Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

[maomao]

Yet muscovites ( still ? ) gorge themselves on Georgian food and drink whenever possible

Xinjiang food is big in Beijing. And dare I say Indian food is big in the UK. Ownership of the culture is part of the process.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Russia has finally been suspended from the UN's Human Rights Council, the two third majority required was well exceeded - 93 to 24 votes.

 

[zahir]

Yup. From all accounts, Zelensky's speech went down well, it was the Azov speakers that caused controversy. Saw an exchange on Twitter which went something like 'We stand with Ukraine not Azov' and then replies saying 'If you stand with Ukraine you have to stand with Azov' but I wasn't sure whether they came from posters supporting Ukraine or not.

Of course Azov has long been incorporated into the regular army, the majority aren't in it for ideological reasons and it's unlikely that soldiers from Ukraine's Greek minority are going to be neo-nazis.

 

[agricola]

I thought the distinction was over troops that aren't main line army. Volunteers would be harder to control. That was actually a Russian concern in Crimea in 2014 within their own forces. On that subject, I doubt Ukraine's military polices' ability to police the military.

TBF making it clear further weapons supplies would be conditional on those men being handed over for trial immediately would be a good step to take, I think.

 

[frogwoman]

Yeah when I went to Georgia a couple years ago I saw a guy cross the road wearing a t shirt with a massive swastika on it lol, of course it doesn't mean all Georgians are Nazis but the fact he could walk around so openly was disturbing and bizarre. There have been fairly large far right and anti LGBT protests in Georgia as well and I think the church has played a similar role in nationalism to what it has in Russia.

However they've also been invaded by Russia numerous times and during the war in the 1990s over 200,000 Georgians were ethnically cleansed from what's now Abkhazia. It doesn't surprise me that there is some sympathy for the far right there. There also didn't seem to be much inclination from the government/ 'civil society' to look at their past critically from what I saw when I was there - there's a museum in Gori I went around which is basically a hagiography to Stalin and you can buy loads of Stalin themed merchandise, with soviet repression just being blamed on Russia.

I'm sadly not surprised that overseas fighters from Georgia have gone abroad and been involved in horrible shit, don't take that as as some sort of attack on the country though.

 

[frogwoman]

And yeah there's loads of Georgian and Uzbek etc restaurants in Moscow, it doesn't stop there being a lot of racism against those groups though

 

[The39thStep]

Of course Azov has long been incorporated into the regular army, the majority aren't in it for ideological reasons and it's unlikely that soldiers from Ukraine's Greek minority are going to be neo-nazis.

I'm aware that it was incorporated rather than dispersed or shut down. I've seen a quote from Azov that says most of them aren't fascists and to their credit, the Ukrainians have recently stopped a number of overseas neo nazis from joining up with them.

 

[zahir]

As Azov are based in Mariupol and the city and villages around it are the main area where the Greek minority live it's not too surprising that Greek soldiers are going to be in Azov.

 

[The39thStep]

As Azov are based in Mariupol and the city and villages around it are the main area where the Greek minority live it's not too surprising that Greek soldiers are going to be in Azov.

I am sure that was the purpose of having them on the broadcast to the Greek parliament., despite the unintended outcome.

 

[maomao]

Russia have been voted off the UN Human rights council. 93 for, 24 against and 58 abstentions so quite a long way from unanimous.

Ukraine braces for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front – as it happened

This live blog is now closed

www.theguardian.com

 

[planetgeli]

Russia have been voted off the UN Human rights council. 93 for, 24 against and 58 abstentions so quite a long way from unanimous.

Ukraine braces for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front – as it happened

This live blog is now closed

www.theguardian.com

 

[_Russ_]

So we can't remove Russia from the UN because there isnt a mechanism to do it?.
Bullshit, as always follow the fucking money

 

[littlebabyjesus]

So we can't remove Russia from the UN because there isnt a mechanism to do it?.
Bullshit, as always follow the fucking money

How would doing that help? The UN has many very unpleasant members. North Korea and Eritrea are members. And it's not like Russia is the only UN member to have started a war in recent history.

 

[RainbowTown]

Apparently, the dead bodies and other acts of human degradation in Bucha was not carried out by the Russians, according to - a frankly obscene - interview of Putin's puppet press secretary Dimitry Peskov, on Sky News just now.




What a total bastard this man is.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Apparently, the dead bodies and other acts of human degradation in Bucha was not carried out by the Russians, according to - a frankly obscene - interview of Putin's puppet press secretary Dimitry Peskov, on Sky News just now.

What a total bastard this man is.

I had set to record that, watching it now, I am amazed Mark Austin is holding it together TBH.

 

[existentialist]

Apparently, the dead bodies and other acts of human degradation in Bucha was not carried out by the Russians, according to - a frankly obscene - interview of Putin's puppet press secretary Dimitry Peskov, on Sky News just now.




What a total bastard this man is.

I see him, and that bloodless fucker Army spokesman, talking, and it's hard not to fondly recall Comical Ali of Saddam's regime, who at least had some kind of personality to him.

 

[zahir]

I am sure that was the purpose of having them on the broadcast to the Greek parliament., despite the unintended outcome.

It was actually a perfectly good speech - apart from mentioning Azov.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Yeah when I went to Georgia a couple years ago I saw a guy cross the road wearing a t shirt with a massive swastika on it lol, of course it doesn't mean all Georgians are Nazis but the fact he could walk around so openly was disturbing and bizarre. There have been fairly large far right and anti LGBT protests in Georgia as well and I think the church has played a similar role in nationalism to what it has in Russia.

However they've also been invaded by Russia numerous times and during the war in the 1990s over 200,000 Georgians were ethnically cleansed from what's now Abkhazia. It doesn't surprise me that there is some sympathy for the far right there. There also didn't seem to be much inclination from the government/ 'civil society' to look at their past critically from what I saw when I was there - there's a museum in Gori I went around which is basically a hagiography to Stalin and you can buy loads of Stalin themed merchandise, with soviet repression just being blamed on Russia.

I'm sadly not surprised that overseas fighters from Georgia have gone abroad and been involved in horrible shit, don't take that as as some sort of attack on the country though.

The Chechens were supposedly the ones who were brought into Abkhazia for the blood letting of the Georgian inhabitants. I know they were there but not sure at the level of involvement.The road from the border going north is lined with miles of ransacked houses where the owners never came home

 

[planetgeli]

View attachment 317586

Thing is with these UN votes it's always good to remind yourself it's not a free vote, those votes against are not necessarily countries lining up to say genocide in Ukraine is cool, but it's a decent list of who owes (literally, economically) political allegiance to Russia or, even, China. I always look at Lao PDR (it's my favourite place in the world) and sigh knowing that vote is purely down to alignment with China - because they've become reliant on Chinese investment. Similar arguments could be made for most of those countries voting against. Burkina Faso, too busy with the aftermath of their coup, would surely have voted against too - as Russia is big in (military) investment there. Etc.

 

[LDC]

Is Finland really going to become a member of NATO in the next weeks? How the fuck is Russia going to react to that?!

Loads of news links making it look very likely. There's been a large increase in the % of the Finnish population in favour now it seems.

 

[strung out]

Is Finland really going to become a member of NATO in the next weeks? How the fuck is Russia going to react to that?!

Loads of news links making it look very likely. There's been a large increase in the % of the Finnish population in favour now it seems.

Apparently, they'll have to 'rebalance'

 

[kebabking]

Is Finland really going to become a member of NATO in the next weeks? How the fuck is Russia going to react to that?!

Loads of news links making it look very likely. There's been a large increase in the % of the Finnish population in favour now it seems.

Probably Russia is going to go apeshit - recall the sweaty letters they sent to various European states demanding to know their intentions - as well as the threats they've made against Fin and Swe should they join NATO. I doubt they'll invade, not least because Finland is tooled up to fuck, and makes Ukraine look like Toyland, as well as Russia being not exactly replete with spare tank Armies...

There will be naval incursions, overflights, lots of sabre rattling, and it will look a lot like it's going to kick off, maybe even some actual ground incursions, but Russia doesn't have the capacity to fight both Finland and Ukraine, and everyone now knows it.

There's a process to joining - it has to be ratified in member states parliament's, with some more complex than others, and there's talk of a 'cover note' of mutual defence treaties by some NATO states and Finland to cover the period between Finland putting it's application in and it's accession date. The UK will probably be in that group - it'll sail through parliament, and the UK is heavily involved in NATO and JEF ops in the Baltic States and High North, so there's already a relationship.

Russia will lose its shit though. The Finnish border is about 75km from St Petersburg. Vlad is going to look like a proper fuck wit, and I'm sure he can cope with that without flying off the handle....

 

[bluescreen]

Probably Russia is going to go apeshit - recall the sweaty letters they sent to various European states demanding to know their intentions - as well as the threats they've made against Fin and Swe should they join NATO. I doubt they'll invade, not least because Finland is tooled up to fuck, and makes Ukraine look like Toyland, as well as Russia being not exactly replete with spare tank Armies...

There will be naval incursions, overflights, lots of sabre rattling, and it will look a lot like it's going to kick off, maybe even some actual ground incursions, but Russia doesn't have the capacity to fight both Finland and Ukraine, and everyone now knows it.

There's a process to joining - it has to be ratified in member states parliament's, with some more complex than others, and there's talk of a 'cover note' of mutual defence treaties by some NATO states and Finland to cover the period between Finland putting it's application in and it's accession date. The UK will probably be in that group - it'll sail through parliament, and the UK is heavily involved in NATO and JEF ops in the Baltic States and High North, so there's already a relationship.

Russia will lose its shit though. The Finnish border is about 75km from St Petersburg. Vlad is going to look like a proper fuck wit, and I'm sure he can cope with that without flying off the handle....

Yes, they are tooled up.

archive.ph

ETA link is to a long FT article "War with Russia? Finland has a plan for that"
Very impressive preppers.

 

[frogwoman]

The Problem with the Donbas

Igor Girkin, aka Strelkov, delivers a press conference on 28 July 2014 in Donetsk. (Source: BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images) In 2014 Igor Girkin, aka ‘Strelkov’ (the shooter), became the face of the rebellion in Ukraine’s Donbas region against the new government in Kyiv. He was not actually...

samf.substack.com

Interesting article about opposition to Putin from nationalists, some of whom are even worse than Putin.

 

[friedaweed]

View attachment 317586

Interesting positions taken by a lot of the African nations but not surprising given Russia's ventures into the continent post colonial rule which Putin has most definitely exploited.
I can't believe South Africa would be sat on the fence if Madiba was still around though.

No real surprises in the red boxes really. Clearly a picture of a world more divided than ever and a somewhat insight into the state of the times and the globes future.

 

[bluescreen]

Interesting positions taken by a lot of the African nations but not surprising given Russia's ventures into the continent post colonial rule which Putin has most definitely exploited.
I can't believe South Africa would be sat on the fence if Madiba was still around though.

No real surprises in the red boxes really. Clearly a picture of a world more divided than ever and a somewhat insight into the state of the times and the globes future.

And going by population numbers, those representing the majority of the world's population don't actively oppose Russia...

 

[friedaweed]

Probably Russia is going to go apeshit - recall the sweaty letters they sent to various European states demanding to know their intentions - as well as the threats they've made against Fin and Swe should they join NATO. I doubt they'll invade, not least because Finland is tooled up to fuck, and makes Ukraine look like Toyland, as well as Russia being not exactly replete with spare tank Armies...

There will be naval incursions, overflights, lots of sabre rattling, and it will look a lot like it's going to kick off, maybe even some actual ground incursions, but Russia doesn't have the capacity to fight both Finland and Ukraine, and everyone now knows it.

There's a process to joining - it has to be ratified in member states parliament's, with some more complex than others, and there's talk of a 'cover note' of mutual defence treaties by some NATO states and Finland to cover the period between Finland putting it's application in and it's accession date. The UK will probably be in that group - it'll sail through parliament, and the UK is heavily involved in NATO and JEF ops in the Baltic States and High North, so there's already a relationship.

Russia will lose its shit though. The Finnish border is about 75km from St Petersburg. Vlad is going to look like a proper fuck wit, and I'm sure he can cope with that without flying off the handle....

Yep. Old cunty chops is going to recoil massively over that declaration of intention and quite badly I fear. I think quietly though the west is collectively probably pushing that tipping point with Vlad now he's overspent his cards somewhat in Ukraine.

There's certainly a long game going on now.

 

[friedaweed]

And going by population numbers, those representing the majority of the world's population don't actively oppose Russia...

I hadn't considered that but yes you're right. Quite frightening really.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

And going by population numbers, those representing the majority of the world's population don't actively oppose Russia...

those purporting to represent the majority of the world's population

 

[belboid]

Thing is with these UN votes it's always good to remind yourself it's not a free vote, those votes against are not necessarily countries lining up to say genocide in Ukraine is cool, but it's a decent list of who owes (literally, economically) political allegiance to Russia or, even, China. I always look at Lao PDR (it's my favourite place in the world) and sigh knowing that vote is purely down to alignment with China - because they've become reliant on Chinese investment. Similar arguments could be made for most of those countries voting against. Burkina Faso, too busy with the aftermath of their coup, would surely have voted against too - as Russia is big in (military) investment there. Etc.

There’s also the fact that many/most/all of these countries find it completely hypocritical considering how no such actions were taken against the US/UK etc for Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc. Africans and Asians can be slaughtered by the thousand and all there is is finger wagging.