Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Elegiac]

I'm not sure kicking off WWIII is really in China's best interests.

You know what the big irony is?

China is likely to continue doing to Russia what Russia did to the Ottoman Empire. Taking advantage of its decline and reaping the benefits of conflict between it and its breakaway states.

Banks did fail in Germany in 2008 (HRE had to be nationalized in the end).

The difference is people aren't claiming the German economy was good in 2008. You're claiming that the Russian economy is fine.

[YUPPIE]

Stinks when your heroes let you down.

vlad was counting on his support, evidently

[DarkTZeratul]

what the hell is Xi Jinping doing, though? He hasn't invaded Taiwan yet in this distraction despite all the fears, and he hasn't provided substantial, if any, aid to Vlad's conquest.

Because there's no good reason to do either of those things.

[Shalcker]

Meanwhile troops from Donetsk arrive into Ukrainian Melitopol to serve as police force.

That is likely to be a pattern for the rest of Ukraine; Russian army cleans up military and then LNR/DNR keep dissenters down.

[Mihalik]

Some bullshit followed by some horseshit

Yo Shillcker.

Why did you guys invade and start a war again? Why are you murdering people? Why are you bombing cities, hospitals, schools and apartment buildings?

[Elegiac]

It's at 0.0084 right now; it never was at 0.0075 so far (lowest was 0.0079).

Stop lying.

[Mihalik]

Meanwhile troops from Donetsk arrive into Ukrainian Melitopol to serve as police force.

That is likely to be a pattern for the rest of Ukraine; Russian army cleans up military and then LNR/DNR keep dissenters down.

Oh...so after overthrowing a democratically elected government you'll just have a small ethnic militia do some "policing"? Neato.

Who are the Nazis again here?

[MCMLXXXII]

Stop lying.

Western propaganda. MoD says the ruble is glorious. It's so glorious we have to protect it from foreign interference. That's why we closed MoEx.

[Elegiac]

Oh...so after overthrowing a democratically elected government you'll just have a small ethnic militia do some "policing"? Neato.

It's also laughable.

Pacifying Ukraine would require the deployment of the entirety of its army including reserves. It's not doable with the economy in freefall and domestic dissent on the rise, let alone by a bunch of fascists being funded as proxies.

There are no winners in this situation. Besides China and the US.

[DarkTZeratul]

TLDR: Russia's military capabilities have constantly been hindered by massive levels of corruption in the Russian defense sector - corruption which still has not been resolved and is a massive factor in why its performance in Ukraine has been such a circus.

I don't think it's been linked here, but there's a guy on Reddit who was a Russian conscript a couple years ago and did an AMA (his proof of claims is his own Reddit post history from when he was drafted; take that as you will):
https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/...n_unfantry_in/

He paints a very clear picture of a military designed for form over function, to look good to the higher-ups rather than to actually be an effective force. One example he gives is when Russia dictated that a million rubles should be spent purchasing new winter coats for their soldiers. Of that million, nine hundred thousand was skimmed by various higher ups and middle men, leaving only a hundred thousand for coats... And what a hundred thousand buys is not brand new coats, but old coats that are stained, patched, and tattered from their previous owners, may or may not fit right, and aren't even had in sufficient quantities for everyone.

[MCMLXXXII]

Oh...so after overthrowing a democratically elected government you'll just have a small ethnic militia do some "policing"? Neato.

Who are the Nazis again here?

Ethnic militia who are totally not backed by russia since at least 2014. MoD said so.

[YUPPIE]

Because there's no good reason to do either of those things.

he said he will invade taiwan, eventually, in his lifetime. So the whole time I was counting on this to be it, especially with the statement they knew of Russia's Ukraine invasion before the Olypmics.

[Milchshake]

he is on equal footing with hitler now in atrocities. I remember when people were in denial of this even before the comparisons rose, but people don't believe how many people Putin has killed even before Ukraine.

Only if you ignore the Holocaust and other atrocities unique to Hitler.

The Qiao Collective and Xi's other other useful idiots, find it useful to ignore or minimize the Holocaust. Helps them to handwave the genocide being committed against Uighurs.

[Elegiac]

he said he will invade taiwan, eventually, in his lifetime.

You have a really hard time distinguishing propaganda from foreign policy, apparently.

[uuuhname]

what the hell is Xi Jinping doing, though? He hasn't invaded Taiwan yet in this distraction despite all the fears, and he hasn't provided substantial, if any, aid to Vlad's conquest.

because he's not planning on invading Taiwan??? how many times does it need to be explained to you; if China was planning on a conventional invasion of Taiwan, we'd have known about it by now.. because you can't hide an entire invasion force from satellites... stop, just stop jerking that WWIII boner, it's so disturbing.

[Elegiac]

I don't think it's been linked here, but there's a guy on Reddit who was a Russian conscript a couple years ago and did an AMA (his proof of claims is his own Reddit post history from when he was drafted; take that as you will):
https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/...n_unfantry_in/

He paints a very clear picture of a military designed for form over function, to look good to the higher-ups rather than to actually be an effective force. One example he gives is when Russia dictated that a million rubles should be spent purchasing new winter coats for their soldiers. Of that million, nine hundred thousand was skimmed by various higher ups and middle men, leaving only a hundred thousand for coats... And what a hundred thousand buys is not brand new coats, but old coats that are stained, patched, and tattered from their previous owners, may or may not fit right, and aren't even had in sufficient quantities for everyone.

Let's also not forget the FSB leak.

From (sic) the cynical, I will only add that I do not believe that VV Putin will press the red button to destroy the whole world.

Firstly, there is more than one person making a decision, at least someone will jump off. And there are a lot of people there - there is no "one-man red button".

Secondly, there are some doubts that everything is functioning successfully there. Experience shows that the greater the transparency and control, the easier it is to identify shortcomings. And where it is not clear who controls and how, but always bravura reports - everything is always wrong there. I'm not sure if the red button system works as advertised. In addition, the plutonium charge must be changed every 10 years.

[DarkTZeratul]

he said he will invade taiwan, eventually, in his lifetime.

Oh, well, if he said it, it MUST be true. He couldn't possibly have been lying. That would be wrong.

[YUPPIE]

Only if you ignore the Holocaust and other atrocities unique to Hitler.

The Qiao Collective and Xi's other other useful idiots, find it useful to ignore or minimize the Holocaust. Helps them to handwave the genocide being committed against Uighurs.

how different would the world be now if, after the surrender of Imperial Japan, America forcibly absorbed China and Russia after all three parties were exhausted? People might say "this is crazy fucking shit, America is a democracy!" But we knew what both regimes were like even then under Stalin and Mao. We were never friendly. Look what's come out of it since then. Genocides, suppression of free will, possible WW3

[Xarkan]

Banks did fail in Germany in 2008 (HRE had to be nationalized in the end).

Perhaps Germans are aware that EU regulations have placed certain requirements on banks and financial institutions so they have more fat to protect themselves in cold seasons that did not exist in 2008 (and in fact exist because of events around that time)

[Verdugo]

While watching Shalcker having meltdown from impotent rage can be satisfying, I think its time mods do their job and ban his sorry ass.