The Russian invasion of Ukraine (1 Viewer)

[therealjohnny]

The gung-ho foreigners, like the guy who was venerated on Joe Duffy, are getting a painful wake-up call:

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[Cormcolash]

Morons gonna mor

 

[flashback]

Basically nobody is going to question defense spending for any country, not just the US, from now on. Russia is the boogeyman that's going to militarize a generation.

F-35 orders will pick up over Europe, the machine keeps turning.

 

[Unicron]

The gung-ho foreigners, like the guy who was venerated on Joe Duffy, are getting a painful wake-up call:

Is that the lad who said he was in the french Foreign Legion before? I heard a bit of that on the Saturday radio recap at the weekend.

 

[pete]

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[pete]

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[GO]

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[Unicron]

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Fair play and all, but that's a small enough van. Why didn't he just donate it to a larger load and not drive a stupid distance?

 

[dudley]

Feels a little nonsensical posting it here, but fairly mad thread on how this war could change the sound of guitar music....

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[Cormcolash]

Fair play and all, but that's a small enough van. Why didn't he just donate it to a larger load and not drive a stupid distance?

Because then he wouldn't have to go himself and get some insta followers and stuff

 

[GO]

Feels a little nonsensical posting it here, but fairly mad thread on how this war could change the sound of guitar music....

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Back to solid state like the old days

 

[flashback]

Gary Kasparov answered a question I was wondering about: what happens to these people who get nicked for protesting the war in Russia?

I had assumed dissent landed you with a bit of a roughing up, maybe a night in prison and a couple of slaps, maybe some class of fine. According to Kasparov (who's a noted Putin critic and who's... well, I guess I was going to say a Putin scare-mongerer but events seem to have proven him largely correct) you're likely to get a beating and two to five years. PLUS they're talking about making dissent == treason, which doesn't look good.

If that's correct it puts things into perspective. There are tens of thousands of people who know this and willingly walk themselves into very serious grief, serious prison time. And for every person who's going to land themselves in jail there's minimally hundreds who dissent but will not talk about it openly. Additionally according to Kasparov he feels that now is probably the first point in Putin's reign that he's not operating with the support of the majority of Russians.

Yeah, on the one hand who cares what some fairly conservative chess player says, but he's been politically outspoken for a while and isn't completely ignorant.

 

[Cormcolash]

I think it's pretty safe to say that most of Russia is totally against the war and Putin at this point, but he's spent 20 years getting the military and police forces in hand so it will be extremely difficult to get rid of him.
And if they did, who would take over? The most prominent opposition there in the last few years are basically nazis, predictably. It's like if you don't want Putin but you also don't want nazis, you're just fucked. There's fucking loads of ultra-nationalist cunts in Russia, and they basically either back Putin or they are actual nazis that hate anyone that isn't white
Any actual opposition there pretty much just gets swamped by either side.

 

[GO]

I'd rather see the boneheads in charge than Pres. PuPu the shneaky little weasel that he is.

Neo-Nazis would be comically inept at running the place

 

[magicbastarder]

will see if i can find it, but there was an FT article about putin's inner circle of hard men, and they don't include the oligarchs. and it's not likely at all they'll push against him, the claim is that they're the ones with the real power who would be the only ones who could move against him.

also, i see there are now worries that china is sending financial aid; i'd have thought that'd be a no-brainer, russia has what china needs and china wants to buy russia.

 

[therealjohnny]

Is that the lad who said he was in the french Foreign Legion before? I heard a bit of that on the Saturday radio recap at the weekend.

Yeah. People were calling in to Joe, in tears at his gallantry

 

[Unicron]

Yeah. People were calling in to Joe, in tears at his gallantry

I only heard a bit of him, if he wants to go then good luck to him, but his use of language made me feel a bit uneasy.

Maybe I just haven't spoken to many military people though and a lot of them are like that,

There was also the peak Irish mammy who's son was going to the border in Poland to do aid work and she was worried that he'd get conscripted somehow.

 

[magicbastarder]

Inside Putin’s circle — the real Russian elite

As the west focuses on oligarchs, a far smaller group has its grip on true power in Moscow. Who are the siloviki — and what motivates them?

www.ft.com

 

[Unicron]

Did anyone watch the Panorama thing on BBC1 last night about Abramovich, how he got his money and his links to Putin?

 

[pete]

Did anyone watch the Panorama thing on BBC1 last night about Abramovich, how he got his money and his links to Putin?

No but I assume he earned it legitimately, like all billionaires.