Why stop at just their own country's government? Why not apply this logic to the entire world and every one of its horrible issues? Why isn't everyone everywhere just constantly risking their own life/happiness at basically all times to stop this type of behavior? Why are you not over there right now fighting this tyranny? I mean apparently normal people have the power to change this type of stuff pretty easily without any risk of harm to self?
/s
So here's the thing: this already happened a good 30 years ago all over eastern Europe. Nobody said it's easy. But to let ruSSians off the hook and say "well they'd be imprisoned for speaking up and it doesn't change a thing"... nope we all seen that it is possible to topple the whole fucking eastern block if the peoples want to.
And it's not only eastern EU 30 years ago, the Vietnam war was also stopped by a people having had enough of it. Sure in a democracy, but they were also jailed and beaten in the beginning.
Nobody has ever claimed it would be easy or painless for the Russian people to bring change to Russia.
That however doesn't mean the rest of this continent shouldn't be doing what it can to nudge them into taking that step, we've had over 30 years of Russians having the chance of reconciling with their own past while enjoying relatively open relations with the rest of Europe, and it's still lead up to this. Instead, Russia is now embracing fascism on a wider scale.
Also American aid was pouring into Russia back then, no matter how they try to downplay it.
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It is too easy to remind those Turkic/Muslim 'stans in Central Asia just what China is doing to their own Turkic/Muslim minority.
They will deal with China, but I suspect they might not want to get too cosy.
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So, apparently there were no US weapons used to hit Crimea, I would obviously be a bit sceptical but there's two countries who know if Ukraine has that range: the US and Ukraine, if the US says "we didn't give them weapons with that range", one has to wonder what's going on there.
Another article
https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1558140093759643657
Probably first the best it remains a mystery, especially to the Russians. If they don't know what happened then they would be worried that it could happen again.
I have this feeling that the Ukraine is about to start pushing Russia back and then across the border....
Honestly, the explosions going off inside Russia should be more concerning to Russia than an oncoming army. You can see an oncoming army and put things in the way. Stopping an artillery shell, missile strike, or probably more and more often saboteur is harder.
Has anyone seen our favorite turnip muncher? No? Probably couldn't pay his electric bill. Russian Economy Contracts Sharply as War and Sanctions Take Hold
Yeah so every expert posted the same thing and I cited them: Russia was prepared for the initial shock and was able to rig its own currency market. Problem was, Ukraine didn't immediately disintegrate, and Russia could only hold itself up for so long. They can still sell oil and gas, but less of it -- the EU is about to turn the spigot off, and it's unlikely China or India will take it all at a high price when they have no reason to. But they're running out of ingredients to make pretty much anything else except mail-order brides and troll farms. Oh, and all that stuff they did to prop up their economy? Spiked inflation. We've seen reports that the US had a record-breaking 8.5% inflation recently. Ouch! Thing is, Russia at the same time was at 15%.The economy shrank 4 percent from April through June compared with a year earlier, the Russian statistics agency said on Friday. It is the first quarterly gross domestic product report to fully capture the change in the economy since the invasion of Ukraine in February. It was a sharp reversal from the first quarter, when the economy grew 3.5 percent.
Western sanctions, which cut off Russia from about half of its $600 billion emergency stash of foreign currency and gold reserves, imposed steep restrictions on dealings with Russian banks and cut access to American technology, prompting hundreds of major Western corporations to pull out of the country.
But even as imports to Russia dried up and financial transactions were blocked, forcing the country to default on its foreign debt, the Russian economy proved more resilient than some economists had initially expected, and the fall in G.D.P. reported on Friday was not as severe as some had expected in part because the country’s coffers were flush with energy revenue as global prices rose.
Analysts, though, say the economic toll will grow heavier as Western nations increasingly turn away from Russian oil and gas, critical sources of export revenue.
“We thought it would be a deep dive this year and then even out,” Laura Solanko, a senior adviser at the Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition, said of the Russian economy. Instead, there has been a milder economic decline, but it will continue into next year, putting the economy in a shallower recession for two years, she said.
Michael S. Bernstam, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said the data released on Friday were in line with other reports from Russia. He, too, expects the economy to deteriorate in the second half of this year, and then again in 2023.
The IMF believes Russia will have 12-15% inflation through the year, and not return to GDP growth until 2025. And from the looks of things...Ukraine might still be fighting back then.
So $10bn more being made available to the Russian war effort. I can see that going well......
"So what are you going to do with the $8bn I'm giving you."
"Don't worry comrade, I can assure you that you'll get the full $6bn worth of equipment. Let me talk to my suppliers"
"Absolutely, $4bn worth of kit, on it's way. What do you mean, you only received $2bn worth of it?"
When challenging a Kzin, a simple scream of rage is sufficient. You scream and you leap.
Originally Posted by George CarlinOriginally Posted by Douglas Adams
lol @ the LPR commander crying about not having any gear and having rounded up all the fighting men they are now sending him people with serious illnesses and old people.