kanisatha

Yeah. Particularly heartbreaking was reading through the descrptions of how Russian troops were given explict permission, and even encouragement, to commit rape, and this included girls of very young ages who were gang-raped and then killed and their bodies burned to try and cover up the evidence.

Documentation of systematic warcrimes by Russia at the UN yesterday. The details are pretty horrific, and the evidence clearly shows these acts were not idiosyncratic but rather the result of Russian soldiers having been instructed to engage in them. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/04/28/Ukrainians-executed-Russian-war-crimes/7051651120048/ https://www.businessinsider.com/evidence-russia-executing-ukrainians-trying-to-surrender-us-official-2022-4

Yeah, second quarter of 2023 at the earliest, though I'm guessing even later than that.

They were based in and operating out of Moscow through the first week of the war. Only after Putin began to enact decrees crushing independent news reporting in Russia did they move their operations to Amsterdam, an eminently sensible and reasonable thing to do.

And then there's this as well, something that I predicted will end up being Putin's endgame here: seize as much territory as he can from Ukraine, and then try to force a ceasefire and a deal on Ukraine that makes his land-grab permanent. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/04/25/putin-drops-peace-talks-in-favor-of-ukraine-land-grab-ft-a77475 Also rather amazing that The Moscow Times has been able to get away with publishing things like this in recent days. They also published a casualties figure for the Russian military a few days ago admitting something along the lines of 20k dead/missing.

Well the Russians themselves said something a couple of weeks ago about doing to Moldova (and possibly also Georgia) what they're doing to Ukraine, and I mentioned it here. And then a Russian general made similar claims recently, as the "next phase" of the war after they take the Donbas: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61188943 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/world/skepticism-greets-a-bold-russian-claim-about-war-aims-based-on-its-source.html

Yes this is what I meant to say as well, if that wasn't clear, that racism can be a factor but it is not THE factor.

Sure. But it also clearly is a self-inflicted wound for Germany. And these Germany-Russia/Putin ties, including through the entirety of Merkel's reign, are very real too. Here are a couple of more articles from yesterday on even the SPD and high-ranking Social Democrat officials privately and publicly venting about these ties and backroom deals, and referring to it all as "blood money" (their terminology): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/germanys-spd-calls-on-gerhard-schroder-to-resign-over-russia-links https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-social-democrat-gerhard-schroder-out/

Exactly. It isn't race but rather "the other" who arrives later that is the issue, no matter the race of "the other." So white English and French immigrants to America did not like Italian and Irish immigrants even though they were white too. Then, ironically, those Italian and Irish immigrants did not like it when Polish and Russian immigrants arrived. It's why today a large majority of latinos in America are so strongly opposed to the current 'open borders' situation, because the existing latino poplation is mainly of Mexican or Cuban origin and they don't like the current immigrants who are from Central America. And Indian immigrants don't like immigrants from other parts of South Asia, and Japanese immigrants don't like immigrants from Korea and China. And so on.

A solid analysis of the evolving Indian position on Russia and the war: https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2022/04/25/india_and_the_us_navigate_their_differences_828922.html

Some current German op-eds about Germany, the SDP, and Russia/Putin that I found rather fascinating: https://capx.co/what-is-behind-germanys-shameful-reluctance-to-help-ukraine/ https://www.eurointelligence.com/column/germanys-duplicitous-chancellor I would especially like to hear the thoughts/reactions of the Germans here.

Is that specifically directed at Owlcat (for some reason), or a 'Russia' thing? I'm genuinely curious to know. I myself am troubled by the prospect of sending my dollars to Russia, as miniscule an amount as it may be.

Co-op was just added so they will need some time to fix and fine-tune things. The camera issues have been around for a while. They've tried to make some improvements, but ultimately I think this is one area where their limited resources will allow only so much.

With an estimate of over 9,000 bodies in them. But more to come, as the civilian dead in Mariupol are estimated at over 20,000.

As @Malcador said, a Le Pen win would be so much fun to watch unfold, especially watching the heads of Western elites exploding, but for me her plan to withdraw France from the NATO military command structure and her pro-Putin/anti-Ukraine positions are just too stupid to accept.

Yeah I just saw this on the Owlcat forum. My take is that under their current circumstances they are not in a position right now to transition to their next new game. But they have bills to pay and want to keep their people employed, so they're treading water by working on more DLCs for their current game until things (hopefully) get better. Seems like a good strategy to me. But I wonder how the sanctions affect their ability to sell to customers in sanctioning countries.

"Comrade, do you want the pill, or the pistol?"

Yes but this is saying the US government is now committed to proactively doing things to effectively deny Russia victory. From a governmental policy standpoint, it is fundamentally different. And it is huge. Useful to also note that just today a new poll showed that a solid majority of Americans believe the president is not doing enough against Russia and in support of Ukraine. And political pressure on the Administration on this issue is now very much bipartisan and not just Republicans.

This is the million dollar question. And I fear my own answer to it. You may have noticed in recent days an uptick in references by Ukrainian officials including Zelenskiy re. Putin's plans for the use of nukes in Ukraine. Well, that, I fear, will be Putin's endgame here. He will seize as much Ukrainian territory as he can, not only in the Donbass but also in southern Ukraine, and then once his forces no longer can successfully operate on offence and/or Ukrainian forces are shifting to offence, he will demand a ceasefire that effectively cedes all that occupied territory to Russia and threaten to use nukes against Ukraine if Ukraine refuses to accept his fait accompli.

Yeah, you know, just yesterday I saw a news story in which a senior security official in the Biden Administration was quoted as saying that US policy is now to ensure that Russia "does not win" in Ukraine, effectively a denial strategy against Russia. I hope this is true, because then I would finally have something to cheer about.

All of this, yes. But also just the attitude and mentality of: (a) I can do this and get away with it, and nobody can stop me; and (b) I get to do nasty things to someone "inferior" to me that I don't like, and put them in their place.

Correct. And this is something the West will soon need to get a grip on, because even relatively minor states like North Korea and Iran will soon begin to try and use the possession of nukes as leverage to demand and take what they want and "deterrence" against retaliation for their bad behavior. Like anyone else, I have no wish to see nukes getting used by any state, but at the same time it bothers me like crazy that our Western leaders and governments are so very sensitive to the prospect of Russia escalating to using nukes that they end up tip-toeing around Putin and his criminal behavior. Too damn sensitive, imo.

More details are available on this, that across southern Ukraine where Russia still occupies Ukrainian territory, people are being coerced or conned by the Russians into giving up their personal information, giving up their Ukrainian IDs and passports, and signing documents supporting the Russian installed "government" and calling for a secessionist referendum. Well, these areas are not part of the Donbass, so how does Russia justify annexing these regions? Russia's game here is entirely a sham. This is just a blatant land-grab. There are no principles, or even national/security interests involved. It's just an 18th or 19th or early-20th centurey style land-grad, based purely on the notion that stronger countries can take whatever they want from their weaker neighbors.

I read it's 300 defenders still left.

Saw this myself in wire service reports. Blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of people under your occupation. But what's even more shocking is that there are credible reports that Russian troops are threatening and forcing people to be drafted into Russian military service in parts of Russian-occupied Moldova and Georgia as well.