Russia-Ukraine

[User.45]

I am definitely not happy about India’s position.

My Postdoc is Indian. He told me a story when he attended a social event with the Russian ambassador. Someone from the crowd asked whether he’d wish If Ukraine “joined” Russia again, and his response was, would India like Pakistan to “join” them again?

I think we all know the answers.



*edits because I'm the only millennial who can't type on a touchscreen.

 

[User.45]

I have to say, Ukraine's meme game is top notch:

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Have just read (Reuters, The Business Times and elsewhere) that the World Bank is to halt, or suspend, all programs, and projects in Russia and Belarus.

 

[shadow puppet]

Is this what thermobaric bombs look like? Whatever these flashes are, they look scary AF.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1499180156325445640/

 

[Thomas Veil]

Looked like it was far away because of the time between the flash and the sound...but jesus, did that light up the sky.

No idea whether that was a thermobaric bomb or not, but it's possible. At this point Putin doesn't care how barbaric he gets.

We can only hope that rumors of a potential assassination of Putin are true.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

 

[User.45]

official footage on the Techno House siege

 

[lizkat]

India and Pakistan have an eternal dispute over a Kashmir and would rather not face UN reproach over a territorial conflict.

Also, Pakistan and China are trying to make more of their commercial relationships lately (since the US-Pakistan relationship has noticeably cooled), and Pakistan doesn't want to offend China by siding against Russia in the current alignments...

India looks east and west, and even under Modi it still usually still considers itself nonaligned, but India has Himalayan border problems with China in the Galwan Valley (east of the Indian-controlled part of the contested Kashmir region). India has also long counted Russia as a major trading partner, particularly for import of weapons and oil.

So all in all both Pakistan and India have reason to try to minimize whatever their reservations are about Russia's aggression within Ukraine, especially considering that China is also still trying to salvage its own relationship with Russia by not flat out renouncing the invasion.

 

[Arkitect]

The official excuse, apparently, is that Putin has to be kept in a health bubble.

But I wonder…

 

[DT]

official footage on the Techno House siege

Comment from Reddit:

"To be fair that works on regular doors. But this is no ordinary door. This is the famed "Door of Kyiv". Legend says the Door of Kyiv have slammed 7 Russian feet and stopped the advance of 16 Russian invaders. Fun fact, the Door of Kyiv isn't even located in Kyiv."

 

[Eric]

The official excuse, apparently, is that Putin has to be kept in a health bubble.

But I wonder…

he's turning

 

[Pumbaa]

he's turning

Let’s just hope he doesn’t turn Earth into a radioactive Mount Doom…

 

[Eric]

Let’s just hope he doesn’t turn Earth into a radioactive Mount Doom…

He won't if we take him out first. The priority of every nation on the planet should be to target that piece of shit in whatever bunker he's hiding in, the alternative could be far worse.

 

[Huntn]

Also, Pakistan and China are trying to make more of their commercial relationships lately (since the US-Pakistan relationship has noticeably cooled), and Pakistan doesn't want to offend China by siding against Russia in the current alignments...

India looks east and west, and even under Modi it still usually still considers itself nonaligned, but India has Himalayan border problems with China in the Galwan Valley (east of the Indian-controlled part of the contested Kashmir region). India has also long counted Russia as a major trading partner, particularly for import of weapons and oil.

So all in all both Pakistan and India have reason to try to minimize whatever their reservations are about Russia's aggression within Ukraine, especially considering that China is also still trying to salvage its own relationship with Russia by not flat out renouncing the invasion.

Kind of like when economics trump what is right, or ignore what is wrong,

 

[Arkitect]

Kind of like when economics trump what is right, or ignore what is wrong,

Hah! Well looking around the world, that's been a problem for a long, long time.

Money talks. Lots a money talks really loudly.

And when our politicians get into bed with dodgy Billionaires… well… yeah. We end up where we are today.

Lots of hand wringing and mea culpae.

To quote a great movie villain, Hannibal Lecter: "We begin by coveting what we see every day."
And for politicians who rub shoulders every day with the super rich. Man, oh man! Don't they all just want a little bit more? A flat renovated? Special seats at the football game? A little bit of grease to smooth things over.

And before you know it, constituents be damned! Morals be damned! All decency be damned!
It is just so lovely sucking on that champagne teat.
Little holidays on a super yacht.
Special deliveries of extra special caviar.

Ya know? The things that make it all so worthwhile slaving away in Parliament or Government.

The proles… they. Well. They. Just. Don't. Understand.

"Oh, another invitation to be a Board member? Why you shouldn't have. But how about I nominate my wife? Thanks!"

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

He won't if we take him out first. The priority of every nation on the planet should be to target that piece of shit in whatever bunker he's hiding in, the alternative could be far worse.

I’m sure a good part of it is being in the leadership bubble, but those people are often seen or even known to say that they are the most patriotic and would die for their country. Yet they can’t step up to the plate of potentially dying for the betterment of that country when putting a bullet in the leader’s head would be the right thing to do. They think dying in a pile of rubble is more patriotic than stopping the senseless killing of thousands to millions of their own people. They are the least patriotic cowards.

 

[Runs For Fun]

He won't if we take him out first. The priority of every nation on the planet should be to target that piece of shit in whatever bunker he's hiding in, the alternative could be far worse.

Exactly. There's a lot of very bad outcomes that could result from this invasion and getting rid of him would avoid all of those. It's basically in the entire world's best interest.

 

[Eric]

Exactly. There's a lot of very bad outcomes that could result from this invasion and getting rid of him would avoid all of those. It's basically in the entire world's best interest.

It's like before WWII, the world figured they would let Hitler have Poland.. what's the worst that can happen?

 

[JayMysteri0]

A brief revisit on what PoC are dealing with, and some of the media's help with that.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1499370254790766597/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/02/27/media-ukraine-offensive-comparisons/

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the world as the largest cross-border European conflict in decades. But some observers see a troubling tone creeping into how some media outlets have attempted to contextualize it, describing Ukraine as more “civilized” than other countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria.

In one notable CBS News segment, senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata, reporting from Kyiv, said Friday that Ukraine “isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city, where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.”

The statement went viral, and D’Agata, a veteran war correspondent, issued an apology Saturday, saying he had “used a poor choice of words” that he regretted. “What I had hoped to convey is that what’s unique about the fighting underway here is that this country has not really seen this scale of war in recent years, unlike some conflicts in countries I’ve covered that have tragically suffered through many years of fighting.”

But D’Agata was just one of many correspondents and commentators using offensive comparisons in their effort to explain Ukraine’s plight.

ITV News correspondent Lucy Watson reported from a train station in Kyiv that the “unthinkable” had happened to the people of Ukraine. “This is not a developing third-world nation,” she said. “This is Europe.”

Likewise, in a segment on the BBC, David Sakvarelidze, former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, described his emotional response in seeing “European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed, children being killed every day” in his country.

Daniel Hannan, a former Conservative member of European Parliament, wrote in London’s Telegraph newspaper of the Ukrainian people being attacked: “They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone.”

Such coverage resorts to “Orientalist concepts of ‘civilization’ that have long been present in European colonial discourse,” said Denijal Jegic, a postdoctoral researcher in communication and multimedia journalism at Lebanese American University in Beirut, in an interview. “This implicitly suggests that war is a natural phenomenon in places outside of the Euro-American sphere, and the Middle East in particular, and that war would take place because of a lack of civilization, rather than due to unjust geopolitical power distribution or foreign intervention.”

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Rumours - well, not quite rumours, - but rather, tweets from Russian speakers (in the west) writing about, and citing, tweets and texts from Russian friends in Russia, (some of whom are driving through the night to reach the border), who have requested that they not be messaged (further) until they have reached the border, and have safely crossed it ("as all phones are being searched"), and that they fear that martial law will be declared in Russia.

And, an extraordinary clip just posted on Twitter (from one of the TV stations): An interviewed trader paused in the middle of the interview, raised a bottle of sparkling water to the camera, and toasted the memory of the Moscow stock market.

"Cheers", he said, opening the bottle with an audible twist, and proceeding to raise the bottle whereupon he looked straight at the camera:
“My only job from now on will be working as a Santa. Cheers to our stock market death.”

The expression on the interviewer's face was priceless, even though the moment was both grotesquely hilarious, and tragic: Shock and disbelief.