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Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

Tanya1982 said:
A 'tankie'? Is that an acronym for something?

As a person with Jewish heritage, I've never 'massively enjoyed' anti Semitism.
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This won't be the best explanation.

It's someone who defends authoritarian communist leaders and regimes to the point of defending the indefensible, as far as being an apologist for Stalin. It comes from when the (edit: I was wrong, see steeplejack's post below, because he talks more sense) which some on the left defended, and some do still defend, along with other shit things done by people and regimes that're ostensibly Communist.

They seem to see the world as divided into two basic camps: evil West and North v good East and South; US and UK did bad things and are bad, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Hence also the epithet "campists."

Thing is with these types, they're so far down that rabbit hole that they see corrupt, capitalist Russia as some kind of vaguely left, anti-Western force for good. Add their nostalgia for the USSR and you've got the kind of cognitive dissonance that enables them to justify all sorts of horrible shit, even war crimes. They tend to be the same people who consider themselves left-wing but deny the Uyghur genocide, Assad's atrocities, the crushing of the people of Hong Kong and otherwise lack any sense of solidarity with oppressed people, as long as it's the right side doing the oppressing. "Whatabout" is their most common mode of argument.
 
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Dystopiary said:
This won't be the best explanation.

It's someone who defends authoritarian communist leaders and regimes to the point of defending the indefensible, as far as being an apologist for Stalin. It comes from when the USSR sent tanks into Yugoslavia, which some on the left defended, and some do still defend, along with other shit things done by people and regimes that're ostensibly Communist.

They seem to see the world as divided into two basic camps: evil West and North v good East and South; US and UK did bad things and are bad, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Hence also the epithet "campists."

Thing is with these types, they're so far down that rabbit hole that they see corrupt, capitalist Russia as some kind of vaguely left, anti-Western force for good. Add their nostalgia for the USSR and you've got the kind of cognitive dissonance that enables them to justify all sorts of horrible shit, even war crimes. They tend to be the same people who consider themselves left-wing but deny the Uyghur genocide, Assad's atrocities, the crushing of the people of Hong Kong and otherwise lack any sense of solidarity with oppressed people, as long as it's the right side doing the oppressing. "Whatabout" is their most common mode of argument.
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The USSR never sent tanks into Yugoslavia.

It did into Czechoslovakia in 1968, but it derives from the crushing of the Hungarian uprising in 1956.
 
I can’t logically blame Iran for supplying arms to Russia, as they see western kit pummelling their allies in Yemen constantly, easy to see the parallel and why they would pick a side against the west.

It‘s rumoured they’re getting nuclear tech in exchange, which had suddenly caught the attention of the Israelis who’ve resisted supplying anything other than non-military aid to Ukraine so far. It’s now reported they are willing to donate/sell arms to Ukraine in response, and they have a lot of capable stuff that has been requested previously (air defence, anti-tank missiles in particular). There is a large and quite powerful Russian diaspora in Israel (one of the reasons it swung so sharply to the right after the 1990s was the influx post the fall of communism) plus the state has some arrangements with Russia about not interfering with operations in Syria, so they’ve chosen a neutral position thus far
 
Oksana Leontyeva died under Russian shelling in Kyiv on 10th October. She was driving to work. She worked in the children's hospital "Okhmatdet". She was an oncologist, a unique specialist in bone marrow transplantation. She saved the children. This is how Putin, no, every Russian soldier , who shoot rockets and missiles, hit "infrastructure facilities".

AAA.jpg
 
8ball said:
Possibly a bit of Schadenfreude after the kamikaze drones business (sure we used to call those "cruise missiles").
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I am sure that is how they explain it to themselves, but I doubt any of the folk affected by this crash (of which there may be many, some reports say parts of the block have collapsed and 45 apartments are affected) have anything to do with anything.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Oksana Leontyeva died under Russian shelling in Kyiv on 10th October. She was driving to work. She worked in the children's hospital "Okhmatdet". She was an oncologist, a unique specialist in bone marrow transplantation. She saved the children. This is how Putin, no, every Russian soldier , who shoot rockets and missiles, hit "infrastructure facilities".

View attachment 347593
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She’d also just dropped her own child off at the nursery. Horrible stuff to think about, but this happens to many others too (and not just in Ukraine).
 
A new interview with the highly respected (and a bit of a silver fox) Fiona Hill:

“Reynolds: We’ve recently had Elon Musk step into this conflict trying to promote discussion of peace settlements. What do you make of the role that he’s playing?

Hill: It’s very clear that Elon Musk is transmitting a message for Putin. There was a conference in Aspen in late September when Musk offered a version of what was in his tweet — including the recognition of Crimea as Russian because it’s been mostly Russian since the 1780s — and the suggestion that the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia should be up for negotiation, because there should be guaranteed water supplies to Crimea. He made this suggestion before Putin’s annexation of those two territories on September 30. It was a very specific reference. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia essentially control all the water supplies to Crimea. Crimea is a dry peninsula. It has aquifers, but it doesn’t have rivers. It’s dependent on water from the Dnipro River that flows through a canal from Kherson. It’s unlikely Elon Musk knows about this himself. The reference to water is so specific that this clearly is a message from Putin.

Now, there are several reasons why Musk’s intervention is interesting and significant. First of all, Putin does this frequently. He uses prominent people as intermediaries to feel out the general political environment, to basically test how people are going to react to ideas. Henry Kissinger, for example, has had interactions with Putin directly and relayed messages. Putin often uses various trusted intermediaries including all kinds of businesspeople. I had intermediaries sent to discuss things with me while I was in government.

This is a classic Putin play. It’s just fascinating, of course, that it’s Elon Musk in this instance, because obviously Elon Musk has a huge Twitter following. He’s got a longstanding reputation in Russia through Tesla, the SpaceX space programs and also through Starlink. He’s one of the most popular men in opinion polls in Russia. At the same time, he’s played a very important part in supporting Ukraine by providing Starlink internet systems to Ukraine, and kept telecommunications going in Ukraine, paid for in part by the U.S. government. Elon Musk has enormous leverage as well as incredible prominence. Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin.”
www.politico.com

Fiona Hill: ‘Elon Musk Is Transmitting a Message for Putin’

Eight months into Russia’s war against Ukraine, POLITICO talks to the Russia analyst about whether Putin’s aims are evolving and what it would take to end the war.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
 
Lots of chatter that Russia are about to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro in Kherson.

Russian appointed officials now getting more vocal in their calls for residents to evacuate the region to Russia, where they will be guaranteed housing.



And the Russian general in charge the whole operation is warning of 'difficult decisions' in Kherson.



If they don't call for an orderly withdrawal, they're likely to lose huge amounts of military hardware, without any way to get it back over the river once the Ukrainian counter offensive gathers steam.
 
Sky was reporting earlier that the Ukrainians had ordered a media blackout in the Kherson region, which normally means they have a major offensive going on, and don't want the details getting out.
 
strung out said:
Lots of chatter that Russia are about to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro in Kherson.

Russian appointed officials now getting more vocal in their calls for residents to evacuate the region to Russia, where they will be guaranteed housing.



And the Russian general in charge the whole operation is warning of 'difficult decisions' in Kherson.



If they don't call for an orderly withdrawal, they're likely to lose huge amounts of military hardware, without any way to get it back over the river once the Ukrainian counter offensive gathers steam.
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Sounds like a human shield to get their hardware out of Kherson.
 
This is the headache that Russia have created for themselves by pushing the whole nazi rhetoric. It was useful for their leaders when they wanted to justify an invasion. But now it is biting them on their arse when they want to withdraw and negotiate. You can’t negotiate with nazis. You can’t cede land to nazis. It makes you a nazi collaborator. They’re being fucked by their own lie.
 
kabbes said:
This is the headache that Russia have created for themselves by pushing the whole nazi rhetoric. It was useful for their leaders when they wanted to justify an invasion. But now it is biting them on their arse when they want to withdraw and negotiate. You can’t negotiate with nazis. You can’t cede land to nazis. It makes you a nazi collaborator. They’re being fucked by their own lie.
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Why not do a Trump and claim the Nazis have been vanquished in victorious battle and demonstrate that the number of Nazis is now low enough for the Ukrainians to manage on their own?
 
cupid_stunt said:
Sky was reporting earlier that the Ukrainians had ordered a media blackout in the Kherson region, which normally means they have a major offensive going on, and don't want the details getting out.
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Or that they want people to focus on that (no better way of getting people interested than saying "ssssh, it's secret") while they maskirovka their way around the battlefield elsewhere. Let's face it, it worked beautifully once...why not again?
 
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