Don't want to scare you

[Dinner]

https://mobile.twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1498796399231705093

[Wezil]

I'm getting worried about Serb. It's been several days since he has been here to warn us of our impending doom.

On a side note, my wet dreams are greatly diminished.

[BeBMan]

Maybe he's still waiting in line at the ATM. For some days now...

[Wezil]

A symbolic vote with no corresponding punishments but still...

The United Nations has voted overwhelmingly for a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of its forces, in a global expression of outrage that highlighted Russia’s increasing isolation.

In an emergency session of the UN’s general assembly, 141 of the 193 member states voted for the resolution, 35 abstained, and five voted against. The only countries to vote no in support of Moscow were Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria. Longstanding allies Cuba and Venezuela joined China in abstaining.

[Uncle Sparky]

Kazakhstan (where Russian troops helped put down a popular uprising last month) abstained.

[Wezil]

But what has Russia done for them lately?

Cuba and Venezuela as well. At least Putin still has Syria.

[BeBMan]

There's also a U Turn at the Paralympics in Beijing now, yesterday they said Russia and Belarus can compete as neutral, now they changed course and banned them completely: BBC

[dannubis]

Don't think for a moment Xi is not paying very close attention to how the world would react to an attack on Taiwan...

[Wezil]

There's also a U Turn at the Paralympics in Beijing now, yesterday they said Russia and Belarus can compete as neutral, now they changed course and banned them completely: BBC

While I am pleased that Russians (and abettors) are being excluded I have to point out the inconsistency of the IOC. Invading a neighbor country can get your athletes excluded but if your country is committing genocide you are good to hold the games.

It's well past time that we put the Mega Excess known as the Olympics out of its misery.

[BeBMan]

Yeah, I certainly agree. There are lotsa examples of big sports events/orgs being related to corruption and being waaayyy too kind to authoritarian regimes.

[BeBMan]

Apropos Propaganda:
Russia has done a big strike against truth in its own country,
by taking steps against 2 of the last indepenent media in the country

https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1498718989060837376

https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1498715397771694084

Further measures/legislation today affecting the BBC, DW, others...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/04/bbc-temporarily-suspending-work-all-news-journalists-russia

...and also the last independent newspaper in Russia:

Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper said it will remove material on Russia’s military actions in Ukraine from its website because of censorship.

The newspaper, whose editor Dmitry Muratov was a co-winner of last year’s Nobel peace prize, said it would remove all of its war coverage due to the threat of criminal prosecution its journalists and readers could face.

In a statement, Novaya Gazeta would continue to report on the consequences that Russia is facing, including a deepening economic crisis and the persecution of dissidents.

(Guardian newsstream)

As there are also restriction on the internet the Bibs brought back the good old radio service:

BBC website ‘blocked’ in Russia as shortwave radio brought back to cover Ukraine war

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/04/bbc-website-blocked-in-russia-as-shortwave-radio-brought-back-to-cover-ukraine-war

[Serb]

Says the one, who has banned the RT in Germany long time before the sh!t hit the fan?
Are you really that stupid that you thought we will not reply with a mirror measures?
A f*cking idiot!

[Wezil]

If we presume the Chinese were watching this invasion with a possible takeover of Taiwan in mind what have they learned?

Is a hostile takeover of Taiwan less likely than it was before?

[Proteus_MST]

Further measures/legislation today affecting the BBC, DW, others...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/04/bbc-temporarily-suspending-work-all-news-journalists-russia

...and also the last independent newspaper in Russia:



(Guardian newsstream)

As there are also restriction on the internet the Bibs brought back the good old radio service:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/04/bbc-website-blocked-in-russia-as-shortwave-radio-brought-back-to-cover-ukraine-war

And seems like now they also shut their iron firewall to Twitter-Users in their country

https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/status/1499833912159358979

A country of ~140 Mio people, totally sealed off.
Putin must really be scared of independent reports about his Ukraine war

[giblets]

There's also a U Turn at the Paralympics in Beijing now, yesterday they said Russia and Belarus can compete as neutral, now they changed course and banned them completely: BBC

Putin doesn't care. All they've done is make some disabled Russians sad.

[-Jrabbit]

That happened because a host of other countries said they would leave if Russia was permitted to participate.

[BeBMan]

Certainly steps like these do not stop the war. But it looked always important to Russia to have "respect" on the intl. stage, and Putin was keen to exploit intl sports for national prestige. He may not care about the people engaged there, but he seemed to care about the boost for Russia's (and esp. his') intl. standing.

Now you have Russia being isolated economically, diplomatically (like in the UN vote), and increasingly locked out of intl sports, like soccer, formula 1, this one, probably others.

It may be sad on the individual level, but I think business as usual would be the wrong signal. It also requires Russian propaganda to make ever more efforts to explain all of that - could be this raises more questions in the Russian population. Admittedly, that is a small hope.

[Wezil]

There seems to be a glut of seized Russian yachts. If Poly posters pool our resources we may be able to pick one up cheap.

[Wezil]

Russia has accused the west of "economic banditry".

I think I preferred the good old days when we were "capitalist running dogs".