I’m Russian Jew. If you think I even look Slavic, I have a bridge to sell.

As for your question:

that’s pretty common to have infiltrators, conservative weridos, or fascists in any heritage group

You have answered it yourself. This is what is wrong. You’re correct about Slavic neo-nazis and their apparent connection with nao-pagans. It’s the same with other “heritage groups”. If something is a common vector for reactionaries and outright Nazis, is it really “the duty of that group to stamp them out”? Or is it the growth medium?

That’s the joke

I’m curious what would happen after the current war-time surge of jingoism cools down in Russia and people notice their material conditions do not improve

Unfortunately he’s also been shitting on USSR and Lenin, from what I’ve heard from the Q/A

liberal hat on

“Akschually this is GOOD, because they’re pro Russia and Russia is evil so they’re pro-evil. You wouldn’t allow a pro-nazi party so you shouldn’t allow pro Russia and pro China parties! I am very intelligent”

Liberal hat off

Back in the day, the promise of lowering sanctions was enough of a carrot to be dangled in front of the desperate and force them to compliance.

Now? Perhaps it is an attempt of EU leadership to stave off their demise. They need Chinese manufacturing might, they need the markets. But they can’t admit defeat - not just because of pride, but because uncle Sam would not take kindly to misbehaving vassals

Haval, Haval Jolion. Exeed, which I think is a Chery. Yandex taxi got a lot of Evolutes i-Pros - it’s officially a Russian e-car, but AFAIK it’s just rebranded Dongfeng. Changans started to crop up

Was talking to this fellow yesterday (distant relative, we don’t interact much). He’s been going from time to time to Donetsk region, hauling humanitarian aid. Showed some disturbing stuff.

Apparently he went to Yasinovataya recently to help distribute aid - macaroni, buckwheat, you know the stuff provided to civilians. Mind you, the town went down from about 70-80k population to about 10 by his estimate (wikifedia says 30).

When they returned home, the vehicle base they went from got attacked. Cluster munitions. He showed me a video from the balcony, you could hear the telltale multiple boom of the clusters. And another one, which he said was a drone - meaning the strike was directed from the sky, and not just blind. So the AFU knew exactly what they were attacking.

There weren’t any military vehicles in that base. Even if there were - they’d be impervious to shrapnel from the clusters. Civilian vehicles - not so much. Freshly delivered bus had its windows smahed out. The driver was wounded. Dump trucks had tires torn to shreds, windows smashed, several had engines sliced. Hydraulics, fuel lines, brakes - you name it, all sliced by shrapnel. There was a tractor - now it has a hole in the bloody dozer. Water tank truck - holes. There was a Niva parked next to the office building of the base - it caught fire. Burned out entirely, fire spread to the building and torched the first floor. And as a final insult, there was a cat living there - it hid under one of the trucks when the shelling began and got killed.

But nah, the western media keeps screeching about heroic Ukraine and heroic west. Russian media thumps about all going to plan, and little to no casualties. Meanwhile, this is the norm over there.

or capitulation on Russia’s terms

Yeah, fat chance. I’m more inclined to believe in betrayal by Russian national bourgeoisie than that. Let’s not pretend situation in Russia isn’t difficult and that it’s not getting more difficult due to aforementioned bourgeoisie. Gas prices keep rising, food prices keep rising (basic stuff, like buckwheat or macaroni). The talking heads keep talking about needing to expand industry and ramp up military production, but in the same breath admit a deficit of trained personnel (guess what, someone has to operate the machinery), and in the same breath still refuse to raise salaries. Why would someone go to be a welder or CNC machine operator, when they could go be a yandex food courier for the same money, with the same hours, and relatively less hassle? Capitalism, baby. Likewise the bourgeoisie - why not tear down the production line for short term profit? Why not demand more funds for existing lines? It’s not like the government could refuse.

And now there’s the threat of UAVs and bombs and whatnot. There’s word that the ATACMS provided by the USA will have cluster warheads - as opposed to “normal” ones, that could be used against hard targets, like bunkers. Then why clusters? They’re terrific at tearing apart unarmoured vehicles and human flesh. That’s why.

Apologies for the rant. Point is, the west is unlikely to capitulate. Instead we’ll just see more terror weapons. Them trickling down in such a meager fashion seems to also be on purpose. It’s going to be jets to lob missiles at Crimea (look at the recent Sevastopol strike), long range missiles to murder civilians in Belgorod and Tver. AFU has already used chemical weapons on small drones - big warheads are the next step. White phosphorus. Dirty bombs. No cost is too great to maintain the hegemony.

IIRC the pro-nato channels that did mention it, claimed it was Russia shelling Ukrainian humanitarian corridors

Whaaat noo that cannot be! The Glorious Free Press™ of the Democratic West™ never lies! Surely! Nuh-uh!

Almost as if that was the point

X-22 with pigeon homing device

What is it about?

Thank you

Never been there (on purpose). Heard it was some junk about “the establishment of democracy” and shit

Archive, please?

Daily reminder that the Yeltsin Center “museum” is still open and running in Yekaterinburg

The focus is more on superior firepower through artillery and air power, and shock troops built around armored and mechanized divisions manned by veteran/professional career soldiers

You’ll notice it’s also nearly the same doctrine that Russian armed forces have in Ukraine - artillery dominance, select groups of professional assault troops. Likewise with the airforce - Russian airspace force is very professionally oriented. It’s actually an issue, because it takes a lot of time and effort to train a pilot for Ka-52 for example. Heck, I don’t know of any modern army that relies on “massive amounts of simple grunt infantry”, as you put it. So I’m not sure where you are getting that this was suggestion.

But consider this: an M777 howitzer (used widely by Ukraine right now) has a minimum crew of 5, and a nominal crew of 9 + 1 driver. So that’s 5 people at least, who each must receive at least one set of uniform (strictly speaking more, as per military regulations, but we’re talking imaginary scenario here). That would be proper fabrics with regulation paint scheme, boots, socks, undershirts, etc. Since we’re talking a war in EU, they’d also need a separate set of winter gear. Plus food, which must be manufactured, and logistics to get it to the actual troops. Five people, on some both basic and essential as a howitzer. Do you are where I’m going? And we haven’t even looked at ammunition for the gun, spare parts, spare barrels, etc. And for artillery to function you also need recon of some kind - drones or forward observation troops. Radios. More uniforms, food, logistics.

That’s what I meant by “equipping many people”. There’s zero need for any imaginary “human wave” for the task to become difficult, just economy. Takes a village to arm a soldier.

Oh dang, we’re at blood libel stage already?