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Русский корабль - иди нахуй


Eastwood

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I can’t recommend enough this piece about Russia’s Central Bank and it’s admittedly rock star President Nabiullina. It provides much needed nuance and insight into what’s going on with Russia’s economy and the ruble and a counter-point to IV’s crypto cheering and defeatism. 
 

Also, Nabiullina is an excellent example of what, in my experience, makes Russia (kind of) function. Russia is host to lots and lots of people, most of them non-ideological, who are not only deeply patriotic to whatever “Russia” exists, but also brilliant and dedicated in a way that’s hard to explain.  It’s kind of a paradox, like how some of the most beautiful and humanistic achievements of literature and music have also been produced by the same frozen penal colony.  Anyway, it is a grave error to dismiss the human capital present in lots of Russian institutions (the best tend to gravitate away from the “power” ministries and agencies— which is for the better). 

Lest this come off as a defense of them, it isn’t, as unquestioning patriotism and “doing good so that evil might prevail” is a grave moral defect. 
 

I hope this gets seen cause this thread is all wonky on my browser.

 

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/07/07/the-banker-s-dilemma

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Didn’t see this— Volkswagen is pulling out of the GAZ factory, Russia’s oldest and probably most storied auto manufacturer. The history of the plant and Russia’s car industry is fascinating.  GAZ got its start making licensed copies of Model A trucks (the first logo was basically a Ford ripoff). The district which eventually got incorporated into Nizhni Novgorod was designed by Americans and built with the help of American socialist leaning workers. Some of their wives taught English lessons and a few lived in Nizhni Novgorod into this century. And of of course, the famous “Lada” was born as a licensed copy of a Fiat with modifications for terrible Soviet roads. 
 

I will be interested to see what junk GAZ pumps out now that the Westerners are gone. Aside from the Gazelle panel van, they only made Western models.

 

 

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Excellent piece reflecting the two dueling views of Russia and its current moves.
I think this take is the correct one. As much as it is disconcerting to think that a foe is behaving recklessly and foolishly, with irrational goals - instead of actually being motivated by rational and understandable concerns and goals - that is a real thing that happens. Again, I’m in the adversarial conflict business. I regularly see men and institutions act in just that way. And I’ve seen over and over, the only ways to deal with such an adversary are 1) total defeat, and/or 2) regime change. Quite often, you make enough progress towards 1 that 2 follows (reasonable people within the institution remove the leadership that was committed to the foolish course, doing great harm to the institution).
The take that Putin is just naturally reacting to “NATO” aggression isn’t just wrong, or ignores the last 10-20 years of his engagement with the West. He’s been prepping the battlespace for a long-ass time. He just blew all the advantages he’d gained by launching a really dumb invasion.
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2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

 

Yeah, spot on. The only threat NATO ever was to Russia, was a threat to its territorial ambitions. NATO only deterred them from gobbling up everything they could.

Edited by MillerEP
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1 hour ago, MillerEP said:

 

The Ambassador shuffle in Czech is a bit odd.  The current guy has been seriously forward leaning and a became a minor celeb.  There’s very little to quarrel over when it comes to the Czech’s aggressive support for Ukraine— one of the best in Europe.  It’s a major news story in the region. 

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14 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

The logo on the “aid” is that of a regional branch of the Putin-supporting United Russia party and not the Russian government. Fascinating that this is the angle they are taking. 

Ties in with them matching specific oblasts to regions/cities in occupied territory but having the local party instead from the whole region is hilarious bullshit. Like they need to actually promote the party.

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17 minutes ago, Gengs1 said:

Pretty interesting that he is removing ambassadors to those country’s at this time, anybody know what’s being to reported as to why?

most of those places are supporting Ukraine  

I think Melnyk was pretty controversial but no idea on the others.

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The Ambassador shuffle in Czech is a bit odd.  The current guy has been seriously forward leaning and a became a minor celeb.  There’s very little to quarrel over when it comes to the Czech’s aggressive support for Ukraine— one of the best in Europe.  It’s a major news story in the region. 

RU spies?
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30 minutes ago, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

Reports of a HIMAR hit on a RU ammo dump in Mariupol.

Also , RU is relocating ammo dumps into civilian areas.

I thought they'd been in civilian areas since 2014?

I understand that the Ukrainian Army is telling civilians to hustle away from them. No doubt the Russians are preventing that.

Somebody get a bible-quoting sniper to put a slug in Putin's head already.

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I thought they'd been in civilian areas since 2014?
I understand that the Ukrainian Army is telling civilians to hustle away from them. No doubt the Russians are preventing that.
Somebody get a bible-quoting sniper to put a slug in Putin's head already.

Make that residential to previous civilian industrial.
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8 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Excellent piece reflecting the two dueling views of Russia and its current moves.
I think this take is the correct one. As much as it is disconcerting to think that a foe is behaving recklessly and foolishly, with irrational goals - instead of actually being motivated by rational and understandable concerns and goals - that is a real thing that happens. Again, I’m in the adversarial conflict business. I regularly see men and institutions act in just that way. And I’ve seen over and over, the only ways to deal with such an adversary are 1) total defeat, and/or 2) regime change. Quite often, you make enough progress towards 1 that 2 follows (reasonable people within the institution remove the leadership that was committed to the foolish course, doing great harm to the institution).
The take that Putin is just naturally reacting to “NATO” aggression isn’t just wrong, or ignores the last 10-20 years of his engagement with the West. He’s been prepping the battlespace for a long-ass time. He just blew all the advantages he’d gained by launching a really dumb invasion.

It also ignores pretty much the entirety of Russian history. Anyone familiar with Russia's history and geopolitical aims -- which are determined almost entirely by her location and geography, not her leadership -- was unsurprised by Putin's invasion.

The surprises were that her Army was in such terrible shape, and that a beleaguered comedian president would turn out to be an inspirational wartime leader.

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25 minutes ago, MillerEP said:

The Ambassadors were fired because "they had contact with Russia." That's all they said in the news. So that could mean a lot of things.

 

"Khello Meester Ukrainian Ambassador. We are Russian friends. You appear to have dropped your stylish man-purse full of gold ingots. It is not ours, so it must be yours."

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