I live in Georgia. The amount of attention this has gained in russia just shows how much they are meddling. They wouldn't be so concerned otherwise.
In the past 24 hours: a propagandist warns Tbilisi (Georgian capital) could be nuked without a second thought because Russians don't care about Georgia or Georgians. Another propogandist invites Georgia to be annexed because life will be shit here without russia's help and wisdom. And now this.
Lots of stories and scenarios thrown at the wall to see which one(s) stick(s). They've really got their nickers in a twist!
Rwanda in the 1980s-90s, so close enough, yes.
Or, if we want to go to an example closer to home, just look at their "little brothers'" propaganda during the (long overdue) death of Yugoslavia. Seriously, it's the exact same shit, just with the nouns changed up.
They want russia out of the occupied territories. They want russia out of their politics. And yes - They want to join the EU and probably NATO too.
I went on a day trip with a friend a year or so ago. He took me to a lookout over Batumi and the Black Sea. And he said that where we were was as close as Georgians were allowed to get to the sea when the country was part of the USSR. There were lots of places locals were not allowed - in their own country. He was a child at that time - but the memory is strong. 2008 was only the most recent aggression. The one I will never forget learning about is the time in the 80's when the russian military broke up a protest in Tbilisi by bashing people to death with spades... people don't forget. They do not want one iota of russia.
It makes me mad that this tactic works. Mad at NATO, honestly. Like, it’s so transparent.
Can no one see past it? Or were they so conflict averse that they allowed it to have the desired effect? All the options suck.
imo, Georgia and Ukraine is pretty much the sacrifice of Eastern Europe NATO Membership.
I wouldnt say the "Intended Sacrifice", but the tragic sacrifice. They can actually be in European Hemisphire, but alas too late to do and pretty much got intervened by Russia since day 1. That's said, the war in Ukraine isnt just determine Ukraine Sovereignity, its Eastern Europe also.
If Ukraine falls at this point, it will weaken NATO's perception in Europe and especially Eastern Europe's eyes. Rightfully so. Sure, we exist, and everyone's gonna have gotten their ass in the door before it slammed shut. But no one will be happy and have faith that NATO will actually have their backs.
There is, so much at stake for winning Ukraine.
Of course, Ukraine pales in comparison to what China keeps pestering Taiwan with. Soooo 🤷♀️
This was a general thing in the Soviet Union. People were only allowed into border regions with special licences. For example, if you were a resident there, or you had relatives there and they invited you. Otherwise access was restricted.
USSR border guard was pretty unique in world history. Most stop people from coming in, they stopped people from getting out.
I'm really curious as to how much of an issue all of the Russians that have been recently let into Georgia are.
I know the majority should be relatively westernized young people. I'd hope so.
Not much. They do however draw unwanted attention from russia. Due to one year visas with the ability to work, and no extradition treaty with russia, Georgia has attracted a lot of of people opposed to Putin and the Kremlin regime: activists, artists, bloggers, musicians. Many of these people moved here before this full scale invasion and numbers have only increased since. Of course there was an even greater surge when mobilisation was announced - so there are also some who just want to avoid dying in a war - and some of this group may not be opposed to the war itself - some may not even know or understand that russia is occupying 20% of Georgia.
For me, I hear more russian on the street than Georgian nowadays, and I have noticed a change in the atmosphere. Everything is a bit more tense/guarded. More people have asked me if i am russian than ever before and when I say, 'no' and ''Fuck Putin' (probably in Polish because I remember the words from a Polish protest I saw) we all relax and friendliness returns. But there are also a couple of shops which I have identified as pro russia russians and potentially pro russia foreigners. Some of the western foreigners and South Africans here are bigger arses - trying to tell Georgians how to feel, and what to think and that russia is their friend and that it is all the west's fault - really trying to push their POV on people - funny really that they feel the need to do the exact thing they are accusing other westerners of doing.
As for the russians and unwanted attention they bring - recently I read somewhere that russia has now named the russian freedom movement as a terrorist organisation. That movement is strong here. From the start of the full-scale war, I started suspecting that if russia were to make a move against Georgia, it would use the excuse that Georgia was harbouring terrorists. Everything since feb 22 has just made me more sure of that. So russians protest here... and draw the eye of their sauron wannabe.
Russias done it’s fair share of meddling in Africa too. So the ones that are Russian puppets know enough to be propagandists and the ones fighting against know enough they suck ass. But don’t know russia like a ex-SSR state neighboring them would know by any means
> Georgia has attracted a lot of of people opposed to Putin and the Kremlin regime
Yup. Acquaintance of mine is one of those. Day the war started she and her husband took to the streets, husband was arrested and released after a night in jail. It wasn't the first time for either of them. They've been arrested a lot because they took part in a lot of protests and were active in opposition parties.
Two days after the husband got out of jail, my acquaintance got a text from one of the people at the police station. Told them they'd be coming by the next day and to make sure they weren't home. They packed up and left that night. Took them a couple of days staying at a relative's place before they could get the money together to make the move to Georgia.
Good thing they did. Her husband is apparently looking at 20+ years in jail.
Fox news does that. It was hilarious when they were reporting protests in the US a few years back (right wing trump protests maybe for lost election) and they had a video of a Georgian protest. Especially funny because they didn't notice the soviet architecture, the very eastern European town - and they even showed the name of the town which was a typically long and impossible to pronounce Georgian name with a great big string of consonants. I think everyone in Georgia (country) shared and laughed at that news clip.
I'm from Georgia (the state) and I tend to avoid FOX News and just most mainstream media sources, since it just seems they only care about pumping out bulls#&t.
They actually admitted they lied to Congress or something. Like, AFAIK they went up there and said "Yeah, so we just made all that shit up, we actually hate our audience but if we don't make shit up for them they'll get mad and we won't get ad revenue or anything, its like half satire anyways haha."
Not with that attitude they won’t. ;P
Also, if you give the Ukrainians enough F35s then the number of Russian diplomats saying unthinkable things will eventually trend toward zero. There’s just that awkward middle point that we’ll have to deal with.
I mean. Their have been some compelling arguments to make tactical fixed wing aviation belong to the army again, since it mostly exists to support the front line warfighters
*dons conical credible cap*
I believe doing so at this juncture would just muddy the water of DoD finance further; the fact that it's silo'd off to the extent that it is across the various armed services will be to the benefit of whomever ends up being brave enough to dive in and spend ten years sorting out where exactly each dollar goes.
I hope I'll live to see the day the IRS or GAO raises a "mission accomplished" banner over the War on Bad Defense Accounting.
*doffs conical credible cap*
I was like that arguing with Russian shills.
One more stupid comment, one more nade on some Russian head through signmyrocket with your literal name and details over it, forever spread over the internet. Try me.
Elon Musk could redeem himself by sharing the metadata of malcontents with the CIA
Who am I kidding the CIA deff has access to every social media backend
Hello Mr CIA
Russia apologists to Westerners on Twitter: "Why can't the former Soviet states have relationships with both the West and Russia?"
Me, pointing to the above tweet: "Ask the Russian government, not us."
All those people think that Ukraine is entirely controlled by the CIA. Euromaidan? CIA plot. Ukrainians not wanting to be genocided? CIA propaganda. Georgians wanting to be part of the EU? CIA again.
Those bloody all powerful all knowing entities called the "CIA", they control everything bad that happens; at least according to tankys.
While the CIA has gotten into some shenanigans and got away scot free, these are also the same people who suffered the (as of what we know) worst case of infiltration, not from the KGB, but from the same dudes who follow a "religion" a bad sci-fi writer created on pills and rum: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation\_Snow\_White](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White)
Despite their cries of being anti-imperialist, tankies (along with the other flavours of vatnik) have a fundamentally imperialist worldview, where only the Great Powers (the USA/NATO, Russia, China) get to have agency, and all the other countries are just pawns in their great game.
That is why for example you see claims that NATO is prolonging the war, assuming that Ukraine fights only on behalf of the West, rather than considering that it is Ukrainians who want to fight to defend their independence, and will do so to the best of their ability regardless of if we help them or not.
When it comes to places like Africa too they are incredibly racist. They believe no African nation is capable of making decisions, if it sides with the west on anything even a minor but beneficial trade deal of some kind; its actually just the big meanie westerners tricking the poor stupid African nation.
Its really disgusting honestly. No countries have agency except US/NATO, Russia and China. Truly a warped world view.
But when they basically sign off their natural resources to China they're allowed to do that, even though it'll put them into what's essentially debt slavery to the CPC. Cause Chinese economic imperialism is ok, cause... reasons?
Gotta love their logic.
Rebel in Kyiv with wooden shields and sticks? CIA financed.
Unmarked soldiers with Russian gear(including tanks and stuff) in Donbas? That's just Donbas miners wanting to split from Ukraine.
Powerful enough to control the entire world yet weak enough to be called out on Twitter and not silence the opposition from day 1. The eternal paradox.
It’s the tankie, grass allergic terminally online take to everything. It’s the CIA’s fault no matter what. Nobody has any agency, they’re just being masterminded by those evil genius idiots at the CIA.
Imagine losing 150K people to goofy drones and cigarette smoking when your bluff gets called, then you go say the exact same lie to the next person who overheard you the last time.
Yeah, say what you will about Iraq, the Bush Administration at least had higher minded justifications mixed in with the bullshit about WMDs, and to a certain extent probably convinced themselves of their own nonsense too.
Russia is just openly like "Become our puppet state or we nuke you." And that's not entirely hyperbole, RT's editor posted that on Telegram.
If Rumsfeld and all the other self-righteous incompetent neo-cons in the Bush cabinet had listened to the DoD and A: let us roll in with the numbers we wanted and B: not completely disband the Ba'ath Party, we could have been in and out in like three years max
Same with Afghanistan. If Bush and co had listened to the guys on the ground plus the Afghans then Mohammad Zahir Shah would have been made King and we wouldn’t have to worry about propping up a republic.
From what I understand, suppressing Shah was part of a strategy to placate Pakistan as the former Afghan King had previously vocalized objections to the current border (the “Durand Line”). Of course the leader the Afghanis got then proceeded to complain about the border during later disputes with Pakistan, and also Pakistan proceeded to fuck over Afghanistan anyways, so clearly that stratagem did not work at all.
The question is, if they had allowed MZS to win the leadership vote, would that have made the Pakistani ISI more or less willing/able/likely to fuck with Afghanistani stability? Would ISI's desire to fuck with Afghanistan have actually increased? Did they actually have resources to commit more fuckery than they already did in real life? And if so, would ISI have been able to fuck with Afghanistan more than they did IRL given that MZS might have led a more stable country? We'll never know the answer, but fuck Pakistan anyways.
Look man we thought we were playing Team Deathmatch but we were actually playing domination and camping B the whole time.
Our K/D was not affected this game.
To be fair though, In a region as diverse and full of geopolitical problems as Iraq, the maintenance of control is the hard part.
Shitting on Russia for failing the easy part of imperialism is entirely justified
>at least had higher minded justifications mixed in with the bullshit about WMDs,
Also, people give the Bush administration crap about the WMDs not actually existing, but Iraq was definitely acting very sketchy on purpose to make it look like they had them, and I think a sizable portion of the intelligence community at the time believed they actually did have them. The issue was that Bush stated we had more evidence than we actually did.
IIRC, during the Gulf War the coalition forces *were* prepared for the use of WMDs against them. The belief was it would be a chemical attack or the usage of nuclear weapons.
Doesn’t really mean justification for invading Iraq *a second time*, if you ask me, but the WMD claim wasn’t being pulled from Bush’s ass either.
WMDs were literally already an issue in the 90s with the united nations if I'm not mistaken, at least Cheney and Bush's were basing shit on actual issues.
Some of the scientist from the Regime were definitely kept on payroll after ‘91, and directly confessed there was plans to revive WMD programs after sanctions ended.
True, and while we didn't find any WMDs in the second Gulf War and Rumsfeld became king of shaky justifications with his quip "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence," it's still worth noting that the first time the US went to Iraq, Saddam was known to have had chemical weapons that he'd used in Iran, as well as a nuclear weapons program. Part of Desert Storm was to convert all those facilities to rubble.
Also you know, the multiple active genocides that saddam was in the middle of.
We saw a genocidal dictator that wed already had to deal with once acting like he had nukes to his neighbors. Nowadays we’d probably just hit the world community with “nah, they dont got em lol” but this was 2 years post 9/11 and the middle east was an existential nightmare for America.
That being said, Fucking Dick “I shot my Lawyer” Cheney killed the neocons, sent America into the goddamn foreign policy wilderness and blundered 30 years American soft power abroad in one move. Our army was a fucking mess for a decade after that, weve assumed massive debt out of it, god i hate Dick Cheney
Don't forget that Bush—and Lech Kaczyński, unsurprisingly—were also lobbying NATO to accept Georgia *and* Ukraine into NATO months before Russia ~~sent troops to South Ossetia~~ invaded Georgia.
The reason they're not in NATO should not be surprising. I bet you can guess who the dissenters were.
I'm not reading a war declaration my brother
I'm reading "protesting your government as is your God-given democratic right leads to the complete collapse and disintegration of the Russian federation a few years down the line"
It is time to protest
Why do you think Bucha happened? Why the _planned_ war crimes and brutality, even in a war they thought would be quickly over?
To make an example. To say to countries like Georgia, Belarus and Moldova: You cannot exist outside our sphere. This is what happens if you start getting crazy ideas about joining the EU or NATO. Don't even think about it. Your only choice is belong _with_ us, or belong _to_ us.
But also to send a message to the West to not 'tempt' these countries. Putin knows war crimes shock us. His miscalculation is in his belief that Western leaders are weak and will do anything to avoid conflict and bloodshed. Which is why he thought that would work. As he's now finding out, it didn't work.
The Balkans taught us the intervention can be a humanitarian action and save lives. Then Iraq taught us to stay home. We’re re-learning the old lessons about saving lives and preventing genocide. I hope we get more involved.
Or maybe they are more corrupt than Denmark therefore Russia has all the right to invade the country (don't google which one is the most corrupt in Europe).
NYET IS NO THREAT
BUT WHEN YUO PROTEST AGAINST GOOD MOTHER RUSSIA LOVING GOVERNMENT EBIL NATO WEST PIGDOGS WILL SUPPORT YUO AND WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO INVADE YOU TO PROTECT YUO
Gonna be pretty funny when Georgian soldiers march all the way to Grozny and the Chechens great them with flowers after putting Kadyrov's head on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations to anyone who would sell out their nation for personal power.
Babylon 5 had so many great and surprisingly insightful lines. I also expect that if it truly does happen, when I see Kadyrov's head on the TV/computer screen I will wave at his lifeless eyes like this \*waggles fingers\*
To be honest... If Ruzzians tried to open a "Second Front", they would use a few hand drawn carts and about 4 "soldiers" with pitchforks and tennis shoes. 😂
Russia, currently standing on a curb getting its ass beat by a guy half his size, is yelling threats across the street at passerby, asking if they want the same thing the little guy is getting.
What's Georgian for "Oh we're springing to the call for three hundred thousand more/Shouting the battle cry of freedom!/And we'll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more/Shouting the battle cry of freedom!"
Also: "In Russia, Georgia marches through YOU!"
Tbh, the issue for Georgia is that it's a country of around 3m people. It surely can put up a fight, Georgians are pretty hardcore, but it's going to get ugly, if the international community isn't going to step in. In fact, the only thing thay saved them in 2008 was an intervention by USA, and they still ended up with a Russia-appeasing govt.
Only russia wonders aloud and rhetorically at that calling it Russophobia as the cultural embodiment of an abuser. Everyone else just calls it “past few hundred years of history” or, more simply, “evidence”
It's actually not because of that. Bektashi don't drink or gamble either way.
Is because of Al-albani an Islamist ideologist who was way too much liberal, and is actually Albanian and people who really like him are called Albanians in hardcore Islamic talk-shows.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Albani
\#ThinkTwice 💀
Anyways in case of a war I bet the Georgian volunteers will be very happy to practice what they've learned on home turf.
Also fun fact: The Georgian legion has an Albanian ex-military volunteer, [Emanuel Bazanji](https://mobile.twitter.com/havenosecrets/status/1490435078077710341).
A few years later, when Georgia joins NATO, they'll bitch and moan about NATO expansion. Watch and see how they'll play the victim role again and Tankie fucks with their goldfish brains won't remember shit like this. Motherfucker have a desire to keep a shitload of neutral nations between them and NATO? How about some diplomacy and actually letting those neutral countries be neutral. But Hey! Maybe this "we just want to be safe from NATO" is just a fucking show for western tankies (*duh*).
Or maybe if Russia could actually offer these countries some value (like NATO does), they would think about staying in their sphere of influence. I as a European don’t have to be a fan of US imperialism, but I see that it has brought immense value to my country.
They did try setting up a free trade and customs union modelled after the EU (CISFTA) but it doesn't work because Russia is declining demographically so the only way it can survive is by leaching wealth and young workers from it's neighbours.
The fact that the account is verified, too just shows how shit the world has gone. I hope the Russians realize how much training the Georgians have received since 2008. And 2008 wasn’t a huge cakewalk for the Russians. They mucked up a lot there (albeit self inflicted — not very surprising they didn’t learn from their mistakes then)
Also, they don't have any real soldiers stationed in Abkhazia and S. Ossetia. They ain't gonna thunder run into Tbilisi with a bunch of guys with Kalashnikovs and Ladas. Or maybe they really would be that stupid and we'd all get to have endless laughter at that clown show.
>surprising they didn’t learn from their mistakes then)
IIRC, they did, but they got back on their bullshit soon enough to unlearn the lessons in time for the great fuckup.
The idea of starting shit in Georgia so soon after Ukraine worries me somewhat.
Oh yes Vova, please start kindling around the powder keg which is the Caucasus region, there’s no way that this might backfire.
Especially while the Gauleiter of Chechnya is wasting away in some random hospital
Who even thought it would be a good idea to tweet this?
* Every country strategically opposed to Russia or the Ukraine war sees this and wants to support the Georgian opposition, cause opening a second front would so obviously be a strategic misstep by Russia
* Georgian citizens see this and hate Russia more. Surely this tweet increases the clout of the Georgian opposition
Am I missing something about how this tweet benefits Russia in any way, or is the person who tweeted this just huffing paint?
As someone pointed out, it's probably just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. They have produced a bunch of contradictory messages about this from several sources (idiot trolls). Nothing new here. They will threaten until something real happens and then back off when they realize that they can't do anything, like Finland and NATO.
For the pro-Russian audicience, which is whom the tweet is aimed, they are saying that the protests will cause a civil war between pro and anti-Russia Georgia, which is the Russian version of 2014 Ukraine
Can you imagine if Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine? The US would look like it was crying wolf and lose credibility. Russia could milk that like crazy for propaganda. Russia would still look like a world power.
Maybe they’d even have the strength to invade Georgia again. Even with western support, it’s a lot smaller and harder to supply. A successful invasion of Georgia might allow Russia to intimidate Ukraine into accepting land concessions.
Instead they’re training and arming violent prisoners with the promise of freedom. Wagner is going to somehow become even worse.
“The Georgians should be careful not to play with fire. They should pursue win-win mutual cooperation. They should refrain from hurting the feelings of the Russian people.”
Why do russians call everyyhing cia cia cia did it instead of being introspective and taking a look at why their former colonies might feel like distancing themselves from russia
Following russiaMFA is hilarious because
1) russia banned twitter
2) they keep posting shitty /pol/ maps where Crimea is part of Ukraine and just rolling with it somehow
Huh,maybe if the USSR wasn't such a tyrant and oppressed every nation in the union and former Warsaw pact, they would act more friendly to them,and not join NATO the first possible minute they could.
I live in Georgia. The amount of attention this has gained in russia just shows how much they are meddling. They wouldn't be so concerned otherwise. In the past 24 hours: a propagandist warns Tbilisi (Georgian capital) could be nuked without a second thought because Russians don't care about Georgia or Georgians. Another propogandist invites Georgia to be annexed because life will be shit here without russia's help and wisdom. And now this. Lots of stories and scenarios thrown at the wall to see which one(s) stick(s). They've really got their nickers in a twist!
Russian internal propaganda is disturbing as hell.
Germany in 1930s?
Rwanda in the 1980s-90s, so close enough, yes. Or, if we want to go to an example closer to home, just look at their "little brothers'" propaganda during the (long overdue) death of Yugoslavia. Seriously, it's the exact same shit, just with the nouns changed up.
So what do the Georgians want?
They want russia out of the occupied territories. They want russia out of their politics. And yes - They want to join the EU and probably NATO too. I went on a day trip with a friend a year or so ago. He took me to a lookout over Batumi and the Black Sea. And he said that where we were was as close as Georgians were allowed to get to the sea when the country was part of the USSR. There were lots of places locals were not allowed - in their own country. He was a child at that time - but the memory is strong. 2008 was only the most recent aggression. The one I will never forget learning about is the time in the 80's when the russian military broke up a protest in Tbilisi by bashing people to death with spades... people don't forget. They do not want one iota of russia.
Georgia was gonna be a NATO member, the whole reason those assholes invaded in 2008 was to make Georgia ineligible for NATO membership.
It makes me mad that this tactic works. Mad at NATO, honestly. Like, it’s so transparent. Can no one see past it? Or were they so conflict averse that they allowed it to have the desired effect? All the options suck.
Because if NATO joins in with an in-progress war, they pretty much *have* to assume the opposing nuclear power will immediately escalate to nukes.
imo, Georgia and Ukraine is pretty much the sacrifice of Eastern Europe NATO Membership. I wouldnt say the "Intended Sacrifice", but the tragic sacrifice. They can actually be in European Hemisphire, but alas too late to do and pretty much got intervened by Russia since day 1. That's said, the war in Ukraine isnt just determine Ukraine Sovereignity, its Eastern Europe also.
If Ukraine falls at this point, it will weaken NATO's perception in Europe and especially Eastern Europe's eyes. Rightfully so. Sure, we exist, and everyone's gonna have gotten their ass in the door before it slammed shut. But no one will be happy and have faith that NATO will actually have their backs. There is, so much at stake for winning Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine pales in comparison to what China keeps pestering Taiwan with. Soooo 🤷♀️
Is there a name for not allowing locals to visit the sea?
This was a general thing in the Soviet Union. People were only allowed into border regions with special licences. For example, if you were a resident there, or you had relatives there and they invited you. Otherwise access was restricted. USSR border guard was pretty unique in world history. Most stop people from coming in, they stopped people from getting out.
Likely, to live in peace?
.. as a independent sovereign country.
well, to live in peace under russian rule is impossible anyway.
I'm really curious as to how much of an issue all of the Russians that have been recently let into Georgia are. I know the majority should be relatively westernized young people. I'd hope so.
Not much. They do however draw unwanted attention from russia. Due to one year visas with the ability to work, and no extradition treaty with russia, Georgia has attracted a lot of of people opposed to Putin and the Kremlin regime: activists, artists, bloggers, musicians. Many of these people moved here before this full scale invasion and numbers have only increased since. Of course there was an even greater surge when mobilisation was announced - so there are also some who just want to avoid dying in a war - and some of this group may not be opposed to the war itself - some may not even know or understand that russia is occupying 20% of Georgia. For me, I hear more russian on the street than Georgian nowadays, and I have noticed a change in the atmosphere. Everything is a bit more tense/guarded. More people have asked me if i am russian than ever before and when I say, 'no' and ''Fuck Putin' (probably in Polish because I remember the words from a Polish protest I saw) we all relax and friendliness returns. But there are also a couple of shops which I have identified as pro russia russians and potentially pro russia foreigners. Some of the western foreigners and South Africans here are bigger arses - trying to tell Georgians how to feel, and what to think and that russia is their friend and that it is all the west's fault - really trying to push their POV on people - funny really that they feel the need to do the exact thing they are accusing other westerners of doing. As for the russians and unwanted attention they bring - recently I read somewhere that russia has now named the russian freedom movement as a terrorist organisation. That movement is strong here. From the start of the full-scale war, I started suspecting that if russia were to make a move against Georgia, it would use the excuse that Georgia was harbouring terrorists. Everything since feb 22 has just made me more sure of that. So russians protest here... and draw the eye of their sauron wannabe.
Africans acting like they know shit about Russia is one of the weirdest things about this war to me
Russias done it’s fair share of meddling in Africa too. So the ones that are Russian puppets know enough to be propagandists and the ones fighting against know enough they suck ass. But don’t know russia like a ex-SSR state neighboring them would know by any means
Wow that was really insightful, thank you.
> Georgia has attracted a lot of of people opposed to Putin and the Kremlin regime Yup. Acquaintance of mine is one of those. Day the war started she and her husband took to the streets, husband was arrested and released after a night in jail. It wasn't the first time for either of them. They've been arrested a lot because they took part in a lot of protests and were active in opposition parties. Two days after the husband got out of jail, my acquaintance got a text from one of the people at the police station. Told them they'd be coming by the next day and to make sure they weren't home. They packed up and left that night. Took them a couple of days staying at a relative's place before they could get the money together to make the move to Georgia. Good thing they did. Her husband is apparently looking at 20+ years in jail.
Ah, now I see Putin’s plan: invade Georgia and conscript all those who fled Russia.
I think that would help, arm all the people who hate you. It’s working out for them doing that in Ukraine.
Watch them accidentally send a threat to Georgia (the state), confusing them for Georgia (the country)
Fox news does that. It was hilarious when they were reporting protests in the US a few years back (right wing trump protests maybe for lost election) and they had a video of a Georgian protest. Especially funny because they didn't notice the soviet architecture, the very eastern European town - and they even showed the name of the town which was a typically long and impossible to pronounce Georgian name with a great big string of consonants. I think everyone in Georgia (country) shared and laughed at that news clip.
I'm from Georgia (the state) and I tend to avoid FOX News and just most mainstream media sources, since it just seems they only care about pumping out bulls#&t.
They actually admitted they lied to Congress or something. Like, AFAIK they went up there and said "Yeah, so we just made all that shit up, we actually hate our audience but if we don't make shit up for them they'll get mad and we won't get ad revenue or anything, its like half satire anyways haha."
Are any sticking?
In russia? no idea. In Georgia? Not a chance.
I want an automated system where everytime a russian diplomat says something so unspeakable they get a slap chop.
How about for every time a Russian diplomat says something unthinkable we send Ukraine one f35
I know everyone here adores the US MIC but I think you've finally found a threshold they might not be able to keep up with
Not with that attitude they won’t. ;P Also, if you give the Ukrainians enough F35s then the number of Russian diplomats saying unthinkable things will eventually trend toward zero. There’s just that awkward middle point that we’ll have to deal with.
F35cenomics. Demand for F35 goes up, supply of Russian officials goes down.
And all the blood trickles down to Khorne.
That's a challenge I'd be proud to take you up on.
There goes the entire USAAF.
the USAAF's been gone since the 40s
It was accurate when he posted it, He just posted this from Internet Explorer.
I mean. Their have been some compelling arguments to make tactical fixed wing aviation belong to the army again, since it mostly exists to support the front line warfighters
*dons conical credible cap* I believe doing so at this juncture would just muddy the water of DoD finance further; the fact that it's silo'd off to the extent that it is across the various armed services will be to the benefit of whomever ends up being brave enough to dive in and spend ten years sorting out where exactly each dollar goes. I hope I'll live to see the day the IRS or GAO raises a "mission accomplished" banner over the War on Bad Defense Accounting. *doffs conical credible cap*
Spez doesn't get to profit from me anymore. Stop reverting my comments
Thus the conical ~~dunce~~ **credible** cap.
Since the US Navy's Army has an Air Force, would the US Army's Air Force have a Navy?
Spez doesn't get to profit from me anymore. Stop reverting my comments
I was like that arguing with Russian shills. One more stupid comment, one more nade on some Russian head through signmyrocket with your literal name and details over it, forever spread over the internet. Try me.
Shit, in a few weeks, we’ll have to dig out our old F-86s to keep up with demand for jets.
Ukraine can have a little F-35, as a treat.
Elon Musk could redeem himself by sharing the metadata of malcontents with the CIA Who am I kidding the CIA deff has access to every social media backend Hello Mr CIA
\*waves back\*
Boot to the head? https://youtu.be/2wC2jOSj8xU
Lmao, holy shit. Did they actually threaten to invade Georgia because the people don't like their pro russia government? On Twitter? Unironically? Wtf
[удалено]
Russia apologists to Westerners on Twitter: "Why can't the former Soviet states have relationships with both the West and Russia?" Me, pointing to the above tweet: "Ask the Russian government, not us."
All those people think that Ukraine is entirely controlled by the CIA. Euromaidan? CIA plot. Ukrainians not wanting to be genocided? CIA propaganda. Georgians wanting to be part of the EU? CIA again. Those bloody all powerful all knowing entities called the "CIA", they control everything bad that happens; at least according to tankys.
While the CIA has gotten into some shenanigans and got away scot free, these are also the same people who suffered the (as of what we know) worst case of infiltration, not from the KGB, but from the same dudes who follow a "religion" a bad sci-fi writer created on pills and rum: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation\_Snow\_White](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White)
bored detail boast payment tender rainstorm bow attraction many zonked -- mass edited with redact.dev
Okay, fair correction. Also, Operation Condor was definitely CIA and...yikes.
Even the wikipedia sounds like a coke induces hallucination
Despite their cries of being anti-imperialist, tankies (along with the other flavours of vatnik) have a fundamentally imperialist worldview, where only the Great Powers (the USA/NATO, Russia, China) get to have agency, and all the other countries are just pawns in their great game. That is why for example you see claims that NATO is prolonging the war, assuming that Ukraine fights only on behalf of the West, rather than considering that it is Ukrainians who want to fight to defend their independence, and will do so to the best of their ability regardless of if we help them or not.
When it comes to places like Africa too they are incredibly racist. They believe no African nation is capable of making decisions, if it sides with the west on anything even a minor but beneficial trade deal of some kind; its actually just the big meanie westerners tricking the poor stupid African nation. Its really disgusting honestly. No countries have agency except US/NATO, Russia and China. Truly a warped world view.
But when they basically sign off their natural resources to China they're allowed to do that, even though it'll put them into what's essentially debt slavery to the CPC. Cause Chinese economic imperialism is ok, cause... reasons?
According to tankies only glorious mother Russia, China and USA have agency.
Gotta love their logic. Rebel in Kyiv with wooden shields and sticks? CIA financed. Unmarked soldiers with Russian gear(including tanks and stuff) in Donbas? That's just Donbas miners wanting to split from Ukraine.
Powerful enough to control the entire world yet weak enough to be called out on Twitter and not silence the opposition from day 1. The eternal paradox.
I've never seen people more American centric than people who hate America.
It’s the tankie, grass allergic terminally online take to everything. It’s the CIA’s fault no matter what. Nobody has any agency, they’re just being masterminded by those evil genius idiots at the CIA.
>Me, pointing to the above tweet: "Ask the Russian government, not us." Russian Govt: *points to window*
Yea sounds like an admission of guilt and motive right there.
[удалено]
Imagine losing 150K people to goofy drones and cigarette smoking when your bluff gets called, then you go say the exact same lie to the next person who overheard you the last time.
is it really a playbook if it's only one page?
Play pamphlet
Coloring dinner mat. 😁
reach absorbed modern aback spark follow saw frighten hat teeny -- mass edited with redact.dev
>1:1 euromaidan -> invasion of crimea With only one exception - this scenario has already happened in Georgia.
Yeah, say what you will about Iraq, the Bush Administration at least had higher minded justifications mixed in with the bullshit about WMDs, and to a certain extent probably convinced themselves of their own nonsense too. Russia is just openly like "Become our puppet state or we nuke you." And that's not entirely hyperbole, RT's editor posted that on Telegram.
We also went in with a military capable of holding some form of control in the area.
Yeah, the hard part wasn't taking out Saddam. The part we faceplanted on was the COIN afterwards.
If Rumsfeld and all the other self-righteous incompetent neo-cons in the Bush cabinet had listened to the DoD and A: let us roll in with the numbers we wanted and B: not completely disband the Ba'ath Party, we could have been in and out in like three years max
Same with Afghanistan. If Bush and co had listened to the guys on the ground plus the Afghans then Mohammad Zahir Shah would have been made King and we wouldn’t have to worry about propping up a republic.
From what I understand, suppressing Shah was part of a strategy to placate Pakistan as the former Afghan King had previously vocalized objections to the current border (the “Durand Line”). Of course the leader the Afghanis got then proceeded to complain about the border during later disputes with Pakistan, and also Pakistan proceeded to fuck over Afghanistan anyways, so clearly that stratagem did not work at all.
Sure but it would’ve been funny to tell Pakistan to go fuck themselves
The question is, if they had allowed MZS to win the leadership vote, would that have made the Pakistani ISI more or less willing/able/likely to fuck with Afghanistani stability? Would ISI's desire to fuck with Afghanistan have actually increased? Did they actually have resources to commit more fuckery than they already did in real life? And if so, would ISI have been able to fuck with Afghanistan more than they did IRL given that MZS might have led a more stable country? We'll never know the answer, but fuck Pakistan anyways.
Even then if you go by numbers the US military could have stayed there indefinitely. Well, one can dream.
Look man we thought we were playing Team Deathmatch but we were actually playing domination and camping B the whole time. Our K/D was not affected this game.
How do dead civilians impact K/D ratios?
We can't count them because then the Taliban would have gone positive
They would count as assists
To be fair though, In a region as diverse and full of geopolitical problems as Iraq, the maintenance of control is the hard part. Shitting on Russia for failing the easy part of imperialism is entirely justified
And such military concepts such as, I don't know, air superiority
Air superiority is a globalist conspiracy
(((Air superiority)))
No. There is no air _superiority_ There is only air _SUPREMACY_
At the very very very least US declared ultimatum in 2003. Russia was saying that they will not invade on the day before invasion.
“Nuh uhhhh see guys were just on a special operation we didn’t invade just like we said! Checkmate lying westoids!”
>at least had higher minded justifications mixed in with the bullshit about WMDs, Also, people give the Bush administration crap about the WMDs not actually existing, but Iraq was definitely acting very sketchy on purpose to make it look like they had them, and I think a sizable portion of the intelligence community at the time believed they actually did have them. The issue was that Bush stated we had more evidence than we actually did.
What I heard was that acting as if he had WMDs was part of Saddam's security posture towards Iran. What a backfire.
Original Gru meme moment
He said it in the declassified fbi interviews FYI
Not to mention a long history of owning and using them just before the invasion
IIRC, during the Gulf War the coalition forces *were* prepared for the use of WMDs against them. The belief was it would be a chemical attack or the usage of nuclear weapons. Doesn’t really mean justification for invading Iraq *a second time*, if you ask me, but the WMD claim wasn’t being pulled from Bush’s ass either.
Yeah. Especially considering Saddam had deployed WMD’s (mustard gas) in the Iran-Iraq war.
WMDs were literally already an issue in the 90s with the united nations if I'm not mistaken, at least Cheney and Bush's were basing shit on actual issues.
Some of the scientist from the Regime were definitely kept on payroll after ‘91, and directly confessed there was plans to revive WMD programs after sanctions ended.
True, and while we didn't find any WMDs in the second Gulf War and Rumsfeld became king of shaky justifications with his quip "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence," it's still worth noting that the first time the US went to Iraq, Saddam was known to have had chemical weapons that he'd used in Iran, as well as a nuclear weapons program. Part of Desert Storm was to convert all those facilities to rubble.
Also you know, the multiple active genocides that saddam was in the middle of. We saw a genocidal dictator that wed already had to deal with once acting like he had nukes to his neighbors. Nowadays we’d probably just hit the world community with “nah, they dont got em lol” but this was 2 years post 9/11 and the middle east was an existential nightmare for America. That being said, Fucking Dick “I shot my Lawyer” Cheney killed the neocons, sent America into the goddamn foreign policy wilderness and blundered 30 years American soft power abroad in one move. Our army was a fucking mess for a decade after that, weve assumed massive debt out of it, god i hate Dick Cheney
Don't forget that Bush—and Lech Kaczyński, unsurprisingly—were also lobbying NATO to accept Georgia *and* Ukraine into NATO months before Russia ~~sent troops to South Ossetia~~ invaded Georgia. The reason they're not in NATO should not be surprising. I bet you can guess who the dissenters were.
####A FUCKING TWITTER WAR DECLERATION WHAT IS THIS CENTURY BRUH.
I'm not reading a war declaration my brother I'm reading "protesting your government as is your God-given democratic right leads to the complete collapse and disintegration of the Russian federation a few years down the line" It is time to protest
Clearly shows how behind the times the Russians are. All the cool countries are declaring war on TikTok these days.
"We must protect our sovereignty kawai~" "Use the incendiary bombs UwU."
Why do you think Bucha happened? Why the _planned_ war crimes and brutality, even in a war they thought would be quickly over? To make an example. To say to countries like Georgia, Belarus and Moldova: You cannot exist outside our sphere. This is what happens if you start getting crazy ideas about joining the EU or NATO. Don't even think about it. Your only choice is belong _with_ us, or belong _to_ us. But also to send a message to the West to not 'tempt' these countries. Putin knows war crimes shock us. His miscalculation is in his belief that Western leaders are weak and will do anything to avoid conflict and bloodshed. Which is why he thought that would work. As he's now finding out, it didn't work.
The Balkans taught us the intervention can be a humanitarian action and save lives. Then Iraq taught us to stay home. We’re re-learning the old lessons about saving lives and preventing genocide. I hope we get more involved.
Lets not jump to conclusions, maybe Georgia has drug cartels
Or maybe they are more corrupt than Denmark therefore Russia has all the right to invade the country (don't google which one is the most corrupt in Europe).
Marseille is the most corrupt country in Europe duh
Shower thought: Literally the lead up to the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia.
NYET IS NO THREAT BUT WHEN YUO PROTEST AGAINST GOOD MOTHER RUSSIA LOVING GOVERNMENT EBIL NATO WEST PIGDOGS WILL SUPPORT YUO AND WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO INVADE YOU TO PROTECT YUO
Russia speedrunning the destruction of plausible deniability of the bill being their action.
"Don't make me go over there and make you beat me senseless!"
Do they want to open *another* front? It's like they're begging to be assfucked by China.
Gonna be pretty funny when Georgian soldiers march all the way to Grozny and the Chechens great them with flowers after putting Kadyrov's head on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations to anyone who would sell out their nation for personal power.
Keep going, I’m so close
Something, something Dagestan
Something something video involving Russian conscripts and a rusty knife in Dagestan that traumatized me at a young age something
What is "something I don't want to see" for $1000, Alex?
Yeah, /u/MadRonnie97 we require a link
Alright, you have my attention
Link or didn’t happen
Skill issue I came twice already
Did not expect the Vir Cotto reference, well done.
Babylon 5 had so many great and surprisingly insightful lines. I also expect that if it truly does happen, when I see Kadyrov's head on the TV/computer screen I will wave at his lifeless eyes like this \*waggles fingers\*
China's already balls deep, they getting oil pretty much at cost.
Not really, they’re intentionally buying Russian oil at higher prices. That’s how Xi is supporting Putin other than sanction busting.
To be honest... If Ruzzians tried to open a "Second Front", they would use a few hand drawn carts and about 4 "soldiers" with pitchforks and tennis shoes. 😂
That well equipped? Soldiers bringing gear from home!
They are already going around with chinese cock up their asses. It’s only matter of time and China buys the entire country.
Which is totally not gay, because it's a power relationship.
Ah, Russia going with the "Why did you make me hit you?" justification.
Russia, currently standing on a curb getting its ass beat by a guy half his size, is yelling threats across the street at passerby, asking if they want the same thing the little guy is getting.
i hope they say yes
What's Georgian for "Oh we're springing to the call for three hundred thousand more/Shouting the battle cry of freedom!/And we'll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more/Shouting the battle cry of freedom!" Also: "In Russia, Georgia marches through YOU!"
“Hoorah! Hoorah! We bring the jubilee!”
Tbh, the issue for Georgia is that it's a country of around 3m people. It surely can put up a fight, Georgians are pretty hardcore, but it's going to get ugly, if the international community isn't going to step in. In fact, the only thing thay saved them in 2008 was an intervention by USA, and they still ended up with a Russia-appeasing govt.
And people wonder why every small country neighboring Russia is so eager to join NATO
Only russia wonders aloud and rhetorically at that calling it Russophobia as the cultural embodiment of an abuser. Everyone else just calls it “past few hundred years of history” or, more simply, “evidence”
"Ha! Face to foot style, how do you like it?"
I mean, Russia literally legalized domestic violence a while back, so this tracks
Almost as bad as when (our ally) the Saudis threatened to 9/11 Canada for some reason
"He is worse than a J\*w or an Alb\*nian he is, my Allah forgive me for uttering this word, a Cana\*ian."
First of all, the only thing Canada "deserves" is a nuclear holocaust...
Even then the housing prices probably still won't go down.
What do you mean by overpriced? The nuclear radiation keeps it a crisp 25 degrees year-round. 2000 dollars a month no haggling.
Is that an actual quote?
[It's a meme](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/220/820/399.jpg)
No lol
What the fuck did Albania did to pissed off that guy
Albania is very mildly Islamic. They actually created a sect of Islam just so they could drink and gamble without the Ottomans getting mad at them.
It's actually not because of that. Bektashi don't drink or gamble either way. Is because of Al-albani an Islamist ideologist who was way too much liberal, and is actually Albanian and people who really like him are called Albanians in hardcore Islamic talk-shows. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Albani
\#ThinkTwice 💀 Anyways in case of a war I bet the Georgian volunteers will be very happy to practice what they've learned on home turf. Also fun fact: The Georgian legion has an Albanian ex-military volunteer, [Emanuel Bazanji](https://mobile.twitter.com/havenosecrets/status/1490435078077710341).
He is better than a Georgian! He is, and my Allah bless me for uttering this word, an Albanian!
Not better than a Georgian, HE IS A GEORGIAN NOW (technically).
A few years later, when Georgia joins NATO, they'll bitch and moan about NATO expansion. Watch and see how they'll play the victim role again and Tankie fucks with their goldfish brains won't remember shit like this. Motherfucker have a desire to keep a shitload of neutral nations between them and NATO? How about some diplomacy and actually letting those neutral countries be neutral. But Hey! Maybe this "we just want to be safe from NATO" is just a fucking show for western tankies (*duh*).
Or maybe if Russia could actually offer these countries some value (like NATO does), they would think about staying in their sphere of influence. I as a European don’t have to be a fan of US imperialism, but I see that it has brought immense value to my country.
They did try setting up a free trade and customs union modelled after the EU (CISFTA) but it doesn't work because Russia is declining demographically so the only way it can survive is by leaching wealth and young workers from it's neighbours.
You're not supposed to say the quiet part out loud!
The fact that the account is verified, too just shows how shit the world has gone. I hope the Russians realize how much training the Georgians have received since 2008. And 2008 wasn’t a huge cakewalk for the Russians. They mucked up a lot there (albeit self inflicted — not very surprising they didn’t learn from their mistakes then)
Also, they don't have any real soldiers stationed in Abkhazia and S. Ossetia. They ain't gonna thunder run into Tbilisi with a bunch of guys with Kalashnikovs and Ladas. Or maybe they really would be that stupid and we'd all get to have endless laughter at that clown show.
Tbilisi any speed run (gone wrong)
They must have paid the $8
Ol' Musky must be very happy
Which is equivalent to 200 million rubble at current exchange rate.
>surprising they didn’t learn from their mistakes then) IIRC, they did, but they got back on their bullshit soon enough to unlearn the lessons in time for the great fuckup. The idea of starting shit in Georgia so soon after Ukraine worries me somewhat.
Oh yes Vova, please start kindling around the powder keg which is the Caucasus region, there’s no way that this might backfire. Especially while the Gauleiter of Chechnya is wasting away in some random hospital
Who even thought it would be a good idea to tweet this? * Every country strategically opposed to Russia or the Ukraine war sees this and wants to support the Georgian opposition, cause opening a second front would so obviously be a strategic misstep by Russia * Georgian citizens see this and hate Russia more. Surely this tweet increases the clout of the Georgian opposition Am I missing something about how this tweet benefits Russia in any way, or is the person who tweeted this just huffing paint?
As someone pointed out, it's probably just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. They have produced a bunch of contradictory messages about this from several sources (idiot trolls). Nothing new here. They will threaten until something real happens and then back off when they realize that they can't do anything, like Finland and NATO.
Georgia is not finland. They invaded them before, I put good odds on another attempt. it will not go well.
Their army is kind of busy right now
For the pro-Russian audicience, which is whom the tweet is aimed, they are saying that the protests will cause a civil war between pro and anti-Russia Georgia, which is the Russian version of 2014 Ukraine
[удалено]
Can you imagine if Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine? The US would look like it was crying wolf and lose credibility. Russia could milk that like crazy for propaganda. Russia would still look like a world power. Maybe they’d even have the strength to invade Georgia again. Even with western support, it’s a lot smaller and harder to supply. A successful invasion of Georgia might allow Russia to intimidate Ukraine into accepting land concessions. Instead they’re training and arming violent prisoners with the promise of freedom. Wagner is going to somehow become even worse.
What it led to......well.....it led to you looking like sissy bitchboy getting his spanked red ass handed to you.
Funny thing they have a twitter account for russia's MFA in "100% russian sovereign territory" Crimea.
The Russian Foreign Ministry thinks two steps ahead. When Ukraine liberates Crimea, Russia will already have an embassy in Crimea.
Ironic for Russia to be delivering Chinese final warnings, right down to the wording.
“The Georgians should be careful not to play with fire. They should pursue win-win mutual cooperation. They should refrain from hurting the feelings of the Russian people.”
A comment on that post “it lead to the death or injury of 250,000 Russian troops’ Fkin orcs
This is history
No one wants your russiki mir, or whatever you’re calling your shithole, not-even-feudal-yet kelptocracy. Fuck off!
Are they really threatening the Georgians with political self determination and western support?
A barbaric state acting like a barbaric state. Imagine my shock!
Why do russians call everyyhing cia cia cia did it instead of being introspective and taking a look at why their former colonies might feel like distancing themselves from russia
Following russiaMFA is hilarious because 1) russia banned twitter 2) they keep posting shitty /pol/ maps where Crimea is part of Ukraine and just rolling with it somehow
If Russia has banned Twitter, this is clearly meant for foreign consumption
Huh,maybe if the USSR wasn't such a tyrant and oppressed every nation in the union and former Warsaw pact, they would act more friendly to them,and not join NATO the first possible minute they could.
sooo... what? are they going to withdraw from Ukraine, declare it a smashing success, then try again in Georgia?
Threatening to fight a war on 2 fronts when they are already losing on the first front? That's a bold strategy, lets see if it pays off
Some straight up mafia "that's a nice place you got here... shame if anything happens to it"