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There are definitely fascists fighting for the Ukrainians (see: Azov Battalion) as well as some in the government, but they're far from running the show.
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Sep 5, 2014 01:27
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Phlegmish posted:Huntington has been far more successful at predicting the twenty-first century than the usual slew of culture-ignoring neoliberal/Marxist analysts. Realism is experiencing a bit of a comeback, but to be fair most Marxist IR schools draw heavily on culture.
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Sep 8, 2014 16:14
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Smerdyakov posted:Jesus, if I hadn't been kicked out of Russia earlier this year, I would've taken a 40% pay cut just off the top, before even calculating higher food prices and a substantially increased Amerikosi tax from cops. The "real story" I'm hearing is how the Moldovan Leu is getting ready to fall apart in a big, rublesque way. If ever there was a time to not invest in post-soviet states, it's now. The dram and lari have taken huge hits, too. Already here in Armenia people are seeing their lines of credit tighten and savings accounts lose value. I shudder to think what will happen as remittances from Russia continue to lose their value.
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Dec 7, 2014 13:46
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Karmalis posted:Jesus Christ, that going downhill pretty fast... OK, well tell that to all the Georgians, Armenians, Kyrgyz, Tajiks and others who are going to get hosed over by this. I'm literally watching Putin haters here in Tbilisi at near panic as the lari totters.
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Dec 16, 2014 12:42
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Karmalis posted:So what? I have to feel sorry that they chose to go to an unpredictable country to earn money? If you're heartless, of course not. Then again, you probably don't have working-class friends in the Caucasus with family members working in Russia, which, you know, is a pretty reasonable choice for lots of families to make in this poor-rear end area of the world. It's not the Baltics over here. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Dec 16, 2014 |
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Dec 16, 2014 13:29
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Gazprom to lay off 1/4 of its workforce: ITAR TASS
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Dec 16, 2014 13:39
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They're "considering," rather. http://www.interfax.ru/413399
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Dec 16, 2014 13:50
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Cingulate posted:That's a false dichotomy. Nobody could expect you to either celebrate the situation, or feel bad for awful Russian nationalists. No but you see they didn't immigrate or start a charity for pensioners to undermine the system!
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Dec 17, 2014 14:58
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Russia and South Ossetia will integrate in February on a "deeper" level than Russia has with Abkhazia. Echo Moscow speculates that this could lead to formal annexation of South Ossetia. http://itar-tass.com/en/russia/769374
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Dec 26, 2014 17:13
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That sounds like how Ukraine was a decade ago. I've actually heard Romania is nicer than pre-war Ukraine, with the caveat that Bucharest is a bit dead.
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Dec 26, 2014 22:03
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Broken Cog posted:Hasn't Sochi been almost dead since the Olympic furore died out anyway? Actually its popularity has grown since the collapse of the ruble. https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/long-alps-hello-sochi-ruble-dive-keeps-russians-190505408--finance.html
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Dec 27, 2014 15:36
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This is a bit random, but a website that specializes in interviewing international relations scholars landed an interview with everybody's favorite -- Alexander Dugin. I haven't raked through it yet, but figured I'd throw it out there. http://www.theory-talks.org/2014/12/theory-talk-66.html Dugin posted:Today, Russia thinks of itself as a nation-state. Putin is a realist; nothing more. Walt is right about that. But the Theory of a Multipolar World and the Fourth Political Theory, as well as Eurasianism, are outlines of a much broader and large-scale ideology, directed against Western hegemony and challenging liberalism, globalization, and American strategic dominance. Of course, Russia as a nation-state is no competition for the West. But as the bridgehead of the Theory of a Multipolar World and the Fourth Political Theory, it changes its significance. Russian policies in the post-Soviet space and Russia’s courage in forming non-Western alliances are indicators. For now, Putin is testing this conceptual potential very gingerly. But the toughening of relations with the West and most likely the internal crises of globalization will at some point force a more careful and serious turn toward the creation of global alternative alliances. Nevertheless, we already observe such unions: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, the Eurasian Union—and they require a new ideology. Not one like Marxism, any universalism is excluded, but also not simple realist maneuvers of regional hegemons. Liberalism is a global challenge. The response to it should also be global. Does Putin understand this? Honestly, I don’t know. Sometimes it seems he does, and sometimes it seems he doesn’t. edit for clickbait MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Dec 29, 2014 19:44
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A lot of these former Soviet destinations have treated water perfectly fine to drink, but the problem is that it's sometimes pumped through corroded pipes. Most of the time you'll be fine, though. It's true a few visitors get mildly ill at first but that's usually about it.
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Jan 4, 2015 09:56
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Yeah I think Donetsk airport might have been wiped off the map. Edit: hard to say though since Ruptly has swapped feeds. The barrages might have missed. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 16:22
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Somaen posted:Russia is refusing to give up the soldier for the same reason it refused to give up the guy who probably poisoned Litvinenko to Britain. Armenians are not happy about this. At the Russian base: It's worth noting that Gyumri is a pretty pro-Russian town, so this level of activity is in some respects unusual. On the other hand, it's also a relative bastion of opposition to the Sargsyan government, making it perhaps a bit of a tinderbox. The protestors agreed to go home until at least 17:00 tomorrow, at which point they vow to return if the prosecutor hasn't found some satisfactory remedy. His pleas this evening for them to protest anywhere but the Russian base were met with derision. Protests are also planned for Yerevan and there were some heated vigils in Vanadzor, too. Armenia has a complex relationship with Russia and there's a lot of dissatisfaction with the current government and the economic situation, so this could take a number of turns.
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Jan 14, 2015 19:28
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Ardennes posted:I kind of doubt it, it would necessitate peace with Azerbaijan and that isn't going to happen (Armenia gets considerable military support from Russia). I haven't been to Armenia, much of what I saw and heard in Azerbaijan confirmed my suspicion that war will just keep on going (Azerbaijan wants it "all back" one way or another). That said, I suspect the Russians will do every possible not to cool tensions over this incident at this point. There's actually a surprisingly high anti-Russian sentiment in Nagorno-Karabakh relative to the rest of the country. The mentality there is basically that they're willing to sell out to the highest bidder, be it the EU (hah), the US or Russia, so long as they get some development aid and the guns don't stop working. Armenian diaspora aid is also pretty prominent -- pretty much every stretch of highway (and there's like one decent highway, but another is being built from northern Armenia which will make an Armenia-NK loop) has a sign denoting which diaspora community or family coughed up the change for its construction. Some of the anti-Russian sentiment stems from the war itself, where Russia effectively gamed each side. Viktor Polyanichko, a Russian/Soviet commander who early on contributed his Afghan war specialties to the Azeri OMON, is still remembered in a pretty negative light by Artsakh nationalists who saw him as embodying everything wrong with Russian foreign policy. Armenia/NK still outguns Azerbaijan, largely thanks to Russia, of course, but even if the ties were severed tomorrow they'd still be able to fend off any Azeri moves for the time being. Azerbaijan, however, is playing arms catchup. I doubt Azerbaijan will seriously push anything, but recent changes in civil society are a bit worrisome. The big thing for Armenia, as always, are the remittances from workers in Russia that help keep the Armenian economy afloat, although the decline of the rouble isn't panning out so well for many Armenian families.
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Jan 15, 2015 21:00
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Somaen posted:Could you or Ardennes please tell me how come Azerbaijan didn't modernize its military during the $100/bbl gravy train? I don't know enough about it to really give insight, but I understand that they've made some progress re: armaments in the past few years. They were pretty poo poo during the NK war in part because 1. their troops had no experience while Armenians had a few years of ammo hiding and agitation and 2. they suffered a near civil war themselves during the period. They're more politically cohesive now, though, so I'm not sure how they would perform. Still, NK has a huge "fedayeen" culture and you have entire small communities of people that are led by experienced veterans who are probably stashing arms in weird caves. The only place I've been like it is Israel -- it's a highly militarized settler enclave, in many respects, and they're not going to cede an inch. Plus, the territory is a bitch. Put some good artillery up on Shushi, one of the elevated towns, and you can pound anyone trying to hold Stepanakert (note: the Azeris did this in the war, and Armenian guerrillas scaled the hills and knocked them out.) icantfindaname posted:Isn't Azerbaijan like the lowest grade of tinpot dictatorship, complete with statues of the president everywhere and sayings from his little (x color) book? Most post-USSR countries are hosed up but I was under the impression the Azeris were some of the worst? They were doing relatively better, and their petrostate status gives them some clout. I hear you can meet a lot of Texan families in Baku, for example. That said, they've clamped down on civil society a lot in the past year, raiding newspapers, jailing journalists and forcing the termination of the Peace Corps program, among other highlights.
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Jan 15, 2015 21:20
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Ardennes posted:I disagree with him there, I think Azerbaijan has modernized to significant extent, not enough to overwhelm Armenia but enough to put them in a awkward position. Yeah, I grant you that. Air superiority isn't something I've considered or know much about. Of course my perceptions are also subject to coloration by attitudes on the ground. I think Armenians in Armenia proper are more lukewarm about defending Karabakh than they'd let on publicly, though. I haven't been to Azerbaijan but would like to some day to learn more about attitudes there. MeLKoR posted:Be that as it may Armenia still "successfully" pulled a Donetsk on Azerbaijan and nabbed 10% of the country. No wonder they're pissed and want it back. In a sense, perhaps. Yet even before the war got really hot you had really gratuitous ethnic cleanings on each side, which explains the absence of Armenians in Baku and Nakhchivan or Azeris in Yerevan or southern Armenia. Interestingly, lots of Armenians from Baku still identify as from Baku, first and foremost. Of course Azeris understandably want the territory returned, which does include places like Aghdam that were entirely Azeri and now lay dormant (looted by Armenians in the aftermath). The problem now is that it's a homogenous Armenian population that has been living there for 25 years, which makes everything so intractable (not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Azeri IDPs displaced from Karabakh and Armenia living inside Azerbaijan).
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Jan 15, 2015 21:37
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MeLKoR posted:Sure, poo poo is terrible and there is no good end in sight but my point was that Azerbaijan did get hosed by Armenia. It's not like they're being irrationally militaristic any more than Ukraine. I largely agree, but you have to deal with what's there. Both sides are pretty dumb hot-headed at this point, but sabre-rattling is kind of dumb when OSCE Minsk is starting to get its juices going again for the first time in years.
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Jan 15, 2015 21:46
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Yeah, Armenia has more international backing batting for them than Azerbaijan, although Azerbaijan's military is on the up and up. Thing is that both sides were ethnically cleansed and the whole thing goes back to Stalin trying to appease Turkey. It's a poo poo sandwich that maybe, just maybe, OSCE can come out on top of but I don't think anyone in Azerbaijan takes them seriously anymore.
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Jan 15, 2015 22:23
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sparatuvs posted:Full video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2dsVMpyL40 There's some freelancers but honestly, despite the insane narrative and Alamo-like comparisons, it can't upend coverage of France or whatever else is dominating the news cycle at the moment.
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Jan 17, 2015 16:11
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Disinterested posted:I was wondering about that picture as well. No sportswear spotted though. It's a Caucasus thing that's now as Russian as vodka.
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Jan 23, 2015 17:01
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Possibly a new offensive on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, but it's unclear. Separatists fired a round of Grad rockets into the city this morning, killing up to 10 according to unconfirmed reports. Here's non-graphic footage of some damage. https://youtube.com/watch?v=NKAq9nmm93A Edit: rumors of Stelkov skates to give a press conference. Seems like the separatists might be gearing up for an offensive, but we will see. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 10:35 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 10:33
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Another video showing the extent of shelling in Mariupol this morning. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iPU9RE3Orjo
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Jan 24, 2015 11:55
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Friendly Tumour posted:By the way, anyone know who the source was about him dying in Branch 215? That was a rumor. A journalist told Brown Moses that he heard Caro was there and in terrible shape. That was the end of it, and the rest is speculation. In other news, the Ukrainian government is denying medical supplies to the rebel-held east and making it night impossible for Donetsk residents to leave the territory thanks to a dangerous and convoluted new travel permit system. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/26/ukraine-donetsk-travel-permit-medicines The Guardian posted:"Since November, a series of measures taken by the Ukrainian government has effectively cut off civilians living in rebel-controlled areas and made it increasingly difficult to provide humanitarian aid,” said a statement by Médecins sans Frontières. The organisation said it had tried to deliver medical supplies to hospitals in the frontline city of Gorlovka on two occasions last week and failed to get through.
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Jan 26, 2015 16:47
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eigenstate posted:Russian news sites are reporting that Belarus is mobilizing about 15000 reservists. Do you have a link by any chance?
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Jan 26, 2015 18:09
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OddObserver posted:It's noticeable that perhaps the most useful aid --- winter uniforms, medkits --- came from Canada, where significant ethnic Ukrainian minority makes the politicians actually care. The only Canadian-Ukrainian I know is one of the most vocal English-language DNR supporters on social media.  But yeah, make sense otherwise that they'd send lots of support.
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Jan 26, 2015 18:32
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CommieGIR posted:Journalistic Integrity my rear end. What's even worse is that it took me 10 minutes to find plagiarized copy in that dude's other work. Just a lovely kid.
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Jan 29, 2015 11:10
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Heroin addicts undergoing treatment risk death after Ukraine imposes new medicine restrictions on separatist-held areas. Eighty reportedly died in Crimea after the Russian annexation, since Russia doesn't support substitution therapy. http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/patients-risk-death-in-kremlin-controlled-donbas-over-restrictions-of-medication-378905.html
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Jan 31, 2015 16:05
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Re: Macedonia. It seems that the top political opposition head has been accused of plotting a coup with the backing of a "foreign intelligence agency" and is ordered to remain in the country. Preliminary read on this from Balkans academics and English-speaking Macedonians seems to be that the prime minister is just consolidating power and this is a backslide toward authoritarianism. The opposition leader Zaev enjoyed some popularity but is not without an unblemished past. He was also starting to accuse the PM of some secret wrongdoings in the past few months, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
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Jan 31, 2015 17:52
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kalstrams posted:http://zloy-odessit.livejournal.com/1106817.html Speaking of Uglegorsk, here's a video of DNR PM Zacharchenko giving an interview from the town. Pay attention to what happens in the background. http://obozrevatel.com/politics/45382-ukrainskij-snajper-podstrelil-ohrannika-glavarya-dnr-v-pryamom-efire-kremlevskogo-tv-videofakt.htm One of his dudes gets shot. FlamingLiberal posted:There's an armed conflict escalating right now between Armenia and Azerbaijan over disputed territories, with the possibility that the Russians are helping to exacerbate tensions.... Didn't see anything in the story about Russia stoking tensions (other than providing arms to both sides which is nothing new). That would pretty much undermine their role as a chief mediator for the Minsk Group and doesn't make much sense. The two sides exacerbate tensions well enough on their own. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Feb 1, 2015 |
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Feb 1, 2015 16:33
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Zakharchenko says he's going to mobilize 100,000 troops. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31089142
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Feb 2, 2015 11:30
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Hahahah holy gently caress. Zakharchenko: Ukraine run by the bad Jews. http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-run-miserable-jews-rebel-chief-202600090.html Note that the "bad Jews from an otherwise great faith run the world/country/whatever" is a long-standing anti-Semitic trope in conspiracy theories, at least since the Protocols were ditched.
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Feb 3, 2015 10:03
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kalstrams posted:
Not to get tin foil-y but that's kind of odd.
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Feb 4, 2015 22:23
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Hollande and Merkel are making a surprise trip to Kyiv during Kerry's visit in a new peace process bid. They need to get something done or Debaltsevo will choke and the war will worsen.
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Feb 5, 2015 11:31
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Sources on both sides are suggesting that the separatists have taken the last major town to seal off the Debaltsevo pocket. Journalists trying to head out of the pocket on the road to Artemivsk say they were blocked by DPR troops and armor. Grim news for those trapped, if confirmed.
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Feb 9, 2015 11:55
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kalstrams posted:Very bad. Anything pro-Ukrainian is dead silent on the matter, white noise asides. Makes you think, doesn't it? Perhaps 3,000 soldiers are trapped. I'd say the pocket is probably closed or about closed at this point.
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Feb 9, 2015 20:15
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kalstrams posted:There might have begun an offensive from Mariupol by National Guard. Yeah, Azov is pushing toward Novoazovsk.
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Feb 10, 2015 10:40
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The New Black posted:Assuming Azov actually takes orders from the Ukrainian army, I'd guess this might be an attempt to take some pressure off Debaltseve? I mean, not that the separatists would redeploy forces that are already there but right now they really don't want to lose any territory, so this might draw sep/Russian reserves to Novoazovsk instead. That seems to be the goal, in theory, but it's unclear if this is fully sanctioned by Kiev. It could also push back the line of control near Mariupol before the Minsk talks tomorrow. People are already speculating that the talks will be canceled, though. The biggest risk with this offensive is that Azov takes a hard beating and separatists launch a counteroffensive to Maroupol's gates.
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Feb 10, 2015 11:04
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Reuters reporting an agreement was made that called for withdraw of artillery and foreign troops, a buffer zone and ceasefire to go into effect Saturday. Then Poroshenko said it's "unacceptable" and back in the room they are again.
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Feb 12, 2015 08:27
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