Nobody interested in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

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In 1918, Bolsheviks tried to "unite" Europe at least to Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Soviet_War

I like catching up on this thread. It’s a nice recap of recent events from multiple pov’s and understandings.

Knowledge. Knowledge is power. The biggest reason putin gets away with what he does with his citizens is due to forced ignorance. Russian people are only exposed to kremlin propaganda, so many believe it to be true and factual and then live and die by it - a similar phenomenon in North Korea and to an extent even in the USA with trump cultists.

How? Mebe with Elon’s starlink internet.. enable the masses to have global information and news sources beamed down to their screens so they can see all outside perspectives vs only whatever comes out of the kremlin machine. That would change a lot of minds and hearts over time. Same same if Chinese people had open access to the regular internet.

But ofc, this is exactly why putin, il, and xi won’t allow their people to be informed.. but maybe in the not so distant future anyone can get connected via starlink and there may be sweet F all that any of these dictators can do to stop the flow of information. That would be game changing.*

*ofc I am assuming Russian people have censored internet. I know ~all of their media is kremlin propaganda. I can’t imagine Russia is going to be stupid enough to control all media and leave the internet wide open for citizens to consume European and North American news/general information -> otherwise how would they be able to maintain their spell over people? (Or maybe I’m wrong and it’s effective despite the availability of conflicting information and actual facts… trump cultists exist in the USA, after all.)

Right. The Bolsheviks sort of had a notion of "Manifest Destiny." But it wasn't exclusively ethnically-based. It was based on spreading their form of communism around the world.

The "Great Russia" idea was and is ethnically-based.

Basically, in truth, this adds up to the same thing: Russian imperialist expansion.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 07 Apr 2022, 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

AFAIK, Russia is working on Internet limiting strategies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Internet_Law
Up to now, I think they mostly relied on language barrier, local social media control and poor Internet access outside of big cities... and pre-washed brains.

Radio Free Europe has a useful article on  How to Bypass Blocking 

Hmm, interesting little data nugget at end of article, https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-a-killin ... 27834.html
Bold added by me.

Russian retreat reveals destruction as Ukraine asks for help.

Read the Full Article  HERE 

Pink Floyd members reunite to record song for Ukraine.

Pink Floyd is releasing its first new music in almost three decades to raise money for the people of Ukraine, the band announced Thursday.

"Hey Hey Rise Up" features Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the band BoomBox, and also features Guy Pratt on bass and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards.

The track features Khlyvnyuk singing a patriotic Ukrainian song from a clip he recorded in front of Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral and posted on social media.

Gilmour, who performed with BoomBox in London in 2015, said the video was "a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music".

After Russia’s invasion, Khlyvnyuk cut short a tour of the U.S. to return to Ukraine and join a territorial defense unit.

Gilmour said he spoke to Khlyvnyuk, who was recovering in a hospital from a mortar shrapnel injury, while he was writing the song.  He said: "I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future."

Read the Full Article  HERE 

Sad that current events give the opportunity; pleased the opportunity is being made productive.

That's true, but I thought they could at least threaten to in order to use them as a bargaining chip, even if it's just bluffing. It was said that Moscow wouldn't care but you think there would be some Russians who cared about the soldiers who were willing to listen to threats.

Those who care have zero decisive power.
Never bluff with Russia. They don't care for risks, they will check your cards.

How completely unsurprising to me...
I'm sure they also bribed (or tried, or believed they bribed) a lot of officials in the West before their "special operation". Instead of fighting corruption, Kremlin has incorporated it into their system and uses it as a tool.

That may, btw, explain e.g. German inconsistence - speaking high words and then not backing them with actions for weeks. German people, AFAIK, support Ukraine very strongly, but their officials are sluggish and unwilling to send substantial aid. There's likely some agent or two in some important spot.

The only way to fight this is transparency.

But maybe it if those who cared, knew their loved ones lives were on the line, it could perhaps compel them to act against those in power, even more so with more compulsion?

You probably know really little on life of unfree people.

The word "empire" has too meanings. A form of govt.. And a country that rules other countries.

Rome became a city-state in 753. But it didnt even become a "country" until centuries later when Italy was united under Rome. And it didnt become an "empire" in that geopolitical sense until sometime during the Punic Wars with Carthage which ended in 146 BC when it destroyed Carthage, and all of Carthages one time lands (Spain, northwest Africa, Sicily) became Roman territory. But this was when Rome was still a republic. It was an "empire" in the geopolitical sense, before it became an "Empire" as a political system- ie being ruled by emperors. Its the geopolitical meaning that were talking about. So Rome became in Empire during the Punic Wars (sometime around 200 BC). The western half of the Roman collapsed around 500 AD. So that seven centuries.

Dmitry Muratov was attacked on a train from Moscow to Samara, allegedly "for our boys"... because, apparently, it's not a fault of those who do it, it's a fault of those who speak about it? Looks like this kind of "logic".
https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/07/rus ... -red-paint

I recommend everyone to watch/read his last year's Nobel Prize speech... tough lecture when you know how things developed soon after he spoke.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace ... v/lecture/