Lots of looting too.
Here is a video posted not long ago. The Ukrainians were trying to salvage plates from Russian casualties.
Interesting what one soldier had replaced his issued plates with : Apple laptop. Spoiler alert: they don't work as armour.

https://t.me/operativnoZSU/17336

I'm sure a lot of personal grudges are being settled on all sides with all the guns and violence in the war zone.

quote:

Originally posted by TSE:
Lots of looting too.
Here is a video posted not long ago. The Ukrainians were trying to salvage plates from Russian casualties.
Interesting what one soldier had replaced his issued plates with : Apple laptop. Spoiler alert: they don't work as armour.

https://t.me/operativnoZSU/17336

I had read something recently that Russian wives and girlfriends were asking their soldier husbands and boyfriends to bring back "stuff" for them to include laptops.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by TSE:
Lots of looting too.
Here is a video posted not long ago. The Ukrainians were trying to salvage plates from Russian casualties.
Interesting what one soldier had replaced his issued plates with : Apple laptop. Spoiler alert: they don't work as armour.

https://t.me/operativnoZSU/17336

I had read something recently that Russian wives and girlfriends were asking their soldier husbands and boyfriends to bring back "stuff" for them to include laptops.

Gopniks

quote:

Heck, I would be happy if people knew what a MANPAD is.

You mean it isn't something dispensed in the mens/ gender neutral room at Starbutts....

More superyacht news.

Abramovich down two more superyachts.




And another takes off for the tall and uncut.



And one I disagree with. The Brits plan to punish subjects who serve on sanctioned superyachts. In short, they plan on prosecuting Britons who did not immediately jump ship in the nearest port.

Two emotional videos at link

first, a soldier son comes to his parents house after their town is liberated after a month of Russian occupation

second, a mother has to bury her son

https://hotair.com/allahpundit...n-the-garden-n459973

Fuck Russia

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I had read something recently that Russian wives and girlfriends were asking their soldier husbands and boyfriends to bring back "stuff" for them to include laptops.

Too bad most of them are only returning with body bags and shitty britches. If the mobile crematoria don't get 'em first.

interviews w Russian citizens. If this is "typical" this shows the Russian invasion has wide spread Russian support

video at link

https://twitter.com/i/status/1510950346742509570

^^^ I'm sure the interviews were selected for effect, but damn...

OTOH I'm left wondering how they'd see it if they had a wider range of information. A lot of that crap ("khokol" this, "khokol" that) seems to be about a micron deep.

My Israeli friends said if you think this is bad, try being a Jew in Russia.

In regard to SIG2340's post above about the yachts and crews: I read the article about punishing the crews, but it seemed like they were going after the crew staffing agencies, not the crew themselves. Same consequences for the crew members though. So, put a lot more people out of work, grand idea.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:

My Israeli friends said if you think this is bad, try being a Jew in Russia.

My grandparents escaped. They would have been executed for the crime of being Jews.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
interviews w Russian citizens. If this is "typical" this shows the Russian invasion has wide spread Russian support

It's important to understand two critical things about Russia:

• Russia never left Stalinism behind.
  
• Russian state media (which is all that's left there atm) is thoroughly propagandized
  

When I say "Russia never left Stalinism behind" I'm speaking to attitude. The Russian people became inured to the State running their lives. After the iron curtain fell, the majority of the population that had lived under communism never got used to the idea of freedom. Many, perhaps most, actually found it uncomfortable.

Odd as it may sound to you and I: Many, perhaps even most, of them long for the good old days.

As to their "news" media: Imagine our Dominant "News" Media on steroids and you'd about have it.

Bad as our DNM is: Many of us still can't imagine the impact of a thoroughly-corrupted press. Allow me to present an example.

I'm having a back-and-forth (can't really call it a "debate" or "discussion") with a leftist on another forum. I posted some employment, unemployment, and inflation numbers to make some points. Guy replies "your facts are opinions." Uhm, no, the facts I posted are facts. Their causes and effects may be subject to opinion, but the numbers are what they are.

The problem is a good deal of the public has become so used to the DNM presenting opinions as facts and "news" that they can no longer discriminate between fact and opinion.

So, even among those Russians that don't long for the "good old days" of communism, it should come as no surprise they hold the beliefs they do about Russia's aggression towards Ukraine.

This is also why, of all the people responsible for the state of our county, and the West, in general: I blame the DNM the most.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
interviews w Russian citizens. If this is "typical" this shows the Russian invasion has wide spread Russian support

video at link

https://twitter.com/i/status/1510950346742509570

Keep in mind that their perspective is....limited. Most Russians have never traveled beyond their own borders (11-time zones huge, all speaking Russian, think about it), a vacation might be a trip to St.Petersburg, if you have some money the Black Sea-resort areas or, Lake Baikal. If they go abroad, which only the most monied can do, Turkey and Thailand are the most popular and that's usually an all-inclusive resort package deal so you're somewhat insulated from the host country.

The education/news/information they receive is controlled by the state, which plays on nationalistic themes and vulnerabilities. Russia is the largest of the Slavic peoples and cultures, this gets twisted into a paternalistic attitude when viewing all other Slavs. Serbia, Belarus, Croatia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, etc... all get viewed as being 'lesser-Slavs' by the nationalistic types. There's a constant use of 'they need to know who is the big-brother' type of arguments and positions.

This further gets viewed through a nationalistic lens and WWII (Great Patriotic War) is the hammer that is repeatedly used to reinforce the suffering and sacrifices for which they saved the world from Germany; Russia won WWII is a common saying. Even those who've traveled abroad, been exposed to differing views, ways of life, even learning different languages, the easy fall-back to see the world, particularly West as a threat. Cultural paranoia and nationalism are inter-woven.

Below video geo-strategist Peter Ziehan explains some of the Russian demographic problems as it pertains to education and who does what.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Russian state media (which is all that's left there atm) is thoroughly propagandized

To see how effective the propaganda disseminated by “news” reporting businesses can be, we need look no further than our own country. And if it’s effective here where it’s possible to hear at least a few dissenting voices, think of what it’s like where the media is totally controlled by the rulers. Whenever I read accounts written at the time about the effects of propaganda in Germany under Nazi rule and how that supposedly demonstrated something sinister about basic German “character,” I can only shake my head in amazed wonder at its ignorance of fundamental human nature.

https://theconservativetreehou...-battle/#more-231222

Army Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee “[Ukraine] is a very protracted conflict.”

When asked by Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) how long he thought the war could last, Milley responded that it was “hard to tell.”

“It’s a bit early, still. Even though we’re a month-plus into the war, there is much of the ground war left in Ukraine,” he added. “But I do think this is a very protracted conflict, and I think it’s at least measured in years. I don’t know about a decade, but at least years for sure.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/05/...ped-us-general-says/

years ??

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:

years ??

Ever since Russia took over Crimea 7-years ago, Ukraine has been dealing with a low-level insurgency with Russian separatist. This is merely the second phase of a much bigger, slow moving, sloppy conflict of Russia lashing out, unable to deal with own vulnerabilities and governmental incompetence.

Russia is the drunkard, wife beating, family abusing "Soviet" father.

Ukraine is a former wife that walked away, has done well for herself, and the ex- can't deal with it.

In a rage, once again kicking in the door, after a slow burning rage.

Gonna break things, terrorize the family, while upsetting the neighbors.

Same shit, different day.

Some family shit runs generations.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
Keep in mind that their perspective is....limited.

...

Below video geo-strategist Peter Ziehan explains some of the Russian demographic problems as it pertains to education and who does what.
[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k3yPQZWAVEg" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

A very interesting analysis. I'm not sure of the presenter's credentials, credibility, or point of view, but it gave me a fresh perspective on this war.

If his analysis is accurate, this war is very much one of Russia's last-ditch attempts at survival as a sovereign nation and as a culture.