Ukraine Conflict - Alle Dinge unterliegen Interpretation je nachdem, was Interpretation zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt herrscht, ist eine Funktion der Macht und nicht die Wahrheit

[Gfted1]

Everyone knows never trust a person that plays the Sims in a wig.

[kanisatha]

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.

[kanisatha]

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

[majestic]

1 hour ago, kanisatha said:

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.

Scholz, like every German chancellor before him in recent memory, is beholden to the powerful German industrial lobby, and facing an economic downturn in the middle of high inflation would be hugely unpopular. That's all there is to it. Natural gas is a major component of heavy industry (and agriculture, and a whole lot of other stuff besides heating), and Germany just won't work without it. Other nations around it also refused any gas embargo, it's just Germany that gets the flack for it. Why? Who knows. Hating on Germany is an ever popular activity and that the conservatives are now foaming at their mouthes is fun to see. I mean, how could he have denied them their god given right to rule?

Putin doesn't need to have any dirt on Scholz. Also, decrying humanitarian aid to refugees is a little strange. That's just how the Dublin agreement is supposed to work. That one of the biggest crybabies about sticking to Dublin and not helping with the 2015 refugee crisis is now drowning in refugees would be delicious irony if it weren't for the suffering of innocent people (and we all love hypocritical winging, right? Right?).

Make no mistake, Merkel would have waffled about just as much. Oh, and she'd have used more of her trademarked platitudes, like "We must not let ourselves be divided on this issue", the only difference is that she wouldn't have run afoul of Germany's very own dual Rupert Murdoch: Friede Springer and Liz Mohn, because she's friends with both.

edit: Not a German, by the way. I also am highly biased against the CDU, if that wasn't obvious from prior posts, so if you find any polemics that you disagree with, feel free to do so.

edit 2: The SPD has a whole lot of connections to Russia, that part is true, of course. However, you'll find plenty of parties in Europe, some that have ruled or are ruling at the moment, that do. Nobody refused Russian money until it became unpopular, and that was only a while ago. In France, 42% for Le Pen might not seem much, but given today's rather charged political climate and (understandable) anti-Russian sentiment, I think it is really telling that 42% of French voters still cast their lot in with someone with known Russian ties. Heck, Le Pen's party was basically bankrolled by the Russians.

Edited April 25, 2022 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

4 hours ago, bugarup said:

So putler yakked the other day that there was a conspiracy to snuff Solovjov, Kremlin's propaganda tool numero uno. Neo-nazi, Ukrainian passports, yadda yadda, you know the drill.

(Source: https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/25/fsb-ob-yavila-o-zaderzhanii-neonatsistov-kotorye-yakoby-planirovali-po-zakazu-sbu-ubit-vladimira-solovieva-i-drugih-propagandistov)

Aaaaand here be the picture of "evidence".    While it looks too silly to be anything but a fake, it matches shots from the video of arrest up there. Mean people are already making jokes about how the assassination plan was to lure Solovjov into the pool and take out the ladder and it seems like a sort of postmodern self-mockery until you remember that russian state TV also presented a tome of Shakespeare as an evidence or "Anglo-Saxon mercenaries in Ukraine"...

(There is also a photo of some sort of incriminating postcard that is signed with, I kid you not, "Undecipherable signature").

 

 

Just saw this and someone theorizing that this is planted evidence done by someone so stupid that they not only signed the book as "Undecipherable signature" but also were supposed to leave three sim cards there but instead left three copies of "The Sims".Omg

[Zoraptor]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

..it's just Germany that gets the flack for it. Why?

Said it before, but I seriously do blame von der Leyen. Non stop virtue signalling on every issue; and everyone knows she's German. If- god forbid- she were Chancellor she'd be doing the exact same things as Scholz for the exact same reasons though, same as Merkel.

Funny really, after years I still don't know who the EU 'foreign minister' is* because he's been such a non entity; last time around it was the von der Leyen's predecessor who I had no idea about for ages (Jean Claude Juncker, so I did eventually manage to remember, though it may have actually been after he left office) while Mogherini was far more visible. von der Leyen seems to insert herself into literally everything though.

*I do, but pretty much literally the only thing about him I can remember is the infamous incident in Turkey where they only provided one chair between him and von der Leyen**.

**... ok, that was actually Charles Michel, apparently. So I can't remember anything Borrell's done, and I like to think I pay at least passing attention to foreign affair type stuff.

[xzar_monty]

5 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Just saw this and someone theorizing that this is planted evidence done by someone so stupid that they not only signed the book as "Undecipherable signature" but also were supposed to leave three sim cards there but instead left three copies of "The Sims".Omg

You know, that does sound plausible. There's no way it should, but it does.

Can anyone point to any other kind of reason that would make displaying three copies of The Sims relevant in any way? (Also, why would a single person have three copies. Even that is a bit odd.) It does look like these guys had no idea what they were doing.

Edited April 26, 2022 by xzar_monty

[pmp10]

6 hours ago, majestic said:

Other nations around it also refused any gas embargo, it's just Germany that gets the flack for it. Why? Who knows.

There are greater expectations on Germany to provide EU leadership. 
Especially so since they purposely landed themselves and no small part of Europe in this degree of gas dependence in the first place. 

[BruceVC]

9 hours ago, kanisatha said:

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.

Good reads but I think their is bias and some unfair criticism towards Germany and its response to Putins War

I agree with some of it but I disagree with most it like  the whole statement " Other than a dishonest agenda and blackmail, we struggle to find an explanation that would be consistent with his actions " .....no I can think of several other reasons to justify Germany not sending heavy weapons to Ukraine 

For example I cant see Russia ever becoming a " normal " member of the international community until Putin is gone but he will be gone one day. Then its important to have Western countries that are seen as more neutral toward Russia become part of the process to reintegrate Russia back into the global economy and be part of reducing the necessary Western sanctions once Putins War is over. Germany could be that country but Russian hubris will make it hard if a Western country has been unequivocally " anti-Russian " so by not supplying heavy weaponry it is more neutral ? 

I also expect every EU country to support Ukraine and condemn Putins War which Scholz has done from the beginning but every  Democratically elected   government in the worlds first responsibility is its own citizens and stability. Germany cannot just immediately cut energy imports from Russia because of the domestic impact. They have already abandoned Nord Stream 2 and that was a major investment for Germanys energy grid

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/31/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-lies-abandoned-after-russia-invaded-ukraine.html

And then the whole world didn't act meaningfully enough back in 2014 when Putin illegally and belligerently annexed Crimea and supported the eastern breakaway  Ukrainian states. Its not just Germany who tried to avoid a confrontation with Russia

But Putins War changed all that and now the West and NATO is more united than ever before, the West didnt start Putins War but we  will finish it 

Finally Germany as a country and a people have done more to address its dark Nazi past than any other country I know when it comes to historical injustice and wars. They even publicly recognized the mass murder of Namibians in 1904-1908 ( I think this type of acknowledgement was well meaning but misplaced because of the unreasonable demands for redress this type of statement leads to but once again Germany  felt this was the right thing to do which I respect )

So I find it ridiculous  and scurrilous that anyone would suggest that overall  Germany doesnt do the right thing in its public actions and statements 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Island_concentration_camp 

[Gfted1]

8 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Can anyone point to any other kind of reason that would make displaying three copies of The Sims relevant in any way? (Also, why would a single person have three copies. Even that is a bit odd.) It does look like these guys had no idea what they were doing.

Pffft, they probably dont even know about motherlode.

[xzar_monty]

40 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Pffft, they probably dont even know about motherlode.

These mess-ups remind me of the kind of stuff we saw when Russia wanted to put on its most attractive face around the Sochi olympics. Stuff like this photo, for instance. I'm all for sharing and caring, but not in this particular business.

 

[kanisatha]

7 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Good reads but I think their is bias and some unfair criticism towards Germany and its response to Putins War

I agree with some of it but I disagree with most it like  the whole statement " Other than a dishonest agenda and blackmail, we struggle to find an explanation that would be consistent with his actions " .....no I can think of several other reasons to justify Germany not sending heavy weapons to Ukraine 

For example I cant see Russia ever becoming a " normal " member of the international community until Putin is gone but he will be gone one day. Then its important to have Western countries that are seen as more neutral toward Russia become part of the process to reintegrate Russia back into the global economy and be part of reducing the necessary Western sanctions once Putins War is over. Germany could be that country but Russian hubris will make it hard if a Western country has been unequivocally " anti-Russian " so by not supplying heavy weaponry it is more neutral ? 

I also expect every EU country to support Ukraine and condemn Putins War which Scholz has done from the beginning but every  Democratically elected   government in the worlds first responsibility is its own citizens and stability. Germany cannot just immediately cut energy imports from Russia because of the domestic impact. They have already abandoned Nord Stream 2 and that was a major investment for Germanys energy grid

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/31/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-lies-abandoned-after-russia-invaded-ukraine.html

And then the whole world didn't act meaningfully enough back in 2014 when Putin illegally and belligerently annexed Crimea and supported the eastern breakaway  Ukrainian states. Its not just Germany who tried to avoid a confrontation with Russia

But Putins War changed all that and now the West and NATO is more united than ever before, the West didnt start Putins War but we  will finish it 

Finally Germany as a country and a people have done more to address its dark Nazi past than any other country I know when it comes to historical injustice and wars. They even publicly recognized the mass murder of Namibians in 1904-1908 ( I think this type of acknowledgement was well meaning but misplaced because of the unreasonable demands for redress this type of statement leads to but once again Germany  felt this was the right thing to do which I respect )

So I find it ridiculous  and scurrilous that anyone would suggest that overall  Germany doesnt do the right thing in its public actions and statements 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Island_concentration_camp 

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/

[rjshae]

10 hours ago, pmp10 said:

There are greater expectations on Germany to provide EU leadership. 
Especially so since they purposely landed themselves and no small part of Europe in this degree of gas dependence in the first place. 

Welcome to our world.

-- The USA 

[pmp10]

The only bridge directly liking Odessa to Romania has just been bombed.
This comes just after two radio towers in Transnistria were blown-up.

We might be seeing a second (or is it third now?) front develop. 

[Chilloutman]

2 minutes ago, pmp10 said:

The only bridge directly liking Odessa to Romania has just been bombed.
This comes just after two radio towers in Transnistria were blown-up.

We might be seeing a second (or is it third now?) front develop. 

Doubt it, Russia does not have any way how to support front there other than push from Crimea. Only option would be from Moldavia region controlled by separatists but even than it have almost 0 logistical support. It would be quick win for Ukraine AND Moldovia as they would just get rid of those separatists in few days

[Malcador]

9 minutes ago, pmp10 said:

The only bridge directly liking Odessa to Romania has just been bombed.
This comes just after two radio towers in Transnistria were blown-up.

We might be seeing a second (or is it third now?) front develop. 

I think it's more to damage logistics. Why they didn't start out with this, I don't know.

[HoonDing]

Pretending to care about Moldova will be a bit too much.

[kanisatha]

1 hour ago, Chilloutman said:

Doubt it, Russia does not have any way how to support front there other than push from Crimea. Only option would be from Moldavia region controlled by separatists but even than it have almost 0 logistical support. It would be quick win for Ukraine AND Moldovia as they would just get rid of those separatists in few days

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

[kanisatha]

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.

[Sarex]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-26/russia-halted-gas-supplies-to-poland-onet-pl-reports-l2gapmmd

[pmp10]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-26/russia-halted-gas-supplies-to-poland-onet-pl-reports-l2gapmmd

So officially the flow of Russian gas to Poland ends tomorrow.
Also officially, it's over non-payment in rubles rather than anything Poland did regarding Ukraine. 
In that case other countries should follow soon. 

[Lexx]

I thought the gas is already flowing again.

[Mamoulian War]

13 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

You know, that does sound plausible. There's no way it should, but it does.

Can anyone point to any other kind of reason that would make displaying three copies of The Sims relevant in any way? (Also, why would a single person have three copies. Even that is a bit odd.) It does look like these guys had no idea what they were doing.

The theory which is circulating a little bit here in Slovakia, around the people, who know more about Russian **** than I do: The Sims got a lot of flak in media and church as an advertisement of gay relationships. And gays are in Russia the second most hated demographics, right after nazis... So the guy who "prepared the assasination" is not only a Nazi, but also a LGBTI+ rights advocate. So in Russian propaganda eyes, he is a total monster who did not only wanted to kill a "journalist" but wanted turn the Russian youth to decadent life style...

Edited April 26, 2022 by Mamoulian War

[213374U]

1 hour ago, kanisatha said:

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.

Yeah, that's because the "Moscow" Times isn't actually based in Moscow, or even Russia for that matter. It's blocked in Russia IIRC.

[pmp10]

16 minutes ago, Lexx said:

I thought the gas is already flowing again.

It is, but it's not tomorrow yet.
I wonder how they will handle the problem that the pipeline also serves Germany.
Maybe they just plan to reduce flow by polish demand.