buctootim

Can you fuck of back to the duck tape thread please. One interminably pendantic dull and circular thread is enough

Eventually country 1 becomes richer on both measures

The Germans seem all over the place - finding it hard to accept bringing people into the big tent by trade and engagement has failed.

All seven years out of date Johnny. I think you're struggling to keep up with pace of change there has been in Ukraine since 2014.

No. It's true that after the invasion of 2014 there was a big upswing in Ukrainian patriotism and identity and there have been moves to mainstream use of Ukrainian in public life and schools but the languages share maybe 70% of their words and most people still speak Russian in some form. Removal of 'Russian' monuments and statues is actually about Soviet communist monuments.

Bayraktars is the type of Ukrainian drone that buzzed the Moscow cruiser before the missiles hit. Russian troops are famous for looting, with photos of them even strapping white goods to the tanks. The joke is that they distracted the Russians from the missiles by dangling a washing machine in front of them.....

Even 7 year olds are taking the piss now.

They tried whacking up the interest rate to 20% but that meant no-one could afford credit to buy anything and it smacked of panic and alarm - so purchases stopped overnight. Then they tried to force EU to pay in roubles - creating demand for rubles and pushing the rate up, but EU wouldnt play ball. Then they tried to force Russian companies to swap foreign exchange received from sales into rubles - but that has just meant they aren't able to buy components or raw materials for future production. Shame really 😅

Things are a lot more nuanced than that map would suggest. Firstly Surzyhk isn't a 'true' language, its a hybrid blend of Ukrainian and Russian - like Franglais. It evolved to enable two different language groups to communicate with each other. Even in the East where more 'pure' Russian is spoken it contains a lot of Ukrainian words and uniquely Ukrainian pronounciations of Russian words. My Russian which was good enough to order in restaurants and shops in Kyiv is unintelligible to my Russian friend in Omsk. Secondly that map was in 2009, things have a changed a lot since then. Ukrainian national identity and use of the pure language has become much more widespread.

Hm, I'm on the fence tbf. I'll make my mind up when I see who is attacking😂

I watched that clip from Rossiya1. The emotional war guy was odd enough but there was also the CEO of Russia Today arguing passionately on national tv that censorship was good because it made citizens proud and therefore happier than being told the truth. One of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. Surely a few more Russians must be beginning to think "huh? hey hang on....."

Interesting developments in Russia last 48 hours. The amount of Russian web traffic going through VPNs has increased tenfold in the past week and the normally supine Parliament speaker said there were no plans to ban VPN use. On some of the Russian state media websites its rare to be allowed to comment on stories and normally even the most oblique implied criticisms end up in immediate bans. On Novosti this morning more than half the post are hypercritical. Either their filter is down or they are starting to distance themselves from Putin. Maybe the dam is breaking These are some of the comments on Novosti (which still insists it sank in a storm after a fire) "Oh, how much pathos! But in fact, the king is naked! The Russian army is like homeless people on old tanks of the USSR! Glory to corruption in Russia, glory! You can only bomb civilians and destroy cities out of anger! An army of rapists and marauders!" "Not a word of truth. Bastards". "It's all Shoigu's fault, he didn't serve a day in the army and became the Minister of Defense. Dismiss with confiscation of property." "This is a significant event that the MOSCOW cruiser sank, that is, it confirms the situation that Russia will drown in this war". "20 plus (years Putin) did nothing for the country, and then it suddenly turned out that there was no industry and there were traitors all around" https://ria.ru/20220414/kreyser-1783626130.html?rcmd_alg=slotter

Some do - its bizarre. The ship was hit by two missiles, there was a fire, thwe ammunition exploded, the sea was too rough to evacuate properly and it sank. Obvs no-one hurt....

Not saying its true. Logic is that ship is sunk shortly after we just agreed to supply harpoon anti ship missiles and there wouldnt have been enough time yet to train Ukrainians

Just been reading the comments on RIA Novosti - one of the Kremlin mouthpieces. They aren't so cocky now. Seems like the first dawning of reality that they might be in shit. Couple of people are saying we (Brits) did it.

Zelenesky spelling out what he needs (In English)

Seems to me that the priority amongst most countries is to 1. Stop it spreading 2 Get it over as quickly as possible. The need to ensure Putin doesnt get rewarded for the invasion doesn't seem to be a major consideration, let alone things like recovering Crimea and paying reparations.

I think its more to do with NATO getting too big and unwieldy, same as happened with EU. Trying to get 27 or 30 countries on the same page and agreeing to a common form of robust action is impossible. Need to have smaller groupings of countries with common interests

European countries vastly outgun Russia both in terms of quantity and quality.

Hopefully this farce and the totally shot Russian propaganda war will see a bit of a return to more honest politics. You remember them? - politicians who were just evasive not outright gaslighting and lying.

Nah the war has saved him, at least for six months

There have been a number of arrests for sabotage of Belarussian railway workers for doing exactly that earlier in the war (West and South) . https://www.railtech.com/infrastructure/2022/03/24/belarusian-special-forces-guarding-railways-following-sabotage/?gdpr=accept

This is interesting. A bridge carrying the main railways line into Dobass from Russia has been blown - potentially slowing / halting flow of supplies / weapons into Ukraine. https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1513821648394334209/photo/1