News and Updates about Russia's War against Ukraine.

[Nadya]

Yes to the first part, no to the second. The Biden Administration has a bunch of pussy-footed wusses who are afraid of pissing off Putin and are scared to do anything too inflammatory. If they'd just commit all-in on the aid that has already been promised, especially the military hardware, instead of dragging their feet, that would help Ukraine tremendously. But, I don't think there's any stomach in the US to put boots on the ground there.

Frankly, I just wish that Putin's dumb-ass army, navy or air force makes a mistake does something stupid that forces an invocation of Article 5 and gets France and Germany off the appeasement fence. Russia keeps invading Danish airspace and waters, and Lithuania's cut off ground access to the Kaliningrad oblast. At some point, I feel like some fighter pilot, ship captain or major general is going to cause a confrontation that doesn't end well.

Yes! Give war a chance!

 

[Nadya]

This is chilling:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/19/people-missing-ukraine-russia-invasion/

I saw a tweet thread and a couple articles today about “Ukraine fatigue.” There’s a lot of people who apparently now just want the war to be over because it’s inconvenient, inflationary, and/or too bloody.

I get wanting it to be over, but how people can ignore the criminal and dangerous nature of Russia’s actions, I don’t get.

You make it sound like criminal and dangerous actions aren't ignored all the freaking time worldwide.

 

[Nadya]

Long thread here https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1538523966914052096

Russia Has a Plan for Ukraine. It Looks Like Chechnya. Putin’s template is simple: flatten cities, install satraps, rule by fear.

Russia Has a Plan for Ukraine. It Looks Like Chechnya.

Putin’s template is simple: flatten cities, install satraps, rule by fear.

www.theatlantic.com

I know of no country who is BANNING Russian culture. But most European countries have no interest in showing anything Russian right now and people in power positions know that no tickets will be sold if they do sth Russian. So it is the free will of theatres and museums not to do this at the moment.
I think it is very tone deaf to want to listen to Tschaikowsky right now.
It hopefully wont be in five years. But now is simply not the time. And I am sure that he would be the first to say so as well.
Simple human decency

Just two days ago my son and I attended a performance at Kennedy Center (Washington's premier music stage) that featured Glazunov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, with multiple curtain calls.

 

[Nadya]

Long thread here https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1538523966914052096

Russia Has a Plan for Ukraine. It Looks Like Chechnya. Putin’s template is simple: flatten cities, install satraps, rule by fear.

Russia Has a Plan for Ukraine. It Looks Like Chechnya.

Putin’s template is simple: flatten cities, install satraps, rule by fear.

www.theatlantic.com

I must confess I could never understand why a country where CIA directors routinely became presidents and foreign policy chiefs blames Putin for his KGB past. God knows it's not like CIA devotes itself to handing out cookies and cuddling kittens worldwide.

 

[Dobre]

Thread about Kaliningrad & its creation/history since becoming a Soviet oblast:

https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1538935281314938884?cxt=HHwWiIC-8YLfstsqAAAA

This thread, combined with a different one that was posted here earlier about Russia's waning security in the Baltic Sea if Sweden & Finland join Nato...

Combined with a basic look at a map...

I'd think Kaliningrad is in a very bad position and really ought to be rooting for Russia to get out of Ukraine.

 

[reut]

Thread about Kalingrad & its creation/history since becoming a Soviet oblast:

https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1538935281314938884?cxt=HHwWiIC-8YLfstsqAAAA

This thread, combined with a different one that was posted here earlier about Russia's waning security in the Baltic Sea if Sweden & Finland join Nato...

Combined with a basic look at a map...

I'd think Kalingrad is in a very bad position and really ought to be rooting for Russia to get out of Ukraine.

Small correction, it's Kaliningrad. (In thread he calls is Kalinigrad, also wrong; it comes from Kalinin - family name of some Soviet politician, grad = gorod = city)

 

[caseyedwards]

Thread about Kaliningrad & its creation/history since becoming a Soviet oblast:

https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1538935281314938884?cxt=HHwWiIC-8YLfstsqAAAA

This thread, combined with a different one that was posted here earlier about Russia's waning security in the Baltic Sea if Sweden & Finland join Nato...

Combined with a basic look at a map...

I'd think Kaliningrad is in a very bad position and really ought to be rooting for Russia to get out of Ukraine.

All western nations trying to starve it to death like nazis did Leningrad/St. Petersberg probably not the best strategy to make it anti Putin

 

[synian]

All western nations trying to starve it to death like nazis did Leningrad/St. Petersberg probably not the best strategy to make it anti Putin

and no water and no electricity and food for people living in dombas's Ukraine is a peace of cake ? Please have a personal reflection or it too much for you ??

 

[airgelaal]

All western nations trying to starve it to death like nazis did Leningrad/St. Petersberg probably not the best strategy to make it anti Putin

And the Holodomor in Ukraine is the idea of the West. Stalin had absolutely nothing to do with it.

 

[DORISPULASKI]

Neither food, drugs, nor even 50% of stuff going through Lithuania to Kaliningrad is affected. What is affected is aid to build up military base in Kaliningrad, also coal, .

.and perhaps should have been done sooner since Russia already amped up their military presence in Kaliningrad and adjacent to Baltic States since the invasion of Crimea.

This is a case of locking the stable door after the horse is stolen.

Russian Encroachment in the Baltics: The Role of Russian Media and Military - Foreign Policy Research Institute

Sowing discontent and disruption is a tactic that the West has accustomed itself to when dealing with the Kremlin. The Baltic states are in a unique position in the face of these threats. Estonia and Latvia, specifically, have significant Russian-speaking minority populations that the Russian...

www.fpri.org

 

[reut]

Ben Stiller visits Irpin, refugees in Poland, meets Zelenskyy

Actor Ben Stiller visits Irpin, refugees in Poland

Hollywood actor and Goodwill Ambassador Ben Stiller visited the devastated town of Irpin in Ukraine and called for compassion and support for all refugees ar...

www.youtube.com

Ben Stiller Speaks With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy In Kyiv

Hollywood actor Ben Stiller met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while on a visit to Kyiv. The pair discussed the ongoing war and the importance o...

www.youtube.com

 

[babayaga]

Margarita Simonyan says many people in Moscow are hoping for the famine in the world so that countries are forced to be friends with Russia again

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1538911097138331648

 

[Meoima]

"The famine will start now and they will lift the sanctions and be friends with us, because they will realize that it's impossible not to be friends with us," - said Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan during the Petersburg Economic Forum.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1538911097138331648

Lol even many poor countries in Asia do not even want to be friends with Russia and Putin at the moment. They should keep dreaming.

Head of RT Margarita Simonyan emerged out of secretive meetings with Putin & spread the new theme on state TV: there is no war in Ukraine, nor is there a special operation. There is a “civil war” between Russians & “anti-Russians.”Russia is “just helping.

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1538863456656535552

BREAKING: A German government source confirms that Sweden and Finland will reach a deal to join NATO. It is unclear whether this deal will be struck by the Madrid Summit. The full report from the German government source, which suggests that the impasse with Turkey on Sweden and Finland's NATO membership might finally be nearing an end.

https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1538814328064851971?s=20&t=_uTi_mWBnVyrFaWQPE-92Q

More goodies from Scholz foreign policy adviser Jens Plötner who criticises media for focusing on the number of tanks that Germany is sending to Ukraine instead of thinking about the future relationship with Russia

https://twitter.com/noahbarkin/status/1538943057114046466

German foreign policy towards Russia is really something, eh?

 

[Meoima]

I must confess I could never understand why a country where CIA directors routinely became presidents and foreign policy chiefs blames Putin for his KGB past. God knows it's not like CIA devotes itself to handing out cookies and cuddling kittens worldwide.

Believe it or not, the world is capable of having multi villains at the same time. I come from a country where most people hate the US government because they bombed us years ago.

Yet people with conscience here still support a Russia ban because it's the Russian (and Putin's goons) are committing atrocities. We are certainly allowed to criticize all atrocities regardless of who is the aggressor.

Also, mind telling me a list of CIA directors routinely became US presidents?

 

[Dobre]

"Ukrainian sources confirmed that #Russian forces control all of #Severodonetsk except for the #Azot chemical plant, where fights are ongoing on June 20."

https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1539025317175644160?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

 

[Asli]

Margarita Simonyan says many people in Moscow are hoping for the famine in the world so that countries are forced to be friends with Russia again

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1538911097138331648

The countries where there will be famine are not those whose friendship Russia needs.

If people in Moscow think that there will be famine in the EU or the USA, they can wait until hell freezes over and it still won't happen , because if the EU has one principle, it is seif-sufficiency in agriculture. As for the US, they can feed themselves and then some.

 

[Nadya]

Thread about Kaliningrad & its creation/history since becoming a Soviet oblast:

https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1538935281314938884?cxt=HHwWiIC-8YLfstsqAAAA

This thread, combined with a different one that was posted here earlier about Russia's waning security in the Baltic Sea if Sweden & Finland join Nato...

Combined with a basic look at a map...

I'd think Kaliningrad is in a very bad position and really ought to be rooting for Russia to get out of Ukraine.

Perhaps Lithuania can begin to address Soviet-era injustices by returning to Poland 1/3 of its current lands, including Vilnius? It did, after all, came by it in 1939 when the USSR took it from Poland and gifted it to Lithuania. Fruit of the poison tree and all, so why not return it to the original owner, eh?

Believe it or not, the world is capable of having multi villains at the same time. I come from a country where most people hate the US government because they bombed us years ago.

Yet people with conscience here still support a Russia ban because it's the Russian (and Putin's goons) are committing atrocities. We are certainly allowed to criticize all atrocities regardless of who is the aggressor.

Also, mind telling me a list of CIA directors routinely became US presidents?

It is but it's not exercising its multitasking muscle all the time, is it?

Be honest. Before this criminal stupid war even began, the commentariat was routinely referring to his KGB past in a tone of voice that suggested that alone should disqualify him from high office. That's the part I find hypocritical. I don't recall anyone looking down on Bush Senior or Mike Pompeo for the sole reason of having headlined CIA. Do you? Do you remember anyone suggesting they should be banned from running for office or being in it because of their CIA chops?

 

[Nadya]

Margarita Simonyan says many people in Moscow are hoping for the famine in the world so that countries are forced to be friends with Russia again

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1538911097138331648

Simonyan is a moron and an embarrassment to all Armenians. Keosayan too.

 

[DORISPULASKI]

I must say, Russians have a very odd idea of how to make friends. Most do not wish to be friends with those who try to starve their families.

Like the head of the US Defense Department, usually (but not always) the head of CIA is a civilian appointee.

Bush Senior got made head of CIA for four years, but he was not himself an agent. He was a diplomat, an oilman, a politician, and a WW2 vet

George H. W. Bush - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Pompeo has yet to be elected to anything since his 1 year as head of CIA

Mike Pompeo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

An equivalent person to Putin would be Gina Haspel, who was the CIA Director after Pompeo became Secretary of State She has never run for office

Gina Haspel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Dobre]

Follow up:

"Russian Nobel Peace laureate sells medal for over $103 million to help Ukraine’s refugees. Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov, the Russian co-winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has sold his prize medal for $103.5 million at an auction."

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1539050608694632453?cxt=HHwWioC96fqX59sqAAAA

 

[Garden Kitty]

Dobre posted the news first so I deleted my other post, but here's another article on CNBC about the Nobel medal auction

Nobel sold for Ukrainian kids shatters record at $103.5 million

Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million in 2014.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Nadya]

I must say, Russians have a very odd idea of how to make friends. Most do not wish to be friends with those who try to starve their families.

Like the head of the US Defense Department, usually (but not always) the head of CIA is a civilian appointee.

Bush Senior got made head of CIA for four years, but he was not himself an agent. He was a diplomat, an oilman, a politician, and a WW2 vet

George H. W. Bush - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Pompeo has yet to be elected to anything since his 1 year as head of CIA

Mike Pompeo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

An equivalent person to Putin would be Gina Haspel, who was the CIA Director after Pompeo became Secretary of State She has never run for office

Gina Haspel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A distinction without a difference, if I ever saw one.

 

[PRlady]

Just two days ago my son and I attended a performance at Kennedy Center (Washington's premier music stage) that featured Glazunov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, with multiple curtain calls.

Damn! We were there for the Friday morning concert, were you? We could have debated Ukraine over a late lunch.

We were in the third row, I’ve never seen a virtuoso pianist so close. It was amazing.

I had no problem listening to the music of long-dead composers played by an American orchestra with a Japanese guest conductor. But then I can listen to Wagner, who was personally culpable.

BTW, Vilnius was Lithuanian long before it was Polish, the two countries were in a powerful commonwealth for a long time.

 

[Meoima]

Be honest. Before this criminal stupid war even began, the commentariat was routinely referring to his KGB past in a tone of voice that suggested that alone should disqualify him from high office. That's the part I find hypocritical. I don't recall anyone looking down on Bush Senior or Mike Pompeo for the sole reason of having headlined CIA. Do you? Do you remember anyone suggesting they should be banned from running for office or being in it because of their CIA chops?

Where I come from people curse US presidents all the time. When I was in high school and college, no one ever praised Bush. In fact I would say it is difficult to find any US presidents who could be less hated here. I still remember my strong hatred towards Bush and it is justified.

People should stop saying the hatred towards Putin and goons' atrocities is just the result of "Western propaganda". There are human beings who do not live off Western news.

It's just simple as this: You commit crimes, we criticize you and hate you all the same, regardless of which governments. Many of my friends who criticize the US non-stop also bash Russia in this war.

Personally I have seen many old people who studied under Soviet regime living here and turn against Putin and co because they have a clear conscience.

BTW... about the KGB background, personally I know a Russian lady whose father was in KGB. All she knows is that after she ran away from the country, the "special servicemen" still visit her family annually and ask her to become their spy.

 

[Vagabond]

@barbarafan I am responding here in an attempt to minimize the politicization of GSD.

The only way for Russian skaters to compete this coming season will be for Russia to sign a comprehensive peace treaty with Ukraine and clear up everything related to .

Easy, no?

How about if Putin dies shortly....as some media is saying.....or if he is helped to that end?

Putin's death would not, in and of itself, get Russia out of Ukraine or bring about peace.

 

[allezfred]

Perhaps Lithuania can begin to address Soviet-era injustices by returning to Poland 1/3 of its current lands, including Vilnius? It did, after all, came by it in 1939 when the USSR took it from Poland and gifted it to Lithuania. Fruit of the poison tree and all, so why not return it to the original owner, eh?

Has Poland asked for it to be returned?

 

[Hedwig]

Has Germany asked to have returned part of Poland in return?

Should we go back to maybe 1276 and look what the country distribution was then and all return to that random point in time?

Or novel idea- should we just accept current sovereign countries and not invade them when they want to be left alone?

 

[reut]

Why to stop at 1939?

Polish forces occupied Vilna in 1920, and before the outbreak of World War II, the city of Vilna was part of northeastern Poland. Under the terms of the German-Soviet Pact, Vilna, along with the rest of eastern Poland, was occupied by Soviet forces in late September 1939.

 

[Asli]

Should we go back to maybe 1276 and look what the country distribution was then and all return to that random point in time?

Or novel idea- should we just accept current sovereign countries and not invade them when they want to be left alone?

1683, please. It would be correct and err fair to choose that year as the reference for territorial ownership. 😉

 

[barbarafan]

@barbarafan I am responding here in an attempt to minimize the politicization of GSD.


Putin's death would not, in and of itself, get Russia out of Ukraine or bring about peace.

An oversimplication of course but I do hope there are some good humans who would come forward to help with the rest. Of course the rest of the world would need to climb into Russia's as* and stay there with sanctions and seizing of their foreign properties etc so that all stolen lands and people are returned to the Ukraine and soooooo much restitution must be made before any leeway is given to Russia. And all war crimes must be punished and the Ukraine must be accepted into Nato.