Senate Russia: its impact on the world, its invasion of Ukraine, and its future

Research into 'psychic powers' and UFOs. The Soviet Union spent an inordinate amount of funds chasing those phantoms, which often seemed to be based upon reports that the US was (which, in turn, seemed to mostly be used to cover up advanced R&D research thanks to the unexpected reaction by conspiracy theorists to Roswell, which was obviously the military covering up a rather ordinary bit of spy technology).

My amateurish guess? Misdirection.

And the CIA (or one of the other 'alphabet agencies') is one of the suspects behind the release of the Panama Papers, which coincidentally released damaging information about Russia (but very little about the US). I'm guessing a more 'low-tech' approach might be what they are aiming for.

 

maybe the agent in charge was this guy:

 

Seems to me the Russians are playing a very long, very strategic game using a wide spectrum of methods while the Americans are flapping around with isolated, uncoordinated, tactical responses.

Obvious caveat that I have no idea what's going on behind closed doors and the Americans may - like Boris Johnson - simply be playing the buffoon.

 

Russia's not really playing a long game so much as trying to strike back at the US for tanking their economy. Reports are that they'll be bankrupt by 2018. Oops. But yes! Glorious Poutine will see them through the dark times!

 

Just for you, Donnie

http://buchanan.org/blog/russia-resents-us-125183

 

You're being cheeki breeki'd, you just don't know it.

 

Star Wars is a box office hit, an unqualified loudmouth just got elected as POTUS off of the back of his celebrity status, and Washington and Moscow are engaging in tit-for-tat diplomatic theatre.

 

After military interventions in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, where else is Putin likely to strike in the next 4-8 years?

I know there's also been talk of Russia annexing Belarus in the next decade too.

 

I dunno, maybe they'll try for Finland again?

 

Ghost

I went ahead and fixed your map for ya, bit out of date it was



As for what next...

Well, I doubt they will annex Donbass. Crimea has been expensive enough, in terms of all the infrastructure updates (I am not even talking about that bloody bridge; but just fixing the roads, the waterworks, all of it, because Ukraine had really let that place go to ****; not that Russia treats their peripheral provinces any better). Plus, two million people to feed and pay wages and pensions to... Donbass would add another three. And they have a whole lot of reconstruction to do, starting from the Donetsk Airport, which is in ****ing ruins

Rebel fighter patrols in the ruins of the airport. It's very sad, it was just built in 2012, brand new terminal, for the Euro 2012 football/soccer championship, which Ukraine was co-hosting with Poland.

And then, since 2014, most of it was obliterated in fierce battles between the rebels, who surrounded the place from three sides and attacked it in wave after wave; and a determined group of Ukrainian forces, including Paratroopers and radical nationalist militia from Right Sector, who holed up inside and refused to surrender it. It became a symbol to both sides. In the end, after months of some of the most savage fighting of that whole war, building to building, even room to ****ing room, like in Stalingrad; the rebels used artillery to bring down two floors of the main terminal building unto the heads of the Ukrainian contingent who were defending the lower floors. Couple hundreds Ukrainians died in there that day... That was in February 2015, and it took months more to dig all the bodies from the rubble. Some of the rebel fighters who were there on that last day later told, online, that, on their radios (them and Ukrainians were on same frequency, could hear each other) they listened to a Ukrainian girl, female fighter from Right Sector, singing a sad folk song, which was abruptly broken as the building crashed down on her... She knew it was over and that she was about to die. And she didn't scream or anything, just... sang. That's how Slavic people are, when defending their respective Motherland...

Anyway, yeah, Putin won't annex Donbass. Too many more mouths to feed and reconstruction and other costs.

We shall see what happens in Transnistria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria

Moldova recently elected a pro-Russian president, Igor Dodon

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-moldova-election-idUSKBN1380TN

While the head of Transnistria has made it clear he intends to go on with seeking annexation into Russia (https://sputniknews.com/politics/201611191047622409-transnistria-moldova-russia/), Putin and Dodon are to meet soon to talk about Transnistria and decide its status, finally, hopefully: https://sputniknews.com/politics/201701171049661272-putin-dodon-transnistria-settlement/

Half a million people in Transnistria had lived in limbo, in an unrecognized, self-declared state under Russian military protection, for nearly 25 years now. Can you imagine? Enough is enough. Just bring them into one country or the other, I say.

South Ossetia is also to hold a referendum about joining Russian Federation this year: https://sputniknews.com/world/201605261040299181-south-ossetia-russia-referendum/

Since breaking away from Georgia, the tens of thousands of Southern Ossetians want nothing more than to join up with the hundreds of thousands of Northern Ossetians who live across the border in North Ossetia, which is already a part of Russia. They wanted to hold their referendum last year, actually, but Putin didn't want it then, so they had to postpone it. We shall see what happens this year.

 

At least, for a day

Locals say Vladimir Putin 'cleaned the air' in Kransnoyarsk on his visit to the city

Video is footage, from above, of the "black sky" smog.

Krasnoyarsk is, indeed, NOT the most polluted Russian city.

That would be another nasty industrial ****hole, called Norilsk:

Spoiler: Norilsk

Northern exposure: Life in Norilsk, Russia's most polluted city
Where the river runs red: can Norilsk, Russia's most polluted city, come clean?

But Krasnoyarsk is bad too.

Locals there are used to wearing masks to protect their lungs whenever they set foot outside:

Spoiler: locals

Not long ago, some local environmentalist group put breathing masks on all statues and monuments in Krasnoyarsk, in protest of the air pollution


Dirty air is just a part of life there...

But, of course, we can't have His Majesty breathing that ****, can we? lol

But, yeah, this is why Russians love when Putin (or, at least, Medvedev) comes to town. Suddenly, problems that were neglected and ignored for years are getting solved. Roads get paved. Fences and building walls get fixed up, patched up, and repainted. If you are lucky enough that He is visiting your local hospital and/or your kid's school, the hospital and school may even get new equipment!

 

You know, it's one thing to make threads about your country, because hey you live there and that's great. But it's another thing to post propaganda-esque threads about a terrible human being.

 

Did you read the thread? What "propaganda"? I am writing about how ****** life is over there. Is English your second language, like me?

 

"But, yeah, this is why Russians love when Putin (or, at least, Medvedev) comes to town. Suddenly, problems that were neglected and ignored for years are getting solved. Roads get paved. Fences and building walls get fixed up, patched up, and repainted. If you are lucky enough that He is visiting your local hospital and/or your kid's school, the hospital and school may even get new equipment!"

Honestly your thread read as a news report followed by a weird tongue in cheek of seriousness because you ended with that. Not sarcasm, which guessing by your very polite retort is what you were going for. "I am writing about how ****** life is over there." < --- sounds like you copy/pasted a news article then wrote about how awful some conditions over there are, then about how Putin makes everything better. At which point do you not say exactly that?

 

Don't we have a Russia thread? Should probably just post in there instead of making new ones.

 

It was sarcasm. Kinda. My point was about how Russian officials don't give a crap about about regular people, and only scramble to, at least, make things look better, when the Boss himself comes over. There is even a theory over there that Putin actually doesn't fully understand the extent of poverty and horrible conditions in many regions, because the local governments, warned in advance, throw together these Potemkin villages for him whenever he goes there to check things out in person... Guy is living in an alternative reality, and they are keeping him there. Of course, it always was that way over there, with despot after despot.

 

Okay that makes way more sense then.

 

If you had properly read his post, you would have got it from the beginning. The article he pasted in to his post, not even his own words, the article itself, is talking about how city authorities forced factory halt ahead of Putin's visit to keep up appearances, and that local residents expect things to return to how it was, as soon as he leaves. Then, at the end of his post, in the part where he writes in his own words, he's describing how long-neglected tasks suddenly are performed in a hurry whenever he visits some place, again, to keep up appearances.

 

I think he already clarified to me, but thanks for enforcing that I read something the wrong way! :/ Now that this is merged in an actual politics thread though I'm going to show myself out.

 

Okay, but did you read it in any way?

 

Japan set to propose Russia a deal with regards to the disputed Kuril islands:

Japan has Northern Territories deal ready for Russia- Nikkei Asian Review

 

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/cle...city-ahead-of-putins-visit-putins-visit-57305

LMFAO

Meanwhile:
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/aut...an-human-rights-campaigner-zoya-svetova-57286
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/rus...f-a-second-human-rights-worker-in-a-day-57296