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

So it's the Mk.II version of this.

 

It's a more advanced version of that, yes.

 

Suspected Maidan Killer & Three Other Ex-Berkut Officers Flee to Russia - Human Rights in Ukraine

Their video:


Berkut on Maidan in 2014

Spoiler

They were criticized for extreme brutality towards the protesters, including throwing Molotov cocktails back into the crowds

shooting at them (some protesters had guns too, FWIW, but don't tell the Maidaners that lol)

and just plain beating people and such.

After the "revolution", the new regime decided to get rid of Berkut (biggest and most famous special purpose unit of Ukrainian police, btw) entirely, disband them, and put ones accused of crimes during Maidan on trial.

The results were... unfortunate:

Spoiler

The Crimean Berkut units (and some personnel from elsewhere in Ukraine who rushed to Crimea to join them, when realized what was happening) simply defected to the Russians when they came, helped the annexation, by blocking off the border with mainland Ukraine


They all got Russian passports

and now form an elite regional branch under the same name within Putin's new Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia)


Meanwhile, in Donetsk and Lugansk, many former Berkut troops joined the rebels

to the point that the separatist governments in Donetsk and Lugansk now have each their own Berkut corps

Some Berkuters, however, DID remain loyal to Ukraine, despite all the crap thrown on them, and even went to fight for Kiev and for a united Ukraine in Donbass, in their uniforms, notwithstanding their, supposed, disbandment


But, with the Ukrainian government continuing these moronic witch-hunts, where ex-Berkut people have been harassed, threatened, even physically attacked by nationalist scum, as were their relatives; arbitrarily arrested; maligned and defamed in Ukrainian media propaganda; etc; they will lose all who are left.

And Berkut are among the few Ukraine has who actually know how to fight. Not that they are the only ones who have run. Hundreds of Ukrainian army soldiers and officers have crossed into Russia over the years of the Donbass conflict and asked for asylum. And I am not including wounded ones running from battle and begging for medical help. I am talking able bodied, healthy men, who just didn't want to fight and die for the new government...

 

Putin, PM Dmitry Medvedev and his wife, and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, right now, Patriarch Kirill leading the Easter service there

It's a much more religious holiday over there. People greet each other as the Patriarch is doing there, "Christ has risen!" and the believers answer him, "He truly has risen!"

No bunnies or egg hunts like here, sorry lol They DO paint eggs though, that IS an old tradition in Russia, Ukraine, etc



Happy Easter to all!

P.S. It is funny, to me, that, out of the three of those guys (Putin, Medvedev, and Sobyanin), Medvedev, who is the youngest of them, is the only who, apparently, has remained faithful to his wife and refused to dump her for a young lover... He is a nerd and a hipster, or so people say of him, derisively. Yet, the one true Christian, among them... Huh...

 

those eggs are -um - wow ! the detail and craft there is amazing . are they real ? I mean as in : eggs you can eat , and therefore not going to last ?

 

Yes, real, just painted on the outside

But, they also sell wooden ones over there as just inedible mementos and gifts for people

 

Patriarch Kirill blessing the world's biggest kulich (Orthodox Christian holy cake that Russians and others eat on Easter) outside Christ the Savior Cathedral

This weighs 1.5 tons!

 

Rich ******* racing around a mall in Moscow in a Ferrari on April 10th


Apparently, it was this guy, Aleksandr Donskoy

Very wealthy businessman and former mayor of the northern city of Arkhangelsk. He now says it was just a publicity stunt of his, for fun.

I'd like to drive him over with that Ferrari, for fun... These rich scumbags over there in Russia think they can do whatever the hell they want. Regular people are bloody cattle to them, at best...

 

Should we just rename this thread 'Sergey's blog on all things Russian'?

 

I do my best lol

Here is something interesting I came across, Ukrainian general says they planned a counter-attack against the Russians in Crimea back in 2014, but their government chickened out or something, last minute:

Gen. Staff planned operation against "little green men" during Crimea seizure

Perhaps Putin really did threaten them with tactical nukes at the time, or so the rumors go; or, at least, convinced them he seriously would go that far, if pushed... Or, maybe, the West told them not to fight back, not wanting to start up a big war on the European continent...

 

Today the Russian Supreme Court has decided to Ban and liquidate all property belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses under the claim of extremism. They have put them in the same category as isis and nazis.

Unfortunately this is something that has been completly ignored by the press but its decision today can and will effect people's right to practice religion not only in Russia but potentially world wide.

 

Many Russians do see JW as a cult. They are accused of brainwashing people and making them hand over all property and possessions, even apartments and houses!

 

Handing over apartments and houses what? They don't brainwash just teach and follow the Bible. Apostates usually turn Atheist so they hate.

 

Are you particularly well versed in the organisation and activities of JW in Russia?

 

Dude, JWs are weird. Like, they'd rather let one of their kids die than let him or her have a blood transfusion? How screwed up is that?

But, I don't disagree that a big influence on this decision is, probably, the Orthodox Church, who don't like having competing Christian denominations on their soil

It's bad enough for them to have to tolerate the Catholic and Evangelical Baptist communities, each of whom have had an established presence in Russia for centuries and boast between 500,000 to 1 million adherents each; hence declaring them "foreign" and trying to shut them down would be problematic.

But they refuse to put up with JWs and Mormons and such lol

I like the Mormons, btw, at least Russian ones (haven't actually met any Canadian ones yet, only read about those crazy polygamists at Bountiful, BC... haha).

Russian Mormons, for example, have "Helping Hands" groups, which clean up parks and perform other free public services in their community

Apparently, this is a Mormon tradition which began in South Africa I respect them for that.

In Russia, they've actually kinda shamed or whatever the larger, traditional faiths into following their example and helping clean up public spaces.

Now, there are priests and imams leading, respectively Orthodox Christian

and Muslim groups

helping care for parks, forests, cemeteries, etc. The whole country is better off for it

So, Mormons = good people.

But JWs... I don't know...

 

I liken Jehovah Witnesses to just being more pushy Mormons. YMMV

 

I try to go to the Kingdom Hall twice a week.

Sergey explanation here:
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jehovahs-witnesses-why-no-blood-transfusions/

 

I'm not even going to go in what docturnal beliefs are considered weird. Jehovah's witnesses have a right to worship their God in the way they deem appropriate. Obstaining from blood, as commanded in the Bible, is their choice just as Jewish people do not eat pork or Indians eating a cow. The idea that they brainwash people is equally ridiculous. They don't force people to study the Bible r force people to dedicate their lives to Jehovah, this is something people do and learn all on their own. I also know for a fact that Jehovah's witnesses are not required to tithe, that is a Mormon requirement as is releasing of property. Jehovah's witnesses do none of that!

The decision does not exclude Mormonism or any or their evangelical organization, extremism to them is anything not considered popular so this makes any organization fair game for persecution!

Rev 12:13-17

 

Putin might be planning to step down!

Kremlin sources say Putin is on his way out and has got a successor | Metro News

Also:

Vladimir Putin 'quitting' rumours swirl in Russia as president confronted in Kremlin | Daily Star

Vyacheslav Volodin

Spoiler

53 years old. Twice married. Daughter Svetlana from first marriage born in 1990, finished law school in 2015; two young sons from current marriage, one of them named Vladimir, you can guess in who's honor Also, he was a loyal member of the Communist Party, in the Soviet era.

Was head of Putin's Presidential Administration (a huge body which consumes over 1.5% of Russia's whole government budget, btw!) from 2011 to October last year, when was made Speaker of the Duma instead

Spoiler

A posting, I hear, he did not enjoy, chafed at it, treated it, pretty much, as a demotion, was bored as hell with it, and only took it, gnashing his teeth, because, frankly, Putin ****ing told him to lol

When he began his political career, in late 1990s, he became close with the late great Yevgeny Primakov

Spoiler

It said that it was Primakov, who then ended up introducing him to Putin in due time. The caption on that photo says that Primakov liked Volodin, because he, Volodin, wasn't an arrogant snob (unlike many people in Russian politics lol)

Will be interesting to see what happens, for sure. Maybe, come election time next year, Putin really will step aside, for Volodin; or, someone else. The second article also mentions Federation Council (Russian Senate) Chairwoman Valentina Matvienko as a possible contender/successor

Spoiler

But that's a VERY distant chance. Public opinion in Russia is overwhelmingly against a female President...

Volodin, on the other hand... Who knows, who knows... Very possible. Will definitely watch closely to see what happens.

In other Russia related news:
Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?
Russian IT exports grow rapidly as tech startups go global
Lada car sales in the EU soar by 63%

 

SergeyX2017 I'm not going to mourn the loss of Vladimir Putin if he steps down from office, but the sources you quote are tabloids. The metro is a free newspaper handed out to commuters and the Daily Star, well, the last time I saw a a Daily Star front page they led with a story about someone seeing the ghost of a child. Neither are credible sources.

As for the recent the banning of Jehova's Witnesses from Russia, and the recent conversation involved, as someone who has spent a good deal of time with the Mormon church, I honestly don't see how they are considered less 'extremist' than JWs. Especially in Putin's Russia. If nothing else, JW's swear no allegiance to no earthly human being or nation, Mormons believe that God's true chosen land is America. I don't know how the latter is preferable in Russia's current political environment.

 

Sure, but I am not getting my information only from British tabloids, I just quoted those here because they are in English

I am tracking this in Russian media and there has been much discussion of this alleged leak, even in the constrained journalistic environment there, where most papers and TV channels and sites have to carefully watch what they say about the Kremlin... There have been some nasty rumors with regards to Putin's health.

Back in 2012, he first appeared to be in pain in his back at some meeting

Spoiler

Officials at the time dismissed it as a sports injury.

Later, in 2015, during a meeting with Erdogan in Ankara, he seemed to again have some trouble with his back, to the point that Erdogan apparently had to pretty much help him into his chair, at one point, or so it looked

Spoiler

The media in Russia were not allowed to talk about this and it was hushed up.

Putin later played hockey, live on TV, to put any rumors of physical infirmity on his part to rest

lol

But, the talk is persisting, that his back problems are far more serious than people are told, possibly even some kind of cancer in there...Who knows...

Anyway, as to the religious issue, I am not disagreeing with you. I am against banning any religion. I was just kind of giving you an explanation why Russians have a paranoia against the JWs. There was even a Russian TV documentary about supposed victims of a JW "sect", which, as I said, brainwashed them all and cheated them out of their homes... Of course, that may well be just propaganda to justify this crackdown by the government.

 

That sure would be a surprise.

What happened to Medvedev as the successor?

 

He's probably considered weak, judging by Sergey's postings.

 

Medvedev is a laughingstock.. The people have no respect for him, whatsoever, and after the latest revelations of his corruption, I honestly doubt he will even be able to keep his position next year...

 

It's all good thanks for that!