Russian Aggression in the Ukraine

ESB

ESB

Active member
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of invading Ukraine; Russia says it isn't true, but Putin says privately "he could be in Kiev in two weeks if he wanted to." Meanwhile Putin's talking about independence talks for eastern Ukraine, NATO is talking about moving arms and eventually forces into the area, the Baltic countries are scared shitless, and the West seems unwilling to risk escalation by taking direct action against what appears to be Putin's plan for Russian political and military expansion in eastern Europe.

As with most conflicts, the role of the media here has a huge influence. There's a media war going on as well, with Western media alleging one reality, and Russian media painting a vastly different picture.

Since I'm only exposed to Western media sources, I would be really interested to hear what Russian, Ukrainian and eastern European Newschoolers are hearing and thinking about the conflict going on over there.
 
It's completely obvious that Russia is invading the Ukraine, but it doesn't matter much how obvious that is outside of Russia so long as the message can be established domestically.

All Russian media is now state-owned. They have restrictions on internet access similar to those in China. The Russian government actually has paid staff whose only job is to find anti-Putin stories and blog posts on the internet and leave critical and inflammatory comments on them.

Much of Russia is consequently inundated by propaganda and within that bubble it must be incredibly difficult to determine what is reality and what is fabrication. Realistically, most people are apathetic enough to simply accept what they're told as truth. If so, Putin is set.

Dude is pretty much the most Machiavellian world leader to come along in quite some time.
 
As someone who isn't very educated on the issue, i'd like to ask a question. What are the odds of a war starting?
 
13116451:Wulfty said:
As someone who isn't very educated on the issue, i'd like to ask a question. What are the odds of a war starting?
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Between who? There is ongoing war within Ukraine as we speak
 
13116506:Jeebus. said:
Fuck that, Putin is a weasel looking fuck, communism is coming back to russia, get ready.
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He's a badass motherfucker tho. And I respect that.

lol
 
85% approval rating for Putin in Russia. Russians (the majority) see NATO, US, and almost rest of the world as lairs.

I saw some recent Reddit posts that asked the same question. I'm just lazy and dont want to find them.
 
They're actually holding up the NATO applications of other potential Russian target countries like Lithuania so they don't antagonize Putin. The easiest way for any country to not get invaded by Russia is to join NATO.

If it's me I admit every country bordering on Russia and Putin can go fuck himself. But then I'm relatively ignorant of the probably very strong reasons why that's a bad idea.
 
If we had voted for McCain/Palin this would have never happened...

...but in all seriousness, this is an extremely interesting look into the chess game that the 21st century is likely to become. Russia holding onto it's Soviet ideals, such as a buffer zone between it and any potential European threat, as well as staunch strongman propaganda - which is basically embroiled in the cultural tradition of leadership in Russia. It's never known democracy. Ever. Even in the past 20 years or so, it hasn't really experienced as much of a democracy as it has an outright oligarchy. The fact that the economy is generally stable there only helps that status quo along.

It's interesting to remember, that the majority of Russia's population is pretty old. It only really knows the old ways. It's still comfortable in that because it knows nothing else. The younger, potentially more progressive generations who are my age and younger can't even make a dent in that. If you thought the 18-30 vote in the USA was powerless, you have no fucking idea. That nation is absolutely steeped in nationalism. It's neighbors are as well.

Even if Putin does back off, he showed what he had in his hand, and there's no way someone wants to call on him now.

Dude's playing with a full house when it comes to the former SSR's and Nato can't do shit about it.
 
putins gonna keep poking the bear, hell he could take over all of europe and no one would do anything. I'm serious.
 
13116703:DingoSean said:
Feeds the US military industry though... and that's all we need is more guns in the world, eh.
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Yeah, let's put all the firearm manufactures out of business, great idea.
 
13116719:.frenchy said:
Yeah, let's put all the firearm manufactures out of business, great idea.
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Are you saying by not arming Ukraine we'll put firearm manufacturers out of business? I don't get your angle.
 
13116703:DingoSean said:
Feeds the US military industry though... and that's all we need is more guns in the world, eh.
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13116720:DingoSean said:
Are you saying by not arming Ukraine we'll put firearm manufacturers out of business? I don't get your angle.
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I didn't say anything about Ukraine, I actually didn't get your angle lol, because i'm pretty sure that was 100% sarcasm in your original post that I quoted.

I'm saying that not making more guns would put a ton of US workers out of a job. And the military does need more and more guns being made.
 
That manufacturing production could certainly go towards more positive means...

If the government is going to spend money on private industries, Instead of putting money towards the military and arms manufacturers, put it towards green energy or, well, literally anything else.
 
13116735:DingoSean said:
That manufacturing production could certainly go towards more positive means...

If the government is going to spend money on private industries, Instead of putting money towards the military and arms manufacturers, put it towards green energy or, well, literally anything else.
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You're totally right, not gonna lie.

But the US military won't stop making guns/ammo/etc.
 
It's not the military making guns. It's private contractors making them and the military, or government just gives them money to arm itself. It's pretty rare for the US government to build anything on it's own accord. Even in WW2 it just contracted all the auto manufacturers.
 
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