Russia/Ukraine Megathread V5

[Anewt]

The official US policy on this matter is that if American officials or military personnel are ever tried by the International Criminal Court they're going to invade the Netherlands

Wow.. well.. um .. wow learned another thing today...

Cheers

 

[Bald1]

Non-russian foreigners who come here and speak Russian with us, becase they assume that's what we do here, should burn in hell.

I don't mind Russians who come here from actual Russia, i'll gladly respond in Russian and be nice, but I'm not bending the knee for someone who has lived here for decades and can't even say please and thank you, mostly not because they don't know how, but out of stubborness.

With local Russians I always speak latvian, and often they respond in Russian. We understand eachother, don't hurt eachothers pride, and all is well.

My dad and my wife showed respect to this country and learned the language. With examples like this in my life, it's hard for me to accept others not doing it.

The very least you can do is learn the fucking language. The lack of such basic courtesy legit pisses me off and I'm not shy about expressing that in real life. Yet we have people here who barely speak any English after living in Canada for a decade.

 

[Zinger]

Our comrade @Zinger stated that the balance has already shifted to the pure-Latvian population.

Yeah, the current plan of the government is to stop all education (even pre-school) in Russian language by 2028.

Also, our president has expressed his desire to remove the teaching of Russian language from the curriculum and replace it with french or spanish. Since he wants us to be more European.

But on the streets Russians have to switch to latvian anyway, since my generation's Russian (I was born in '96) is pretty trash in general.

There is a saying: If in one room there are 9 latvians and one Russian, all the latvians will start speaking russian. Now it has become obsolete simply because we don't know how to speak russian anymore, lol

This 100% is the case with english speakers though. We're submissive as fuck.

 

[idrankyourbeer]

oh shit. theyre already getting pushed out of controlled territory

any minute now we're probably gonna have another dead russian general. this one decided to accidentally fall out of a window!

 

[Rholk]

For those interested about Russian "hypersonic" missiles, they're pretty much a nothing burger

 

[idrankyourbeer]

Non-russian foreigners who come here and speak Russian with us, becase they assume that's what we do here, should burn in hell.

I don't mind Russians who come here from actual Russia, i'll gladly respond in Russian and be nice, but I'm not bending the knee for someone who has lived here for decades and can't even say please and thank you, mostly not because they don't know how, but out of stubborness.

With local Russians I always speak latvian, and often they respond in Russian. We understand eachother, don't hurt eachothers pride, and all is well.

My dad and my wife showed respect to this country and learned the language. With examples like this in my life, it's hard for me to accept others not doing it.

other than nyet and da, the only russian word i know is сука. i wouldnt have a good time out anywhere near russia

but i would get murdered within a day if you put me in india. even though i'm whiter than fred durst, i can swear like a sailor in hindi. i can tell you a good 30 things off the top of my head to put up your asshole or inside of your mothers pussy. i work with a bunch of hindus and they've long since corrupted me. they try to teach me some good things too but i find that the good words and sentences are much harder for me to pronounce and remember than the dirty ones. the way i see it, it should be the other way around. i figure it should be easier for me to say thank you to somebody than it is to tell them to go fuck a thousand whores, but thats not the way it is. at least thats not how i've been picking up on it.

ive literally been chomping at the bit this last year for an east indian phone scammer to call me just so i can give that bhenchod a piece of my mind, but it hasnt happened yet. the only spam calls i've been getting have all been automated. these scammers are getting lazy.

 

[boxingskills]

 

[rob mafia]

I wonder if the actions Russia took in January in Kazakhstan made them a bit overconfident.

In Kazakhstan, Russia sent troops to protect the president from being over thrown. Many were killed. Thousands were arrested.

That's much different than going into a country in the hopes of overthrowing the current president.

maybe. those were spetsnaz, though. the spetsnaz' capability was never in much question, they're pretty gg. the rest of the military, however...

 

[hitcher]

I think he wants Crimea back at the very least.

They are not getting Crimea back, unless Putin has another similar sized Harbor in the Black Sea.

 

[Dexter]

maybe. those were spetsnaz, though. the spetsnaz' capability was never in much question, they're pretty gg. the rest of the military, however...

Actually, there were Airborne Forces there: units from 31st, 45th and 98th brigades. It’s meaningless to use soldiers from spetznaz (GRU special purpose brigades) for these types of tasks, because they are trained for long-range recon and sabotage, not peace-keeping/combined arms operations.

 

[The Todd]

Its nice to see candace win one.

 

[Darkballs]

Its nice to see candace win one.

She cited an opinion piece that's six years old as justification for fellating Putin.

You saw that as a win?

 

[SandisLL]

Yeah, the current plan of the government is to stop all education (even pre-school) in Russian language by 2028.

Also, our president has expressed his desire to remove the teaching of Russian language from the curriculum and replace it with french or spanish. Since he wants us to be more European.

I don't think that reason is political, Latvia loves to hide real resons.
I think it is too low number of teachers available cos private sector is paying more than public sector and educated ppl with high level skills in multiple languages are in demand in private sector.
Ofc there is comfortable to hide this and claim that they want to be more western.
Btw this initiative in no case comes from president.
Latvian PM and president even were willing to buy electricity from new Belarussian NPP power plant.
German and Lithuanian lobby prevented to do this.
Latvia even today is helping to balance peak load in russian energy system.
Also Gasprom& Rhurgas uses natural gas storage in Latvia: when in summer demand is low, gas is pumped in storage and in winter it is pumped back to Russia to help provide gas supplies in Russia.
Beacuase natural gas " mining " should be constant but demand is volatile, gas storages are valuable for this business.

 

[Videer]

For those interested about Russian "hypersonic" missiles, they're pretty much a nothing burger

No one tell hypersonic Khinzal hypemen about Skybolt from 50's or Bold Orion.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

I don't know where you get the idea that most of the rest of the world is on Russia's side. Not denying it to be fair and I've done plenty of bellyaching in these threads about the double standards in regards to military interventions by the West when compared to Russia and also how the non-West generally views geopolitics more cynically than the West.

From interacting with a lot of non-Westerners and international news sources - mainstream and otherwise. Also from looking at the results of the UN resolution, with the understanding that the West applied a great deal of pressure to get smaller nations to agree with them, as well as understanding that some nations (like India and China) have their own internal issues that will colour any vote that pertains to separatists or notions of independence.
I also said that most of the world sympathises with their position - not that they're on the Russians' side completely. Obviously, no one can come out and cheer for the Russians' killing of Ukrainians, but pretty much everyone recognises NATO for what it is. And, as I said, only once the actual killing and tsunami of predominantly Western propaganda has passed will we really start to see honesty floating to the surface.

Look at India, the world's largest democracy, one of tomorrow's most important and powerful countries, and home to 1.4 billion people. The ruling, nationalist party refused to condemn Russia, and from the sidelines, the communists condemned NATO expansion. Speak to actual Indians, and half of them have long seen Putin as some sort of hero (they also loved Trump, for what it's worth).
China's being cautious, but do you really doubt that the Chinese sympathise with Russia's position? Either at the party or street level? That's another 1.4 billion people.
Here in Africa, most countries were pressured into condemning Russia, but you're crazy if you don't think that a lot of actual Africans see Putin as standing up against the colonial Western powers on behalf of the world. That's another 2 billion people split on the subject.

So, for example, look at this Nigerian article on the issue. Note, Nigeria voted against Russia and this article actually takes a somewhat pro-Ukraine position, but it still spends much of its word count condemning the Western powers and speaking very highly of Russia:

First, in taking sides in the intra-European squabble, we have lost the opportunity to play the needed mediatory role and lost relevance in the resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Secondly, we lost sight of the fact that unlike the West, Russia has never constituted a threat to Nigeria or Africa. Thirdly, the Buhari administration displayed a lack of historical knowledge. The defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, which was inherited by Russia, was in the forefront of the global struggles against colonialism. It applied pressure that colonies like Nigeria must be freed. Even while being colonised, the Soviets and their allies provided thousands of Nigerians scholarship to ensure an independent Nigeria has the trained manpower required to run a new country.

Nigeria as the giant of Africa forgets that in the event of a conflict between a NATO member and an African country, like the one brewing between Mali and neo-colonial France, the Europeans will collectively fight against the African country. It forgets that with the shortage of gas from Russia, desperate European countries will turn on countries like Nigeria for gas they will want virtually for free even if it means subverting us or removing a non-compliant government. This is our experience.

That's a mainstream Nigerian outlet, openly speaking about the potential for war with a Western power. Nigeria's a leading producers of oil and the strongest country on the continent. Mine is the second strongest, and we abstained from condemning Russia - with on-the-ground opinions predominantly appearing to sympathise more with the Russian perspective.

I know I complain about it a lot, but the Western perspective has wrapped itself in headlines from news sources that have proven themselves to be untrustworthy - and yet, in the midst of a war, Westerners somehow think that the purveyors of those headlines would choose right now to start being honest.
I'm not saying that the non-Western world is gearing up for a conflict or that everyone outside of the West is united in some wall of defiance against the West. Nothing as wild-eyed as that. But, in the West, you guys seem completely blind to what's going on in the majority of the world, and you tend to take very short-term perspectives on things. There was already a widespread and pre-existing distrust of the West and affection for Russia before this all popped off. Some people flat-out condemn Russia and some people praise them - but most are somewhere in the middle, sympathising with Russia's perspective, but regretting that blood is being shed. But, when the blood is no longer being shed, many will have to deal with the reality that they still have to trade, Russia is an important trading partner, and the West has tried to make it impossible to trade with Russia. They may also be reminded how much absolutely everyone hates the Western style of economic war and how much more of a threat it is to most countries' national sovereignty than the potential of Russian invasion.
As long as the fight is about Ukraine vs Russia, Russia looks bad - but the more people become aware that it's about Russia's national interests vs the West's globalist interests, the more they sympathise with Russia. Given how many people already sympathise with Russia, that doesn't bode well for the West.

I assume that that is why the West is trying to drag out the fight and pile up Ukrainian bodies - because, in truth, none are more cynical geopolitical players than the Western powers, and the more the bodies stack up, the better this war achieves the only real objective they appear to be trying to achieve: a PR win over Russia.

I also don't agree that Russia gets nothing vital from the West. Technology transfers are a big deal and we can see how some high tech gadgets sent to Ukraine are allowing it to disrupt the Russian war effort based on outdated tech and tactics. Not enough to save them of course buts its a key lesson here. Foreign investment is also important and this crisis is going to reduce confidence in the Russian market.

"Technology transfer" is a very vague concept on its own, and this is a very short-sighted perspective. Russia's technological capacity is underestimated in the West and they're aligned to one of the most powerful economies and manufacturing bases in the world. Considering the technological gaps both countries have closed (and overtaken, in a few areas) in a pretty short space of time, I think it's a mistake to assume that they won't further close the gap, eliminating their current reliance on the West. More likely, China will benefit from Russian technology as Russia becomes more reliant on the Chinese economy.

What the Western side has done in Ukraine is essentially armed and trained insurgents (as well as giving guns to swathes of civilians) to slow the Russian invasion of a country that the Russians would prefer not to completely flatten - Russia's "outdated tactics" are the tactics of not completely demolishing a country in the attempt to submit it, that's obviously going to be tougher than the Western tactic of annihilating the infrastructure and leaving the country in ruins.
The Western media's also done a good job of trying to focus everyone's attention on Kiev, when the important fighting has always been going on in the East.

Foreign investment is going to be a big problem. But, again, we'll see. As I say, my feeling is that Russia's long-established international relations will help it, as will their centrality to the Eurasian integration project - something that promises to benefit almost the entirety of the developing world, and so is far too important to sacrifice over bad PR and a kerfuffle in Europe. Russia is pretty self-sufficient, and they've long had to deal with meh foreign market opportunities outside of energy.

There is a general anti-West bloc forming here behind Russia with countries like China and India either remaining neutral or tacitly helping the Russians. And even among the West there are leaders who are sympathetic to Russia like Orban. But overall I think this excursion is going to be a long term strategic failure even if short to medium term objectives are achieved

This has been a long and ongoing project. But the West doesn't appear to really recognise it.
The anti-Western bloc forming behind Russia is not anti-Western, it's pro-Eurasian and pro-having an alternative economic order to the one built, maintained, and sometimes weaponsied by the "collective West". It will become anti-Western if the West does not control its impulse to destroy this potential rival. It's probably too late to prevent this rising power bloc, so it's a good time for the West to stop behaving as though only its interests matter.

Because, setting aside who's lining up behind who with the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the West likely cannot win any form of confrontation with this rising power.

 

[hitcher]

A war roomer should start one. Punk, indie or alternate?

? They are all the same?

 

[Rholk]

Ukraine actually making some gains northwest of Kiev, would be asounding if they actually managed to cut off the Russian front at Kiev,

 

[Yotsuya]

I always expect fair and balanced analysis of these things by the media we consume. You know, look at the stories of bravery of Ukrainians resisting Russian invasion as compared to the number of stories about bravery of Iraqis resisting a Yankee invasion. I think it's perfectly even in the media here. Certainly there is no bias.

Iraqis were getting their asses kicked from day one because US military does not suck. The Iraqi bravery was much about doing stuff like mass night-time assaults on US positions while getting killed by hundreds by soldiers with night vision with zero casualties to Americans. That's not heroic, that's nauseating and stupid.

. Putin is looking for a out: No, I don't think so. He still wants the Ukraine and will get it. He will not 'lose face' over this.
. Russia is losing: Round #1. We have 11 more rounds to go.
. Russia is running out of missiles: Not running out. Their logistics sucks. They will get replacements.
. Russia is getting crushed by sanctions: Yes, it is. The war will continue.
. Russian military is running out of ammo and food: Logistics again. They suck at it. They will get both eventually, either by truck or airdrop.

* Does the Russian Army suck? Yes. Will they still take over the Ukraine? Yes. The sooner Putin gets taken out, the sooner this will be over.

I think even that video might be too optimistic because as far as I know the army needs a contract from conscripts to send them to the front unless there's a draft. I'm sure the pressure will increase to get those signatures and all measured available in totalitarian state will be used, but that increases poor morale even further.

 

[Rholk]

- "It's fired"
- "Retreat"
- "Stinger !"
- Didn't understand that part
- "Son of a bitch"
- He is repeating "lets get out of here"

 

[Yotsuya]

Ukraine actually making some gains northwest of Kiev, would be asounding if they actually managed to cut off the Russian front at Kiev,

Russia is probably retreating from the north. They have given up on Kiev and try to hold on what they've got so far and maybe take Mariupol and Odessa.