Russian expansionism in eastern Europe.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Well, it is all done but the shouting now.  Crimea is now a province of Russia.

 

One could say that this was actually a determination by its people who seem to be mostly Russian in origin.  Now we'll see how they treat the remaining other ethnics.

[Captain 32]

Jesus. But how Russians are living in their own country with other ethnic?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ethnic_groups_in_Russia

[Odainsaker 2,137]

They already got at taste of it three days ago:  Crimean Tatar activist found dead with "signs of torture."

Hauled away by masked paramilitaries...

Be it westwards into Ukraine or deeper into Russia proper, the safe thing for anybody, regardless of nationality, is to escape out of the immediate area of Crimea and eastern Ukraine before the masked paramilitaries, now with official cover and unofficial impunity, really get going in reminding everyone of their proper place.

[Fatherted 129]

What was it I was saying about the Gestapo a couple of weeks ago, Nonny?

We need to look at media like Dead Rising 3 (poor example I know but I haven't seen any "paramilitary" or "gestapo" oriented stories other than that recently) and accept that this is happening and it's not just a plot piece. Putin would set off an apocalypse if it promoted his image and increased his power, and I don't doubt that many other "world leaders" would too.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Why ask me?  Here I am safe in Poland .. er .. Canada.

[Fatherted 129]

Somehow I doubt Canada is of any real strategic importance in a WWIII between US and Russia. It looks like it would be, but it provides nothing more than an easy bombing spot. Why do that when you could leave Canada until the US can't protect it, and instead just use rocket nukes? Annex it and build the concentration camps LATER. Have we not learned anything from Mr Kim? Time to retake dictator class.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ While the Russians may be a bone of contention, they are not completely as far gone as Kim & Co.  I don't think they fully participate in the idea that human life is valueless.  They may have camps in Siberia, but which is worse: that or flying drones around killing people by proscription?

 

The whole world order needs a shakeup, and we seem to be in the middle.  Our bed has an elephant on one side and a polar bear on the other.  It will be interesting if we survive to observe the result of the current realpolitik that is being played out.  As usual, things are getting going between Eastern and Western Europe.  I am beginning to think that it might not be a bad idea to carpet bomb Strasbourg.

[krbe 193]

The EU needs to get back to its community roots and stop meddling in everything outside its borders. One would suppose a "democratic" coup government would be a caretaker one, but it has already signed the Association Agreement Yanukovich ditched.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

All these spectres may come home to  roost at the feet of the EU principals.  I think the idea of a European Union is an oxymoron.

[Captain 32]

These videos are constantly removed on YouTube:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVFVN8C6nCM

 

At video - Right Sector/"Pravyi Sector" (now registered as a political faction in Ukraine). Their representatives in masks rob the people in Lvov (West Ukraine), shops, businesses, banish unwanted. Young people of this faction engaged in vandalism, check passers, consuming items, humiliated others.

 

Dnepr. The guy passer shouted "$%&^! you, Bandera" (Bandera - follower of Hitler, fascist) and paid health:
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cVVY2fU9Gs

[Fatherted 129]

Not sure where the idea of carpet bombing Strasbourg came from...

 

Putin is definitely subscribed to the idea that human life is worthless IF it does not serve his wants and needs by existing. I am also in no way defending the US, UK or Germany as they are all almost as corrupt as Russia. They have one key difference: They are not so corrupt they have appointed a dictator for his third turn. I live in a neutral country and acknowledge even here manipulation happens...

[Captain 32]

Source of corruption in Russia in the 90s. Then the Washington experts and their minions in the Russian government under Yeltsin launched a program of privatization of national property, which was a national in the USSR. Soviet elites have acquired the right to acquire the richest factories and businesses for a pittance.

 

Soviet elite became rich. To save a received capital, they began to buy real estate in the West and keep deposits in Switzerland and Luxembourg. To increase margins, not to pay taxes and get more liquidity, the new Russian oligarchy began to deduce of the enterprise in offshore schemes.

 

For over five years, the Russian government is trying to push through a law on Creating unfavorable conditions for offshore companies. But rich oligarchs lobby constantly hurt to do it. Corruption!

 

Now Putin went on the rampage with the West and received unique opportunities for manipulation by elites. Do you still think that in Russia a dictatorship? Putin does not had any impact on the elite who are oriented to the West - how they can rule the country when their families, children, property and dreams in another country?

 

Now our news channels are already full of reports about the launch of the Law "on deoffsherizatsii" (abolition of offshore). This creates a special "investment climate" when withdrawing money abroad becomes unprofitable. A flight of capital - the biggest problem of Russia's economy.

 

So solving external problems Putin decides biggest problem inside - corruption. 

 

So, alas, it's your reality does not fit with the reality of the economic. This will tell you any economist today.

[krbe 193]

Are you Russian? I would love to know how the climate is inside Russia right now, besides the constant reports on how the Kremlin is suppressing the Western view. I am especially interested in what kind of information that circulates concerning the economy, because I believe this is major issue in this situation. Currently the world runs on European and American systems -- designed when the West was lightyears ahead industrially. Since the decline of Western industry, I see really no use for the rest of the world to just accept to be a part of this system, and I believe that major nations like Russia, China and India are taking in the long view in this conflict.

 

By that I mean that politically, it would make perfect sense for these other countries to condemn the actions taking place in Crimea. They have both - together with a long list of other up-and-coming Asian nations - major problems with secessionist movements, and it would thus be in their interest to shape the international community in such a way that current borders are to be respected. Ukraine is also militarily important for the non-US crowd, as a major actor within the military industry, and a stable Ukraine would thus seem to be beneficial to them. So, by keeping quiet, they are signalling that the events now unfolding are part of a greater process than the mere political.

 

Domestically Putin is not supported by the oligarchs. War is unpredictable, and business cherishes predictability. But what does it help Russia that billions are channelled out of the country each year and invested in English football clubs? Exactly nothing - the tax base is being eroded, access to capital from someone whose entry barriers are low disappears, and industry is being dismantled - the same process that the West has already undergone. Is that something to envy? Evidently not - in an interview in early March, Putin pointed to the massive corruption in Ukraine and the amassing of capital on oligarchs' hands as that country's primary problem - all while conceding that Russia faced the same problems (although to a lesser degree).

 

If any Russian military moves are to be made, now is the time. The NATO population is war weary after 13 years of failures in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Western governments' credibility is slowly fading. Unemployment is still sky high and there is apparently "nothing that can be done" as it is all down to the markets. It becomes grotesque when politicians out of touch with the real world are celebrating that the recession is about to disappear and the stock indicies are rising, when the voters are still not employed anywhere. By asserting itself and forging stronger alliances in Asia and Africa industry and labour supply can be controlled, and growth happen.

 

The knowledge economy that was supposed to save the West when the last steel mill powers down? Knowledge can be stolen, duplicated and transferred in the blink of an eye. The same can not be said for conveyor belts and steel beams.

[krbe 193]

Told ya. Make it easy, make it secure and make it cheap, and even Western businesses might jump on it. After all, ideology and culture is not the West's strong point. It's only a couple of days ago since the major Nordic/Baltic payments processor Nets was sold to an American company. Outsourcing to India about to happen. Why can't I just as well choose a Russian system then? I wouldn't mind a Россия Экспресс-card.

 

Payment processing is a huge part of today's economy. An international transaction system must follow as well, if they want to reduce dependency on the West. The Chinese want their Renmenbi to become the new reserve currency at some future point in time, as well.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Well, its his money.  He (officially) doesn't have the KGB to steal things anymore.  Of course, after Chernobyl, they should be careful of the things they steal, eh?  Even the Manhattan project guys knew that graphite moderated reactor was unsafe but there was a war on.

 

What Putin needs to understand is that the rulers rule by the consent of the ruled.  If he doesn't know that, he is in for a real surprise.  He wouldn't be the first Tsar to find himself with a very tight silk scarf around his neck.

[beebs 129]

Well, its his money.  He (officially) doesn't have the KGB to steal things anymore.  Of course, after Chernobyl, they should be careful of the things they steal, eh?  Even the Manhattan project guys knew that graphite moderated reactor was unsafe but there was a war on.

The Chernobyl Disaster was a result of a poorly executed experiment on the reactor,. Not that the RBMK reactors didn't (obviously) have their flaws, but they aren't unique in being graphite moderated.. there's a number of graphite moderated reactors in both the east and the west. 

 

What Putin needs to understand is that the rulers rule by the consent of the ruled.  If he doesn't know that, he is in for a real surprise.  He wouldn't be the first Tsar to find himself with a very tight silk scarf around his neck.

Putin has maintained extremely high popular support amongst the Russian public throughout his presidencies and premiership. In fact, the recent events with the Ukraine have led to his popularity leaping upwards. I don't think he has much to worry about in the near future in that respect.

[Duke87 1,070]

And then this happened: Leaflet tells Jews to register in East Ukraine

 

Yes, that article is from today, not 70 years ago. Scary, isn't it?

[Dilin 9]

And then this happened: Leaflet tells Jews to register in East Ukraine

 

Yes, that article is from today, not 70 years ago. Scary, isn't it?

That's a bit, different, why do they need the Jews to register. People die twice, once when their heart stops, and again when their name is last said. Hitler's ways aren't dead.

[LexusInfernus 908]

And then this happened: Leaflet tells Jews to register in East Ukraine

 

Yes, that article is from today, not 70 years ago. Scary, isn't it?

Tasteless propaganda, probably by the anti Russian side, in order to demonize the pro Russian side. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

And then this happened: Leaflet tells Jews to register in East Ukraine

 

Yes, that article is from today, not 70 years ago. Scary, isn't it?

Utterly frightening!!!  This song has been sung once before to the score written by Richard Wagner, words by Adolf Hitler.

 

Wake up world, it is time to put a stop to Vlad Putin before the ovens can be built.

[Fatherted 129]

Apparently this was by a Super-Far-Right Pro-Russian group. I wouldn't be surprised if this was true.

 

Still, Adolf is alive and well, bizarrely, in the people he would have extermindated in the Reich. These people in Ukraine and Russia are anything but Pure Aryan but apparently they can pick and choose which parts of the swastika they want.

 

EDIT: Also, Putin has denounced anti-Semitics and has been active in shouting at the Ukrainian government that they are Jew Haters. If anything, the ovens will be built for the minorities and other ethnicities, not Russian Jews.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

BBC coverage.

 

 

About 15,000 Jews live in Donetsk; the leaflets many of them received were signed by the pro-Russian group People's Republic of Donetsk but the group say the letter is a fake and is designed to discredit Moscow's supporters.

 

And it makes sense to yell 'FIRE' in a crowded theatre, too.  This has echoes of both Adolf the Aryan and the 19th century pogroms.

 

You know, many German Jews never believed it until they were on board the cattle cars heading east.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

Well, obviously, it is a false-flag conspiracy of the fascist Western powers to make the harmless pro-Russian militias look bad...unless, it is a false-flag conspiracy of the masked pro-Russian militias to make it look like a false-flag conspiracy of the fascist Western powers to make the harmless pro-Russian militias look bad...unless...

 

Or maybe it really is a splinter radical militia group that has been unleashed and emboldened by the broader crisis along with all the other little paramilitaries now running loose.  Just try counting how many mini-factions and micro-brigades of the IRA or the PLO or the FARC have been running around taking things to ever greater extremes.

 

Blame Putin:  What happens when you start pushing masked and armed nationalist paramilitaries with hidden and unaccountable militia commanders to divide populations along ethnic lines by gunpoint?  They all start dividing populations along ethnic lines by gunpoint!  The minority Crimean Tatars already received their warning killing...

[AkemiAzula 280]

Seems to me the Crimeans wanted to join Russia. In this day and age we'd have heard about it via the net if it was otherwise.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Let's consider Crimea a fait accompli.  What seems to be emerging in these "so-called" militias who have their faces hidden is plain, out-and-out fascism with all the racist garbage from a century ago.

 

If I was a Crimean Tatar I'd be heading for the hills. 

 

Russians are hardly any people to talk about racial purity and all that.  You can't have a gigantic territory like that and not have several races unlike postage stamp Germany which tried.  Maybe it is time to break up Russia or give it back to the Polish Empire.  Wouldn't that be cute?

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Seems to me the Crimeans wanted to join Russia. In this day and age we'd have heard about it via the net if it was otherwise.

It's amazing how much a region can censor though. Think about it this way: how much do you know about what really happens in North Korea?

[47ply 1,100]

its sad that we can no longer even trust a live news feed.. you watch the event unfold and them some commentator breaks in to tell you what your not seeing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Spin, spam, the news feeds are mostly as corrupt as you think.  You can only read between the lines by looking at what you consider to be your most reliable sources.  I like BBC for verification and/or simplification, followed by CBC, then the New York Times.

[47ply 1,100]

for politics I watch cspan!! as it is a live feed right in the chamber no reporters just what comes out of the senators or congressmen's mouth. two min later its on fox msn and cnn all saying something different. 

[Captain 32]

At this moment, the real war is unfolding in Eastern Ukraine. I want to say about anti-Semitism. Jews beside Putin more than Russian. And people are don't crying about it. I had a teacher - a Jew. She is very proud of it. And we all loved her - she was a wonderful teaching economics.

The leaflets literally said - if you are a Jew, then come and pay 50 green dollars. Friends, if you can believe such rubbish, then I spare you. Joke of the category here this bear in Siberia from 2012 is very similar to that bear in Ukraine in 2014 - definitely Russian fascist and interventionist! But here it is in all seriousness:

 

"10 000$ for the Muscovite. Beneficial and useful. PrivatBank" 
The owner PryvatBank - ?