ok what the fuck is happening in ukraine

i heard french press is pretty good

The reportage can be a bit gritty.

Mary Worth has been insane lately.

Would read Russian Mary Worth for sure tho ftr.

Russian Calvin & Hobbes, Hobbes is a real tiger

The US strategy of providing information about coup plots, invasion dates and false flag attacks to the domestic press and not the Ukrainian government is, at least, very odd.

A relative who worked for the OSCE in Ukraine was telling me about the increasingly frantic messages from the State Department warning everyone to evacuate their families and then themselves. Completely different messaging from previous run ups where the rule was to not worry unless you see Russian tanks in the Maidan.

what is the consensus view here about what is actually happening? Is it that this is a defensive move by Russia in response to overly aggressive NATO expansionism?

maybe i don't understand the big deal with them joining nato (aside from simply proximity to russia)

It’s pretty clear that Ukraine is never joining NATO—but Putin wants that in writing, and Biden is unwilling to do that because it looks “weak.’

sowing discord between the US and France/Germany/Europe in general is a benefit to Putin

I know this is coming from the US press which are running dogs for the imperialist war machine, but it's hard to read this article without coming to the conclusion that Russia has some understandable grievances with the increasing US military presence in Eastern Europe, and reasons to be unhappy with the way the US unilaterally withdrew from the anti-ballistic missile treaty which was a cornerstone of nuclear detente:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/world/europe/poland-missile-base-russia-ukraine.html

The best comparison I heard was that Ukraine joining NATO is the equivalent to the Russians of Russia putting missiles in Cuba.

is this not obvious

would this not be an obvious thing to consider within one second

which was like the US putting missiles in Turkey which was like

JCOS working on a plan as we speak, though

https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/dr-strangelove-3.jpg

It's OK 'cos we're the good guys.

yep I've just read an Anne Applebum piece in the Atlantic and can confirm that

Hmm is it safe to assess western media coverage as anything less than pure garbage without getting carpeted with F-bombs?

For anyone still asking “what’s it all about?” — that Time article posted up thread had a lot of pertinent info that I hadn’t seen in other coverage. (I didn’t make it past the paywall on o. Nate’s NYT piece but the point about the treaty also stands out.)

As a citizen of a Russia-bordering country, from a Russian-speaking household, having travelled in Ukraine, Moldova, Russia and Georgia, it is pretty fucking offensive reading people describing Russian positions as «sabre rattling», but perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised

Care to elaborate?

Just people upthread being totally dismissive of the experience of having Russian aggression as a constant presence, because NATO or whatever.

It’s good to know there’s someone else with a passport, not great when poster Mule pops up to aggressively condescend as they occasionally do (recall them tone policing calzino in the unhappiness of ilx) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m not going to apologise for describing obvious dick waving as such; that doesn’t mean it’s not unnerving or upsetting for people in the area though!

xpost

Oh cheers. Feel free to f-bomb me cause I assumed based on the Russian-speaking that it might be the opposite.

Full disclosure I did just read a Guardian article and a Russia Today article side by side and the RT article wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Heavy use of scare quotes tho. (Also remarkably hard to find on Google at all now.)

And gyac your perspective is appreciated too, I didn’t recognize the name. I do also have a passport for what’s it worth. Ask me about China (my mom is a Tibetan Buddhist and my ex was Tibetan so I may be less than 100% unbiased.)

The unfortunate nature of china’s role in the world means they’re never going to get held to account ito what they’ve been doing in Tibet/Xinjiang, Russia to a lesser extent has a position of power because of its role shipping gas to Europe and its location. It takes a lot for a war to kick off because of these realities I guess, so Putin et al can really act as they like with impunity because what’s going to happen to them? And does Western Europe even care beyond keeping the gas on? And if there’s no danger of military pushback then Russia doesn’t have to do anything besides move some troops around and make some verbal threats, so yeah, that’s really my thinking on “sabre rattling”, that and the only people really going hard for war are the only people who always are, ie Atlantic Council shitheads and dopes like AA.

Jus «obvious dick waving», right. But whatever, gyac. We’ll never see eye to eye.

To be clear: had no issue with what you wrote, viborg

All this ^ has been covered thread and in more detail by others previously, if you’d like to talk more about your opinion then I’d be interested to read it.

*upthread

You’re on the mark obv. Off topic but I was in HK during the ‘siege’ of HK Polytechnic U. I stayed at Chunking Mansions which is on Nathan Rd quite near there. The protests were ongoing all around there. I took some interesting pics that I never posted online.

For anyone curious why someone might say that the state of journalism in Russia today is "not good", this piece from Deutsche Welle (the German public news organization) is a neat summary:

https://www.dw.com/en/critical-journalists-in-russia-fall-silent/a-60670100

Or I guess you could just google "Anna Politkovskaya".

Who is arguing the state of Russian journalism is good?

No one, but some are equating it to state of journalism in western democracies, or implying that the differences are insignificant.

Another good article from DW, on how Russian media have been laying the groundwork for possible hostilities with Ukraine. Seems the goal is not to get average Russians to actually support war, very few do, but to at least blame the West if hostilities do break out:

https://www.dw.com/en/how-russian-media-outlets-are-preparing-an-attack-on-ukraine/a-60801837

lol

Note to Readers: Updated Post
Matt Taibbi
Feb 17

In the wake of new developments on the Ukraine-Russia story, I updated “Another All-Time Media Faceplant” this morning.

All this ^ has been covered thread and in more detail by others previously, if you’d like to talk more about your opinion then I’d be interested to read it.

― mardheamac (gyac), 17. februar 2022 12:34 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don’t think my opinion is necessarily much different from what some have said upthread, really, or that I have any unique perspectives here. I agree with some of your analysis in the preceding post, particularly concerning Russia’s strategic upper hand. However, I disagree that Putin does not want or need «war» (although that may be different things), and I don’t read Russian positions as mere posturing (even notwithstanding that Russia have been fighting in Dombass for years). Crimea, Georgia, should be clear evidence that there is a willingness if considered necessary in order to reach strategic goals. Re Ukraine, strategic goals is more effectively secured through a level of territorial control over Ukraine (as NATO-guarantees regarding Ukrainian membership will clearly not be given), especially given that an attack will not be directly responded to by the US / NATO (regardless what the AC our AA may argue, thankfully).

In this light, «sabre rattling», «dick waving», seems off the mark and disrespectful in my view, but we don’t need to continue that discussion (I realise that I was the one picking the fight).

Psh, just like Putin.

amassing FPs at the border

#BREAKING In a document to the UN, Russia is formally accusing #Ukraine of "exterminating the civilian population" of two largely Russian-speaking regions.

This is significant because US officials see accusations like this by Russia as a "pretext for war" on Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/KjCQSkJA6X

— Majeed Gly (@MajeedGly) February 17, 2022

US propaganda machine going into overdrive to push peace-loving Russia into a war they never wanted

Blinken to the UN: "Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack. This could be a violent event that Russia will blame on Ukraine or outrageous accusations that Russia will level against the Ukraine government. We don't know exactly the form it will take." pic.twitter.com/W5TQwzgP3q

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 17, 2022

I guess if anyone would know about that it would be America.

it's certainly a familiar situation, but I don't think the US holds a monopoly on ginning up reasons to invade countries

Putin has already described the situation as a 'genocide' of Russian-speakers, so there's that

This thread would run a lot easier if people didn’t waste their time replying to claims nobody made.

unlike some of you I am against genocide

luckily the anti-genocide forces are apparently ready to sweep in

Starting to have difficulties parsing the irony in this irony.

lol

Note to Readers: Updated Post
Matt Taibbi
Feb 17

In the wake of new developments on the Ukraine-Russia story, I updated “Another All-Time Media Faceplant” this morning.

Is this “lol @“ or “lol w/“ Taibbi? I thought he was widely regarded as a joke in general these days.

Can we just stipulate that everyone here understands the US has invaded other countries on flimsy or fictitious pretexts and has a long sordid history of disseminating lies as propaganda? Having this well-known and accepted fact pointed out repeatedly just sounds like the usual 'whataboutism' in service to absolving Russia from its own misdeeds. OK?

*irony in this dumpster fire of a thread

yes lol at Taibbi rushing out his "WMDs all over again FACEPLANT" article in the same manner the establishment press rushes out their "Russia to Invade at Noon!" tweets

Right, right. I have a hard time as seeing Biden as thirsty for a bloodletting in general, but I do see him as possibly deluded enough to be swayed by the wrong perspectives if there’s a concerted effort in the defense community to gin up a conflict. With WMDs the motive was always pretty obvious even if there are incessant denials that it was chiefly in the best interests of Halliburton and The Carlyle Group.