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Quite a few of those Security Council members look like they badly need a wee but are too afraid to ask permission to go.
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Feb 21, 2022 15:39
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This feels like some kind of weird SPECTRE meeting where at any moment Putin is going to push a button and one of the chairs falls into an underground tank of piranhas.
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Feb 21, 2022 16:29
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QuoProQuid posted:have european union leaders expressed their "grave concern" and noted that they are "carefully watching these developments" yet A sternly worded letter has been drafted and they promise to think really hard before deciding not to send it.
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Feb 21, 2022 19:23
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QuoProQuid posted:i cannnot believe that ukraine is both sponsoring radical islam and is on the verge of acquiring weapons of mass destruction He wants to have his own version of the Iraq War, as a treat
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Feb 21, 2022 20:15
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"One country cannot achieve its security at the expense of others."
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Feb 21, 2022 20:19
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fatherboxx posted:I think it is the combination of being extra isolated through pandemic, with fewer people meeting him and providing info (two weeks quarantine for any non-head of state visitor), and Kazakhstan happening with all reverence for granddady Nazarbaev evaporating in days. He is gone. MikeC posted:It isn't his health. It is the health of the Russian demographics that is forcing his hand. Like many countries around the world, Russia has a retiree problem on its hands. If Russia doesn't act now, it is unlikely they can act in 5 years time with the same degree of strength. I think these are definitely both factors - the long-term problems of Russia's demographic and relative economic decline, combined with the recent developments in several formerly reliable post-Soviet states (with varying degrees of closeness to Moscow), may have really spooked him in 2020-22. The unexpectedly rapid defeat of the Armenian army in the Nagorno-Karabakh war, Belarus having a big wobble following the blatant rigging of the 2020 election and subsequent unrest, and of course the recent unrest you mention even in 'stable' and 'prosperous' Kazakhstan - must have been a shock and I think he can feel the empire really starting to crumble, so is lashing out with the tools he has (propaganda, intelligence services, militias and armed forces) to try and postpone the decline.
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Feb 22, 2022 21:39
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Dapper_Swindler posted:from what i have heard from friends with family over there in well off places. the elite think putin has lost his loving mind and the oligarchs are scared because its clear putin doesnt give a poo poo anymore. putins always been a violent thug, he just knows how to bury it somewhat. i wouldn't be shocked if he uses this as giant purge because he has gone stalin level paranoid. I got that impression too solely from the NSC meeting - several of the participants - cabinet members and the like - looked legitimately scared. Not necessarily for their immediate safety, but more that if they said something even slightly wrong that they would become high-rise apartment balcony fodder in a few weeks. Of course, it could just be fear about their political future (ie: they know this will be a bloody mess and economic disaster, but were being forced to visibly endorse it making them politicially culpable).
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Feb 24, 2022 13:47
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fatherboxx posted:We got lucky that assclown is up to his neck in scandals so he is overperforming He's a liar of Trump-esque proportions and only cares about himself - as you say his main priority is using this situation to distract from the myriad of career-threatening scandals he finds himself in. Nothing he says, or that anonymous sources claim he is trying to do, should be trusted. Its entirely possible this is just performative poo poo that he is unwilling to really do, but that he knows he can pretend to be trying to do to look tough, as Germany, Italy, etc, ultimately won't budge on SWIFT. The Tories did this poo poo all the time before Brexit - pretending to want to do something, and then blaming the EU for preventing them from doing it. Don't give him any credit for anything until concrete and decisive action is taken by the UK (achieving consensus on SWIFT ban, seizing Oligarch accounts/properties). Which it almost certainly won't be. Tigey fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Feb 24, 2022 |
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Feb 24, 2022 18:39
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Charliegrs posted:If everything that I have been reading about the Ukrainian airforce over the last 24 hours is true then I have to say that for an airforce that probably no longer exists they did one hell of a job with what they had. Even more impressive given that most of it is 35+ year old ex-Soviet gear, and until recently probably wasn't that well-funded or maintained.
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Feb 25, 2022 00:57
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Moon Slayer posted:I cannot get over this. Putin really fell into the same trap that so many others have, thinking that one serious blow would cause the decadent West to crumble and submit. We have only to kick in the door, and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.
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Feb 25, 2022 02:07
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Redgrendel2001 posted:https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/1497195540261474305?t=1f5mL_2VfuDrnU2IIVmY3A&s=19 Pfft, how many divisions does he have?
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Feb 25, 2022 16:53
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EvilHawk posted:Of course, I'm weary that we're only hearing this from Ukrainian-aligned sources and it might be different in reality. I think this is an important point. This thread is fast moving, so its difficult to keep track of everything that is posted, but most of the social media posts, videos, commentator pieces, etc, are posted either by the Ukrainian government, people, or by commentators sympathetic to them (understandably so). We are only getting an incomplete picture from one side here, and that may be giving us a misleading (and potentially overly optimistic) perception of how things are going. Whilst a lot of Russian media content/propaganda about the war is almost certainly unreliable trash - its still useful in some ways, even if only for presenting a picture of how the war is perceived by the other side (or how they want it to be perceived). Its difficult to get used to, as in most recent conflicts of this scale, its usually the US (plus allies) who are doing the attacking, and they aren't shy about engaging with the (Western) media. We're not seeing that with Russia here, who don't seem to be engaging with foreign media as much (plus language barrier, etc), so have a lot less to go on from their side.
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Feb 25, 2022 17:11
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cinci zoo sniper posted:Why are troops being requested from Kazakhstan at all? Most likely to try to take some heat off of Russia and provide extra 'legitimacy' by having other nations join the effort. Basically like the Coalition of the Willing during the Iraq War.
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Feb 26, 2022 02:18
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sweet geek swag posted:I'm actually impressed that Zelensky is still in Ukraine. That takes guts, and he's probably going to suffer for it. Considering his background he's doing about as well as can be expected in this sort of situation. Agree, he definitely has guts. I hope he gets his family out though - I can understand him wanting the symbolism of staying in the capital - but I don't think anyone, even his opponents, would begrudge getting them out of harms way, especially as they will likely be prime targets for capture, to use as leverage against him.
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Feb 26, 2022 04:01
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SUNKOS posted:I never thought I would ever see something like this from the Tories. The buried Russia Report must be utterly damning if they're willing to do this to keep themselves in power. No Tory involvement - is a call by the Mayor of London (who is Labour), and twitter account is a former labour MP (convicted for expenses fraud).
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Feb 26, 2022 04:33
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cinci zoo sniper posted:It’s like when you stuff 6 sandwiches in and then start thinking that maybe you should’ve had some water before.
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Mar 5, 2022 04:55
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Coquito Ergo Sum posted:God help them, Romania really tries and puts up numbers but they're having understandable difficulties in modernizing.
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Mar 6, 2022 03:21
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Potentially significant given that US estimates on Russian casualties so far have tended to be on the lower end of the scale of those out there.
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Mar 10, 2022 02:36
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sniper4625 posted:Wounded pregnant lady being carried on a stretcher being evac'd from the hospital that got hit I assume Its the front page image of most UK newspapers (and most of the European ones I just checked). May end up becoming one of the more iconic/memorable images of the war.
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Mar 10, 2022 02:41
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ronya posted:https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1501860500224847873 I agree, and am increasingly convinced that Russia was operating on the assumption (maybe even actively counting on) that France and Germany would intervene during the run-up to the invasion and force Ukraine into accepting a pro-Russian settlement, in a glorious triumph of EU diplomacy that drives another wedge between them and the perfidious Angloids. Germany because of gas dependency, pacifism, 'Russia-understanding', and a desire to demonstrate an EU-led response given damage done by Trump and Brexit. France because of desire to see France as a renewed great power leading a European response, plus Macron egotistically wanting to be seen as a great statesman who led France in preventing a war (with upcoming Presidential elections in mind). I also pick up on the same confusion from external commentators about EU/US ties. There really does seem to be an assumption amongst many Indian and Chinese foreign policy commentators that France/Germany (and so by extension the EU) naturally 'belong' with Russia and should be aligned with them - especially with respect to security relationships (almost hinting at times that Russia should be their security guarantor) - against the Angloid menace. Whilst there are obviously a heck of a lot transatlantic tensions (Trump, Iraq, Afghanistan, the list goes on and on) I find it hard to understand why they feel this way, as it seems to me that EU countries have very strong alignment of underlying interests and values (commitment to Western 'rules-based' order, maintaining stability of overseas trade lanes, benefits of NATO standardisation, Western identities/culture, democracy, human rights/LBTQ+, etc) versus the increasing divergence of interests/values with rsepect to Russia. Really feels like there is some wishful thinking going on. I guess that's not uncommon from Western commentators either though. Plenty of trash wishful thinking articles about India/China etc that completely ignore local context/perspectives.
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Mar 10, 2022 13:26
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Xerxes17 posted:Sure I can understand showing up, but after sitting down and asking "Are you willing to stop this madness yet?" and getting told no, what can you possibly talk about? As you say the Ukrainians were talking about humanitarian things, but I'm just picturing them having two parallel conversations because the Russian contingent is in fantasy land. The negotiations aren't the point of this conference - its all theatre at this stage. As you say, no negotiating is going on, its just publically restating positions. Visibly having a conference is the point of the conference. Both sides want to show they are interested in a peaceful resolution and are totally reasonable. Being unwilling to meet/discuss makes you look bad/unreasonable, and taking part in farcical meetings is a very low cost to pay to mitigate it (compared to say, not shelling kindergartens and hospitals).
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Mar 10, 2022 14:16
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Tomn posted:Honestly this is something I find disturbing not just in Russia but in China as well - average people just openly accepting that great power imperialism and naked landgrabs because "We can and what are you going to do about it?" is normalized and justifiable. Like, US imperialism is a thing for sure but there's at least a sense that it should be justified on moral or even legal terms somehow. There's a subset of people in China (and apparently Russia too I guess) that accept that "we're strong and they're weak" is all the justification necessary, and I find that worrying. Granted it's not universal by any means but it's way more common than I'm comfortable with. I agree that such things are disturbing and piss me off everytime I read them (and bode ominously for the future), but I think you are underestimating the extent to which such views exist among similar subsets of people in the West too. I can't remember the details but at one point Trump started ranting about how the US should seize the oil and gas fields in Syria/Afghanistan/Iraq/insert nation here. No justification, just naked resource grabbing. And it was popular with his base. People driven to nationalistic fervour are awful shitheads no matter where they live.
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Mar 12, 2022 15:15
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Comstar posted:edit- beaten like a Russian convoy spotted by a drone after not using any camo on their vehicles. And if the war continues, we will escalate further by picking exclusively Russian villains in the next set of Marvel movies.
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Mar 14, 2022 14:22
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The first one of those 'FSB leaks' was vaguely plausible, but even on it I frankly have doubts that its legit. The rest have been more and more outlandish, culminating in this hot mess of clickbait.
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Mar 15, 2022 15:01
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eke out posted:i am excited to see the 20 post twitter threads from logging infrastructure experts about how they definitely don't have the capacity to do this Wasting precious manpower and logistical capacity on chopping down trees and transporting the wood (which isn't a hugely valuable trade good by volume I assume) out of the country, when you are already struggling with both, seems like a great idea.
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Mar 15, 2022 15:41
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Shibawanko posted:that would just open up the door to more brinkmanship and be very dangerous. the current situation already shows that really, EU and NATO membership should be a single package and there should be no "grey areas" where one thing applies and the other doesn't (like in sweden and finland), a halfway alliance with a single nato state would just invite russia to test the strength of that and if they do they either will find that they can safely ignore it or it will lead to war with nato
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Mar 15, 2022 17:23
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cinci zoo sniper posted:What the gently caress This feels like the wartime equivalent of one of those fake Lifehack videos where they pull a perfectly cooked fillet steak out of a toaster or make white strawberries by dipping them in bleach
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Mar 15, 2022 17:48
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Deltasquid posted:Human rights NGO. Most important aspect is citizens of member states can claim compensation for human rights violations by appealing to the European Court of Human Rights. Just to be clear - that's not what an NGO is - they are generally voluntary groups/bodies that are independent of governments (mostly, although some do get funding from govts). Most NGOs are like charities, clubs, associations, etc, and can be at local, national or international scale. The Council of Europe is at the other end of the spectrum - its an Intergovernmental Organisation, comprised of member states/governments, with the aim of promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Its most famous achievement is the European Convention on Human Rights, which all member states have signed up to, and the European Court on Human Rights, which citizens can bring cases to if a member country has violated their rights or freedoms. Think of it like a mini, regional UN.
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Mar 16, 2022 14:56
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the popes toes posted:https://twitter.com/FinancialTimes/status/1504098983895080965 I suspect a lot of this is Russia spinning lies to to create expectations across the West that peace may just around the corner, so that when it isn't (because Russia is lying through its teeth and shelling hospitals), the West loses patience with Ukraine and pushes them to agree to a deal that they otherwise wouldn't. I mean, even before the invasion, I got the impression that Russia's strategy was to try to get the West (most likely Germany and France, but possibly the US) to pressure Ukraine into accepting unacceptable terms. To basically do a Chamberlain and pull the rug out from under Zelensky.
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Mar 16, 2022 17:20
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These arguments about why the Ukrainian people should just roll over and accept defeat to 'save lives', aren't based on any kind of logic nor are they credible. Neither are the Twitter arguments putting so much emphasis on Azov (problematic as they are), putting all the blame on NATO's bloodthirsty forced expansion, crying false tears over the impact of sanctions, or justifying the attack due to Russia's 'legitimate security concerns', etc. They're basically all grounded in emotion and coming from the same place - they are half-assed attempts to shift the narrative (both public and their own internal) away from a fundamental truth that they find uncomfortable and hard to accept - that this is an unjust, indefensible imperial war of conquest and genocide by Russia. They find this truth uncomfortable because it goes against their traditional anti-imperial assumptions. The people making these arguments have no issue with (and likely a long history of) opposing the unjust imperial wars of Western powers - both historical, Cold-War and recent. And that's as it should be! All imperial wars are criminal and filled with countless loss of life and tragedies. I personally think this one is so far on a level that we've not seen since WW2, but I completely accept it does have some parallels with the Iraq War and other conflicts, and can appreciate that some may reasonably feel they are 'equally' unjust and that the West is hypocritical, etc. The point is though, that this long history of opposition to Western imperialism, has become ingrained into their identity, to the point that condemning non-Western imperialism feels extremely uncomfortable. After all, Russia has generally been an opponent of Western imperialism. It may have opposed it for its own selfish reasons, but it still opposed Iraq, Libya, etc, and is the successor to the Soviet Union (what's that you say about Afghanistan? Prague? Budapest? Never heard of them. Move along please...). As such, Russia has been internalised as if not inherently good, then at least understandable and usually on the correct side. The Western powers however have always been the baddies (not far off to be fair), and so are inherently bad and must always be opposed. Now we are in a situation where the roles are reversed, and Russia has launched a manifestly unjustifiable invasion of a neighbour on ethnonationalist imperialistic grounds, and is busy warcriming and genociding it up, as it slips into becoming a fascist hellscape. Meanwhile, the West attempts to support Ukraine from being conquered and genocided through funding, arms-shipments, taking in refugees and sanctions. It seems really difficult for some people to accept this role reversal, presumably as they feel it challenges an aspect of their anti-imperial identity? Requiring them to agree with actions that the West is taking, or even worse, agreeing with their ultimate posting enemies, the vile libs. It is far easier to instead dig in, and latch onto more comfortable arguments - no matter how farcical they are - that reinforce their core anti-imperial assumptions, like we are seeing with people signal-boosting Russian propaganda about Ukrainians shelling their own civilians, how every school, hospital and house is a secret an Azov hideout, how bloodthirsty NATO is truly responsible for forcing poor sweet innocent Russia into its special military operation. They then post these takes - either here (in an attempt to pivot the discussion back to something they are more comfortable with - attacking the old enemy) or elsewhere (Twitter, etc, in an attempt to reinforce and reassure eachother) TL/DR: Unnecessarily long amount of  to say: Tankies gonna Tankie
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Mar 17, 2022 00:16
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Humphreys posted:So, how was the beach date? Whole Black Sea fleet thing is just a slightly more proactive version of a fleet in being. Having their amphibious assault ships leave port every so often and make runs toward the general direction of Odessa, maybe shell a few things, before turning around for home. Its all to ensure Ukrainian forces in the region are kept tied down and not redeployed to where they could be more useful. They're not going to try to land there - they know it would be even more of a shitshow than the VDV's antics.
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Mar 17, 2022 12:56
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Mr. Fall Down Terror posted:i would assume a fair amount of the russian army is closer to this level of preparation for war, especially if it is true that russia is resorting to pressuring conscripts to enlist as regulars just to fill the ranks. while it is possible for hardy souls to withstand months of combat, it is also just as likely that a bunch of young men immediately say "gently caress this, i'm out" and withdraw/surrender as soon as the javelins start flying I wonder to what extent the Dedovshchina/hazing that seems so prevalent across the Russian army contributes toward this as well. Brutalised conscripts that are the subjects of constant bullying and hazing hardly seem like they are going to be the most motivated fighters in this kind of war.
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Mar 17, 2022 15:55
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Ynglaur posted:This is an excellent point.
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Mar 17, 2022 17:28
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KillHour posted:The only reason it didn't happen was because they literally couldn't do logistics like the Germans could.
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Apr 3, 2022 18:28
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Zlodo posted:what gets me in that picture is how all those smaller countries are depicted as inanimate objects, just resources to be consumed and only the big powers are represented as characters with their own agency Yup, its not an anti-imperialism piece, the message is that the bear is angry that someone else ate the sweet honey that HE was entitled to
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Apr 4, 2022 14:49
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Alchenar posted:I think Mark Urban makes a reasonable point here about that RIA article and elite reaction. Russian elites are having their imperialist 'Great Russia' power fantasy shattered as their army reels back from Kyiv and Kharkiv in obvious defeat at the hands of their poor backward cousins. The rhetoric we are seeing is a result of the emotional effect of a very comfortable worldview falling apart. Right now that fury is directed at Ukraine for its defiance, but if the war ends in Russian defeat then that emotion could easily all end up directed at Putin. Yeah this sounds about right. Assuming Russia doesn't manage to pull out some kind of unlikely victory, there is going to be a lot of public indignance and rage as their worldview of the Great and Powerful Russia dictating terms is shattered. Maybe this anger will be directed at Putin. Perhaps, but I'm not so sure - I suspect that either he, or his successor, will leverage their stranglehold over the media to direct it outward toward the treacherous russophobic West (that thanks to a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, is at the same time all powerful but also weak and easily crushed).
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Apr 4, 2022 15:31
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fatherboxx posted:Another case of leftist brainworms where it is somehow the bloodthirsty West pushing Ukraine for not recognising Russian dominance of Crimea instead of Zelensky restating the importance territorial integrity. Ultimately that person is right that it is existential fight for Ukraine which is inconceivable for people who mostly live in countries protected by article 5. To be fair a few did react, but its shameful what a comparatively small reaction that excellent post got.
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Apr 5, 2022 11:23
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Marshal Prolapse posted:Kind of want some other Ambassador to smack him in the back of the head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoEb03tzwxs
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Apr 5, 2022 16:47
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I like to think he died of a broken heart, his dreams of reconquest and empire destroyed
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Apr 6, 2022 11:29
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Fully deserved as he's been repeatedly trying to make out that Bucha is a false flag, whilst avoiding directly saying so.
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Apr 6, 2022 18:06
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