• Russia Closes Kerch Straight; Rams Ukrainian Navy Tugboat
    128 replies, posted
Russia wouldn't balkanize. There's like four small regions that are organized based on nation, one national republic is literally in the middle of Russia, and everything else is non-nation based. There's no borders by which to balkanize. People won't rise up either, that's just straight up off the table. Russia will just kinda rot slowly, and honestly who the fuck knows how Putin will react to Russia becoming isolated. He might just go to war. Putin has the West by the balls guys. He's just unstable enough to be a real threat, enough to force US and the rest of the world to weigh their steps extra carefully.
https://twitter.com/Kateryna_Kruk/status/1067075797553504257
We need the real political opposition within the state and non-biased media. It's the only way to really fix the things. Look at the history of Russia, it is always one ruling party and no real opposition. Isolation would only lead to more dictatorship and oppression. Do you think sanctions hurt the ruling elite? It doesn't. They are using sanction as a tool to demonize the western world, and people believe them.
How can there be opposition if every opposition gets -1000 luck and ends up being killed in "accidents". We need to isolate russia from the rest of the world until it gets hurt real bad that people would seek for change or demand change. Once all the millionaires start losing money - they will also seek change. I bet whenever that piece of shit putine dies - nothing will change, another dipshit (which has been already selected for this) will take his place.
Terribly naive. We're a nation that lived under Stalin for 30 years and then for 40 more years in a rotting carcass of a state. We won't seek change, that's just not something that's going to happen. Not until next Perestroika, done from above as always. And the millionaires aren't going to seek change - they have enough and then some in their offshore accounts. If it gets real bad for them - they'll just flee and every country will accept their money with open arms, because that's about the level of backbone modern western politicians have. Honestly, in person I'd advise anyone living next to Russia and values their lives to seek migration opportunities. If before I was more like "guys don't be scared, Putin won't go against NATO", now I don't know and it makes me shit my pants.
That would be a disaster. Putin has gone from Russian liberal strongman to a conservative silent majority character because Russia failed to liberalize and become part of the European project. Its isolation is why Putin is a thing in the first place.
People who like to prioritize making money over all else, who else?
> Tug boat > "provocative actions" Pick one
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/europe/ukraine-russia-kerch-strait-intl/index.html Parliament voted to confirm. Ukraine has declared that its border regions will be subject to martial law starting Wednesday.
I have a feeling Russia's gonna pull back and then not do anything for a few months, then spin Ukraine sitting there as aggression and an excuse to take it.
Please note that martial law that has been voted is much more limited relatively to default one everybody talks about. It does not cover whole country, only 10 out of 24 oblasts (admin regions) which border Russia, Azov and Black Sea and Transnistria. Martial law will last 30 days (instead of 60), starting from 28th of Nov (not today as was preciously speculated). It was specifically stated that the actions (like curfew, community works, limitation of other rights etc.) won't be enacted unless Russia starts land invasion. Martial law was approved just to be able to take quick actions if such need becomes necessary. Elections are not affected. Rada (Parliament) voted today to assign previously discussed date for elections to reaffirm this.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Martial_law_in_Ukraine_%282018%29.png So here oblasts regions are going to be affect for 30 days under temporary martial law.
That's funny. Most of these areas are Russian-speaking former Yanukovich strongholds
It's no surprise that geographically the land closer to Russia contains more Russian speakers and sympathizers. I have a good feeling that this martial law order is also to assist in preventing any further civil dissent, less Ukraine wants a 3rd or 4th "People's Republic" to prop up in their civil war.
It was pulling other ships around very aggressively! Yanking the leash and such!
poroshenko announces battle royale
Sure, I was just saying it's potentially a problem since almost all of these areas are the Russian-colonized territories given to Ukraine during the 1920s with some cultural differences with central and west Ukraine. These are the same areas who had ridiculously low turnout in the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2014, because their party collapsed, which did a lot to alter the balance of power in government. Now they're under martial law, regardless of how tame or how justified. It does not say good things about a fledgling democracy we're supposed to be reforming away from corruption and petty divides used by rivals of ours like Russia.
https://twitter.com/OzKaterji/status/1067361765833494529
I don't know dude, those regions are all the ones that border Russia and the Black Sea, martial law on them makes sense regardless of what those areas have been historically, you're probably reading too much into it.
Good god you can see the man is staring down the barrel of a gun.
FFS that's a new low for our military/FSB. That's ISIS-tier hostage video.
I mean, that's the nature of disparate impact
The sad thing is a certain FSB asset in Washington is going to believe those gorced confessions and use them to side with Putin.
he's reading that as fast as he can in hopes of not getting shot this is just depressing
I suspect the obvious lack of authenticity is itself the point. Putin lies in order to assert power. The obviousness of the lie is deliberate - it's his way of saying, "look at me, I'm lying right to your face and there's nothing you can do about it."
Officially, they stated the martial law was to keep the military ready to deploy at a moment's notice, incase of insursion. Martial law only lasts 30 days and will not affect elections.
The man holding the pistol is telling him to look at the camera not the script, which is just causing him to look at the gun instead.
Big hole in the side of one of the captured Ukrainian gunboats, likely caused by 30mm shellfire from one of the Russian ships. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/89/7f0443f8-bf8d-4210-852d-0f684c2bc56e/21748482_0.jpg In another photo you can see more holes (red arrows) located the right of the above pic. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/89/04a6c71c-5a60-4a33-ae6c-383f81964971/21748536_0.jpg
Wonder what bullshit they're going to come up with to explain away why they fired on them. I think id rather take my chances and fire back than let them capture me, given that "confession" earlier I doubt anyones gonna see those ships crew ever again
This is the case inside the country as well, the amount of lies flowing from state media is stunning. And the bullshit is almost always obvious to anyone interested in the subject. And it only gets worse as time goes on, it's awful. At this point it's fair to say that Putin's entire regime is being held together by nothing but tons and tons of lies, pretty much like the Soviet Union in the 80s.
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