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From [Ukraine] with Love 2: The Crimea is not Enough!
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Meanwhile, Russia's annexing its neighbours under the pretense of protecting ethnic civilians, raging against Western interference, and chomping at the bit about fascists. It's like WWII has flipped over on its head.
How much of pre-WWII history is taught in Germany nowadays?
Ah, that makes sense.
And probably accurate. But also, yeah, China's in the club. They get to wag their dick a little.
So, thanks, Putin, for making sure we won't do any more disarmament for the next twenty fucking years.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
I suppose it doesn't help super special snowflake Russia feel nice about itself, but I'd wager that for the rest of us it's always nice to see adult human beings observing a load of horseshit, and properly acknowledging it as such.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
Uh, spoiler alert: that's what they're going to do. They'll leave out the parts of Ukraine that they don't feel like dealing with. My current bet is that they'll take everything east of the Volga. (I would not be hugely surprised, though, if they took the whole country.)
Russian Fiction the Sequel: 10 More False Claims About Ukraine
You mean the Dniester? Volga is solidly in Rooskietown.
Yeah, I derped.
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What happened when Charlemagne died?
Now take away family ties from the squabbling oligarchs.
That's my prediction, anyway.
Yes, a gas shortage would be damaging to Europe. But if Russia suddenly isn't able to sell as much of its gas, there are going to be a lot of pissed off Oligarchs in Russia. Nearly all of Russia's exports are chewed up by Europe. Find a way to wean off of them, and that will do plenty of damage.
Behold, the power of money: sanction Russia, subsidize Europe, wait.
The problem is that the economic pain that Europe will feel is much more spread out than it is in Russia.
Yes the oligarchs need profits but how much do you wana bet their lifestyles will be impacted by sanctions? Where as a natural gas hike will sharply impact all consumers in Europe.
I know that the oil money is just too sweet for people to get the lesson, but it really underlines and highlights and dogears the fact that putting millions of lives and livelyhoods in the hands of known bad actors is a bloody terrible idea. It's bad enough when even generally good actors have that much power.
Last I heard, Norwegians hadn't exactly lost their head over their oil supplies. Though apparently things have declined some since EU-ization and the financial collapse. Still!
I'm really digging the new thread title. Stroke of genius.
Referendum to Kill
This guy is in his 90s, he was there for it.
It's like poetry. It rhymes.
I mean yes it has in obvious ways but it's still acting like you asshole cousin at a party. Sure he went to rehab for his coke problem but he's still a drunken asshole who pisses all over your toilet seat and gets into fights at every bar he goes too.
He wasn't just there for it, the dude fought in the German army in World War II in his 20s, including fighting on the eastern front. Old age aside, the guy is probably intimately familiar with Germany pre-WWII history, and the history of the USSR and German during and after the war.
It's an interesting, but understated thing that most of the people involved in Ukraine, Russia, and even Germany are old enough to remember the USSR. The fall of the USSR was only 23 years ago, which in terms of international politics and history is a very short period of time, since it's within people's lifetimes. Anyone over the age of 35 is old enough to remember the USSR as a country. If the person is 47 years old or older, they've lived longer with the USSR being around than they have after it fell. As such, there are some very real old cold war thinking going on.
I mean, I'm not saying that one separatist/rebellious cause is more justifiable than another. When the protests in Kiev/Maidan were going on, I totally understood the then-government's retaliatory use of force. I may not have liked that government and didn't mind it going away, but when you try to take things by force, encountering opposition is the most likely outcome.
One thing to notice is the difference in equipment. The Ukrainians were very ragtag - no uniforms and thrown together/stolen gear. The "pro-Russian" militias are using new, stock police shields and military-grade uniforms and weapons. You just don't get that kind of uniformity without an institutional backer of some kind.
Edit: I still totally think these 'pro-Russians' are really Russians.
I do remember them storming the political offices and government legislatures and the like. The problem is when is a government no longer considered a legitimate authority? and what should be done to force them to negotiate?
In the U.S. isn't there a requisite number of signatures needed to hold a referendum?
I'd not be surprised to see Thursday's talks cancelled if things escalate any more, especially since Lavrov has basically said he won't show up if Kiev starts using force on the Pro Russians. The Kiev government has, however, signaled that they are more than willing to discuss localism and referenda in the east, if Russia would kindly stop kicking them in the teeth every five minutes.
Nobody seems to really want to shed blood here, and I don't believe that even Russia wants to cut Ukraine up and absorb it (cost too much, for one thing) but neither does either side really seem to have the desire to step back off the ledge. Ukraine because they're facing an existential crisis and Russia because they've kind of painted themselves into a corner here with their reckless bullshit.
Of course I also think that a subjugated but still "independent" Ukraine is not tenable situation in the long term, and eventually this IS going to boil over into armed conflict. Either now or ten years from now when Putin dies and a bankrupt Russia splinters to the four winds.
Hopefully Putin is mindful of that and gets on board with disarmament/securing nuclear sites before that happens otherwise I foresee car bombs in Kabul glowing a fair bit brighter down the line.
I'm not even sure at this point what can be done to assuage Russia's issues without setting off Ukraine.