On the subject of destroying England but not Wales, I remember devouring books about nuclear war when I was younger - because of "Two Tribes" and nuclear paranoia - and one of them pointed out that a chain of about six megaton-range nuclear groundbursts in a line parallel with the England/Wales border would render England uninhabitable for decades. By extension England also means London, which means the entire United Kingdom.
Looking at NUKEMAP this does appear to be the case, because the prevailing winds are from the west and southwest. An 800kt bomb detonated on Portsmouth would spread fallout over London, which wouldn't destroy the city but would tank the economy, because no-one is going to want to work in the Square Mile if they have to spend every day locked inside a hermetically-sealed bunker. It would be futile burning £50 notes in the faces of homeless people because they would all be blind.
In real life the Russians did apparently have Cardiff on their target list. There was even a nuclear survival bunker in the city. Wisely the people who designed it didn't put it underneath a large building, unlike in Threads:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60244090
I do wonder how the average Russian feels about Ukraine. Especially bearing in mind that sharp generational gap. From a British perspective the only remotely comparable scenario would have been an invasion of Ireland during the height of the Troubles, perhaps on the back of the discovery of North Sea Oil. Ted Heath would have been pilloried by the international community, particularly the United States, but he could have argued that Britain was self-sufficient. But it's very difficult to comprehend something like that happening so it's hard to put myself in the position of a Russian person contemplating a mechanised invasion of next door.
A while back some Russian soldiers were irradiated after being ordered to dig trenches in the vicinity of Chernobyl:https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/world/europe/ukraine-chernobyl.html
Supposedly because none of the soldiers had heard of the Chernobyl disaster, because they were born in the 2000s and it just isn't featured in the Russian media. Does the average Russian teenager even know that Ukraine is a thing? They're unlikely to go there on holiday, so why would they even know it exists?
― Ashley Pomeroy, Tuesday, 26 July 2022 19:53 (one year ago) link
I do wonder how the average Russian feels about Ukraine....Does the average Russian teenager even know that Ukraine is a thing?
This was linked earlier in the Ukraine thread but might be new to you:
http://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/03/feeling-around-for-something-human
I haven't seen this yet but it appears to cover the same ground:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qmQs2LbnaE
― State Planning Committee for Color Revolutions (MoominTrollin), Tuesday, 26 July 2022 20:06 (one year ago) link
English subs, of course.
― State Planning Committee for Color Revolutions (MoominTrollin), Tuesday, 26 July 2022 20:07 (one year ago) link
There's also the fact of the declining Russian birth rate and the numerous cases of kids being separated from their parents, or orphans being taken into the country, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it is *the* reason because it's too malicious and depressing to contemplate.
This is what I had been wondering about, I'd not seen it mentioned explicitly, or even implicitly really. The declining birth rate, ageing society, population pyramid are a problem, but it being perceived as a problem is another matter still, nevermind thinking 'lets steal people' being a solution! And yet...over 1% of the people in Russia are Ukrainians that have been taken
― anvil, Wednesday, 27 July 2022 04:39 (one year ago) link
i think sending it ties into a scheme ongoing since the 2010s or before and obviously connected to what happened in the previous century to rebuild the far east demographically, turning it into a viable asia pacific logistics and trade hub. there haven't been many takers for resettlement schemes. but ukrainians don't have much choice, i guess. tass reports 2800 people will be sent to primorsky or khabarovsk by the end of the year: https://1sn.ru/bolee-800-ukrainskix-bezencev-pribyli-v-xabarovskii-i-primorskii-kraya-za-poslednie-sutki.
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Wednesday, 27 July 2022 11:14 (one year ago) link
New Yale study says that whatever the Kremlin is claiming publicly, their economy is going to hell in a hand basket:
https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-economy-imploding-sweeping-sanctions-corporate-exodus-yale-study-2022-7
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 29 July 2022 21:59 (one year ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/21/daughter-of-putin-ally-alexander-dugin-killed-in-car-bomb-in-moscow-reports
― nashwan, Sunday, 21 August 2022 11:30 (one year ago) link
so close- what a tragedy
― Left, Sunday, 21 August 2022 11:46 (one year ago) link
Denazification begins at home.
― borrowed Ostalgia for the unremembered 80s (MoominTrollin), Sunday, 21 August 2022 13:40 (one year ago) link
Is this more likely to be FSB or similar?
― anvil, Monday, 22 August 2022 04:46 (one year ago) link
Compact magazine claimed that Dugin and his daughter are "anti-fascist"—This is total bullshit.https://t.co/Db9Lvu9laM— John Ganz (@lionel_trolling) August 22, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 22 August 2022 14:56 (one year ago) link
"The war in Ukraine is not happening in isolation. While Russia is contesting the US-led security order in Europe, China is challenging it in Asia. A geopolitical transition has begun whose results may not be fully apparent for decades. But the post-cold war order that has governed the world for the past 30 years is drawing to a close. From its demise, a new balance of power will emerge."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/22/six-months-war-putin-ukraine-russia-nato-energy-prices
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 07:57 (one year ago) link
Meanwhile in Russia
📅 Today marks 83 years since the signing of the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the USSR.📹 Watch our retrospective video for information on the state of affairs in Europe prior to the signing of this document.🔗 https://t.co/0oj5eo5QbC pic.twitter.com/mxyonaFXDt— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) August 23, 2022
― Mearsheimer-Leninism is a hell of a drug (MoominTrollin), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 17:03 (one year ago) link
they missed the bit out where hundreds of thousands of the Red Army died/got captured because Stalin wouldn't believe his own NKVD agents' multiple reports on an imminent invasion. But I agree with some of the Brit bashing!
― calzino, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 17:14 (one year ago) link
Speaking of Brit bashing -
On the one hand, the 1939 William Strang mission to Moscow was a last-ditch effort doomed to failure. On the other hand, why the fuck did they pick this guy to begin with:
During the late-1930s, Strang was a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship, which was pro-Nazi.
Strang became of interest to an undercover MI5 agent, Eric Roberts, who was operating under the pretense of working for the Gestapo, with the intention of identifying potential fifth columnists. In 1943, he reported on one of the diplomat's female friends who was possibly his lover.[5] Unaware of her connections, Strang had told her "that he personally hated the Jews and regarded the Bolsheviks and the Jews as the two greatest enemies of all that is decent".
― borrowed Ostalgia for the unremembered 80s (MoominTrollin), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:29 (one year ago) link
Not exactly outlandish views in the Tory Party at the time I would have thought.
― Buckfast At Tiffany's (Tom D.), Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:33 (one year ago) link
Stafford Cripps didn't have much success in Moscow either. Maisky noted in his diary that they much preferred negging with out and out Tory shits rather than Labour people of the British left.
― calzino, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 19:49 (one year ago) link
Zelenskyy has ratified Law 5371.Workers now have no right to bargain, and trade unions cannot protect them. pic.twitter.com/SUauiTqmaH— The International Magazine (@TheIntlMagz) August 23, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 24 August 2022 08:34 (one year ago) link
Russia's best and brightest are firebombing military conscription centres. https://t.co/ezH1eatNdG— libcom.org (@libcomorg) August 24, 2022
https://theins.ru/en/politics/252885
This train is on fire: how Russian partisans set fire to military registration and enlistment offices and derail trains.
― borrowed Ostalgia for the unremembered 80s (MoominTrollin), Thursday, 25 August 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link
Loving the sneaky lil Z in Unionize there
― anvil, Thursday, 25 August 2022 15:24 (one year ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa-8CIEagAAfcJF?format=jpg
Some disturbing news coming out of Latvia by the looks of it too
― anvil, Thursday, 25 August 2022 15:28 (one year ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN0pdUTUYAQSqVj?format=jpg&name=small
On tbe other hand, they look to have found some good news in Kherson
― anvil, Thursday, 25 August 2022 15:31 (one year ago) link
Today Russia deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Kharkov region. pic.twitter.com/IpQ4TOnMqC— The International Magazine (@TheIntlMagz) March 9, 2022
interesting spelling there
― anvil, Thursday, 25 August 2022 15:34 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/UI2i80y.png
― borrowed Ostalgia for the unremembered 80s (MoominTrollin), Wednesday, 31 August 2022 14:41 (one year ago) link
The chairman of the board of Lukoil, Russia’s biggest privately held oil producer and one of the few Russian companies to criticize the invasion of Ukraine, has died after falling out of a hospital window, Interfax reports https://t.co/wM9r1KAkQn— max seddon (@maxseddon) September 1, 2022
― calzino, Thursday, 1 September 2022 11:42 (one year ago) link
jeeeesus this world
― Ste, Thursday, 1 September 2022 13:32 (one year ago) link
it has been suggested he was having a smoke and it might have been an acidental fall. CSI Moscow doing the forensics on some ciggies his dead hand was still clutching.
― calzino, Thursday, 1 September 2022 13:42 (one year ago) link
Wow happens a lot in Russia pretty wild that all those windows in tall buildings are so tempting to lean just a little to far
― sweating like Cathy *aaaack* (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:03 (one year ago) link
Russian building codes must mandate man-size operable windows in all skyscrapers.
― sweating like Cathy *aaaack* (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:05 (one year ago) link
I can see why smoking has a much higher mortality rate in Russia now
― calzino, Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:25 (one year ago) link
at this point I'm starting to wonder if Conor Clapton insulted the Kremlin.
― peace, man, Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:29 (one year ago) link
lool
― calzino, Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:31 (one year ago) link
In (post)Soviet Russia you have tears for heaven
― You can't spell Fearless without Earle (President Keyes), Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:39 (one year ago) link
Accidental falls is now the leading cause of death among connected Russian executives and bureaucrats.
A top Russian executive has died falling from his boat near Vladivostok, local media reports.Ivan Pechorin has been described as an ally of Putin, who reportedly picked him for the role.Pechorin is the latest in a string of unexplained deaths among Russian bosses. Another Russian energy boss has died in mysterious circumstances after "falling overboard" from a boat, according to local media reports.Ivan Pechorin's body was found washed up around 100 miles from Vladivostok in Russia's far east, on Monday after a two-day search, local outlet VL.ru reported.Pechorin fell off his moving boat on September 10 as it sailed near Russky Island, the outlet reported. He was the Aviation Director for Russia's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV), which described his death as an "irreparable loss."
Ivan Pechorin's body was found washed up around 100 miles from Vladivostok in Russia's far east, on Monday after a two-day search, local outlet VL.ru reported.
Pechorin fell off his moving boat on September 10 as it sailed near Russky Island, the outlet reported. He was the Aviation Director for Russia's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV), which described his death as an "irreparable loss."
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 14 September 2022 21:22 (one year ago) link
Do we know for sure that the numbers of executives being assassinated has increased in 2022? It was common through out the 1990s and into the early 2000s, then the idea is that assassinations started to clear up, but did they really or is that just received wisdom and it just happens to be getting more attention now?
― anvil, Thursday, 15 September 2022 00:52 (one year ago) link
Not the data collection assignment i was hoping for. Would be v interesting to see though.
― i'm intentionally vague, intending to front multitudes (Hunt3r), Thursday, 15 September 2022 15:57 (one year ago) link
kinda good thread
Since there is a lot of interest in what is the reaction to the recent military setbacks in Russia, a🧵with an update. There are three distinct groups in Russia:1/25— Greg Yudin (@YudinGreg) September 14, 2022
― nashwan, Thursday, 15 September 2022 16:08 (one year ago) link
how is this deplorable
The laymen are the those carelessly enjoying their lives while people are dying in Ukraine. It is obviously deplorable but the upside of it is that these people are completely unwilling to participate in war actively in any way https://t.co/kGLYiBZaL6 6/25— Greg Yudin (@YudinGreg) September 14, 2022
― papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 15 September 2022 16:10 (one year ago) link
silence is violence?
― nashwan, Thursday, 15 September 2022 16:11 (one year ago) link
there is a wiki page dedicated to the russian businessmen deaths :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_businessmen_mystery_deaths
― mark e, Thursday, 15 September 2022 16:12 (one year ago) link
Reportedly died from a "drug-induced heart attack" during a shamanic ritual, though critics allege 'toad poison'
― mh, Thursday, 15 September 2022 17:28 (one year ago) link
End of an era, Bald & Bankrupt kicked out of the country and barred from entry. Sorta weird propaganda/interrogation video released from Birobidzhan
― anvil, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 07:39 (one year ago) link
My dear friend Putesy
Pressed specifically on the issue of Crimea, Erdoğan replied “Since 2014, we have been talking to my dear friend Putin about this, and this is what we have requested from him. We asked him to return Crimea to its rightful owners … unfortunately no step has been taken forward.”
― nashwan, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 08:22 (one year ago) link
All seems increasingly desperatePutin televised speech announced for earlier this evening, delayed, rescheduled (has this happened before?) to tomorrow morningTalk of mobilisation or widescale conscription (with expatriation 'illegal' from tomorrow)...how is this not a losing endgame for them?
― nashwan, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 20:45 (one year ago) link
expatriation fleeing, that should be
― nashwan, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 21:00 (one year ago) link
good read
Long post I'm afraid but I wanted to explore the question of potential Russian nuclear use carefully rather than simply asert or dismiss it as a possibility. https://t.co/TVO6mKmxhQ— Lawrence Freedman (@LawDavF) September 20, 2022
― nashwan, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 22:30 (one year ago) link
Live from a Russian with his stove on 24/7 spending only 1.44 EUR / month pic.twitter.com/fWiadi7j6u— yuu ★ (@fwyuuka) September 20, 2022
vlads...
― calzino, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 14:15 (one year ago) link
well fuck.
― scanner darkly, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 16:25 (one year ago) link
Flights out of Russia sold out fast after Vladimir Putin's announcement... flights to popular destinations such as Istanbul in Turkey and Yerevan in Armenia were snapped up, and prices for remaining seats skyrocketed.
Evgeny, a 31-year-old Russian living in the UK, told the BBC: "Absolutely everyone is afraid, everyone is sending around different information on mobilisation. It is very difficult to figure out what is true and what isn't. Nobody trusts the government."
this doesn't bode well
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 19:08 (one year ago) link
if they can afford it they can stay visa-free in Turkey for up to 90 days, can't blame them tbh.
― calzino, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 19:17 (one year ago) link
they were working on the kill now, martyr later plan
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 26 March 2024 17:55 (four weeks ago) link
starting to think that perhaps putin wasn’t behind it, they’d plant a stronger link to ukraineso far the attempts to pin it on ukraine seem pretty desperate (“ukraine denies it, so it must be ukraine!”)
― scanner darkly, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 18:27 (four weeks ago) link
They've pivoted to 'we know IS did it but WHO hired them? I think we would know who'
― nashwan, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 18:47 (four weeks ago) link
yeah, they're now implying that the US, UK and Ukraine are somehow behind it, based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 18:56 (four weeks ago) link
faking evidence does take time. i’m sure we’ll have some “authentic” confessions soon
― scanner darkly, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 19:03 (four weeks ago) link
lol at lukashenko saying the terrorists tried to flee to ukraine because it would be preferable to belarusdid he not get the memo
― scanner darkly, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 19:06 (four weeks ago) link
its not unlikely that Putin (and inner circle) genuinely thinks the US is behind the attack, because the US is behind everything (including Ukraine)
― anvil, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 20:05 (four weeks ago) link
No way Putin genuinely believes that.
― nashwan, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 20:22 (four weeks ago) link
He may not but he will give you a four-hour lecture about it.
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 20:33 (four weeks ago) link
He believes the CIA was behind Maidan, he believes the CIA was behind the Arab Spring, so it isn't impossible. His general mindset is that organic instances of protest or action don't really exist, and are manifestations of an exercise of power by a larger entity.
Its also partly why he doesn't think of Ukraine or Slovenia or Costa Rica or Spain as real. To him they are franchises of the US
― anvil, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 23:57 (four weeks ago) link
(citations needed, as usual)
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 27 March 2024 00:56 (three weeks ago) link
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/31/politics/navalny-russian-prisoner-database-hack/index.html
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 1 April 2024 16:45 (three weeks ago) link
https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/article32404487.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200e/1_sdc_mdg_chp_62818.jpg
what the fuck is happening in Washington D.C.?
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 07:33 (three weeks ago) link
Leaving Celtic for the MLS?
― anvil, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 07:46 (three weeks ago) link
the 4 concert hall terrorists are in a video where they say (Chechens speaking Russian, all using the same words) that they were to contact someone in Ukraine.
― StanM, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 08:13 (two weeks ago) link
That's how they earned a bowl of soup
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 16:24 (two weeks ago) link
hired by a Putin crony, told someone else hired them, told where to go and when, ambushed on the way back into Ukraine by a waiting military squad who was either in on it or "tipped off" as to their whereabouts.
― omar little, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 16:59 (two weeks ago) link
Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to remove restrictions on the work of minors in order to cope with the shortage of workers in the economy, which the authorities estimate at hundreds of thousands of people.The government and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives should consider "promoting employment and stimulating employment" of citizens aged 14 and over, according to a list of Putin's instructions published on the Kremlin's website.
The government and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives should consider "promoting employment and stimulating employment" of citizens aged 14 and over, according to a list of Putin's instructions published on the Kremlin's website.
dragging kids into armament factories now
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Saturday, 20 April 2024 12:36 (three days ago) link
Damn
― calstars, Saturday, 20 April 2024 12:43 (three days ago) link
Probably safer than meatpacking factories at least.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 20 April 2024 13:55 (three days ago) link
Apologies, I think I posted that when I was on the bus on the way into town and forgot to add later. I don't think I noted anything down specifically as I tend to listen to things when running rather than reading but I'll see what I can find
― anvil, Tuesday, 23 April 2024 13:15 (nine hours ago) link
Gleb Pavlovsky Frontline PBS Interview 2017
― anvil, Tuesday, 23 April 2024 13:33 (eight hours ago) link