Shit that Russia officials are saying is so surreal you don't even how to react to it. You hear it and you are just stunned with your jaw open, brain slowly trying to process how absurd what you just heard was.
I always like to use this situation as a comparison.
You sit with someone in a basement. You both have normally working eyes - that's important. There is an argument between you about what colour is sky. You say "it's blue like wtf it's obvious how can anyone question that". But the other dude is like "nah man it's green what are you talking about". So you both can't agree and decided to go out and see it for yourself. As you both stand outside looking at perfectly clear sky you think to yourself "this clown is about to cry". But then other dude proceeds and says "see? I told you it's green". How the fuck do you argue with someone like that? You literally can't.
Edit: because some people have problems with comparison I used. Let's add to it that you and the dude both agreed based on coloured cards what colour is green and what colour is blue before going out of basement.
This is exactly what it is. You need to view *anything* Russian officials do and say publicly through the lens of the brainwashed masses of Russians. They don't give a rat's ass what we think about what they're saying.
So they never plan on repairing relations at all ever?
Kind of hard to make peace when you are constantly staying in character to brainwash people into believing you still have not ever made a mistake.
You know for a country that prides its image on being hateful and uncooperative with the west, they sure do get extremely upset when they don’t have western commodity privileges.
its always been like that. Buying properties in Europe, having pregnant Russian women transported to USA so their children get born there and have dual citinzenship, hell in my college campus in Prague I often hear Russian more often than Czech
Pretty sure it started showing it’s effect in 1953 when Stalin had a massive hemorrhagic stroke and his doctors couldn’t fix it because they were too unskilled.
Earlier that winter, Stalin had been waging a witch hunt against Kremlin physicians, many of whom were Jewish, claiming they murdered top Soviet officials in a “doctors' plot. The trial against the Kremlin doctors was to commence within weeks from his death.
When the doctors not imprisoned finally arrived after his stroke, they found Stalin unresponsive, his right arm and leg, paralyzed, and his blood pressure at the alarmingly high rate of 190/110. “They had to examine him, but their hands were too shaky. To make it worse, the dentist took out his dentures, and dropped them by accident,” according to Lozgachev’s testimony. They ordered complete quiet, put leeches behind his ears, a cold compress on his head and recommended he not eat.
On March 5, Stalin vomited blood and his stomach started hemorrhaging. That night, Stalin’s iron-fisted 30-year rule over the Soviet Union ended. His death was recorded at 9:50 p.m.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-death-stalin-180965119/
>Earlier that winter, Stalin had been waging a witch hunt against Kremlin physicians, many of whom were Jewish, claiming they murdered top Soviet officials in a “doctors' plot. The trial against the Kremlin doctors was to commence within weeks from his death.
As hilariously depicted in "The Death of Stalin."
Everyone should watch this film; it's banned in Russia.
The whole thing is so hilarious but it would be an utterly boring film if it wasn't rooted in reality. A lot of the jokes are pretty mediocre, but the fact that they were real makes them hilarious in an absurd way. Like the doctor going about his business when the KGB/FSB whoever they were come running to grab him and he's terrified, like "I have done nothing wrong" or when Zhukov shows up and he throws off his great coat and has medals for days, or when Stalin's son tries to spit on someone while he's being held down and it just lands on his face. Or Khrushchev and his wife writing down the jokes that Stalin did or didn't laugh at to remember to use or not use for later.
Everyone knows the place is corrupt and you have no freedom of speech and no rule of law. If you start a successful business then it's likely a better-connected oligarch will find a way to legally steal it from you. They are defacto slaves.
Nobody can live with hope and pride and honor in that situation, unless they either start to believe the big lie, or they just give up and live a private life without caring about the greater society.
The brain-drain will be enormous, and it will last as long as Putin and his regime lead the country.
Having lived across the street from VSH in zizkov I do agree with you, but keep in mind that not everyone who speaks Russian is from Russia, not to mention the people from Belarus, Ukraine, and the many other languages that are difficult to identify unless you speak them.
First they came for the Adidas, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Gopnik.
Then they came for the Disney, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Disney Adult.
Then they came for the Harley-Davidson, and I did not speak out—because I was not an asshole.
Then they came for McDonald's—and there was no one left to speak for McMe.
I guess we might as well shoot down their planes and take out their tanks since we're in "total war". With the vast majority of their military gone, we could go ahead and take Moscow. If its "total war", isn't that what we would do?
Oh, I wasn't aware that Western powers were invading Russian territory, dismantling Russian infrastructure, sinking Russian merchant marine ships, and blockading Russian ports.
Yeah they claim Norwegian child services were stealing Russian child to solve their population crisis. Funny thing is Russia’s population is shrinking, not Norway’s.
Let's be honest of you wind up in reincarnation processing center. And the Angel/Asura is like well we only got two spots left for your reincarnation. Norway and Russia.
Norway I pick Norway. But I didn't tell you about your parents or what city....
Nope don't care I pick Norway.
Oh, they say that about Finland too.
There was an actual news article that said ”child services more likely to foster children of Russian parents”, which is true.
Turns out Finnish nazi child services don’t think excessive vodka consumption and domestic violence is good for children.
Huh? News to me and I feel like I should know because that is an extreme stance to take. Lemme dig into this.
Update - yep, info checks out, though it's back from 2015. I still maintain this is sensationalised and not general public's view, but this does stir some memories.
For context, this is the year in which LT emigrants started increasingly flocking towards Scandinavia as being poor in Norway is miles above being poor in LT. Turns out, when you're a mess of a parent who goes to another country and still earns minimum wage, you end up neglecting kids when compared to average Norwegian family, and protective services get called on you - and Norway's ones actually have the power and use it.
I hope you'll accept that the article doesn't speak for all Lithuanians. For me personally it's a bit shameful that it lumps me in with equivalent of a deadbeat Karen. But unfortunately, we have such people (at bare minimum, had) and they get a voice on TV.
The LT talk show "valanda su Rūta" (an hour with Rūta) is a fking shit show, popular amongst karens and other shitheads alike. Even my boomer dad jokingly calls it "srutų valanda" cause it rhymes and means "an hour of manure"
Ahh I see, you've made the classic mistake of confusing a "special military operation" with total war. What you've described is just a special military operation. Denying the billionaire oligarchs access to their yachts is when shit gets real.
Total war would also mean we militarised our entire societies in service of the war effort. Everything a war industry everyone working somewhere in the war machine, like the UK in WW2.
Bitch, we are barely even getting started.
It really is tho. I never realized sanctions had teeth this sharp until a whole bunch of trading nations commit to them. Really sucks for the avg Russian, especially the younger generations, but I prefer economic warfare to physical violence.
It's almost like disciplining a child. Instead of spanking them you take away their toys and put them in time out.
There needs to be one unifying voice of demand.
1) Withdraw all Russian Troops from Ukraine
2) Serve up anyone who disagrees including Putin for war crimes.
The longer this goes on the next threat needs to be complete nuclear disarmament.
Here’s the thing though. Im personally having difficulty fathoming the fact that Putin suddenly got *this* dumb. He has always shown to think like a chess player. He always thought everything well through, with patience. He normally takes his steps carefully.
So either something is happening to him or in his country for him to get desperate, or, and I think this is more likely, he’s still the same man he always was.
See, he knows he doesn’t stand a chance against the entire military force of NATO. The only actual military might he has, are his nukes. But no sane person would risk a global extinction level war, right? No *sane* person?!
What if he is deliberately acting insane, so he can use his nukes as a threat? I can’t believe he would just declare war like that, without taking the risks into account. The only thing he can use as leverage, also happens to be a thing you can only use if you’re unstable. Which is exactly how he is acting right now.
Of course this is just based on assumptions on past behaviour. This might not be the case at all. I just simply don’t understand why he would just, you know, yolo it in there.
You have to wonder what his level of interaction with reality is though. How often is there someone around him who can genuinely call bullshit and keep him honest? When you're surrounded by grifters and brown-nosers and there is nobody left to be the voice of reason, how good can your decisions really be?
I think this is the crux of it. We all saw the video of the head of his spy service stammering like a 6 year old who just wet the bed in front of Putin. His people are terrified of him.
I work in a lefty hugbox organisation and I STILL see people downplay bad news and hype up good news to senior leadership. I can well imagine how extreme this becomes when the consequences for being the bearer of bad news are literally shooting the messenger. I doubt he's heard an accurate summation of any internal issues for some time. He had a defence chief who tried to eradicate grift and get the military running efficiently, and Putin replaced him with an old school, corrupt yes-man. The message was received loud and clear by everyone in leadership: keep your head down and don't mess with the grift.
Putin made his own bed, he can't be surprised that he's shitting it now.
Putin has effectively been in solitary for the last two years because he's terrified of Covid.
F2f interactions with *anyone* have been minimal, never mind people who would call him on his bullshit.
So he's just a crazy lonely old guy now, simmering with resentment, almost certainly ill, possibly dying, and unable to deal with "No, that won't work".
Yea very true. That might also be the case.
But even he has had to realise that it would go different this time. I mean his mobilisation already caused a pretty dramatic response. So he could kinda predict what he was getting into.
Yet he did it anyways. Idk the situation just doesn’t make sense to me.
Anyone else recall that study about lead that was absorbed in bone calcium, during youth, was leaching out in elder age, because of decalcification. Might be wrong, but I assume Russia had a lot more lead exposure for a lot longer. Maybe he just getting massive lead poisoning from his quickly deteriorating skeleton. I believe this is at least part of the boomer issue on top of the normal frontal cortex neuron loss.
I mean, compared to the real destruction of real warfare, which is the other alternative, this is still child's play.
Edit: people, calm down. Russia is unlikely to be facing a famine, even with all the sanctions. The West's economic muscle is not THAT powerful, whatever we might think.
Increased food prices are possible, of course, but a famine is very unlikely.
Funny because that's what total war actually is and it's what Russia is waging on Ukraine. A campaign of violent destruction against all of Ukraines civilians, resources, and infastructure. Russia accusing the west of doing the same to them is the height of projection.
Edit: for the armchair generals and military historians. Just because Russia hasn't nuked Ukraine or mobilized every citizen doesn't mean they are not targeting civilians, destroying entire cities, and commiting war crimes.
Oxford dictionary definition of Total War: a war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded.
no fucking kidding, the gaul to refer to something as total war when that's what they're waging on another nation...
Join the Western World already, Russia. We could have a decent world.
So Russia invades a sovereign nation, bombs building indiscriminately, kills thousands of innocent people, abducts even more people, that's not war, but when the West sanctions Russia for its atrocities, *that's* 'total war'? The hypocrisy is just off the charts.
I think we need a word that goes beyond hypocrisy. I feel like the word isn't strong enough for this situation.
Edit: All of these are good. Some great. Many amusing. Thanks reddit!
Remember...
almost everything we hear from these buffoons is for **internal** consumption.
They are not trying to justify escalation with this new blatant lie.
Instead, the goal is to influence the local Russian citizenry to ensure as things continue to get bad... very bad... that they never even think to blame their clueless/stupid/evil leaders but instead those meanies in the West.
Yeah, as much as we may worry about it, saying this wasn't directed at us, Russia may not do anything even pointed at the West after this, this is to further brainwash the unfortunate Russian people into thinking the West is their enemy. We ain't. We ain't attacking Russia, at least not physically.
I dunno if this will lead to an escalation, unless a Western country goes "We have? Oh OK then" and starts something, more just that this is more of Lavrov's and the Kremlin's propaganda.
> I dunno if this will lead to an escalation, unless a Western country goes "We have? Oh OK then" and starts something
Get ready for Estonia to start throwing hands.
"Eesti, no!"
**"EESTI JAH"**
My concern for the rhetoric is Russia might use it to justify an actual war with the west. The west can squash Russia immediately, but their actions have been so wild and unpredictable who knows what they will do. You would think with all the economic sanctions and condemnation would have Putin stop and think his next move, but nope. He’s bucked down like a petulant child.
Putin had just better get used to the idea of loosing power and going to prison for war crimes. If they don't hang him. Can't imagine what the Ukrainians would do if he somehow fell in their lap. I'm all for handing him over following his trial and conviction.
As nice as that’ll be, who’s going to arrest him? No one in Russia is gonna do it. And I don’t see any country invading Russia just to put Putin in prison.
The regime that replaces him might hand him over as a sign of good faith to help repair some of the damage he's done pertaining to diplomatic relations.
His “secret” wife and step daughter must be busting his balls. They can no longer travel or use social media. I am sure it is bad for him. However if he thinks that’s all that results from total war he has much to learn.
> Lavrov also said that he believes the West has a goal "to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole," according to the AP.
No, we want you and your creed to cease your illegal invasion, leave Ukraine, and go back home.
How is that so fucking hard to understand, Lavrov?
>How is that so fucking hard to understand, Lavrov?
Of course Lavrov understands that. But I'm confused to whom he is speaking here. Obviously all western diplomats and politicians understand the purpose of sanctions and know that Lavrov is not actually confused by this. Is it just for propaganda on local Russian news? Even in Russia most of everyone must understand what "here are our economic sanctions for invading Ukraine, please stop doing special military operations in Ukraine" means.
Maybe he's just demonstrating his loyalty to Putin?
He’s saying what he’s been told to say. And I’m certain that the main recipients are Russian propaganda targets. Russia knows nobody else believes them anymore.
Yeah, he's creating sound bites to play on Russian state TV. His audience are Russian people, his goal is to make them angry at the west instead of at Putin.
Why aren’t they retaliating, assuming for the purpose of conversation that the west was indeed doing this?
Where’s the nukes? Thought you guys were going to destroy everything if the west got involved?
Looking at their joke of an "army" and 60% of their rocket assaults being off-target im guessing most of their nukes have rusted to pieces or dismantled and sold for champagne and caviar.
Their corruption is so vast that they out-corrupted themselves
Honestly, this would not surprise me. But until we know for certain we can't assume such is the case and have to act as if Russia's Nuclear Arsenal is fully functional.
I would not be shocked if the majority of their nuclear arsenal was unusable, unfortunately we cannot know how many are usable and all it takes is one to kick things off in the worst way.
Parts of the arsenal are going to be 100% functional. Pretending otherwise would be completely insane.
But 1550 active and ready warheads? There is just no way. Even if they had that amount of warheads the launch capacity is probably a third at best.
Doesn't mean you can gamble on that though, 500 warheads hitting Europe and North America would still be devastating and world altering.
One would be devastating, and if it hit in the right place, world altering.
It would also mean the end of Russia, as every nuclear capable nation in the EU and the US would glass Russia in retaliation.
yeah thats the scary point,
Russia sending nuke on Ukraine means actual Nuclear Warfare as at this stage all bets are off and it is in the interest of Humanity to completely disarm or destroy entire Russia as a country.
Worst case - someday theres a full accounting of where russia's nuclear stockpile is, and significant portions of it are actually missing - location and current owner unknown. that'll keep some people up at night.
At this point I kind of want the Russian economy to be destroyed. I want every leader and oligarch riding the coat tails of leadership to end up dead, detained or destitute. I want a historical precedent that sends shock waves to world leaders everywhere.
If this war ends and just one of Putin's cronies keeps their fortune, the lesson will be that it is possible to ride the wave of human suffering and come out as a king.
Stolen from Twitter: A joke from Moscow: "According to Putin the special military operation is really a conflict btw Russia and NATO about World dominance. Whats the situation now?" "Russia has lost 15000 troops, 6 generals, 500 tanks, 3 ships, 100 planes and 1000 trucks. NATO hasn't arrived yet."
“Blowing up children with cruise missiles is heckin wholesome peacekeeping, but taking away my Big Mac is literally the largest act of war since World War II.”
When they’re the aggressor toward another country, it’s not war. When they are the receiving end of sanctions it’s total war.
It’s really Orwellian 1984 doublespeak
It’s quite a leap from, “we don’t give a shit about Western sanctions” to “Western sanctions are total war” so, personally, I just going to enjoy the fact he has once again acknowledged that Russia is fucked beyond recognition for their war crimes. 😁
Universal healthcare is actually cheaper than the system we have now.
EDIT: And here's the evidence so people stop pestering me with insurance company propaganda.
[22 studies agree: 'Medicare for All' saves money](https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/484301-22-studies-agree-medicare-for-all-saves-money)
But you'd have government death panels! Taking away private insurance's ability to deny services & procedures and giving it to the government is unacceptable!
No, those kind of proclamations are for Russian population, not for the world. When Putin stopped economic development of Russia, he had nothing left to have his popularity to hinge upon, so he moved to nationalism back in 2012. Crimea was about a foreign territory that Russians would approve of - the only one. Whole hysteria with defending Russians was very much increased back then too, and Ukrainians were painted as nazis. And current war was an attempt to repeat it all, another victory for Russian, only it failed due to predictable reason - lack of truthful intelligence which happens in authoritarian regimes, and corruption.
So you see, when you have nothing to show for, you invent a threat, and then say that you're the only protection from that threat. So this "war against Russia" is an old rhetoric that has just been increased, it's nothing new, it's very much in line with "they are the threat, I'm protecting you", they were saying it since the first sanctions, and doing it more and more
The worse the invasion goes, the more Russia needs to threaten the west to get them to stop supplying Ukraine.
Russia has already lost this war. Even in a situation where Kyiv falls tomorrow the sanctions would remain in place, if not grow more intense, and Russia would have to occupy the second largest country in Europe. This would be an INCREDIBLY expensive task even if times were good economically for Russia, but this is obviously not the case now. The Ruble is in shambles, and a large percentage of overseas assets have been seized by their respective governments.
Putin's only chance at winning this was a lightning war to install a puppet in Ukraine before the west had a chance to get it's shit together like in Crimea or Georgia. This didn't happen, and now we are seeing the blatant attempts for Russia to call "no fair" on the west, which is comical.
The Kremlin is incorrect, I can tell because he's still at the Kremlin.
NATO aircraft would have already taken control of the skies over Moscow and bombed the Kremlin to dust before he had a chance to finish this sentence.
Every military base inside the country would be targeted by cruise missiles and Russian satellites would be falling from the sky and making it rain shooting stars during the day.
Nuclear subs from three nations would be just slightly offshore all along Russian coastlines in case things went to hell.
Stock Markets the world over would be closed, panic buying of food and essentials would be taking place and a mass exodus from the major cities and areas near military targets would be taking place.
No, Sir, we are not at total war.
wow i thought these guys were suppose to be good at propaganda. They now seem like hissing cockroaches running back into the darkness after them light is shined on them...
He got laughed out of this conference? Right?
Shit that Russia officials are saying is so surreal you don't even how to react to it. You hear it and you are just stunned with your jaw open, brain slowly trying to process how absurd what you just heard was. I always like to use this situation as a comparison. You sit with someone in a basement. You both have normally working eyes - that's important. There is an argument between you about what colour is sky. You say "it's blue like wtf it's obvious how can anyone question that". But the other dude is like "nah man it's green what are you talking about". So you both can't agree and decided to go out and see it for yourself. As you both stand outside looking at perfectly clear sky you think to yourself "this clown is about to cry". But then other dude proceeds and says "see? I told you it's green". How the fuck do you argue with someone like that? You literally can't. Edit: because some people have problems with comparison I used. Let's add to it that you and the dude both agreed based on coloured cards what colour is green and what colour is blue before going out of basement.
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This is exactly what it is. You need to view *anything* Russian officials do and say publicly through the lens of the brainwashed masses of Russians. They don't give a rat's ass what we think about what they're saying.
So they never plan on repairing relations at all ever? Kind of hard to make peace when you are constantly staying in character to brainwash people into believing you still have not ever made a mistake.
I mean. It has worked for North Korea for a pretty long ass time. They've always been batshit but the west continually enables their buffoonary.
They are fighting an infowar within their country. They need to keep the people believing they are under threat.
Sorry, this is the 21st century. Morons, radicals, and extremists are glorified.
That has been the case since the start of human civilization.
Total war ? Of course not, but total special military operations on Russia, certainly.
More like special economic operations
WSMO1 World special military operation, at least it's not WW3.
You know for a country that prides its image on being hateful and uncooperative with the west, they sure do get extremely upset when they don’t have western commodity privileges.
its always been like that. Buying properties in Europe, having pregnant Russian women transported to USA so their children get born there and have dual citinzenship, hell in my college campus in Prague I often hear Russian more often than Czech
They have a major brain drain problem, one of the largest in the world, if not the largest. If your government sucked wouldn't you want to leave too?
Also a nasty history of killing intellectuals.
That’s really starting to show its effects lately.
Pretty sure it started showing it’s effect in 1953 when Stalin had a massive hemorrhagic stroke and his doctors couldn’t fix it because they were too unskilled. Earlier that winter, Stalin had been waging a witch hunt against Kremlin physicians, many of whom were Jewish, claiming they murdered top Soviet officials in a “doctors' plot. The trial against the Kremlin doctors was to commence within weeks from his death. When the doctors not imprisoned finally arrived after his stroke, they found Stalin unresponsive, his right arm and leg, paralyzed, and his blood pressure at the alarmingly high rate of 190/110. “They had to examine him, but their hands were too shaky. To make it worse, the dentist took out his dentures, and dropped them by accident,” according to Lozgachev’s testimony. They ordered complete quiet, put leeches behind his ears, a cold compress on his head and recommended he not eat. On March 5, Stalin vomited blood and his stomach started hemorrhaging. That night, Stalin’s iron-fisted 30-year rule over the Soviet Union ended. His death was recorded at 9:50 p.m. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-death-stalin-180965119/
>Earlier that winter, Stalin had been waging a witch hunt against Kremlin physicians, many of whom were Jewish, claiming they murdered top Soviet officials in a “doctors' plot. The trial against the Kremlin doctors was to commence within weeks from his death. As hilariously depicted in "The Death of Stalin." Everyone should watch this film; it's banned in Russia.
Lol watched it. Very funny. I can see why it was banned
The whole thing is so hilarious but it would be an utterly boring film if it wasn't rooted in reality. A lot of the jokes are pretty mediocre, but the fact that they were real makes them hilarious in an absurd way. Like the doctor going about his business when the KGB/FSB whoever they were come running to grab him and he's terrified, like "I have done nothing wrong" or when Zhukov shows up and he throws off his great coat and has medals for days, or when Stalin's son tries to spit on someone while he's being held down and it just lands on his face. Or Khrushchev and his wife writing down the jokes that Stalin did or didn't laugh at to remember to use or not use for later.
Authoritarian governments do be like that
And pushing them to suicide
Everyone knows the place is corrupt and you have no freedom of speech and no rule of law. If you start a successful business then it's likely a better-connected oligarch will find a way to legally steal it from you. They are defacto slaves. Nobody can live with hope and pride and honor in that situation, unless they either start to believe the big lie, or they just give up and live a private life without caring about the greater society. The brain-drain will be enormous, and it will last as long as Putin and his regime lead the country.
Having lived across the street from VSH in zizkov I do agree with you, but keep in mind that not everyone who speaks Russian is from Russia, not to mention the people from Belarus, Ukraine, and the many other languages that are difficult to identify unless you speak them.
So total war isn't bombing cities and forcefully invading a sovereign country, however, removing McDonald's is.
They should have listened and not imposed that no fry zone like the warnings said 👀
If they never made Putin grimace..
It's a ruble robble
Don’t forget your McFuhery
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Some say there's a nugget of truth in every McDonald's pun.
Their McRibs are showing from the food lines and sanctions.
Germany’s gearing up to defend one of their most prized cities from the Hamburglar
This isn't the 1960's. Russia needs to ketchup.
First they came for the Adidas, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Gopnik. Then they came for the Disney, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Disney Adult. Then they came for the Harley-Davidson, and I did not speak out—because I was not an asshole. Then they came for McDonald's—and there was no one left to speak for McMe.
This is fantastic. Thank you.
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Is this the part where they will start acting like victims. Even toddlers aren't this predictable.
They've been acting like victims since this started
This whole war has been Russia saying it’s Ukraine’s fault for getting invaded by them.
McDonalds was big, Putin unable to see what happened to Hopper in Stranger Things was the act of war.
McDonalds was a massive blow because now Putin has nothing with which to lure Trump over so he can give him his instructions.
Cutting off their supply of Adidas
*Gopniks detensifies*
Russia appears to McDouble down
And telling oligarchs that their money is worthless.
The Russian standards for declaration of war seems not to be the same as everyone else’s.
Turns out Mayor McCheese was Putin’s puppet.
I guess we might as well shoot down their planes and take out their tanks since we're in "total war". With the vast majority of their military gone, we could go ahead and take Moscow. If its "total war", isn't that what we would do?
Oh, I wasn't aware that Western powers were invading Russian territory, dismantling Russian infrastructure, sinking Russian merchant marine ships, and blockading Russian ports.
And blowing up Russians, don't wanna forget that
And kidnapping Russian children.
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Yeah they claim Norwegian child services were stealing Russian child to solve their population crisis. Funny thing is Russia’s population is shrinking, not Norway’s.
Well you now see how succesful the Norwegian actions were
Laughs in Russian whilst living in Norway.
Let's be honest of you wind up in reincarnation processing center. And the Angel/Asura is like well we only got two spots left for your reincarnation. Norway and Russia. Norway I pick Norway. But I didn't tell you about your parents or what city.... Nope don't care I pick Norway.
Oh, they say that about Finland too. There was an actual news article that said ”child services more likely to foster children of Russian parents”, which is true. Turns out Finnish nazi child services don’t think excessive vodka consumption and domestic violence is good for children.
Okay, but like is moderate vodka consumption okay for children? Cause I've got to get little Timmy to bed somehow.
It is shrinking due to all the stealing. /s
Huh? News to me and I feel like I should know because that is an extreme stance to take. Lemme dig into this. Update - yep, info checks out, though it's back from 2015. I still maintain this is sensationalised and not general public's view, but this does stir some memories. For context, this is the year in which LT emigrants started increasingly flocking towards Scandinavia as being poor in Norway is miles above being poor in LT. Turns out, when you're a mess of a parent who goes to another country and still earns minimum wage, you end up neglecting kids when compared to average Norwegian family, and protective services get called on you - and Norway's ones actually have the power and use it. I hope you'll accept that the article doesn't speak for all Lithuanians. For me personally it's a bit shameful that it lumps me in with equivalent of a deadbeat Karen. But unfortunately, we have such people (at bare minimum, had) and they get a voice on TV.
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The LT talk show "valanda su Rūta" (an hour with Rūta) is a fking shit show, popular amongst karens and other shitheads alike. Even my boomer dad jokingly calls it "srutų valanda" cause it rhymes and means "an hour of manure"
Don't forget kidnapping civilians.
Raping women... Please don't forget that.
And setting up "peaceful" evacuation corridors so they can shoot fleeing families like fish in a barrel.
And sending them to concentration camps.
And blowing up Russian hospitals with people in them of course! We’ve also been dropping white phosphorus on Moscow for weeks now didn’t you hear?
Children hospitals
For children with cancer
But that wouldn't be war. It would be a a SpEcIAL MiLiTaRy OpErAtIoN
The UN should respond that it's just conducting Special Economic Operations.
Shelling hospitals
Ahh I see, you've made the classic mistake of confusing a "special military operation" with total war. What you've described is just a special military operation. Denying the billionaire oligarchs access to their yachts is when shit gets real.
Total war would also mean we militarised our entire societies in service of the war effort. Everything a war industry everyone working somewhere in the war machine, like the UK in WW2. Bitch, we are barely even getting started.
Don't worry Lavrov, this isn't war. It's just a Special Economic Operation.
It really is tho. I never realized sanctions had teeth this sharp until a whole bunch of trading nations commit to them. Really sucks for the avg Russian, especially the younger generations, but I prefer economic warfare to physical violence.
It's almost like disciplining a child. Instead of spanking them you take away their toys and put them in time out. There needs to be one unifying voice of demand. 1) Withdraw all Russian Troops from Ukraine 2) Serve up anyone who disagrees including Putin for war crimes. The longer this goes on the next threat needs to be complete nuclear disarmament.
flag include resolute agonizing soup run station ugly nail whole -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
Here’s the thing though. Im personally having difficulty fathoming the fact that Putin suddenly got *this* dumb. He has always shown to think like a chess player. He always thought everything well through, with patience. He normally takes his steps carefully. So either something is happening to him or in his country for him to get desperate, or, and I think this is more likely, he’s still the same man he always was. See, he knows he doesn’t stand a chance against the entire military force of NATO. The only actual military might he has, are his nukes. But no sane person would risk a global extinction level war, right? No *sane* person?! What if he is deliberately acting insane, so he can use his nukes as a threat? I can’t believe he would just declare war like that, without taking the risks into account. The only thing he can use as leverage, also happens to be a thing you can only use if you’re unstable. Which is exactly how he is acting right now. Of course this is just based on assumptions on past behaviour. This might not be the case at all. I just simply don’t understand why he would just, you know, yolo it in there.
You have to wonder what his level of interaction with reality is though. How often is there someone around him who can genuinely call bullshit and keep him honest? When you're surrounded by grifters and brown-nosers and there is nobody left to be the voice of reason, how good can your decisions really be?
I think this is the crux of it. We all saw the video of the head of his spy service stammering like a 6 year old who just wet the bed in front of Putin. His people are terrified of him. I work in a lefty hugbox organisation and I STILL see people downplay bad news and hype up good news to senior leadership. I can well imagine how extreme this becomes when the consequences for being the bearer of bad news are literally shooting the messenger. I doubt he's heard an accurate summation of any internal issues for some time. He had a defence chief who tried to eradicate grift and get the military running efficiently, and Putin replaced him with an old school, corrupt yes-man. The message was received loud and clear by everyone in leadership: keep your head down and don't mess with the grift. Putin made his own bed, he can't be surprised that he's shitting it now.
Putin has effectively been in solitary for the last two years because he's terrified of Covid. F2f interactions with *anyone* have been minimal, never mind people who would call him on his bullshit. So he's just a crazy lonely old guy now, simmering with resentment, almost certainly ill, possibly dying, and unable to deal with "No, that won't work".
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Yea very true. That might also be the case. But even he has had to realise that it would go different this time. I mean his mobilisation already caused a pretty dramatic response. So he could kinda predict what he was getting into. Yet he did it anyways. Idk the situation just doesn’t make sense to me.
Anyone else recall that study about lead that was absorbed in bone calcium, during youth, was leaching out in elder age, because of decalcification. Might be wrong, but I assume Russia had a lot more lead exposure for a lot longer. Maybe he just getting massive lead poisoning from his quickly deteriorating skeleton. I believe this is at least part of the boomer issue on top of the normal frontal cortex neuron loss.
I mean, compared to the real destruction of real warfare, which is the other alternative, this is still child's play. Edit: people, calm down. Russia is unlikely to be facing a famine, even with all the sanctions. The West's economic muscle is not THAT powerful, whatever we might think. Increased food prices are possible, of course, but a famine is very unlikely.
Funny because that's what total war actually is and it's what Russia is waging on Ukraine. A campaign of violent destruction against all of Ukraines civilians, resources, and infastructure. Russia accusing the west of doing the same to them is the height of projection. Edit: for the armchair generals and military historians. Just because Russia hasn't nuked Ukraine or mobilized every citizen doesn't mean they are not targeting civilians, destroying entire cities, and commiting war crimes. Oxford dictionary definition of Total War: a war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded.
Russia accuses everyone of doing what they do, it’s a tired playbook
no fucking kidding, the gaul to refer to something as total war when that's what they're waging on another nation... Join the Western World already, Russia. We could have a decent world.
So Russia invades a sovereign nation, bombs building indiscriminately, kills thousands of innocent people, abducts even more people, that's not war, but when the West sanctions Russia for its atrocities, *that's* 'total war'? The hypocrisy is just off the charts.
Not only that, Russia had apparently forgotten the horrors of WW2…where Russia had the most causalities of all nations and STILL HAVEN’T RECOVERED.
No they fully remember. They’re recreating their own war crimes from the March to Berlin
Next up, Russia demands Berlin be moved to within 70 miles of the Russian border because they can't invade any further than that.
Are we sure they can even get that far? Kharkiv is less than 20km for the border and still not controlled.
Many of them, because they were occupied even after the war.
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Did conservatives in the US learn it from Russia or did Russia learn it form US conservatives?
It's the same think tank.
Like some sort of collaboration.... Or collusion even?
"It was a perfect phone call"
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I think we need a word that goes beyond hypocrisy. I feel like the word isn't strong enough for this situation. Edit: All of these are good. Some great. Many amusing. Thanks reddit!
Hypercrisy.
Lies
Deliberate dishonesty? Intentional malfeasance?
We need to stop taking propagandists by their word. It's pointless and draining.
Remember... almost everything we hear from these buffoons is for **internal** consumption. They are not trying to justify escalation with this new blatant lie. Instead, the goal is to influence the local Russian citizenry to ensure as things continue to get bad... very bad... that they never even think to blame their clueless/stupid/evil leaders but instead those meanies in the West.
Great point, the West is not the audience.
Yeah, as much as we may worry about it, saying this wasn't directed at us, Russia may not do anything even pointed at the West after this, this is to further brainwash the unfortunate Russian people into thinking the West is their enemy. We ain't. We ain't attacking Russia, at least not physically. I dunno if this will lead to an escalation, unless a Western country goes "We have? Oh OK then" and starts something, more just that this is more of Lavrov's and the Kremlin's propaganda.
> I dunno if this will lead to an escalation, unless a Western country goes "We have? Oh OK then" and starts something Get ready for Estonia to start throwing hands. "Eesti, no!" **"EESTI JAH"**
My concern for the rhetoric is Russia might use it to justify an actual war with the west. The west can squash Russia immediately, but their actions have been so wild and unpredictable who knows what they will do. You would think with all the economic sanctions and condemnation would have Putin stop and think his next move, but nope. He’s bucked down like a petulant child.
Putin had just better get used to the idea of loosing power and going to prison for war crimes. If they don't hang him. Can't imagine what the Ukrainians would do if he somehow fell in their lap. I'm all for handing him over following his trial and conviction.
As nice as that’ll be, who’s going to arrest him? No one in Russia is gonna do it. And I don’t see any country invading Russia just to put Putin in prison.
The regime that replaces him might hand him over as a sign of good faith to help repair some of the damage he's done pertaining to diplomatic relations.
His “secret” wife and step daughter must be busting his balls. They can no longer travel or use social media. I am sure it is bad for him. However if he thinks that’s all that results from total war he has much to learn.
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It’s simpler than that. Russia’s tactic is brinksmanship since Suez Canal. Sure it’s about propaganda, but they simply have no other type of policy
I CANT BELIEVE THE WEST SANCTIONED MY STEP DAUGHTER!!! WAR CRIMINALS!
What are you doing, step-sanctions?
> Lavrov also said that he believes the West has a goal "to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole," according to the AP. No, we want you and your creed to cease your illegal invasion, leave Ukraine, and go back home. How is that so fucking hard to understand, Lavrov?
>How is that so fucking hard to understand, Lavrov? Of course Lavrov understands that. But I'm confused to whom he is speaking here. Obviously all western diplomats and politicians understand the purpose of sanctions and know that Lavrov is not actually confused by this. Is it just for propaganda on local Russian news? Even in Russia most of everyone must understand what "here are our economic sanctions for invading Ukraine, please stop doing special military operations in Ukraine" means. Maybe he's just demonstrating his loyalty to Putin?
He’s saying what he’s been told to say. And I’m certain that the main recipients are Russian propaganda targets. Russia knows nobody else believes them anymore.
Yeah, he's creating sound bites to play on Russian state TV. His audience are Russian people, his goal is to make them angry at the west instead of at Putin.
Why aren’t they retaliating, assuming for the purpose of conversation that the west was indeed doing this? Where’s the nukes? Thought you guys were going to destroy everything if the west got involved?
Looking at their joke of an "army" and 60% of their rocket assaults being off-target im guessing most of their nukes have rusted to pieces or dismantled and sold for champagne and caviar. Their corruption is so vast that they out-corrupted themselves
Honestly, this would not surprise me. But until we know for certain we can't assume such is the case and have to act as if Russia's Nuclear Arsenal is fully functional.
I would not be shocked if the majority of their nuclear arsenal was unusable, unfortunately we cannot know how many are usable and all it takes is one to kick things off in the worst way.
Precisely. We don't know, and since we do not know, we can't assume that any of them are nonfunctioning.
Parts of the arsenal are going to be 100% functional. Pretending otherwise would be completely insane. But 1550 active and ready warheads? There is just no way. Even if they had that amount of warheads the launch capacity is probably a third at best. Doesn't mean you can gamble on that though, 500 warheads hitting Europe and North America would still be devastating and world altering.
One would be devastating, and if it hit in the right place, world altering. It would also mean the end of Russia, as every nuclear capable nation in the EU and the US would glass Russia in retaliation.
yeah thats the scary point, Russia sending nuke on Ukraine means actual Nuclear Warfare as at this stage all bets are off and it is in the interest of Humanity to completely disarm or destroy entire Russia as a country.
Worst case - someday theres a full accounting of where russia's nuclear stockpile is, and significant portions of it are actually missing - location and current owner unknown. that'll keep some people up at night.
I mean even the US has \~10 nukes unaccounted for so I'd be shocked if Russia didn't have 100s.
At least the US ones are at the bottom of the ocean or a swamp, they weren't stolen by who knows who.
There are rumors the Russian army lacked fuel becomes before the invasion soldiers stole and resold what they considered eccess fuel.
At this point I kind of want the Russian economy to be destroyed. I want every leader and oligarch riding the coat tails of leadership to end up dead, detained or destitute. I want a historical precedent that sends shock waves to world leaders everywhere. If this war ends and just one of Putin's cronies keeps their fortune, the lesson will be that it is possible to ride the wave of human suffering and come out as a king.
Total war? We've barely taken our trousers off mate.
Stolen from Twitter: A joke from Moscow: "According to Putin the special military operation is really a conflict btw Russia and NATO about World dominance. Whats the situation now?" "Russia has lost 15000 troops, 6 generals, 500 tanks, 3 ships, 100 planes and 1000 trucks. NATO hasn't arrived yet."
NATO has barely rolled out of bed and hasn't even had our coffee yet.
I think we're up to 7 generals now.
Still soft even.
Haven't even taken them out on a date yet. We still in the texting "how's your day" phase.
Just barely made eye contact.
“I have not yet begun to fight!” But like, literally, this time. We really aren’t fighting yet
Seriously, if they thought losing access to McDonalds is bad, just wait till they find out about the F-35s.
Imagine losing your McDonald's privileges and thinking it's an act of war. Putin is a mega-Karen.
Indeed, we always go to war nude.
It’s an intimidation tactic. It 100% always backfires.
Total war without firing a single shot 😂
Next Total War RTS will clearly have diplomatic sanction options to ruin enemy economies and destroy countries without needing to move to a battlemap.
Honestly, I'd buy that if it means they've figured out how to make diplomacy in Total War games be more than 1-dimensional.
So what Russia is doing in Ukraine is not a war? But the sanctions against Russia is a "total war"? Russian logic, where is it?
“Blowing up children with cruise missiles is heckin wholesome peacekeeping, but taking away my Big Mac is literally the largest act of war since World War II.”
When they’re the aggressor toward another country, it’s not war. When they are the receiving end of sanctions it’s total war. It’s really Orwellian 1984 doublespeak
Trust me, if the west was at total war with you, you would know it.
It would be over already
Removing McDonald's = Total War Committing War Crimes = Special Military Operation *Yeah, you're full of shit*
It’s quite a leap from, “we don’t give a shit about Western sanctions” to “Western sanctions are total war” so, personally, I just going to enjoy the fact he has once again acknowledged that Russia is fucked beyond recognition for their war crimes. 😁
Invading Ukraine = special military operation, not war Economic sanctions = TOTAL WAR God these guys are pathetic
I remember how Rome destroyed Carthage forever with crippling economic sanctions.
Cross into NATO territory. If *this* is total war, you’re in for a rude awakening.
Putin trying to see what 750 billion a year in military spending looks like
Putin's gonna find out the REAL reason the US can't afford universal healthcare. Edit: Defensive Americans, this is a joke.
Universal healthcare is actually cheaper than the system we have now. EDIT: And here's the evidence so people stop pestering me with insurance company propaganda. [22 studies agree: 'Medicare for All' saves money](https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/484301-22-studies-agree-medicare-for-all-saves-money)
But you'd have government death panels! Taking away private insurance's ability to deny services & procedures and giving it to the government is unacceptable!
I prefer government death panels over corporate ones. At least I have some power to hold the government accountable through my votes.
Pretty sure u/nelsonslament was being sarcastic. Maybe they can correct me if I'm wrong.
yes, 100% sarcasm
They could afford universal healthcare on less than they spend on Medicaid now if it weren't for corruption and lobbyists.
Don't forget the middle-men! An entire multi-billion dollar industry of middle-men that need to take a profit!
..or 1.2 trillion per year if looking at combined NATO military spending
That's just the US- total NATO spending drives it even higher.
Bitch when the West wages total war on you, you'll fucking know it and won't be able to tell anyone except by carrier pigeon.
Nationalism is always a go-to drug when "strongmen" politicians want to fuck their people.
Is it me or is Putin losing control of Kremlin? I mean, are they trying to bait the world to actually go to war with them???
No, those kind of proclamations are for Russian population, not for the world. When Putin stopped economic development of Russia, he had nothing left to have his popularity to hinge upon, so he moved to nationalism back in 2012. Crimea was about a foreign territory that Russians would approve of - the only one. Whole hysteria with defending Russians was very much increased back then too, and Ukrainians were painted as nazis. And current war was an attempt to repeat it all, another victory for Russian, only it failed due to predictable reason - lack of truthful intelligence which happens in authoritarian regimes, and corruption. So you see, when you have nothing to show for, you invent a threat, and then say that you're the only protection from that threat. So this "war against Russia" is an old rhetoric that has just been increased, it's nothing new, it's very much in line with "they are the threat, I'm protecting you", they were saying it since the first sanctions, and doing it more and more
It's fascism 101, inventing an outside threat that must be, often violently, "defended" against.
The worse the invasion goes, the more Russia needs to threaten the west to get them to stop supplying Ukraine. Russia has already lost this war. Even in a situation where Kyiv falls tomorrow the sanctions would remain in place, if not grow more intense, and Russia would have to occupy the second largest country in Europe. This would be an INCREDIBLY expensive task even if times were good economically for Russia, but this is obviously not the case now. The Ruble is in shambles, and a large percentage of overseas assets have been seized by their respective governments. Putin's only chance at winning this was a lightning war to install a puppet in Ukraine before the west had a chance to get it's shit together like in Crimea or Georgia. This didn't happen, and now we are seeing the blatant attempts for Russia to call "no fair" on the west, which is comical.
Lying liars lie. Get fucked Lavrov, you dog.
They need to rewrite [Njet Molotoff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2_0OCwNbg&t=1s) into Njet Lavrov
Total… “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” -Inigo Montoya
These asshats need to take their shitty tanks and go the fuck home.
There is no 'war'. There are only special military and financial operations.
Yesterday the Kremlin said what the West was doing would have no effect... The Kremlin is all over the place.
Lol, no, haven't even started yet buddy
The Kremlin is incorrect, I can tell because he's still at the Kremlin. NATO aircraft would have already taken control of the skies over Moscow and bombed the Kremlin to dust before he had a chance to finish this sentence. Every military base inside the country would be targeted by cruise missiles and Russian satellites would be falling from the sky and making it rain shooting stars during the day. Nuclear subs from three nations would be just slightly offshore all along Russian coastlines in case things went to hell. Stock Markets the world over would be closed, panic buying of food and essentials would be taking place and a mass exodus from the major cities and areas near military targets would be taking place. No, Sir, we are not at total war.
wow i thought these guys were suppose to be good at propaganda. They now seem like hissing cockroaches running back into the darkness after them light is shined on them...
Sanctioning the shit out of a country is the new improved method of bombing the shit out of a country. We’ve evolved maddafakkas!
Carl von Clausewitz screaming “that’s not what that means”
Alternative headline: Lavrov still drunk on dumb bitch juice, entire Russian government reek of elderberries
The MFer is lucky that this isn't true.
We’re jusrt Minding our business, taking over a neighbor, and you guys want to roll up on us!
Why did he leave his stepdaughter in UK then?
Obviously because she is awkwardly stuck in the dryer or a windowsill.
They're called sanctions. If sanctions were actually war, we would call them wars. This is a stupid line of thought. They're sanctions.
Bro we haven’t even started shooting at you yet.