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Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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It is also worth emphasising that he has a whole team working in his name in exile.
Around 18000 people. It’s not news though, Japan & Russia both claim that theory as theirs for decades and we don’t even have an active peace treaty for them — de jure it’s probably the longest current war in existence.
To be fair if Zelenskey survives this (and im pretty sure putin will be trying everything from thermobaric bombs to polonium tea to ensure he doesnt) hes going to be a real player in world politics as I cant think of any leader around the world who commands more personal respect
That’s not Zelenskyy.
To be fair if Zelenskey survives this (and im pretty sure putin will be trying everything from thermobaric bombs to polonium tea to ensure he doesnt) hes going to be a real player in world politics as I cant think of any leader around the world who commands more personal respect
Yeah, at this point it’s not like Putin’s public image would take any damage from that
Yeah, I posted this before looking at the tweets and thought that this was one of his personal addresses that he gives through his lawyer or wife, but this is the work of his team that has access to all of his social media.
fair enough ... glanced on the phone and assumed
Not if you view it from the standpoint of a Russian Dictator, from that position NATO is presented as a (convenient) sort of 'boogieman' figure to frighten the people with. The closer the 'boogieman comes', (and Ukraine is damned close from that perspective) then your reason for taking action becomes easier to justify inside Russia. Short of starting WW3, Putin will not be stopped by outsiders, the only really possibility to stop him is for his own people to realise what kind of a future he is storing up for Russia with the rest of the world.
Unfortunately Putin has had decades (and sometimes perhaps with unwitting support from the West) to as it were 'salt' the organs of power in Russia, be that political, militarily, economically, with his own people/supporters and right at the top sit a number of the so called oligarchs, these initially are the only ones even capable of exerting any sort of pressure/sense on Putin.
The worry for them, and the rest of the world, is that Putin intends to go down 'all guns blazing'.
I’d joke that white people all look the same, but this guy is half-Korean too!
Wow, really? So cybersecurity is just a pipe dream? I always thought it takes a genius to hack some site. Damn.
Exactly... perhaps hes going to go full north korea and stick in front of an anti aircraft gunYeah, at this point it’s not like Putin’s public image would take any damage from that
Would be very surprised if he survived even the first murmurs of any popular uprising though ... I suspect the coup of 91 would have played out differently without yeltsin and im sure putin has learned at least that lesson from history
Probably not the most relevant demographics to be fair as he’s shooting next to a university (Russian State University for the Humanities) with mostly students that also study history & other humanitarian disciplines (I’d hazard a guess that the channel’s owner is probably a student there). I’d imagine that the anti-war sentiment in that demographic would extremely high — probably even above 90%, but it’s not the same in general population. Haven’t seen the second video though.
Unless they fancy an even harder recession than the one the sanctions are already going to put us through
Indeed, I'm sure their impact assessments are pretty grim if the embargo went forward. Millions thrown into poverty, pensions hit, associated overall poverty and fuel poverty leading to deaths.
You've got to weigh that up against the impact it would actually have on Russia and in turn Ukraine. It's easy to shout down something that looks like a lack of support from a position of complete ignorance about its effectiveness and impacts.
Cybersecurity works if companies spend money for passive and active(most expensive) measures. You'd be amazed how many big companies still use old and not secure operating systems, certificates, storage etc.
I get the sentiment but people in Western nations sometimes forget their poor is not really the same as poor nations' poor.
By that I mean that having such high energy costs literally means no heating for a lot of people (most even) and that can also lead to political extremism and division which serves Putin yet again. High energy costs could also lead to firms closing, so no jobs. We are literally talking about 5-10x increase in costs which is monumental.
It's just not as simple as people make it out to be. The real bad decision was relying on Russia in the first place without contingencies. Now, you're at their beck and call, at least in the very short term.
But at least we know its not monolithic and not everyone has bought into the propaganda. As they say, the kids are our future. Teach them well and let the lead the way.
A friend of mine used to work for the NSA. He claims he can hack into ny bank's system within 20-30mins. And as a result, is paranoid too. He does any/all financial transactions using a virtual machine within his linux pc.
Even if you invest a lot of money in cybersecurity, there are bound to be vulnerabilities. If you are targeted by a hacking collective, you can hope they don't get in. If you are targeted by countries that are known for hacking such as Russia, you can forget about it.
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It goes far beyond that for Germany aswell which is why they are so hesitant to sign off on a full on gas/oil embargo, the hardest economic sanction they could deliver. That would be an incredibly hot double edged sword that might deliver the killing blow to the remnants of the Russian economy but it would also cut deeply into their own economy.
A lot of people connect such an embargo just with higher costs to heat homes or run their cars or price hikes for a lot of goods, but the brunt of this embargo would not be felt by the households, but the industrial sectors of the country. This is where the majority of Russian gas and oil goes to and if they stop importing these ressources it won´t be long until the factories stand still. Keep that up long enough and whole supply chains (which are already compromised by the the other sanctions) will choke up leading to massive trouble for the suppliers of parts, which are majorly specialised businesses of the "Mittelstand", the backbone of the economy.
People can by all means advocate for doing that if they believe that this is the necessary step but they should be aware of the full consequences of it: a deep recession and damage to a stable but struggling economy that is still recovering from Covid, a lot of bankruptcies of smaller busineses and a large number of layoffs. Let´s see how long the solidarity for the Ukrainian people and tolerance of the three million strong Russian population lasts when that war will be the reason for losing their livelihoods.
The problems would not be contained inside the country aswell. Putin was rightfully accused of trying to destabilise the European Union, but there are few things that would be more damaging to the stability of the Union than a severly damaged German economy. Germany has been the biggest economical profiteer of the EU but it is also by far the biggest net payer and in times of crisis it was the robustness of its economy that build the spine and held it together. You bring Germanys ecomomy to its knees and a lot of smaller less richer countries will follow. This whole thing is a damn mess.
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So how did UK vote against stopping Russian gas then? I though the European Parliament didn’t include UK reps?
CNN's Fareed Zakaria Rejects Idea Of 'White Double Standard' In Ukraine Coverage
Usually agree with Fareed, but he is wrong here
Usually agree with Fareed, but he is wrong here
I was interested in Cybersecurity during college but didn't pursue it because there were hardly any jobs. Most companies under invest in security.
It was the best option at the time in terms of weighing up costs, going more green (reducing dependence to the more greenhouse gas emitting burning of coal/lignite) and the NIMBY effect in democracies when it comes to building power plants. We're saying what we're saying with quite a lot of hindsight now. I certainly hold my hand up in not expecting the situation with Russia to blow up 10 years ago.
But I hope this becomes a wake up call for Europe in terms of the need to become self-dependent in the future. It will take a lot of investment and time, but for Europe to prosper long term it be needs to self-sufficient when it comes to energy, security, manufacturing and staple foods/water. The latter are not really a concern but we have had a long history of dependence on US/NATO for protection and Russia or Middle East for energy.
We're always happy to spend money on weapons on this continent, so I have no doubt we can become self-dependent security wise. But wrt to energy we'll need a big investment drive for both renewable energy and a backbone of nuclear power until fusion becomes viable. But that discussion is for another thread.
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I agree. I see the embargo of Russian energy as the economic equivalent of the dropping a nuclear bomb at the moment. It's almost like MAD (mutually assured destruction). Yes it will bring the Russian economy to its knees, but equally it will create an incredible amount of hardship in Europe as well. It goes well beyond minor inconvenience. And I'm not sure the democracies will handle that very well, we'll see both a lot of poverty and a lot of political extremism that could erode Europe from within.
i can't find the tweet anymore which referenced BJ's position.
Meanwhile at least UK workers have the bollocks to do the right thing.
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...cheshire-dockers-uk-refinery-ship-russian-oil
found it - https://www.theguardian.com/politic...087f6d099f2a37#block-622620238f087f6d099f2a37
Q: Can you say more about your discussions on energy? The US secretary of state says we should consider cutting off Russian oil. Do you agree? And should we have “a climate change pass”, as it has been claimed you favour?
Johnson says you cannot simply close down imports of oil and gas from Russia overnight.
But all countries should be moving in the same direction, he says. And they should accelerate that.
He says he sees no inconsistency between reducing reliance on Russian hydrocarbons and reducing reliance on hydrocarbons altogether.
Neither the economic nor security arguments have made sense for fossil fuels for an awfully long time. Solar has been cheaper than coal and gas for years now in most countries, and wind not far behind. Most European countries' grids could handle much more renewable input even without significant change in storage capacity or management methods. The stupidity and vested interests of billionaires and politicians in the carbon bubble is the only reason we've not taken the energy transition much more seriously. Even now, Germany just announced €100bn for defence and at the same time hailed €2bn as a "massive investment" in renewable energy. And the Greens form part of their coalition.
Ok. Just when you said the UK has voted against stopping accepting oil and gas from Russia, I thought there was some formal vote I'd not heard of (not a tweet by The Guardian)
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If true, it shows in impressive fashion how no word from Moscow can be trusted and Ukraine are exactly right not to entertain any negotiations with the requirements mentioned yesterday
I'm not talking about how it's presented to the Russian people, I'm talking about how it actually is for Putin and his cronies - and for them it's all about holding onto power (and thus wealth) by repressing freedom and democracy. This is why they don't want to see a free and democratic Ukraine for fear of the example its sets to the Russian people.
Macron murked again.
This is the kind of stuff that annoys me when I watch movies and read books.
No way can someone be this evil and yet again reality is less believable than fiction.
I'm curious how complicit the Russian Generals and below are in all this. The guys loading and firing the artillery will not know what is at the end of the coordinates they are given. Do the commanders know the road they're told to attack has been designated as an evacuation route? How far down the chain does the evil stretch?
Apparently appearing gullible and incompetent is all part of a big masterplan on his part.