And a little bit of food for brain 🤔 

 

Edited August 30, 20223 yr by Mamoulian War

Continued from old thread...

 

“Reconstruction” of Mariupol Theatre…

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/08/31/7365502/

And on the economic front:
EU plans intervention in energy markets. 
Unsurprising given the massive price jumps recently.

We will see how quickly EC can act when well-motivated. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/dont-underestimate-russias-military-strength-german-defence-chief-warns-2022-08-31/

Interesting timing for him to say that.

2 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/dont-underestimate-russias-military-strength-german-defence-chief-warns-2022-08-31/

Interesting timing for him to say that.

Maybe a friend of Scholtz 🤷‍♂️

31 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Maybe a friend of Scholtz 🤷‍♂️

Nah, at worst is trying to remind people Russia's 6 feet tall, not 12 or 3.  Need to follow the news better, was wondering how Melnyk would get outraged over with this, but they fired him in July.

25 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Nah, at worst is trying to remind people Russia's 6 feet tall, not 12 or 3.  Need to follow the news better, was wondering how Melnyk would get outraged over with this, but they fired him in July.

Anyway, if you did not see the video I linked earlier yet, go for it. It’s about over/under estimation of Russia and the following consequences for both West and Russia 🙂 

Edited August 31, 20223 yr by Mamoulian War

Well, and also forgot, the more scared he makes people the more funding he'll get

Another look into Russian army

 

Edited September 1, 20223 yr by Mamoulian War

Defenestrative developments in Russia: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/chairman-russian-oil-producer-lukoil-dies-after-falling-hospital-window-source-2022-09-01/

Apparently he criticized the invasion.

In March, Lukoil’s board called for “the soonest termination of the armed conflict,” expressed “sincere empathy for all victims,” and said “we strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy.”

 

 

Edited September 1, 20223 yr by Lexx

Oh, of course -- that was well known. He's also not the first Lukoil bigshot to be so unlucky. Another one died of some kind of toad poison in May (if memory serves).

They seem to think they are dealing with an actual government and not with the mafia. You don't criticize the Don like that, it's not healthy.

Edited September 1, 20223 yr by Lexx

Interesting to think that the Russian way of rule still has support even in Europe (widespead support in Serbia, for instance, and not as widespread elsewhere). I mean, it's really hard to find the bright side in a culture where people are actually and continually murdered for just voicing an opinion that does not toe the line.

The idea of simply obliterating "lesser" cultures has also been there for quite some time. For instance, in the 1930s, Ukraine had 260 well-recognized writers out of whom 223 were shot, Gulagized or exiled, 8 committed suicide and 16 simply disappeared.

Russia loses more than 900 elite military personnel in Ukraine – BBC

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/09/1/7365645/

2 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Another one died of some kind of toad poison in May (if memory serves).

That one was almost certainly a real accident.
A shaman injecting toad venom as a cure for alcoholism seems too absurd for an FSB excuse.

Nothing is to absurd for Russia. Remember their news acusing Ukraine of using Black Magic?

18 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

Anyway, if you did not see the video I linked earlier yet, go for it. It’s about over/under estimation of Russia and the following consequences for both West and Russia 🙂 

Didn't really pick up on much underestimation but the idea that overestimating them is holding aid back is a funny one, although not sure what weapons he's talking about that Ukraine needs but isn't getting (not quite Massaro-esque idiocy where every nation must scream Slava Ukraini and strip their military bare, at least ).   

The holding back was clear at the start of the conflict, in February. No one wanted to give to UA proper weapons, before they kicked out RU from the North, and Germany is pretty much holding back their aid up until now. I think he speaks about long rnage HIMARS, which UA is not getting.

Edited September 1, 20223 yr by Mamoulian War

8 hours ago, pmp10 said:

That one was almost certainly a real accident.
A shaman injecting toad venom as a cure for alcoholism seems too absurd for an FSB excuse.

I'm with @Mamoulian Waron this, nothing is too absurd for Russia / FSB. However, this doesn't mean that it wasn't an accident. It might have been. You know, as they say, the fact that you're paranoid does not itself prove that they are NOT out to get you.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/08/guerilla-warfare-ukraines-partisans-are-taking-the-war-to-russia/

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

The holding back was clear at the start of the conflict, in February. No one wanted to give to UA proper weapons, before they kicked out RU from the North, and Germany is pretty much holding back their aid up until now. I think he speaks about long rnage HIMARS, which UA is not getting.

Ah yes, ATACMS.  But with the HIMARS they're doing well, the Kherson offensive's going swimmingly from what I see, TB-2s operating there with ease - I guess Russian air defense has been weakened enough. 

Holding back weaponry when you're not sure they are going to hold or not is sensible, though, these things can't exactly get FedExed right. And at least for non-US countries, donating expensive kit in advance is a bit risky.   Interestingly in the northern area, I had read that artillery did more work than the Javelin/NLAW/TB2 stuff, will have to look that up.

Edited September 1, 20223 yr by Malcador

12 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Interesting to think that the Russian way of rule still has support even in Europe (widespead support in Serbia, for instance, and not as widespread elsewhere). I mean, it's really hard to find the bright side in a culture where people are actually and continually murdered for just voicing an opinion that does not toe the line.

The idea of simply obliterating "lesser" cultures has also been there for quite some time. For instance, in the 1930s, Ukraine had 260 well-recognized writers out of whom 223 were shot, Gulagized or exiled, 8 committed suicide and 16 simply disappeared.

 

12 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Interesting to think that the Russian way of rule still has support even in Europe (widespead support in Serbia, for instance, and not as widespread elsewhere). I mean, it's really hard to find the bright side in a culture where people are actually and continually murdered for just voicing an opinion that does not toe the line.

The idea of simply obliterating "lesser" cultures has also been there for quite some time. For instance, in the 1930s, Ukraine had 260 well-recognized writers out of whom 223 were shot, Gulagized or exiled, 8 committed suicide and 16 simply disappeared.

Its interesting you raise the question about EU support for Putin's autocracy and why would people support Russia in the war and consider there way of life to be admired. After 9/11 and my travels to the ME and research into the reasons for views of 9/11 I came to several interesting realizations around regions of the world and why different people in the same country would have such different views about things that were proven and observed, for example the old conspiracy theory that the US and or the Jews did 9/11 so they could justify an invasion of the ME to gain oil or something similar 

And  I have  been following support on Putins War on forums like Codex to try to understand how real it is and what is it based on and why? And its been interesting, like 9/11 the support will be for different reasons and some of it is based on false narratives and certain biases and that translates to a really rabid and almost false support for Putin's War ..but most of  it is really funny with how ridiculous it is. But support for Putins War falls into 4-5 main categories outside of Russia 

• People are very anti-US and think all conflicts are about them or what they want. So somehow this is the fault of the US and this is a war about the US vs Russia. So the Ukrainians are being manipulated to fight a US conflict 
• Some people are irrationally opposed to what Western culture and  our ideological  views represent. They have strange and very negative views on certain tenets of human rights and freedoms that exist in all our countries like uncontrolled  intentional immigration leading to the collapse of the local culture, LGBT rights being contagious, jews controlling everything and the importance of religion being intentionally undermined. Russia has the solution to this ?
• There are people that believe that Russia offered an alternative to the ostensible control and domination of the West globally and this war was where Russia was provoked. So they tend to battle to accept the war crimes and actions of the Russian military because it was always the US and there allies that were the bad guys in conflicts
• Some people believe autocracy is necessary in Russia because of the misunderstanding of how bad things were in Russia under Yeltsin. So some people think Putins way of governing is necessary to ensure Russian doesnt 

 

 

 

 

Serbia and Russia have old ties, that has little or nothing to do with "Admiration". They are both ethnic Slavs (even if not the same "brand" of Slavs), same religion (Orthodox), lots of cultural similarities and when **** hit the fan in WWI, Russia was the first one standing up for Serbia against Germany and the Habsburg Empire. Sort of a big brother/little brother kind of relationship. If you feel kinship with someone, you ask less critical questions.

Edit: Serbia and Russia special relationship has its own Wiki page, showing the shared history of the last few centuries (back to 1547)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia–Serbia_relations#18th_century