If Russia invades Ukraine (more)...

[Mellsblue]

….

[Galfon]

Experience has shown how difficult it is to keep a bees nest wrapped under an overcoat, certainly taking personal risks you would think but surely a matter of time now..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... r-articles

[Zhivago]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundatio ... eopolitics

The book behind Russia's neo-fascism.

[Sandydragon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundatio ... eopolitics

The book behind Russia's neo-fascism.

Interesting how modern political theory is so traditional.
But the bit of isolating Britain from Europe is an interesting one. Had sad that so many in this country helped that objective to be realised.

[Son of Mathonwy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundatio ... eopolitics

The book behind Russia's neo-fascism.

Interesting how modern political theory is so traditional.
But the bit of isolating Britain from Europe is an interesting one. Had sad that so many in this country helped that objective to be realised.

Scary book. Looks like job done with the UK though. Or will be when Truss and the rest of those idiots rip up their own treaty and cause a trade war with the EU.

[Sandydragon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundatio ... eopolitics

The book behind Russia's neo-fascism.

Interesting how modern political theory is so traditional.
But the bit of isolating Britain from Europe is an interesting one. Had sad that so many in this country helped that objective to be realised.

Scary book. Looks like job done with the UK though. Or will be when Truss and the rest of those idiots rip up their own treaty and cause a trade war with the EU.

Brexit has destroyed the Tory party and left it firmly under the control of UKIP.

[Zhivago]

Sharing a bunch of stuff with you... first a rather prescient article from within Russia speaking against the hubristic tide.
https://russiandefpolicy.com/2022/02/07/

Second, I thought I'd transcribe a recent intercepted call I heard on Youtube leaked by the SBU. There is no English version so you'll have to bear with my translation. It is a occupier in Kherson talking to his girl back home. We start in media res... i.e. we don't get the whole conversation, but it seems she has maybe asked him whether he kills civilians... or at least asked him about how things are.

Soldier: Nastya, I don't want to tell you I'm there shooting civilian people, killing there, breaking knees. What is it to you?
Nastya: I don't know...
S: What did you want to know from me? I will not tell you, Nastya, how it is really. Nastya...
N: I hoped that you were not fighting.
S: Nastya, my darling, of course I am fighting. What are you thinking?
N: ...
S: Nastya, you know, I can take a person, and go "BAM" in the head with a Kalashnikov machine gun, riddle a person with PKM ammo, yes. Tear the head off. You what? You don't believe this? I've become a dumbfuck, I've gone completely mad.
N: How will life with you be?
S: Well, I can kill people. In general, in the head. I simply kill in the head. I am not scared.
N: Are you proud of this?
S: I am not proud of this. I just don't give a fuck. I will come home. I will come home alive and well. And everything. I'll bring up a son...
N: [tries to say something but is cut off]
S: Nastya, I'll bring up a son, that's how it is, that's how it needs to be. Nastya... when there were civilians, I threw the civilians in a ditch. Shot them all in the head. Killed them all. They cried.. begged me. I shot them all the same. Nastya, you don't see me. That I am your such "good" (??). I am yours, as I am, I will come as I am. Nastya, I will perhaps be a dumbfuck, but I will come to you.
N: You said so already. Good that you will come. Now talking...
S: I never told you any lies, and I will not, Nast. I put these khokhols on their knees. They beg me, they say 'Russia forever'. And I force them all to say 'Russia forever'. I have them on their knees, these khokhols. I make them. So you don't need to talk to me.

edit: better translation here https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSob9glX0AA ... name=large

[Sandydragon]

There’s some clear morale issues in the Russian army at the moment.

[Mellsblue]

Wtf is Macron playing at?!?! Saying that Ukraine must give up territory to avoid humiliating Putin, and that EU membership will take years (it will but there’s no need to so blatantly announce it). Has he spent so long ‘negotiating’ whether Putin that he’s developed Stockholm Syndrome!?!

[Son of Mathonwy]

There’s some clear morale issues in the Russian army at the moment.

Moral too.

[Zhivago]

Wtf is Macron playing at?!?! Saying that Ukraine must give up territory to avoid humiliating Putin, and that EU membership will take years (it will but there’s no need to so blatantly announce it). Has he spent so long ‘negotiating’ whether Putin that he’s developed Stockholm Syndrome!?!

I assume those yellow jackets want petrol prices low.

[Sandydragon]

Wtf is Macron playing at?!?! Saying that Ukraine must give up territory to avoid humiliating Putin, and that EU membership will take years (it will but there’s no need to so blatantly announce it). Has he spent so long ‘negotiating’ whether Putin that he’s developed Stockholm Syndrome!?!

I assume those yellow jackets want petrol prices low.

Nothing like encouraging a sick man with a god complex who has his finger on a nuclear trigger.

[paddy no 11]

Fuck you vlad

[Mellsblue]

https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/news ... ne/2531268

A very strong statement according many commentators. Let’s hope action is as strong as the words.

[Son of Mathonwy]

To add to his crimes, that bastard Putin lost us Eurovision last night.

[Zhivago]

To add to his crimes, that bastard Putin lost us Eurovision last night.

https://ria.ru/20220515/ukraina-1788680071.html

The world they live in is so divorced from reality

[Son of Mathonwy]

To add to his crimes, that bastard Putin lost us Eurovision last night.

https://ria.ru/20220515/ukraina-1788680071.html

The world they live in is so divorced from reality

Is there a translation of that?

[Zhivago]

To add to his crimes, that bastard Putin lost us Eurovision last night.

https://ria.ru/20220515/ukraina-1788680071.html

The world they live in is so divorced from reality

Is there a translation of that?

Just use Chrome to translate and you'll see their world

"British were angered by Ukraine's victory at Eurovision"

[Sandydragon]

https://ria.ru/20220515/ukraina-1788680071.html

The world they live in is so divorced from reality

Is there a translation of that?

Just use Chrome to translate and you'll see their world

"British were angered by Ukraine's victory at Eurovision"

Whatever. Most Brits couldn't give a toss about Eurovision, but many I have spoken to recognise that showing solidarity with Ukraine was more important than the actual result. But as you say, its a parallel universe.

[Puja]

Is there a translation of that?

Just use Chrome to translate and you'll see their world

"British were angered by Ukraine's victory at Eurovision"

Whatever. Most Brits couldn't give a toss about Eurovision, but many I have spoken to recognise that showing solidarity with Ukraine was more important than the actual result. But as you say, its a parallel universe.

I mean, in fairness, it is quoting the Daily Heil's comment section, so they are in the same parallel universe there.

Puja

[Sandydragon]

Just use Chrome to translate and you'll see their world

"British were angered by Ukraine's victory at Eurovision"

Whatever. Most Brits couldn't give a toss about Eurovision, but many I have spoken to recognise that showing solidarity with Ukraine was more important than the actual result. But as you say, its a parallel universe.

I mean, in fairness, it is quoting the Daily Heil's comment section, so they are in the same parallel universe there.

Puja

You make a good point there.

[J Dory]

The Russian professor in this podcast doesn't buy into the Russian public is brainwashed angle. Rather he says Russians are pragmatists and supporting Putin is in their best interest.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c6968n

[Zhivago]

The Russian professor in this podcast doesn't buy into the Russian public is brainwashed angle. Rather he says Russians are pragmatists and supporting Putin is in their best interest.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c6968n

They are not pragmatists. The Dutch are pragmatists, and Russia is not like that at all. Pragmatists don't cut up Chanel bags to show their patriotism.

They are an unhappy people and they need their strong leader/country to get their happiness via national pride. If they start criticising their government, they won't do so because of their sons dying, or seeing nasty crimes against Ukrainians, but because the West is showing they aren't afraid of them and they are losing. If they start to realise that their country and they themselves are not as powerful as they thought they were.

The easiest way to think about it is to think of the psychology of a bully. The bully craves to be feared. That is the Russian mentality. If you take that away from them, then they are nothing.

caveat: I'm mostly talking about those Russians at home in Russia, this general analysis might not hold true for expats abroad.

[Zhivago]

detail here https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1525 ... 91554.html

[Zhivago]

To understand the threat of Russia, one needs to understand that what we are facing is not so much Putinism, but Duginism. This is very blatently Russian fascism. Dugin wrote his seminal book in 1997 called Foundations of Geopolitics. It could be described perhaps as the Russian equivalent of 'The Grand Chessboard'. He tried to start his own party called National Bolshevik Party. Although his party didn't get going, a lot of his ideas have been taken up by the Russian elite - I note also that he served as advisor to the current director of the FSB Sergey Naryshkin.

Here is Wikipedia's summary of his book:

In Foundations of Geopolitics, Dugin calls for the United States and Atlanticism to lose their influence in Eurasia, and for Russia to rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances. The book declares that "the battle for the world rule of Russians" has not ended and Russia remains "the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution". The Eurasian Empire will be constructed "on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the U.S., and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us."

Military operations play relatively little role. The textbook advocates a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia's gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries. The book states that "the maximum task [of the future] is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe".

In Europe:

Germany should be offered the de facto political dominance over most Protestant and Catholic states located within Central and Eastern Europe. Kaliningrad Oblast could be given back to Germany. The book uses the term "Moscow–Berlin axis".
France should be encouraged to form a bloc with Germany, as they both have a "firm anti-Atlanticist tradition".
The United Kingdom, merely described as an "extraterritorial floating base of the U.S.", should be cut off from Europe.
Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast".
Estonia should be given to Germany's sphere of influence.
Latvia and Lithuania should be given a "special status" in the Eurasian–Russian sphere, although he later writes that they should be integrated into Russia.
Belarus and Moldova are to become part of Russia.
Poland should be granted a "special status" in the Eurasian sphere.
Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia, "Serbian Bosnia" and Greece – "Orthodox collectivist East" – will unite with "Moscow the Third Rome" and reject the "rational-individualistic West".
Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.
In the Middle East and Central Asia:

The book stresses the "continental Russian–Islamic alliance" which lies "at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy". The alliance is based on the "traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilization".
Iran is a key ally. The book uses the term "Moscow–Tehran axis".
Armenia has a special role: It will serve as a "strategic base," and it is necessary to create "the [subsidiary] axis Moscow-Yerevan-Teheran". Armenians "are an Aryan people ... [like] the Iranians and the Kurds".
Azerbaijan could be "split up" or given to Iran.
Georgia should be dismembered. Abkhazia and "United Ossetia" (which includes Georgia's South Ossetia) will be incorporated into Russia. Georgia's independent policies are unacceptable.
Russia needs to create "geopolitical shocks" within Turkey. These can be achieved by employing Kurds, Armenians and other minorities.
The book regards the Caucasus as a Russian territory, including "the eastern and northern shores of the Caspian (the territories of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)" and Central Asia (mentioning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan).
In East and Southeast Asia:

China, which represents a danger to Russia, "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled". Dugin suggests that Russia start by taking Tibet–Xinjiang–Inner Mongolia–Manchuria as a security belt. Russia should offer China help "in a southern direction – Indochina (except Vietnam), the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia" as geopolitical compensation.
Russia should manipulate Japanese politics by offering the Kuril Islands to Japan and provoking anti-Americanism.
Mongolia should be absorbed into Eurasia-Russia.
The book emphasizes that Russia must spread anti-Americanism everywhere: "the main 'scapegoat' will be precisely the U.S."

In the United States:

Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".
The Eurasian Project could be expanded to South and Central America.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundat ... eopolitics

And here is the logos of the party he tried to found: