Russia

[TGHusker]

It took just two weeks to develop the new Iron Curtain.  Totalitarianism  has returned to Russia. 

 

 

https://www.axios.com/russia-ukraine-iron-curtain-4e03e4dd-cdaf-4029-97a7-e15a8cd2f4d1.html

 

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Two weeks ago, middle-class Russians could work at and buy from the biggest global firms, plan holidays in the West, get their news from vibrant (if embattled) independent outlets, and post as they pleased on social media.

State of play: With a new law promising prison time for journalists who so much as call Vladimir Putin's war a "war," foreign and domestic outlets are ceasing operations. Western firms are leaving. Social media platforms are disappearing. Borders are tightening. Protesters are being jailed en masse.

• "It's over," says Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at Carnegie Moscow. "All the vestiges of liberalism will be purged."
• "We're not yet in 1937," says historian Sergey Radchenko, referring to Josef Stalin's Great Terror. That 1937 is now the measuring stick is itself frightening, he says, because things could still reach that point, "and even if we're not in 1937, it's pretty damn awful."

"The rules were clear and they are not anymore," Baunov says. "We can’t say what is dangerous and what is not. You don’t know what sort of repression you can meet for the things that were tolerated before."

• Educated Russians knew they were living in an autocracy, he says. Many had made peace with that. But they never expected to once again live in the type of country where “portraits of the Great Leader" hang on the walls.
• People who work in journalism, the arts or for global firms are watching their career prospects evaporate. Russians have fled the country by the tens of thousands. "At the moment, borders remain open and those who are who really cannot stand this regime anymore still have options," Radchenko says, "but those options are diminishing every day."
• Educated Russians have long discussed the conditions under which they might emigrate, says Baunov. For many, border closures, social media shutdowns and “the deglobalization of Russia” were their red lines, he says. Others simply feel that they can't live as normal in a country that is attacking its neighbor.

Yes, but: That is, of course, a subset of the population. One independent poll cited in the Washington Post puts approval for the war at 58%, with 23% disapproving.

• Many Russians never shopped at IKEA, drank Starbucks coffee or watched Netflix, and thus won’t feel the shift as keenly. As sanctions bite, many will be prepared to believe the Kremlin line that they are victims of economic warfare from the West that has nothing to do with Ukraine, Baunov says.
• Russian intellectuals and young professionals already recognize that they are now behind "what is for most intents and purposes a new Iron Curtain,” Radchenko says. Others, like his elderly parents, "are not yet realizing the magnitude of what’s happening.”
• Prior to the war, people in Russia had significantly more freedom than in China, says Radchenko, who has lived in both countries. But Russia is now going in the same direction.

Sanctions have already pervaded daily life and conversations in a way they never did in 2014, but Baunov not expecting them to push more Russians into the street. “The fear of repression is much higher than the discontent the sanctions make."

• Radchenko says that there is more precedent in Russian history for lost wars bringing regime change than economic travails. But he warns that such a scenario could plunge a nuclear power into a civil war.

Russians aren't entirely cut off from the West, or from the truth about the war.

• Telegram, the widely used social media app, is still operational. Online, Russians are flocking to virtual private networks.
• But Putin could still be fairly confident that when Russian forces bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol — just 35 miles from Russia — only a sliver of the population would ever see the gruesome images, or believe their country was responsible.

The bottom line: The past two weeks were in some ways a step back in time. Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Disney are leaving. A new Iron Curtain is taking shape.

 

 

[JJ Husker]

58 minutes ago, VectorVictor said:

 

 

Thank you. It's obvious NDJ is just regurgitating talking points from Fox News without applying a modicum of critical thought to them and how bat**** crazy those talking points from Fox sound. 

And it's already been documented that Russia has their nuclear defense personnel on standby, and they have already said that the US providing fighter jets to the Ukraine would be an escalation worthy of a potential nuclear response...something that there's legitimate concern from intelligence gathered of the Russians doing. 
 

Considering Russia's propensity for projection (e.g. recent UN meeting where Russia is accusing the US of chemical warfare in the Ukraine...when it's been documented already that chemical warfare has been used on civilians by Russia)...I don't get why people are being apologists for Putin and trying to blame Biden for something he had no control over.

It’s brain disease, it really is. These people have been brainwashed and their capabilities for critical thinking removed. There is absolutely no better explanation unless we are to believe they are actual racists and/or Putin supporters. That is likely in some cases but I have to believe the majority have just succumbed to the BS. Sheep indeed.

[BigRedBuster]

This is a sample of the propaganda Russia is putting out.

 

 

[TGHusker]

14 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

This is a sample of the propaganda Russia is putting out.

 

 

This is a pre-cursor to them using chemical weapons first.  Make it look like someone else started it and then 'reply in kiind'. 

[JJ Husker]

57 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

Two of the very best reasons this man should never be allowed anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania again.

[TGHusker]

A long ways between Reagan and many current GOP light weights including Trump.  Here the Reagan Foundation will award Zelenskyy with the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award as announced by Michael Reagan.   

 

https://www.newsmax.com/reagan/communist-nato-soviet/2022/03/11/id/1060760/

 

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Volodynyr Zelenskyy has made quite a quick and dramatic transition.

In less than six years he’s gone from a comedian and TV actor to politician to president of Ukraine to global hero.

Zelenskyy has become Ukraine’s voice of resistance – the brave leader who refuses to surrender or flee in the face of the brutal and massive invasion of his country by Vladimir Putin’s military machine.

While Putin has become the free world’s Great Satan, people everywhere are praising Zelenskyy and even comparing him to historic war-time leaders like Winston Churchill and Benjamin Franklin.

Not to diminish Zelenskyy’s personal courage or the moral power of his calls for military help from NATO and the United States, but when it comes to great leaders in the world today, there isn’t much competition.

Joe Biden? Boris Johnson? Emmanuel Macron of France?

Not exactly modern day Reagans, Thatchers and Pope John Pauls, are they?

To defend his country Zelenskyy needs some deadly stuff – modern jet planes and lots more advanced shoulder-fired Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

While he’s waiting to see what weapons he’ll get, he’s just received a freedom award from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute.

The Ronald Reagan Freedom Award won’t do much against a Russian tank.

But when Zelenskyy officially gets his honor on Monday for his "courageous fight against tyranny" it might lift his spirits a little.

It’s a fitting award to give to Zelenskyy for standing up to the Russians.

It's been given in the past to the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Colin Powell, Poland’s Lech Walesa and a fellow comedian/actor, Bob Hope, aka, America’s ambassador of "Goodwill."

The award represents the values and principles of freedom that Ronald Reagan fought for all his life and is considered the "highest civilian honor" bestowed by the Reagan foundation.

In a way, what Zelenskyy's doing reminds me of what my father did on a much smaller scale in Hollywood in the late 1940s.

My father, then a liberal Democrat, was in his first presidency — as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

 

 

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My father was a natural leader and anti-communist long before he became president of the United States and orchestrated the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Obviously, Ronald Reagan never had to risk his life to defend his homeland against a Russian invasion the way Zelenskyy is today.

But just as some people are calling Zelenskyy the Reagan of Ukraine, I like to think of my father as the Zelenskyy of Hollywood.

I hope Zelenskyy wins for freedom the way my father did.

Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, 

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

Just now, TGHusker said:

A long ways between Reagan and many current GOP light weights including Trump.  Here the Reagan Foundation will award Zelenskyy with the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award as announced by Michael Reagan.   

 

https://www.newsmax.com/reagan/communist-nato-soviet/2022/03/11/id/1060760/

 

 

 

And, we have current Republicans claiming this guy is a thug and evil.

[commando]

with the Russian  economy smashed...this might just work

 

 

[commando]

i wonder if this is real?  maybe the sanctions are working?

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

1 hour ago, commando said:

with the Russian  economy smashed...this might just work

 

 

Just to point out something.  1,000,000 US dollars are equal to 133,333,333 Rubles.

 

It would absolutely be so awesome if all of a sudden a bunch of pilots started flying their planes to Ukraine to collect.

[TGHusker]

3 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

And, we have current Republicans claiming this guy is a thug and evil.

EGGGxactly 

[TGHusker]

1 hour ago, commando said:

with the Russian  economy smashed...this might just work

 

 

So do they mount a white flag on the tail or rotor to let the Ukrainians know they are coming to collect the $$s and offer the plane?

[commando]

6 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

So do they mount a white flag on the tail or rotor to let the Ukrainians know they are coming to collect the $$s and offer the plane?

they fly wheels down to indicate they are surrendering..at least on the fixed wing aircraft.  not sure on the helicopters 

[Scarlet]

Maybe not such savvy, wonderfully genius move after all.

 

 

[Notre Dame Joe]

6 hours ago, TGHusker said:

Speaking of this Ukraine crisis, one person who I don't want to be president is VP Harris.  She isn't up to the job - even the job as VP.  As demonstrated by this story and several other stories during her tenure as VP.

She is a light weight forced on Biden by the Dem establishment (my understanding from other reading was that he preferred Gov Whitmer of Michigan). 

 

 

https://nypost.com/2022/03/10/harris-slammed-for-laughing-after-question-about-ukrainian-refugees/

 

 

 

It's not what she is (at this point) it is how you use her.  Don't send Kamala to Poland, have her host the truce talks between Zelensky and Putin.  The world needs Harris's uncanny ability to suck all the energy out of the room.

 

5 hours ago, VectorVictor said:

 

 

Thank you. It's obvious NDJ is just regurgitating talking points from Fox News without applying a modicum of critical thought to them and how bat**** crazy those talking points from Fox sound. 

And it's already been documented that Russia has their nuclear defense personnel on standby, and they have already said that the US providing fighter jets to the Ukraine would be an escalation worthy of a potential nuclear response...something that there's legitimate concern from intelligence gathered of the Russians doing. 
 

Considering Russia's propensity for projection (e.g. recent UN meeting where Russia is accusing the US of chemical warfare in the Ukraine...when it's been documented already that chemical warfare has been used on civilians by Russia)...I don't get why people are being apologists for Putin and trying to blame Biden for something he had no control over.

 

Biden is giving up control by allowing Putin to decide where the red lines will be drawn.  A strong leader sets the boundaries and the other side can dare to cross them.  The only explanation that makes sense is that Russia communicated sending fighter planes to UKR is an act of war.   Agreeing to it makes Biden look somehow weaker in Putin's eyes.