It takes a while for even Russia to get ready to attack, as was demonstrated by the months of satellite images and intel leaks. I think if the Pentagon thought there was risk of Russia attacking the Baltic states they’d get hit by US equipment the moment they crossed that line.
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I’ve been saying this since the AO. I just don’t understand how they don’t see it themselves.
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Remember those shirts that some GOP voters wore that said “I’d rather be a Russian than Democrat”. It’s pretty wild how much they’ve accepted pro-Russian talking points.
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I happened to see that Trump is on the for-profit speaking event / seminar circuit.
This is an ad for the “American Freedom Tour”. There is one black speaker. Yep, our recent convert …
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Two Donald Trumps included in the admission price!
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and, both the $3,000 and $2,000 ticket tiers include a photo op with Don Jr. What a deal.
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So… oil. Next bitcoin?
One perspective from inside Russia …
Disclaimer: I’m from Russia and its quite hard for me to write this post. It’s hard because of the things my government is doing right now to Ukraine and because I don’t want it to look like “Mel Gibson and Jesus” meme. So, to avoid any misunderstandings:
— I don’t support Vladimir Putin and never voted for him.
— I’m shocked what’s happening in Ukraine right now. It’s just wrong. It shouldn’t happen. And I’m very sorry that I couldn’t do anything about it.
— I understand that Ukrainians are in much worse situation at the moment.
That being said, I think it’s important to say what is happening inside of Russia while I can. Everything in this post is my own perspective. I’m 28 and work in IT. …
It’s a long post, but I think it is worth the time.
I suppose there are many of these on the internet, this is the one that I stumbled accross.
https://www.reddit.com/r/moderatepolitics/comments/t83fr2/the_fears_from_inside_of_russia/
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I think the point is this statement is false:
“And the most shitty thing is that you can’t do anything.”
Children are dying in Ukraine because of a war the Russian government and military is pursuing. But if you’re in Russia and you’re against that, you need to be at war with your own government. Rather than just sad that Minecraft is gone and you can’t buy apps online.
Not to say I’m some tough guy but there are A LOT of Russians protesting now, that seems like a great start.
Maybe? I don’t know if protesting is wise, even if you don’t mind getting your skull cracked.
I think if I were some tough guy living in Russia, I’d be biding my time, and maybe trying to educate the boomers or trying to participate in covert resistance.
Surely the tough guys in Russia who don’t like the sanctions should be doing more extreme measures than protesting at this point.
In a mass protest, Russian dissidents would face security force treatment similar to or even worse than the brutality the Ukrainians faced in their 2013/14 uprising against Yanukovych. Although that revolution displaced the Yanukovych government and led to a new election, it took a lot of bravery that the Russian people sadly don’t seem to have.
I’m sure you read the rest of the paragraph after the sentence you quoted. That list is why individuals feel like they “can’t do anything”. But you could at least talk to your friends and try to build a group, right? But then " The police just stops you on the street and demand to unblock your phone, so they can look the chats and media you’re reading or writing."
Yes, the point of the sanctions is to get ordinary Russians to make so much trouble for the gov’t that it has to do something to undo the sanctions. As you point out, the sanctions are mostly going to hit non-essential things because Russia is self-sufficient in basic food and fuel.
Some people are braver than others, right now only the bravest are sticking their heads out. And, older and less educated Russians are the last to feel the sanctions and the most likely to believe state media.
“Thanks to propaganda it was hugely appreciated in the Russian population. Mostly in older strata, who was used to seeing USA as an enemy from the cold war era. Then Donbass was going for 8 years now and all those years Russia was under the sanctions. Propaganda was telling people that they’re good for us …”
How long will it take before the large mass of people decide their own gov’t is the problem and are willing to make the personal sacrifices to take the high-risk, low probability of success, gamble?
I hope sooner rather than later, but I wouldn’t bet money on it, and Russians are taking a chance with a lot more than money.
Let’s not forget that Putin was a former (still?) a KGB spy master . . .
And the KGB spied on their own as much as on “us” . . .
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The de-Nazification of Ukraine continues with great success. Today’s cleansing:
https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1501579058844512260
I hate to think about Russian soldiers who are the same age as my kids that are going to be killed before this war is over, but then I think about how the Putin “Z” symbol is the new Nazi swastika and think “nope, they know what they’re doing and they’re going along with it, every last one of them can burn in hell if they participate.”
From the interactions I’ve had with some friends/acquaintances in Russia, I’m inclined to believe that some large percentage of Russians are at least being influenced by the dual threads of “suppression of Ukranian aggression” and “we’re only striking military targets” being spun in Russian state media, as well as “the west is being mean to us”/“the west is trying to spread disinformation” lines that are feeding the popular adoption of the “Z” imagery.
I’m choosing to keep my outrage directed at the Russian government.
Whereas in the US, it’s easy for me to be frustrated at those who subscribe to the Tucker Carlson / QAnon / InfoWars / antivax insanity, because of the availability of better information, when it comes to the Russian civilians I know, I’m having to remind myself that I don’t really grok what the information landscape looks like from their situations.
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Good example is this. 15 years of prison for any social media calling this a War instead of a Special Military Operation. This is getting sad.
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Don’t mention the war… I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it
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What war?
