Russia has been indiscriminately targeting civilians with bombings in the past few days. It's sad how many of the people who were quick to condemn U.S. drone strikes can't engage with this issue without resorting to whataboutism and "both sides" bullshit. If someone's response to someone talking about civilian casualties of U.S. drone strikes was to point out that Russia has been bombing water stations in Syria, or if their response to someone criticizing the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was to point out that the Soviets destabilized Afghanistan in the first place, or if their response to the BLM protests was to point out the human rights abuses in Chechnya, these people would see through that bullshit quickly, but people can't condemn the invasion of Ukraine without hearing from someone "But what about the Iraq War?" or "But NATO expansion is responsible for this conflict!" or "Why aren't you focusing on de-escalation?", as if they have any actual solutions on that matter. All leftists should be able to unequivocally condemn an invasion motivated by nationalism and imperialism that has resulted in many civilian casualties.
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Headlines Russia invades Ukraine
- Thread starter RaikouLover
- Start date
Who'd have thought that some people on the left (or people at all really...) want "cluster bombing civilians is bad" to be a controversial issue.
Who'd have thought that some ppl at all want 'engaging with ppl who disagree w you itt' rather than 'pretending ppl who disagree w me itt think it's ok for russia to invade ukraine and commit warcrimes'.
Can you imagine going into a thread on the internet and flip flopping your position every few hours just to build up the pretense that your opponents are engaging in bad faith discourse? Yes it is truly a shame that I am not very good at telling if someone does or does not support russia unless they explicitly remind me at least 1x per post/tweet/article. Why 'the left' are biologically drawn to be dominated by strongman dictator I just can never understand since they claim to oppose nationalism and authoritarianism :thinking:.
I am surrounded by enemies and constantly fighting to drown out the treacherous russia-financed shills that disagree w my edicts on smogon.com.
But not all of these claims, made by ppl whose main activity itt appears to be convincing us that other users are shills, can be true at the same time:
1. nato expansion, and russian regional power aspirations, aren't a factor at play in incentivizing Russian aggression
2. sanctions will prevent or otherwise deter Russia from continuing the war
3. the russian regimes survival depends on winning the war
4. the russian regime will (not) use nuclear weapons (to ensure its survival) (yes, there is one user making both of these contradictory claims in different sequential posts)
5. the us/nato should implement a nfz and shoot down russian planes
6. nuclear war is "not that bad" (hasn't yet been made in the thread, but has been mentioned in discord a bit, #doubt. maybe someone will defend it itt idk idc)
I fully agree that the best outcome is full on regime change in russia without nuclear war, but I am p skeptical of the expertise on display itt about how, or whether to, actively bring it about. Rn looks like it's going in the direction of Russia suffering a major defeat or stalemate with the only question being how to minimize and deter Ukrainian civilian casualties and how to make the whole thing last as short as possible. But things can change v quickly and maybe Russia is actually about to regroup and now is the time to take steps to ensure that they stay defeated. Either way we can all take comfort that users itt don't make these decisions I think...
I hope defeat in Ukraine will lead to the Putin regime going down soon after (this is a consensus assumption that regime change will follow from a major defeat in war like this, but you and I are not russia experts lol, I can tell you all aren't and I never claimed to be, so we don't even know if losing the war means proximal regime change, it could still take a while).
It's unclear if world leaders will be careful or even can be to avoid escalating this event to a nuclear incident, however I do not accept that ppl itt know the future so perfectly as to tell me it's inevitable one way or the other and that we can't think about a path to avoiding it.
At the end of the day Putin's regime opened pandoras box and may have doomed us all, but personally, and I may be the minority, I don't mind if the ppl that are willing to actually wait for more than *checks notes* 2 hours after a Gary Kasparov tweet to change their position and then subsequently shove it on others patriot act style, continue to deliberate about these things because the consequences are v serious and so their caution is not unmerited.
Can you imagine going into a thread on the internet and flip flopping your position every few hours just to build up the pretense that your opponents are engaging in bad faith discourse? Yes it is truly a shame that I am not very good at telling if someone does or does not support russia unless they explicitly remind me at least 1x per post/tweet/article. Why 'the left' are biologically drawn to be dominated by strongman dictator I just can never understand since they claim to oppose nationalism and authoritarianism :thinking:.
I am surrounded by enemies and constantly fighting to drown out the treacherous russia-financed shills that disagree w my edicts on smogon.com.
But not all of these claims, made by ppl whose main activity itt appears to be convincing us that other users are shills, can be true at the same time:
1. nato expansion, and russian regional power aspirations, aren't a factor at play in incentivizing Russian aggression
2. sanctions will prevent or otherwise deter Russia from continuing the war
3. the russian regimes survival depends on winning the war
4. the russian regime will (not) use nuclear weapons (to ensure its survival) (yes, there is one user making both of these contradictory claims in different sequential posts)
5. the us/nato should implement a nfz and shoot down russian planes
6. nuclear war is "not that bad" (hasn't yet been made in the thread, but has been mentioned in discord a bit, #doubt. maybe someone will defend it itt idk idc)
I fully agree that the best outcome is full on regime change in russia without nuclear war, but I am p skeptical of the expertise on display itt about how, or whether to, actively bring it about. Rn looks like it's going in the direction of Russia suffering a major defeat or stalemate with the only question being how to minimize and deter Ukrainian civilian casualties and how to make the whole thing last as short as possible. But things can change v quickly and maybe Russia is actually about to regroup and now is the time to take steps to ensure that they stay defeated. Either way we can all take comfort that users itt don't make these decisions I think...
I hope defeat in Ukraine will lead to the Putin regime going down soon after (this is a consensus assumption that regime change will follow from a major defeat in war like this, but you and I are not russia experts lol, I can tell you all aren't and I never claimed to be, so we don't even know if losing the war means proximal regime change, it could still take a while).
It's unclear if world leaders will be careful or even can be to avoid escalating this event to a nuclear incident, however I do not accept that ppl itt know the future so perfectly as to tell me it's inevitable one way or the other and that we can't think about a path to avoiding it.
At the end of the day Putin's regime opened pandoras box and may have doomed us all, but personally, and I may be the minority, I don't mind if the ppl that are willing to actually wait for more than *checks notes* 2 hours after a Gary Kasparov tweet to change their position and then subsequently shove it on others patriot act style, continue to deliberate about these things because the consequences are v serious and so their caution is not unmerited.
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Depressing food for thought:
If an outside nation completely disregards the cost of Ukranian life and only cares about themselves they would want this to take as long as possible and features no regime change. Regime change and/or a quick resolution leads to instability in a nation with nuclear weapons, the only aspect of the conflict that genuinely threatens nations on other continents.
:(
Serious failure might topple Putin but there is also a question of how meaningful any regime change would be. It's possible there would be a great move towards democracy and freedom, but it's also possible they just get a copy of what they already have but with a different face (a Pu-twin if you will).
It’s going to be oligarchy no master what; but maybe we can get a stooge of Russia’s economic elite instead of someone who came up through the military/Intelligence.
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Gas prices are surging as countries look to dump Russian oil. This will have a big affect on inflation, as oil prices are a primary driver of inflation.
Hopefully this encourages weening off oil. I won’t hold my breath about it though.
Hopefully this encourages weening off oil. I won’t hold my breath about it though.
Even without a concerted strategic effort (which there should be, for geopolitical as well as the obvious environmental reasons) it just makes renewables look a lot hotter from a financial point of view. Renewables were already cost competitive in the more ideal spots but this should make the more marginal options attractive too.
It's exactly thinking like this that's gotten the US into the domestic mess it's in. What I presented isn't a false choice, it's the reality of actually having to inform yourself. It doesn't take more than 4-10 minutes to read about what the Hill was involved in with Solomon, and (at least for me) it's not something I've had to pore over outside of my studies . You aren't being informed by Rising or whatever they call their new program, just as senile geriatrics aren't informing themselves when they watch Tucker Carlson. All you're doing is arguing for ignorance as some sort of virtue and telling me that's you're more than willing to propagate that same ignorance. The exact same reasoning can just as easily be used to argue for watching InfoWars or Grayzone as a means of "informing" oneself. Without a standard for holding media to account, you're just someone who doesn't care about being lied to.
Anyways, here's an op-ed Americans in this thread should be reading to understand why peace activists around the world are fed up with "anti-war" Americans US-splaining the conflict: https://truthout.org/articles/why-its-hard-for-most-people-in-the-us-to-talk-about-war/
Purely anecdotal- I have not experienced the anti-war Americans I know trying to explain away a double standard. All vehemently opposed Bush and Trump, most were not thrilled with Obama’s foreign policy either. Don’t forget that the American electoral system is binary; a vote for one administration is not an explicit endorsement of most of their policies. In fact, US electioneering in the 21st century is simply voting against who the voter perceived is the more evil candidate. I think the fixation on US hypocrisy is just playing into the Kremlin hands.
YouTube
The mainstream media is still the dominant format that dominates thought— and alternative media only is so popular because of how sucky mainstream media is.
There would be a loooot less Grey Zone watchers if Liberal Media actually challenged US Imperialism and covered it thoroughly in journalism.
There would be a loooot less Tucker Carlson, Jimmy Dore, and Alex Jones watchers if there were actual anti-establishment leftist commentators on MSNBC constantly attacking Billionaires and raking Conservative Democrats over the coals and celebrating aggressive unionism.
And it would be better to have better mainstream media with more diverse narratives because that format has more systems of enforcing journalistic integrity (ie. standards of fact checking/citing even if just for show). In that sense having Rising on the Hill was a very good experiment, and one that could be done even better.
Making mainstream media better isn’t an impossibility either— of course it’s hard, but there are public policy solutions we could implement to make it better.
And there are market solutions to this as well— it’s not an unevolving culture in media, the fact that mainstream media is being challenged in the market as it never was before 30 years ago is still something that people in that industry are contending with. These indie channels are successful, and programs like Rising could be made way more popular/common/better for quite the profit— I’m excited about John Stewart on Apple TV.
It’s all still imperfect and all media have their problems and incentives that are aligned and misaligned with democracy but it’s role and power can’t be changed. The fact that it is unstable now represents opportunity for the left.
Bernie Sander’s runs wouldn’t have become what they were without digital media. The squad would just be 6 Congress liberals no one covers or listens to without digital media existing. And the fact that Twitter and lefty media empowers them gets them more platformed in mainstream media.
The system is in flux, but it’s highly important/relevant, and there is opportunity in our era to actually improve it.
No, my arguments are the reality of building/maintaining democracy— the fact that media sucks doesn’t negate its role in democracy. It just means that currently media needs to be made better.
The mainstream media is still the dominant format that dominates thought— and alternative media only is so popular because of how sucky mainstream media is.
There would be a loooot less Grey Zone watchers if Liberal Media actually challenged US Imperialism and covered it thoroughly in journalism.
There would be a loooot less Tucker Carlson, Jimmy Dore, and Alex Jones watchers if there were actual anti-establishment leftist commentators on MSNBC constantly attacking Billionaires and raking Conservative Democrats over the coals and celebrating aggressive unionism.
And it would be better to have better mainstream media with more diverse narratives because that format has more systems of enforcing journalistic integrity (ie. standards of fact checking/citing even if just for show). In that sense having Rising on the Hill was a very good experiment, and one that could be done even better.
Making mainstream media better isn’t an impossibility either— of course it’s hard, but there are public policy solutions we could implement to make it better.
And there are market solutions to this as well— it’s not an unevolving culture in media, the fact that mainstream media is being challenged in the market as it never was before 30 years ago is still something that people in that industry are contending with. These indie channels are successful, and programs like Rising could be made way more popular/common/better for quite the profit— I’m excited about John Stewart on Apple TV.
It’s all still imperfect and all media have their problems and incentives that are aligned and misaligned with democracy but it’s role and power can’t be changed. The fact that it is unstable now represents opportunity for the left.
Bernie Sander’s runs wouldn’t have become what they were without digital media. The squad would just be 6 Congress liberals no one covers or listens to without digital media existing. And the fact that Twitter and lefty media empowers them gets them more platformed in mainstream media.
The system is in flux, but it’s highly important/relevant, and there is opportunity in our era to actually improve it.
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"My consumption habits aren't to blame, the media needs to get better" is exactly what I am talking about when I say you simply just don't care about being lied to. What you want is to be told what you want to hear and pretending that if only other people hear exactly what you want to hear, they'll think exactly like you. I don't think it could be any more blatantly obvious than your framing of Rising as being outside the "mainstream," despite the fact that it's the flagship morning show of a media company catering to Beltway Republicans.
The wild thing is that there's plenty of left-wing media in the States that doesn't suck. The issue is that people (read: you) would rather waste their time with literal fraudsters (like Krystal!) who are bought and paid for by the GOP, and making weak excuses to justify it solely because they tell you what you want to hear. It's also the exact sort of justification you'll hear from people who forward the Kremlin's narratives of Ukraine being taken over in 2014 by a neo-Nazi coup or whatever, because the people who tell them what they want to hear are also telling them that the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor is actually the greatest ally of neo-Nazis.
And no, the entirety of branding by the Squad emerged from, and is still dependent upon, elevation by far-right media. The literal reason why it became a thing is because Laura Ingraham devoted a quarter of an hour of primetime to telling Meemaw and Pawpaw about the young brown women out to take away their guns and kill all white children. There is no "flux" either, the past several years has seen consolidation of media behind Republican interests. Recently Peter Thiel's been snatching up several more "leftists" in media whose values seem to be dependent on how much they're getting paid.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-letter-z-become-the-symbol-of-war-for-russia
It may already be know here but in Russia they seems to now uses the Z latter as a sign of support for military forces. As many people noticed, that's interesting choice given Z not having visual equivalent on Cyrillic.
*meme mode activated* now my new biggest fear is they use pockct monster Zygarde as a propaganda tool in 2022
It may already be know here but in Russia they seems to now uses the Z latter as a sign of support for military forces. As many people noticed, that's interesting choice given Z not having visual equivalent on Cyrillic.
*meme mode activated* now my new biggest fear is they use pockct monster Zygarde as a propaganda tool in 2022
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...tanks-40-ton-iron-freezers-20C-cold-snap.html
I have to giggle at the flippant use of the phrase “small nuclear weapons” as if that’s not simply relative. They’re still nuclear weapons, and the fact this and the notion of “apocalyptic forecasts about the weeks and months” to come is buried in the middle of this article is crazy to me. But I am an American that’s used to being inundated with either yellow or extreme journalism attached to exaggerated headlines on a daily basis, after all.
I have to giggle at the flippant use of the phrase “small nuclear weapons” as if that’s not simply relative. They’re still nuclear weapons, and the fact this and the notion of “apocalyptic forecasts about the weeks and months” to come is buried in the middle of this article is crazy to me. But I am an American that’s used to being inundated with either yellow or extreme journalism attached to exaggerated headlines on a daily basis, after all.
I am not going to express my position on the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, because if I say that I support Russia, then I will be a scumbag, if I say Ukraine, then I will be a scumbag, and if I keep silent, then in the end, too, a scumbag, because someone will say that I'm afraid of my government or something. And since my destiny is to be a condom, then so be it. You can't escape fate
War is bad. Very bad. Nobody wants war except sick people. It would be really cool if I just said "No to war" and everyone went away. It is quite easy to talk about this being neither in Russia nor in Ukraine. But it doesn’t work like that, the current war is a fait accompli and we must come to terms with it, learn to live with it and become able to overcome this fact.
Here I will describe what is currently happening in my country. I live in the second largest city in Russia - St. Petersburg. I will try to do this not through morality, moralizing, without appeals to human feelings. I will speak the language of a robot vacuum cleaner. This is probably the surest way to convey information without emotional overtones, because soon the cries of war will be replaced by frowns at the store shelves.
Everyone goes to work, gets the same salary, but because of the decision of many foreign companies to leave Russia, such as IKEA, H&M, etc. left thousands of people out of work, but some companies have left people on the payroll just like they did during the lockdown due to the pandemic.
Food prices began to rise, not significantly yet, but quite noticeably, no one knows when prices will stop rising.
Russian banks have opened new accounts to save people's money at a good interest rate. It is clear that they are collecting cash in order to somehow survive the sanctions that the West has imposed on us. I'm not sure that this money will not burn out the way it did in the 90s. I won't talk about the dollar exchange rate, you yourself can see everything. The people in Russia have become at least 30% poorer.
The main problem is sanctions. Putin has been trying for the last 8 years to bring the country to import substitution, but it is absolutely impossible to do this in such a short time. The shortage of cars, equipment, spare parts is a huge problem. In Russia, there is no microelectronics of its own at all. Russian processors are assembled at TSMC, which banned their production. Russia is a huge country - air and road communications are critical for us, Russia has lost most of its imported cars, but the worst thing is aircraft. The civil aviation industry is not developed in Russia. Almost all planes are Boeings and Airbuses, now their service is impossible for us, we will stupidly not be able to repair planes if these sanctions drag on for more than six months. Also, these companies will not supply spare parts for us. A huge number of directions will disappear. Businesses will not be able to continue to operate, mail, transportation of goods and spare parts within the country.
Disney, Netflix and others are canceling subscriptions and banning the rental of their films, leisure has clearly become worse. YouTube has disabled advertising in the Russian segment and now Russian content makers do not receive money from advertising.
Also, problems will soon arise with high-quality everyday goods, such as clothes, phones, and so on. They just won't be around anymore. A huge shortage greatly raises the price of foreign goods.
The country becomes isolated from the entire Western world. An iron curtain descends from the West and from Russia.
Surely you are most interested in what is happening with the people of Russia.
Russia banned Twitter, but does not ban Telegram, bans independent media, there is information about blocking YouTube and Twitch. Pervasive censorship. Thousands of people take to the streets with the slogan "No to war", but even more support Putin. I noticed that mostly people born after 1991 oppose the war. There are also people who do not support any side and are simply waiting to see what Russia and the West have decided in this situation. People who go to rallies are massively detained. About 10,000 people were put in jail for pickets and rallies. The authorities severely press any opposition, which they have always done.
(I'm posting in a couple of days)
The culture of cancellation and logistical problems is causing more and more companies to leave or stop investing in Russia, and support for Google Pay and Apple Pay in Russia has also ceased. Fortunately, the country has long had its own payment systems. You also know that Visa and Master Card have suspended the activities of cards that were issued by Russian banks, but you probably have not heard that the Chinese Union Pay system will continue to work both in Europe and with our banks, because everyone who is going there in the near future receive these cards. Some countries, like my native Estonia, impose restrictions on tourist visas, but only during the war.
The Russian government still continues to pour information in order to maintain the loyalty of the population to it, for example, information about biological weapons, but as you understand, we cannot now say whether this is true or false.
Food prices continue to rise, but it depends on the country of production. They rose especially strongly on fruits and baby food.
Funny thing - Instagram resets and “installs” the Russian language every morning, looks like the laziest means of expressing protest, but today they allowed to write any aggression, including calls to kill my people on Facebook, having come up with an answer about the need for context about the military.
Every day in different cities there are rallies against the war and every day thousands of people end up in a pre-trial detention center, but now in Russia they have adopted a law stating that you can’t vilify the army online, now they either take it away or write out a fine in the amount of more than teachers’ salaries in regions. There was also a funny case that a priest who held an anti-war service was fined.
That's all for now, if you want to know an opinion about what is happening on the Ukrainian twitter or a personal opinion - you can always write to me on the discord until no one has blocked it. I am extremely glad that the community on Smogon is able to lead a discussion about this conflict, and also that none of us received angry letters, like for example Alexander Ovechkin in the NHL. Thank you.
p.s. after reading the latest posts, I will answer a couple of points of some users
1. In Russia, no one has ever wanted to destroy schools, hospitals, or other important social facilities in Ukrainian cities.
2. There is no talk of using nuclear weapons.
3. It seems that no matter the outcome of the conflict, the government in the country will not change.
4. For Russia, the best outcome of the war is the demilitarization of Ukraine and an agreement with NATO that neither they nor conditional Sweden and Finland will join the alliance.
5. Russia has totally lost info-war, but still any information from both sides should be treated with a great deal of skepticism
War is bad. Very bad. Nobody wants war except sick people. It would be really cool if I just said "No to war" and everyone went away. It is quite easy to talk about this being neither in Russia nor in Ukraine. But it doesn’t work like that, the current war is a fait accompli and we must come to terms with it, learn to live with it and become able to overcome this fact.
Here I will describe what is currently happening in my country. I live in the second largest city in Russia - St. Petersburg. I will try to do this not through morality, moralizing, without appeals to human feelings. I will speak the language of a robot vacuum cleaner. This is probably the surest way to convey information without emotional overtones, because soon the cries of war will be replaced by frowns at the store shelves.
Everyone goes to work, gets the same salary, but because of the decision of many foreign companies to leave Russia, such as IKEA, H&M, etc. left thousands of people out of work, but some companies have left people on the payroll just like they did during the lockdown due to the pandemic.
Food prices began to rise, not significantly yet, but quite noticeably, no one knows when prices will stop rising.
Russian banks have opened new accounts to save people's money at a good interest rate. It is clear that they are collecting cash in order to somehow survive the sanctions that the West has imposed on us. I'm not sure that this money will not burn out the way it did in the 90s. I won't talk about the dollar exchange rate, you yourself can see everything. The people in Russia have become at least 30% poorer.
The main problem is sanctions. Putin has been trying for the last 8 years to bring the country to import substitution, but it is absolutely impossible to do this in such a short time. The shortage of cars, equipment, spare parts is a huge problem. In Russia, there is no microelectronics of its own at all. Russian processors are assembled at TSMC, which banned their production. Russia is a huge country - air and road communications are critical for us, Russia has lost most of its imported cars, but the worst thing is aircraft. The civil aviation industry is not developed in Russia. Almost all planes are Boeings and Airbuses, now their service is impossible for us, we will stupidly not be able to repair planes if these sanctions drag on for more than six months. Also, these companies will not supply spare parts for us. A huge number of directions will disappear. Businesses will not be able to continue to operate, mail, transportation of goods and spare parts within the country.
Disney, Netflix and others are canceling subscriptions and banning the rental of their films, leisure has clearly become worse. YouTube has disabled advertising in the Russian segment and now Russian content makers do not receive money from advertising.
Also, problems will soon arise with high-quality everyday goods, such as clothes, phones, and so on. They just won't be around anymore. A huge shortage greatly raises the price of foreign goods.
The country becomes isolated from the entire Western world. An iron curtain descends from the West and from Russia.
Surely you are most interested in what is happening with the people of Russia.
Russia banned Twitter, but does not ban Telegram, bans independent media, there is information about blocking YouTube and Twitch. Pervasive censorship. Thousands of people take to the streets with the slogan "No to war", but even more support Putin. I noticed that mostly people born after 1991 oppose the war. There are also people who do not support any side and are simply waiting to see what Russia and the West have decided in this situation. People who go to rallies are massively detained. About 10,000 people were put in jail for pickets and rallies. The authorities severely press any opposition, which they have always done.
(I'm posting in a couple of days)
The culture of cancellation and logistical problems is causing more and more companies to leave or stop investing in Russia, and support for Google Pay and Apple Pay in Russia has also ceased. Fortunately, the country has long had its own payment systems. You also know that Visa and Master Card have suspended the activities of cards that were issued by Russian banks, but you probably have not heard that the Chinese Union Pay system will continue to work both in Europe and with our banks, because everyone who is going there in the near future receive these cards. Some countries, like my native Estonia, impose restrictions on tourist visas, but only during the war.
The Russian government still continues to pour information in order to maintain the loyalty of the population to it, for example, information about biological weapons, but as you understand, we cannot now say whether this is true or false.
Food prices continue to rise, but it depends on the country of production. They rose especially strongly on fruits and baby food.
Funny thing - Instagram resets and “installs” the Russian language every morning, looks like the laziest means of expressing protest, but today they allowed to write any aggression, including calls to kill my people on Facebook, having come up with an answer about the need for context about the military.
Every day in different cities there are rallies against the war and every day thousands of people end up in a pre-trial detention center, but now in Russia they have adopted a law stating that you can’t vilify the army online, now they either take it away or write out a fine in the amount of more than teachers’ salaries in regions. There was also a funny case that a priest who held an anti-war service was fined.
That's all for now, if you want to know an opinion about what is happening on the Ukrainian twitter or a personal opinion - you can always write to me on the discord until no one has blocked it. I am extremely glad that the community on Smogon is able to lead a discussion about this conflict, and also that none of us received angry letters, like for example Alexander Ovechkin in the NHL. Thank you.
p.s. after reading the latest posts, I will answer a couple of points of some users
1. In Russia, no one has ever wanted to destroy schools, hospitals, or other important social facilities in Ukrainian cities.
2. There is no talk of using nuclear weapons.
3. It seems that no matter the outcome of the conflict, the government in the country will not change.
4. For Russia, the best outcome of the war is the demilitarization of Ukraine and an agreement with NATO that neither they nor conditional Sweden and Finland will join the alliance.
5. Russia has totally lost info-war, but still any information from both sides should be treated with a great deal of skepticism
FYI the Mail is notoriously inaccurate. There are actual sources in Ukraine that people aren't using in place of really bad western sources
Anyways, Kharkiv Institute's been bombed, marking yet another attack on a nuclear power facility (in this case experimental), which is a violation of international rules of war which Russia signed on to.
Thanks for your reply Mister Tim. That was a good read. Even though we have our own personal opinions on this armed conflict, we can talk about it. Now, would you mind answering some of my questions?
1. You mentioned that people born after 1991 were more against the war. What about older people? Does the more the population get older, more it supports Kremlin politics?
2. Is there inequalities between different Russian people against the sanctions? Surely, metropolitan population are more affected than the Siberian farmer?
3. "It seems that no matter the outcome of the conflict, the government in the country will not change." Is the incertitude wanted here ? Because I think it could refer to both government, Kiev and Moscow?
(I might add more questions, if I think of.)
have a nice day n_n
1. You mentioned that people born after 1991 were more against the war. What about older people? Does the more the population get older, more it supports Kremlin politics?
2. Is there inequalities between different Russian people against the sanctions? Surely, metropolitan population are more affected than the Siberian farmer?
3. "It seems that no matter the outcome of the conflict, the government in the country will not change." Is the incertitude wanted here ? Because I think it could refer to both government, Kiev and Moscow?
(I might add more questions, if I think of.)
have a nice day n_n
Thank you for questions!
1. Yeah, older generation was borned in USSR and in total they are in agreement with politics against Ukraine, idk if you can get photos from anti-war rallies in our country, most of the people in them are current and former students not so long ago. Here it is worth clarifying that the rallies mainly concern this particular conflict, and not because people in Russia live poorly and we are all hostages here, as in any country there are pluses and minuses.
2. I am not ready to answer this question, but I know for sure that after the sanctions of 2014 our agriculture gradually switched to all domestic machines, devices, and so on.
3. I meant about the Russian government. Now it is doing a lot to support families, make it easier to do business, and so on, there is no such thing that the people have completely lost confidence in it, as it was at the beginning of the last century, but of course, after this conflict, trust has fallen somewhat.
Additionally: U.N. secretary general António Guterres reported through the NYTimes as believing that, though unlikely, “[t]he prospect of nuclear war is now back within the realm of possibility” as relations likened to the Cold War begin to develop between NATO countries and Russia.Latest from Al Jareeza said:
It's not difficult to see why widespread sanctions on the Russian population could be an effective strategy in fuelling the appetite for a regime change within Russia though. Right now there is a huge information war between the messages that Putin wants the people of Russia to know, and the messages that the rest of the world wants the people of Russia to know. Sport absolutely has a huge part to play here since it something that is so ingrained in the majority of people's lives. It's obviously unfair for these athletes who committed no crime to be banned from competing, but as an anti war strategy in this instance there's no question that it is effective, and arguably one of the most ethical form of sanctions that can be used against Russia in this war. Banning their athletes wont devastate their economy in the way that the other types of sanctions threaten.
Is it really, though? What do you think drives support for strongmen like Putin? The Russian economy was shambles after the collapse of the Soviet Union and "liberalization", with mass unemployment and runaway inflation and plummeting life expectancy, and Russian political prestige was at an all-time low. Putin's whole self-marketing is that he brought back stability and power to a Russia that was being unfairly targeted and exploited by the west, and that a strongman at helm is needed to avoid a repeat of the 90s. Much of the anti-Putin opposition is still nationalistic, and I would think that random acts of anti-Russian prejudice and ""sanctions"" fuel Putin's calls for national unity and strong leadership instead. You're not only doubly victimizing people who are victimized in their own country too if they're not vocally pro-war, but you're also turning Russian public opinion against the west with anti-Russian hysteria.
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Why do you believe that banning a war mongering country's athletes from competing in events with the rest of the world is anti-Russian hysteria? It is as much a show of solidarity from the rest of the world to the people of Ukraine - who's athletes are now unable to compete in in these events due to Russia's invasion - as it is an anti war message against Russia. Sport doesn't have as much of a material outcome on the lives of anyone really as most things do, but the message is much further reaching and more ethical than the multitude of other sanctions that are being imposed.
Btw - if Russia were allowed to compete in their world cup playoff match against Poland and potentially qualify for the tournament, while Ukraine are unable to play their playoff match against Scotland due to Russia's invasion - thus being eliminated -, that would absolutely fuel more anti-Russian sentiment in the west than the outright ban of Russia from competing has.
Of course it would, and of course Ukraine being disqualified would be unfair. But that was not your initial point - you said "as an anti war strategy in this instance there's no question that it is effective". I'm telling you how Russian people, even if they were anti-Putin and anti-war, might be further drawn towards Putin's narrative by unrelated ""sanctions"" put up just because they're Russian.
I don't see what's "ethical" about banning individuals just because they happened to be born in a country.
I think it's ethically nonsense, politically probably counter-productive, and motivated by a desire to do something just because institutions feel like/are under pressure to do something, without further thought about that something. That's hysteria.
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The motivation for banning Russia from competing doesn't look anything like that at all. You cannot allow a war mongering country to sportswash in front of a worldwide audience that the world cup or olympics for example would provide. Ukrainian football has already been suspended indefinitely due to the war as it is, how would their people feel to tune in to the world cup and see Russia competing while their country has been forced to withdraw? There are so many layers beyond doing something "just because" that you're way off the mark here.
I mean look at high profile Russian athletes such Andre Rublev who have been actively opposing Putin and promoting anti war stances due pressure from tournament organisers - the reach of these athletes is in the hundreds of thousands/millions of followers on social media, plus the coverage they garner from media outlets worldwide. Sport has got to be one of the most effective ways to reach masses of people with the type of information that would be denied to them by the Russian government. In my view that's a hugely effective tool in keeping Russia's population on side with the anti-war message, and in demand of the regime change that is required.
Dumb asshole Russians have changed their "goal" from regime change to focusing on taking the Donbas region. "We planned this the whole time" the idiots say. "This isn't defeat, it's alternative victory!"
Just look at this pretty map full of Russians retreating from the Ukrainian capitol and Zelenskyy's troops advancing outward in every direction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_...dia/File:2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine.svg
Meanwhile sanctions are slaughtering Russia's economy and elements of the Russia government are showing strained relations with Putin. 18,000 Russian soldiers are dead and well over 2,000 armored vehicles have been destroyed. These losses are absolutely mammoth and show how much of a disaster this has been for Russia.
Maybe we're learning that decades of Russian / Soviet army propaganda was all lies after all.
Just look at this pretty map full of Russians retreating from the Ukrainian capitol and Zelenskyy's troops advancing outward in every direction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_...dia/File:2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine.svg
Meanwhile sanctions are slaughtering Russia's economy and elements of the Russia government are showing strained relations with Putin. 18,000 Russian soldiers are dead and well over 2,000 armored vehicles have been destroyed. These losses are absolutely mammoth and show how much of a disaster this has been for Russia.
Maybe we're learning that decades of Russian / Soviet army propaganda was all lies after all.
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