge - could have overthrown him back in 1995-1996, after that - no chance.

But anyway Belarus is a good counterargument to those who say opinion poll results in Russia are not indicative of anything, fear etc. The regime in Belarus is even more brutal, fear widespread - yet polls show a lot less support for Lukashenko (max. 1/3 of population). I have good friends who are sociologists in both countries - they say they do have good techniques to adjust for fear - and unfortunately this does not make Russian poll results much better.

What I think western Europeans/Americans miss is that experience of being someone from former Russian empire living in "Russia proper". People are generally normal and nice and friendly but you still constantly encounter such things as people not understanding why you do not automatically identify youself as Russian if Russian is your first language (imaging an Englishman saying that to an Irishman or a Scotsman eh?), making fun of your native language, saying that your country is not a real country etc. And this all from very educated and westernized people, and absolutely genuinely surprised if you (politely!) do not agree with them!

Unfortunately, most Russians genuinely, really subscribe to the notion that at least Ukraine and Belarus are - whilst formally independent - not really countries and not really separate nations from Russia. It is also important to keep in mind when wondering why there is limited protest in Russia against the war. In minds of many people I would even say Ulkraine is somwhat akin to a rebellious breakaway Russian republic like Chechnya. But what is of course worse is that many in the west at least until 2022 kind of agreed with that deep down - even if paying lip service to Ukraininan independence. Thankfully it seems to be changing now, albeit at a horrible cost.
 
Rajma said:
Thanks I was just about to post the same and sorry for derailing this thread. While I go over the board but the main point is that people in the west should understand that it’s not Putin’s war only or this history will keep repeating itself. Many people (in leadership positions too) delude themselves thinking that problem will be solved by getting rid of Putin. I know russia has many beautiful and good people but I closely watch many russian bloggers etc. (being russian speaking myself) and opposition tv channels I can still see the imperialist mindset slipping through at times (unintentionally), you can only notice those things if you know what those things are and I’m not even talking about russians outside of main cities. Example: while working in London I had a coworker from Moscow, she was very sweet and really supportive to me personally but even she started waffling about rusophobia in Estonia people are segregated as Russian people, even those who were been born there don’t get the proper passport (without knowing the fact that those Russians have been brought to Estonia during soviet era as part of the ethnic displacement and that the requirement to obtain the proper Estonian passport is piss easy as long as you know how to count to 10 in Estonian but many refuse to learn the basic language in the country they want to live in (imperialist mindset) or enjoy having visa free regime with Russia that have been granted to such passport holders by Russia, while enjoying all the benefits of living in EU). This imperialist mindset even at the smallest of scales later turns into genocide of the neighboring countries.
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I work with someone Russian and she truly sees the breakup of the Soviet Union as being a deeply flawed, imposed from elsewhere, temporary solution, where the only logical response is to redraw the map to reflect realities on the ground. A bit like the Sykes-Picot line between Iraq and Syria. And she also believes (or believed, until it was banned) that Russia Today is a genuinely truthful news channel. It’s a big challenge to deal with these beliefs. It’s a decades-long job, but it needs to be done.
 
Rajma said:
I have to apologize to our Russian posters on here though who are grand, and I know sometimes it’s easy for me to speak.
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Your posts are worse than Glaston's were. The way your posts trivialise the on-going suffering is frankly disgusting. Your posts make you sound like a 12 year old playing Call of Duty. Your posts make this thread even more fecking miserable than it should be.
 
dumbo said:
Your posts are worse than Glaston's were. The way your posts trivialise the on-going suffering is frankly disgusting. Your posts make you sound like a 12 year old playing Call of Duty. Your posts make this thread even more fecking miserable than it should be.
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How does he triviliase the suffering? This is way too harsh.
 
Surely at some point the nation will turn on Putin, you can't just send thousands of men out to war and expect no blowback when they all return in body bags.
 
Derailing from topic, due to work I randomly get to be very active or inactive altogether in this thread.

Last reply I wanted to respond to was one suggesting something was posted without being confirmed:

this is not bbc and we all cant be David Ornstein, I sometimes quote interesting news story and am happy to be rebuked with facts proving me wrong, thats what makes a debate.

In a rare support to @GlastonSpur, i enjoyed him keeping the thread alive, even though his posted tweets were one sided, before members, I never saw in this thread before, started attacking him, for posting unverified tweets, which mainly consisted of bbc news.

Sorry if I ruffled some feathers, point im trying to make is, appreciate everyones contribution, prove them wrong with facts, not a spasm, regardless of your mood and move on.
 
dumbo said:
Your posts are worse than Glaston's were. The way your posts trivialise the on-going suffering is frankly disgusting. Your posts make you sound like a 12 year old playing Call of Duty. Your posts make this thread even more fecking miserable than it should be.
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There is surely a difference in suffering between the country where some men are being conscripted, and, on the other hand, the country that has been fighting for survival for 6 months amidst claims that it is an artificial country with no right to exist. What’s your level of involvement with this topic? Admittedly you do post some historically-linked stuff on here to impress people (Thucycides quotes etc ) but I’m not sure about your knowledge of Russia and its former empire. Happy to be enlightened.
 
hp88 said:
Surely at some point the nation will turn on Putin, you can't just send thousands of men out to war and expect no blowback when they all return in body bags.
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This in isolation is too litte for the nation to turn on him. It is not like all initiators of imperialistc wars with heavy casualties suffer an immediate loss of popularity/power at home - far from it, alas. And he still has "credit in the bank" due to the life generally improving from the time he took power plus Crimea etc.

However, the longer it goes with higher casualties coupled with economic hardship and military defeat/no prospect of victory - the higher the risks for him (multiple cases in russian history of unsuccessful wars beginning with an outburst of patriotism and ending up with regime change) . And with "partial" mobilization he is possibly speeding up his eventual downfall. But it could well take several bloody and dark years before he is gone.
 
I enjoyed @GlastonSpur's tweet posts in the early days of this thread too. He (and a few good others) kept me updated more than any other news source until I eventually joined Twitter myself.
 
spiriticon said:
I enjoyed @GlastonSpur's tweet posts in the early days of this thread too. He (and a few good others) kept me updated more than any other news source until I eventually joined Twitter myself.
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I forgot he was thread banned, here's some Vlad Vexler in his honor, I was wondering why we hadn't seen him in months.

 
MoskvaRed said:
There is surely a difference in suffering between the country where some men are being conscripted, and, on the other hand, the country that has been fighting for survival for 6 months amidst claims that it is an artificial country with no right to exist. What’s your level of involvement with this topic? Admittedly you do post some historically-linked stuff on here to impress people (Thucycides quotes etc ) but I’m not sure about your knowledge of Russia and its former empire. Happy to be enlightened.
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I'm glad I impress you but the only time I can remember mentioning Thucydides is when making a playful reach while reviewing Raya and The Last Dragon. It was sort of a joke but I'm glad it made an impression on you.

On your point about comparative suffering: I'm not sure how it relates to anything I've posted, sorry.

On your point about my involvement and knowledge on Russia: As a largely ignorant outsider and having ignored the thread for a while I came back in because I was genuinely interested in the first hand perspectives of the Russian posters on here after the partial-mobilisation news and how this turn of events might affect them and their families directly. Perhaps in the vain hope that it might quicken an end to the carnage in Ukraine. But to try and find these posts I had to wade through the spamming of idiotic war-bro fantasies and caricatures of all Russians, or most Russians, or all Russians except redcafe posters (grovel, grovel) as weak and nazis and *****.

Ok fine, if the thread is happy with the Glaston model of war reportage as twitter length missile strikes set to a soundtrack of death metal (literally this is the stuff he was spamming), and if war-lolz is where it's at then I'll put it back on ignore and leave you to have your fun in peace. Sorry to blow your buzz, see ya.

P.S. The How To Train Your Dragon series was superior to Disney's latest dragon adventures.
 
Danish Radio did some phone research, impersonating a 25 year old Russian man, on how easy it is to join the Wagner group. Three questions:

How old are you?
25
Have you had hepatitis b or c?
No
Any prior criminal convictions?
No

That was all the screening required.
No military experience required. Assured that with two weeks training you'll be set for fieldwork. Pay is 4000 euros a month. Double in compensation if you die.
 
B20 said:
Danish Radio did some phone research, impersonating a 25 year old Russian man, on how easy it is to join the Wagner group. Three questions:

How old are you?
25
Have you had hepatitis b or c?
No
Any prior criminal convictions?
No

That was all the screening required.
No military experience required. Assured that with two weeks training you'll be set for fieldwork. Pay is 4000 euros a month. Double in compensation if you die.
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You can bypass training if you have 100 hours logged on Call of Duty.
 
B20 said:
Danish Radio did some phone research, impersonating a 25 year old Russian man, on how easy it is to join the Wagner group. Three questions:

How old are you?
25
Have you had hepatitis b or c?
No
Any prior criminal convictions?
No

That was all the screening required.
No military experience required. Assured that with two weeks training you'll be set for fieldwork. Pay is 4000 euros a month. Double in compensation if you die.
Click to expand...

Hard to believe this is happening in 2022.
 
McGrathsipan said:
Hard to believe this is happening in 2022.
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"The death of stalin" blended absurd satire with fact in a well done way. But the way it is all playing out, no amount of absurd satire need be added. Russia is its own grimly absurd theatre.

edit: did a google search. "The Death of Stalin" is of course banned in Russia. Because of course it is.
 
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