what happened to the großrossiya thread

[Sava]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/182795/ru...d-highest.aspx

They world gives Russia the lowest approval rating and the highest disapproval rating in the entire world. While the US approval rating has actually bounced back so that it now gets the highest approval rating world wide. Putin makes the US look good.

Exactly. So why do you want to mess that up with some fruitless military campaign?

[Dinner]

http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/31/investing/russia-gazprom-profit/index.html

Poor pootie-poot. It is hard to be a corrupt petroleum state dictator with prices this low.

[Dr Strangelove]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/182795/ru...d-highest.aspx

They world gives Russia the lowest approval rating and the highest disapproval rating in the entire world. While the US approval rating has actually bounced back so that it now gets the highest approval rating world wide. Putin makes the US look good.

It is a shame Putin's state controlled popaganda media has the Russian people so ignorant and misinformed. You'd figure Russians would be smart enough to see through the obvious propaganda (we have no troops in Crimea, I don't know where they came from) but I guess not.

They polled 1000 people in 136 countries, I wonder, did they make sure they polled 6 or 7 people in each country? Under those conditions they certainly could not draw statistically significant results about the opinions of the population of each polled country.

[spambot]

They polled 1000 people in 136 countries, I wonder, did they make sure they polled 6 or 7 people in each country? Under those conditions they certainly could not draw statistically significant results about the opinions of the population of each polled country.

It says they polled "approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, in each country or area". They polled roughly 136,000 people in total.

[Dinner]

Indeed.

[Dinner]

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32425602

And, of course, Putin is violating the cease fire agreement yet again. He is not only not moving his heavy weapons back but moving more in as well as ramping up his forces on the border again.

[PLATO]

I have been thinking of a few of things here:

1.) Although the sanctions do appear to be hurting the Russians (along with oil prices of course), it does not seem to be having a strong political effect. This is rather hard to judge however. One does not know what actions that the Russians were prepared to take, but didn't due to the sanction response. I believe that continuing the sanctions until a political resolution is obtained is probably a good idea.

2.) The Ukrainians have just as much right to a robust military as Russia does. In fact, one could make the case that since they voluntarily gave up a large nuclear capability, that supporting a strong Ukrainian military is probably a good idea. Fear of a Russian reaction is simply allowing Russia to dominate one of its neighbors without any real justification for them to do so. Arming and training a Ukrainian military is probably a good idea in the long run, but does present some very problematic issues in the short run given the current balance of power. I doubt the U.S. would invade Mexico if the Russians started arming and training their army, but it is hard to predict the sometimes whacky responses one gets from Washington.

3.) Russia's annexation of Crimea is still illegal and the situation in the Donbass has certainly diverted attention away from it. I have said it before, and will probably say it again...Crimea probably should be Russian, but not this way. One wonders if a deal could be brokered for Russia to withdraw support for the Rebels in The Donbass in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing its claim to Crimea and sanctions being lifted. It would be an interesting diplomatic road to see travelled. Of course, for that to happen, Russia would have to acknowledge that they actually do support the Rebels.

4.) Money is power. Both the U.S. and China show this on a daily basis. A Russian economy that is predicted to shrink by 4% this year can possibly create longer term power issues for Russia. I wonder if, in typically Russian style, they will continue the very robust military buildup they are in at the expense of their people. How long can you continue to keep a population at a nationalistic fever pitch before you lose the people or go to war? This is a real question that nobody seems to be asking. If you follow the Russian media any, it is clear that they are preparing the people for conflict. Is it just posturing to gain political cover for what is happening in The Donbass...or is something much more dangerous afoot? How long can a shrinking Russian economy support a massive military buildup?

5.) Is this crisis uniting Europe and the U.S. into a stronger strategic bond (one that seemed to be waning in past years) or is it, ultimately, going to drive a wedge between them? Is Russia's energy sector strong enough to challenge relationships with the U.S.? Is Europe so tired of centuries of war that they are willing to sacrifice security for peace? Is the U.S. even equipped psychologically to lead an effective resistance against Russian power aims if Europe were inclined to resist?

6.) What about the "Pivot to Asia"? Can the U.S. fulfill its security guarantees in both Europe and the far east against a more aggressive China and a resurgent Russia? Where does the U.S. draw the line? Can the U.S. even afford to be the player it used to be while running staggering deficits financed by a potential foe? Is the U.S. prepared to counter Chinese and Russian naval build ups? What are the consequences if they don't?

Not sure who it was that said "May you live in interesting time", but it looks like the geopolitical world is becoming more interesting than anyone in the U.S. wants. Will arrogance or compromise rule the day? Will the U.S. be able to accept some compromises? It certainly is an interesting time.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Confucious, I think.

The best bet for Ukraine is for the US to play the Russians at their own game. That is to say clandestinely arm Ukraine with the sorts of gear that Ukraine needs, but make sure all the serial numbers are removed etc and deny everything if it gets captured, just like the Russians are doing now.

But it has to be done secretly, because one whiff of anything like that happening and Russia will come up with some excuse to start hostilities again.

[spambot]

Russia is apparently a theocracy now:

A St. Petersburg school teacher fired in December for her lesbian social media activity was declared unfit to return to her job. A court called upon “experts” to analyze the teacher’s photos on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook, and declared them “extremely unacceptable from a moral point of view.”

The teacher appealed to the court in January to get her job back plus a compensation of 300,000 rubles, or around $5,600, for emotional distress. Her appeal was rejected Tuesday on the grounds that she had committed “acts of indecency.”

The teacher, who has remained anonymous in the press, lost her job in December because of the crusading of Timur Isayev, who has made a career of outing school teachers who post expressions of homosexuality online. He claims their outward homosexuality violates Russia’s law against “gay propaganda.” Isayev said in December he had gotten 29 teachers fired for being gay. The St. Petersburg teacher, whose name has remained anonymous in the press, told Meduza that Isayev brought her VKontakte photos to the school’s director on a disc.

Excerpts from testimony against her show the bizarre mixture of religiosity, morality and homophobia the court relied on for its decision. Meduza gained access to some of the analysis by the so-called “experts” who testified: Alex Frost, priest and director of the organization “The Fabric Of Orthodox Intellectuals,” and Tamara Berseneva, the author of “Project On The Conception Of The Spiritual And Moral Education Of Russian Students.” Here are some of the more outrageous snippets, translated into English by Vocativ:

http://www.vocativ.com/world/russia/russia-gay-propaganda-law-lesbian-teacher/

I feel sorry for anyone trapped in such a ****hole

[The Mad Monk]

Confucius did not say it, he only lived it.

[Ellestar]

Jordan: Russian Special Forces crowned champions at 7th Annual Warrior Competition

https://ruptly.tv/vod/view/27468/jordan-russian-special-forces-crowned-champions-at-7th-annual-warrior-competition

USA got 23th place out of 43? Nice, nice.

[Hauldren Collider]

[self biased]

Hooray! Ellestar's back!

[Dinner]

The sad thing is Russia took it seriously while the US probably just sent a few reservists because no one gave a damn.

[Elok]

I still cannot fathom why the hell we care about this. We have no compelling interests in Ukraine, superpowers do not behave altruistically, and we could actually use Russian help cleaning up our mess in the Middle East. Probably other things too. Yes, Putin is a crooked, bullying thug. Who gives a damn? He poses no meaningful threat to anyone we actually care about, and he was doing a reasonable job of keeping Russia stable, which is all we really need from Russia. Just keep the nukes under lock and key, Vlad, and don't mess up our stuff. He was doing that fine, until we screwed with him.

If we'd let him alone, Ukraine would be substantially better off than it is now. Does anyone seriously believe there is any chance of Ukraine becoming a strong, independent country? We all know how this will end; eventually we'll get bored or preoccupied, and Putin or whoever is in charge in Russia will one way or another recover the country's influence over its puny little neighbor. Even if we succeed in destroying Putin's regime with the sanctions, etc., the country will have a politically unstable or failed state on its borders. This whole thing has been a cockup of spectacular proportions.

Why did we do it? Are we still stuck in a Cold War mentality where we have to piss on every tree east of Germany to keep out now-irrelevant Russian influence? Is there some weird ulterior motive at work? The least lame explanation I can think of is that maybe we wanted to corner the Western European oil and gas markets, so we got the Russian bear mad to scare them into the arms of our frackers. Or something? Even that sounds kind of silly. Probably the simplest explanation is the Bush-in-Iraq hypothesis: one or more people in power is a complete dumbass.