Eastern Europe: Olivier's sphere of influence

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Eastern Europe: Olivier's sphere of influence

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Guildencrantz posted:

Actually since you guys enjoy examples of crazy EE nationalism, let me just throw out my collection of covers from Serious History Magazine About True Historical Facts From Serious History (It Is Very Serious). I think they might work even better if you don't speak the language.

(not satire I swear to god)

Dear God.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2016 13:30

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 21:20

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Xerxes17 posted:

What are communal payments in this context?
Also which slavic sausage is closest to Kabana in taste? (kinda spicy, not very fatty)

Kabanos sausages originate in Poland. If Kabana and Kabanos sausages are different things, then it's Polish Kabanos nonetheless, as far as non-Balkan Eastern Europe goes, to best of my knowledge.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2016 15:37

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

alex314 posted:

Czech Republic will probably change official english name to Czechia soon. Which made me thinking: can Slav nations pick new name for "Slav"? Thanks to Germans it's too close to "slave" for comfort. "Slovians" is too close to slow..

Slave in German is der Sklave.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 13:37

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

alex314 posted:

And "Slav" is "der Slawe", still just one letter off

Two letters if my eyesight is still here.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 13:47

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Palpek posted:

I don't think the name Slav is a problem personally.

It is some weird gimmick post of nondescript post-ironic racism flavour of sorts.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 13:58

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Stefu posted:

Of course the Finnish word for slave ('orja') comes from the same root as 'aryan'

Guess who defeated Mongolia horde. :godwin:

# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 16:22

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

never trust an elf posted:

Looking forward to more people than just Sarah Palin confusing Czechia with Chechnya

http://www.mzv.cz/washington/en/czech_u_s_relations/news/statement_of_the_ambassador_of_the_czech.html

# ¿ Apr 15, 2016 13:41

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

It's a coin based on folk tale about hedgehog. Long story short, childless family suddenly did get a hedgehog son ~~named Sonic~~, who helped them by herding their pigs in the forest. Then ~~Sonic~~ he scammed local king riding through a forest to marry his daughter. The daughter on the marriage night did burn ~~Sonic's~~ his needle coat. This made ~~Sonic~~ him suffer until the morning, upon which he turned into a handsome guy, and they lived happily forever after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5HszDJE7b4

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 14:34

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Brown Moses posted:

In another "Bellingcat annoys Russia" news, recently an old video of me talking about our work on Russia shelling Ukraine from inside Russia was reuploaded with Russian subtitles, which then went viral in Ukraine, even though the work was originally published a year ago. Now the Ukrainian government has submitted it to the OSCE
http://mfa.gov.ua/en/news-feeds/for...upovanomu-krimu

What's particularly helpful is one of the prosecution witnesses in the Savchenko trial used the same methodology to show Ukraine had shelled Russia, going as far as to call it the Bellingcat method, and his evidence was praised by the judge, so we even have Russian court's seal of approval on the methodology.

They'll soon be able to paradrop people who use their own mouth as a step.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2016 21:43

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Palpek posted:

Here's a nice one - 2 days ago Putin was making an official inspection of the newest Russian military equipment when this happened (the thing the soldier throws into the car is the door handle):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YEcRbT1Dq0

That's General Shevchenko, chief of ground vehicle department at their MoD.

# ¿ May 14, 2016 15:02

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

OddObserver posted:

Ukrainian double-agent spotted.

Thought about that reading the surname. For those wondering, -ko ending is extremely typical of Ukrainian surnames.

# ¿ May 14, 2016 17:58

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Xerxes17 posted:

Admittedly I have a small sample size to work with, but generally speaking all of the Russians I have spoken know things are poo poo and wish it were different. However they know that things right now are absolutely stacked against them and any singular action they take is doomed to fail so why bother? такова жизн...

Thing worth keeping in mind, though, is that you are (iirc) in the second richest city in Russia, which is often referred to by Russians everywhere as city of culture. Difference between St. Petersburg/Moscow and pretty much everything else in Russia is enormous.

# ¿ May 15, 2016 18:29

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

katlington posted:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-15/eurovision-2016-russian-officials-bash-ukraine-win/7416328

Is ukraine really unsafe for gay people or something?

Nowhere it is safe for gay people, as far as we are talking about Eastern Europe.

# ¿ May 16, 2016 20:33

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Paladinus posted:

Fixed that for you.

T-thanks.

# ¿ May 16, 2016 21:08

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

loga mira posted:

Actually Xerxes17's post accurately describes Russians' attitudes towards this government and all previous ones, not sure why you'd think people outside the two capitals are less apathetic. If anything severe skepticism towards any proactivity gets more common as you move further away. people always say Russia is different ouside of those two cities, and I always say it's bullshit. Maybe in Soviet times, but what's so different nowadays? Same ikeas same metros everywhere, same lovely education, same horrible old and newly built bedroom districts.

People from elswhere don't call SPB the cultural capital btw, unironically at least, lol

Actually, I meant that situation outside capitals is worse, not better. And Moscow/St. Petersburg are very different from rest of Russia, but hey, maybe everyone but you is an idiot. Talking to older people could help figure out the city of culture bit, it's just the Moscow with it's rivalry that likes snidely ironic 'city of culture' when 20-year olds argue inbetween themselves which of the two cities has more apparent drug addicts.

# ¿ May 18, 2016 14:38

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Nitrox posted:

Not sure where I've seen this info, but isn't something like half of Russia's middle class lives in Moscow/St Peter? The rest of the country are peasants, figuratively speaking. I personally haven't seen anything to disprove that, and last time I went to Russia was before oil price collapse.

Not sure if it's half or not, but sizeable part of anything Russia is concentrated in these two cities, proportionally more higher up the economical/social/other ladder we climb.

loga mira posted:

You misunderstood but whatever. I don't have anyone to talk to right now about this but you, so explain to me the "city of culture". I see it as a cliche that lazy journalists and officials use, and suspect the trope was created in Soviet times to alleviate the loss of status, am I wrong? I am in currently in this great Russian elsewhere and there is definitely culture, and people like museum workers and culturologists usually react negatively to any assertion of superiority from their colleagues from SPB.

I wonder where did I misunderstood you, and not vice verse, but whatever. 'City of culture', unlike "Northern Venice', 'Northern Palmyra', and 'Capital of the North', is not something people from St. Petersburg have made up to overcompensate that they are not the centre of the Russian galaxy anymore. It just stems from the fact that essentially all the notable aristocracy Russia has ever had has lived there, hence the ton of fancy pants places and buildings. Given that, and the fact that people from Moscow/St. Petersburg love to repeatedly make points about how nice and superior to anything else their city is, of course people elsewhere will get indignant about being repeatedly told how inferior they are. 'City of culture' doesn't mean that it's all the culture Russia has, but people from St. Petersburg sometimes like to make it seem so.

# ¿ May 18, 2016 15:23

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

loga mira posted:

See we can have a conversation without being jerks to each other. As the other guy said we're basically completely disillusioned at this point and nobody believes they can make a change in anything. Then you posted the enormous difference meme and I assumed you meant that Russians elsewhere think everything is perfect and works as it should. I just don't like when Russians are painted as these ultra-nationalist zombies with no critical thinking, which really couldn't be further from thruth. Political fatalism is how I'd describe it. Obviously everyones inclined to poo poo on us because of the regime loving around.

God forbid, no, I know plenty of people outside million cities to know how "delighted" they are with their 60 hour work weeks for 10-15 thousand roubles, all while prices on everything climb because Putin wants to weasel his dick into another country.

# ¿ May 18, 2016 15:58

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Lucy Heartfilia posted:

So Putins high approval ratings are lies?

No.

# ¿ May 18, 2016 16:09

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

anilEhilated posted:

Plus there's nothing like a good war to boost one's popularity in Russia.

I think that's more or less universal though, I doubt Dubya would get voted in twice were it not for 9/11.

# ¿ May 18, 2016 16:51

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

alex314 posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRwjSnl-gG8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiBYM6g8Tck&hd=1

# ¿ May 24, 2016 16:02

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Kiselyov

Notoriously vocal scumbag TV host from Russia ends Crimea segment of news episode with "and let's return back to Russia".

# ¿ Jun 6, 2016 18:19

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

woodenchicken posted:

Do I smell a prison sentence for Reunification denial? I hope the police were watching TV that day.

Nah, he was all limbs for the "Reunification", this just shows how much he actually believes it, if anyone did wonder about it to begin with.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2016 22:29

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Doctor Malaver posted:

That's a strange choice of word, 'trained'. It implies that there's some outside entity (Russian military or secret police ) training hooligans. If they didn't want to imply that then they should've gone with 'hard core', 'experienced', 'veteran', etc. Other major football tournaments also had some uruk hai hooligans.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

Going off one documentary about Eastern European hooliganism I saw, trained doesn't seem entirely inappropriate. Like, they seemed to train as much for the clashes with the other side's hooligans as the players did for their matches, at least that's how I remember it. And occasionally arranged fights without there even being any match to fight over. Seemed especially serious in Russia.

Anyone with actual first hand (or at least in-country) knowledge of Eastern European hooligans?

Further north-east from Poland it's not as organised as in Poland, I'd say, but there nonetheless are training skirmishes and such, and the whole collective gym going etc. Same people sometimes also have a hand in shady "business" stuff, so just saying "trained Russian hooligans" is one of the most believable things you can say about them. Trained on Putin's orders by military or something is a conspiracy theory as good as any other, without proof, but claiming that radical Eastern European sports fans lack organisation is just a work of fiction, in my opinion.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2016 17:59

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

So, apparently, Phillips did sneak into Latvia despite being on the black list for entrance to the country, made a bunch of photos and poo poo, and got out. Authorities can confirm that he has left the country by now, and refuse to give any comments about his entry.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2016 00:07

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

New Levada poll, about upcoming elections in Russia.

Opinions on trustworthiness of State Duma elections that already happened (months on top, in left to right order, are October, November, January, February, December, January, February, March); with options to to bottom being honest, likely honest, likely dishonest, dishonest, and trouble to answer.

Opinions on trustworthiness of future State Duma elections (months on top, l->r, are October, November, and March); with options top to bottom being same as above.

Do you think there will be real fight in the upcoming State Duma elections, or just an imitation of such with spots being predetermined by the authorities? Months, l->r, are November, October, November, January, April, July, ctober, November, and March. Options, t->b, are real fight, fake fight, and trouble to answer.

This year, do you think that State Duma elections will be: t->b honest and lawful, likely dishonourable, trouble to answer. Months - October, November, December, November, January, April, July, October, November, February, and May.

Multiple choice question about likely problems on the upcoming State Duma elections. Months are April, October, January, August, November, and February. Options are nepotism in favour of United Russia and other state-related parties, faking results by local/regional committees, bribery of electorate by government, faking results by Central Election Committee, government ejecting 'inappropriate' candidates from ballots, government ejecting 'inappropriate' parties from elections, bribery of electorate by opposition, other violations, no violations, trouble to answer.

In your opinion, how serious are the consequences of possible violations? Asked to those who considered violations a possibility. Months are April, January, August, November, February. Options are very serious, somewhat serious, not really serious, minimal, and trouble to answer.

In your opinion, can public oversight of election process, on behalf of political parties, journalists, and international observers, significantly diminish hypothetical violations during the entirety of election cycle? Months are April, September, and March. Options are yes, no, and trouble to answer.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2016 15:25

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

never trust an elf posted:

How many European countries get their gas supply directly from Russia?

# ¿ Jul 4, 2016 02:37

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Arglebargle III posted:

Will the Russian terrorism law change anything de facto?

Since government forced data storage onto the carriers, speculations predict anywhere between double and quadruple phone service cost increase.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2016 14:13

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Cat Mattress posted:

And honestly it doesn't seem to be worse than antiterrorism laws that have been enacted in the west...

There's a number of things, in my opinion, that are off compared to the run of the mill anti-terrorism legalese in developed countries.

Mandatory snitching law with up to year in jail. (How are you enforcing this, again?)
Calling and apologising for terrorism on social networks now falls under mass media regulations, up to 7 years in jail. (7 years, really? Is critique of Russian actions of Syria an apologism of terrorism? Alternatively, what isn''t?)
6-month storage of contents of calls and messages made over any communication services. (Not meta-data, exact contents of messages transferred in any form.)
Missionaries must be officially registered and conduct their activities in specially designated buildings. (I like Jehowah's Witnesses about as much as the next normal person around the corner, but you could as well be shooting them on border if this is the regulation.)
Mass protest penalising law contains phrase "other involvement", penalised with jail time from 5 to 10 years. (Could just make at this point a law where people can just be jailed for prophylactic purposes.)
Criminal responsibility for 14-year olds on grounds of mandatory snitching law. ( "I swear to God, officer, Godzilla told me himself he plans to assassinate president Putin.")
Mail parcel content verification for lack of prohibited items and poo poo. (Appears alright at first, but mail carriers are the only responsible part here should anything happen.)

And yeah, on technical side of things 6-month call and message storage for users in Russia is something maybe Google can do, and not necessarily. They'd have to hire half the planet for half a decade to build infrastructure for this, and it would cost something like half of the profits in Russian budget for 2015. Government thinks it won't spend a dime here, but the phone carriers and messaging service providers will, and in the end both customers will suffer increased costs and the government will too - tax income off the profit margins will shrink. Either that, or Russian government has to find one more mountain of gold somewhere to do it. Decryption law (everyone must give FSB all their description keys; Putin publicly told FSB they have 2 weeks now to obtain all of them) is fairly silly too, and to some extent implies that no one responsible has even the slightest idea about encryption, it's forms and widespread. Even if we drop hilarious amount of technical problems with this law, it also violates right to have private conference, as defined in Russian constitution.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2016 14:36

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Discendo Vox posted:

Do folks have any thoughts on Sputnik? It seems to be a new generation of RT- with more thought and craft going into its propaganda.

When it launched it was RT-esque garbage, and still is.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2016 16:30

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

DrProsek posted:

Skimming their headlines, I'd say Sputnik is like a more blatant RT. Both are pretty clearly Russia propaganda fronts, but RT has a better mix of headlines on their front page that don't immediately scream propaganda, like the viral section or a piece on water on Mars. Sputnik has a lot fewer of those and a lot more "Does Amerikkka want to declare war on China or Russia first?".

Sputnik hypothetically is meant to be something like Russian Al-Jazeera, but since it's being run more or less by the same people as Russia Today, it ends up being the "wake up to crimes of Amerikkka, sheeple side" of "Russia stornk" coin.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2016 17:34

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/07/09/obamas-tough-remark-about-polish-democracy-gets-twisted-on-polish-tv.html

quote:

WARSAW—Amid fears of a rollback of Poland’s democratic freedoms, President Barack Obama had a harsh message of concern during a trip here for a NATO summit. But viewers of Poland’s main evening news program saw exactly the opposite.

The twisted message would not instill confidence in the new Polish government’s protestations that its press institutions remain independent. Add one more fear to American concerns that a major U.S. ally is turning in a new direction after the right-wing Law and Justice party won a sweeping victory in October.

Since its election, the new government has taken steps that critics say eliminate the independence of Poland’s top court, the Constitutional Tribunal, taken control of the main public broadcaster by installing a former politician as its head, and initiated prosecutions of members of the former ruling party.

Obama’s tough message on Friday, standing alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda, was that he “expressed to President Duda our concerns over certain actions and the impasse around the Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal.”

“More work needs to be done,” Obama said. “And as your friend and ally, we’ve urged all parties to work together to sustain Poland’s democratic institutions.”

But viewers of Telewizja Polska, the main public broadcaster, saw a very different suggestion on the evening news.

“Ninety-five per cent of the meeting was about issues of NATO and security, but Obama praised Polish efforts at democracy,” the reporter said. “Concerning the issue of the constitutional tribunal, he said he is sure that spreading democratic values in Poland will not stop.”

Then the broadcaster played a clip of Obama’s friendly cushioning of his criticism, while skipping the substance of the message.

In the clip played on Polish television, Obama was also translated by a dubbed voice-over as saying that “Poland is and will be an example of democracy for the whole world.”

What he actually said was that “Poland stands and needs to continue stand as an example for democratic practices around the world.”

More than 100 journalists have been dismissed or have resigned from Poland’s public broadcaster this year, a measure of the major changes underway there. Some journalists say that anyone perceived as critical of the Law and Justice party is now under threat. Shortly after the party took office, it changed laws giving Poland’s Finance Ministry the direct power to appoint the head of the broadcaster. The new head is Jacek Kurski, a member of the Law and Justice party and a former member of European Parliament.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 06:06

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

So, Red Hot Chili Peppers flew to Belarus:

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 14:48

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Dapper_Swindler posted:

How bad is Poland right now? I assume they are still anti russia at least.

They are more anti-Russia than ever, but otherwise it's a rather peculiar reenactment of the dark ages.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 16:37

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Friendly reminder that this is not the thread for Clancy chat about Russia waging war with NATO.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 20:18

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

A Pale Horse posted:

You've been posting here since the beginning, you know we have to have this chat once every six months or so. It's the way of the world friend, no sense fighting against it.

I'm still having flashbacks from the nuke chat when I see word "nuclear" in this thread. :smithicide:

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 21:05

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Shes Not Impressed posted:

Able Archer is just this thread

I'm afraid it's nearing Unable Archer.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2016 04:41

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Discendo Vox posted:

Brown Moses is the coup. Enjoy your new position as Ataturk II: Electric Boogaloo, BM!

Actually, Putin staged coup to stifle BM's efforts on MH-17. :tinfoil:

# ¿ Jul 16, 2016 00:26

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Jygallax posted:

I don't know about the Kremlin network but they definitely are bonkers conspiracy people.

It's funded by Canadian Russian economics professor from Ottawa Michel Chossudovsky, who writes for Russia Today. Still, I'd say that they are just conspiracy nuts, since amongst other things they also cry about literally every conspiracy theory on the planet, from the true power of homeopathy to global Bilderberg government.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2016 20:58

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

steinrokkan posted:

I don't think that matters either. Rumors are already circulating that Trump is trying to outsource potential policy making during his presidency to other GOP politicians in an effort to become a face of the office without having to actually care about anything.

Yeah:

quote:

One day this past May, Donald Trump�s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who left the presidential race just a few weeks before. As a candidate, Kasich declared in March that Trump was �really not prepared to be president of the United States,� and the following month he took the highly unusual step of coordinating with his rival Senator Ted Cruz in an effort to deny Trump the nomination. But according to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer nonetheless: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?

When Kasich�s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father�s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.

Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?

�Making America great again� was the casual reply.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2016 17:33

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 21:20

cinci zoo sniper: Mar 15, 2013

Thatim posted:

Was russia always such a dick? To be honest, I only started following the developments in EE since the Krim and MH17. If the country was a person, I would assume it was acting like this due to a lack of attention

Some times it was less snotty than others, but overall tone constantly was over the top.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2016 17:35

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