Dahell is happening in Kiev

    Quote from blackdog

    Oh, you wouldn't think he would that stupid, right?

    It's a similar situation of our Berlusconi: popular and influential enough to maneuver and scheme. Just because you don't wipe out a parliament doesn't mean you're that kind of person, Berlusconi uses his influence over media to shift people's perception in his favour... i'm sure Putin has his ways to.

    It's not really about being stupid or clever, it's the flawed comparison to the mentality of a dictatorship. A dictator believes that the people love them and anyone who turns on them is a threat to them and the nation and must be imprisoned/eliminated. They believe that they are a God-like entity that controls the nation and if they were to lose power, the nation would collapse. Thus they never give up power unless they are forcefully removed or killed. This doesn't fit Putin, he's a patriot with traditional Russian values who cares about his people. I mean you don't see Russian police killing people who protest on his orders, sure they end up locked up but let's be honest, it happens anywhere... how many OWS people were thrown in jail for protesting in New York? Hell the US monitorered that movement using anti-terrorism procedure...

    Funny you mention Berlusconi, he and Putin get on like a house on fire! Influence in the media and press helps shape the campaign, but ultimately he was always democratically elected and to this day maintains a high degree of popularity (despite everything!), I'm sure it's the same with Putin.


    Quote from FrieChamp

    First of all this is leaving out all stations, papers etc. that are owned by companies which are controlled by the state and those whose owners have direct or indirect ties to the Kreml. Then it is obviously not about numbers but about reach (state-run media have the upper hand) and last but not least you do not take into account various anti-critic policies that lead to self-censorship and further stiffle objective journalism in Russia. Not going to get into this mess that is going on in the Ukraine right now, but I couldn't leave that uncommented...

    Fair point, there are other media channels owned by Gazprom and some of the millionaires within government influence. My point is there is plenty of free press in Russia like interfax, it isn't all state-controlled. I don't know any Russians who actually watch the likes of Rossiya 24/Segodnya, most of them read interfax, watch BBC World Service (international press is freely accessible) and others. Freedom of the press is part of the Russian constitution. The censorship and outright bullshit comes from bosses who decide what goes in their coverage, state owned or not, no one gets an angry call from Putin saying this can't go ahead because he says so. Also.. Putin has regular press conferences with all number of media groups several times a year lasting several hours. When was the last time Obama sat down and answered journalists for 3 hours straight..?


    Quote from Vilham

    changed under Medvedev (quite blatently under Putins orders, he couldn't have done it during his own term that would have been a tad too obvious) to allow Putin to serve another 12 years, guess what will happen then, he will sit down for a term, allow one of his cronies to be president and its a sure bet that Putin will be back for another 12 years. Definitely democracy.

    The constitution that extended the original presidential term of 4 years to 6, That's it. It is not "12 years", in order to serve a second term a new election must be won.


    Quote

    Yeah, Putin enacted a law that makes secessionist demands a crime, punishable by 3 years in jail and 5 years if done through any form of media. Totally not a dictator.

    I've never heard of such a law and no one in Russia I know has heard of it either when I asked them, so I don't know what you're talking about there. It depends what kind of secession you're refering to, you implied territorial seperatism which is frowned upon in pretty much every government around the world since borders are drawn (there are exceptions of course, Kosovo, South Sudan etc). Independence of Siberia, Chechnya etc is not going to happen since it's unconstitutional and there is only a minority of fanatics who want it anyway.


    Quote

    http://www.khodorkovsky.com/memorials-full…ners-in-russia/ Locking up business and political rivals is pretty much what Russia is world known for doing.

    Politicial prisoners are not the same as political rivals, like I said there are no political rivals to Putin since there is no signficant opposition movement that would take his place anyway. You can't seriously be giving me a list on a website dedicated to one of the most corrupt and criminal oligarchs in Russia?! No matter how many bullshit "political prisoner" articles AI, HRW etc wanted to post, he got what he deserved. Now he's out, he's meddling in Ukraine already, it's pathetic.

    Going through that list, I'm not going through it all in detail but I can see mostly members of the Greenpeace collective there. They Attempted to illegally board an oil platform and put coastguards life in danger in the process. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes". They are released now because of the amnesty ruling, site probably needs updating. I also see members of Yukos on there, khodorkovsky's oil company no less. Obviously Pussy Riot are on there, making a mockery of a religious place and vandalising property in the process is not going to go down very well. Imho, they should have gotten a couple of months at best and then been released and ignored, the sentencing just gave them all the spotlight they wanted. Seems they still haven't learned, they've already been doing demonstrations after being released. The way people talk about political prisoners in Russia, you'd think everyone was such and no one could possibly be put in prison for... you know, actually breaking the law.


    Quote

    That you think Russia is a country to be admired stuns me.

    Every country has good points and bad points, admiration depends on the individual's values/attitudes and to a certain degree, knowledge of said area.


    Quote from Thrik

    While I won't pretend to know a great deal about the complexities of Russia, it has struck me for quite some time that it just doesn't feel right that Putin has been in the hot seat for as long as he has. It was widely said even when he was 'merely' Prime Minister that he was the one really pulling the strings, and in all honesty it just isn't good for a country to be led for so long by effectively one man — even if the country's people do approve (or at least appear to).

    That's how dictatorship and cults of personality are born, as when the leaders in question manage to sufficiently bend the country's laws and earn unconditional military support, etc they are essentially untouchable. All the photos of him looking cool and awesome and hardcore are propaganda, and the saddest part is it works. Do we not learn from the past? Stalin and Lenin were (and sometimes still are) popular and similar strategies were used to cement that perception.

    Of course, it could very well be that any leader other than Putin is a far worse thing for the world. On top of that, it isn't lost on me that there's a certain degree of typical Western arrogance to dismissing Russia's political system as wrong. But then, how many alternative systems that don't adhere to the principles of democracy have actually worked out? Russia itself learnt the hard way just how much of a fall a country can have when the system is rotten and the people blind to what's coming.

    Well the idea that Putin was pulling the strings is speculation, there's no way to tell whether that's true or not. Medvedev's presidency was much more liberal and focused on several key points in the Russian sphere. He launched programmes to modernize the economy, reform police and implemented an anti-corruption plan being some of the key points. Relations with the West was much more relaxed as well, Dmitry actually got on pretty well with Obama. Putin had pretty much started to distance himself from politics, remaining in the background. It was only when the 2008 war with Georgia broke out and the economic recession that caused him to come back into the spotlight again.

    Stalin and Lenin are still favoured because they developed Russia as a massive superpower, Lenin formed the USSR whilst Stalin actually built it into what it was. Despite the purges and general genocidal policies of Stalin, he was a very strong leader for Russia. So there is a certain degree of that highpower status that rubs off onto Putin, most Russians are more interested in a strong Russian nation with a powerful military and traditional values than they are about Western style democracy.

    On the collapse of an unworkable system, it is a key factor here, after nearly 70 years of a Socialist dictatorship, you can't expect that a democratic state will emerge without a long process of reform. RF is only some 20 years old, it will take time for things to change.

    If we're honestly looking for a real dictatorship in the area, look no further than Belarus, Lukashenko has been the president of that nation since 1994 and all protests of any kind are quashed, there are actual political prisoners, a massively corrupt court system, capital punishment is still in force and being gay is treated with the same degree as terrorism... It seems like it's no surprise they still maintain the Soviet doctrine and emblems of the former republic...

    On the subject of media around the world... there is so much variation of press out there that one should read/watch from multiple sources and form their own opinion, it's the only way to really understand what is going on. Probably best to stay away from infowars and other Alexjones related stuff though, unless you want your brain to hurt badly.


    Quote from Minos

    Abby Martin <3

    Oh Hell yeah...

    [Blocked Image: https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBEqTXb7C9wfrdQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-000058870572-8l589f-t500x500.jpg%3F3eddc42&jq=100]

    RT's full of a lot of bollocks, but there's some nice female eyecandy on there!

    http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_3…s-in-jail-8937/


    Literally took 30 seconds of searching.


    And no separatist movements across the world aren't frowned upon, if the UK acted in a similar way to Russia alex salmond would be in jail.


    "like I said there are no political rivals to Putin since there is no signficant opposition movement that would take his place anyway"


    I love that you don't see how ironic that is. Hmmm I wonder why there is no significant opposition movement. Beats me...


    Anyway, I don't have a huge interest in discussing Russia, I am clearly a massive hater and you are a sycophant. Each to their own.

    That is funny. From casual conversations I've had with other Brits, the perception that Turkey is a wonderful place for holidays is all they know about the place. The same goes for Egypt.

    I guess the UK doesn't let things like terrorism and kidnapping get in the way of visiting traditional vacation spots... lol.

    It's not a map of NATO, there are four NATO countries that are in red. It's a satire map of the superiority complex of the Western powers in modern day politics, no worse than "Crimeariver".


    Quote from Vilham

    http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_3…s-in-jail-8937/


    Literally took 30 seconds of searching.


    And no separatist movements across the world aren't frowned upon, if the UK acted in a similar way to Russia alex salmond would be in jail.


    Literally took more than that, given that all the articles coming up for "Putin seperatism law" are about Crimea. Adding 2013 into the search brings up the right results. Anyway, nothing much to be said about it; "action aimed against Russia’s territorial integrity", ie to curb the aforementioned less than 10% of fanatics mainly located in the North Causcaus regions who are trying to form sharia Islamic states right on Russia's doorstep, isn't going to happen. Scotland has had a long standing movement for independence and negotiations have been made many times, the latest of which led to an agreement on a referendum. The case for Scottish indepedence is falling apart everyday anyway, Salmond hasn't got a clue what he's doing...


    Quote

    I love that you don't see how ironic that is. Hmmm I wonder why there is no significant opposition movement. Beats me...


    No, I see it but I repeat there is no significant opposition to Putin, not because they've all been jailed but because they don't exist... Navalny has the support of about maybe 1-2% of Russians, 40,000 march in Moscow is not even a quarter of Moscow's 10 million population let alone the rest of the country. Who else is left? Zhirinovsky? Zyuganov? If Russians felt they needed an actual revolution, they'd be doing it, they've done it plenty of times before.


    Quote

    Anyway, I don't have a huge interest in discussing Russia, I am clearly a massive hater and you are a sycophant. Each to their own.


    ...or maybe I just know a lot of what I'm talking about, seperatism law aside.


    Quote from Thrik

    That is funny. From casual conversations I've had with other Brits, the perception that Turkey is a wonderful place for holidays is all they know about the place. The same goes for Egypt.

    I guess the UK doesn't let things like terrorism and kidnapping get in the way of visiting traditional vacation spots... lol.


    Egypt has removed Morsi and "restored democracy" so it's ok. Erdogan has made Turkey into a democracy, there's no corruption... he's not trying to push draconian laws that force his party's islamic doctrine on the population, all is well and fruity in Ottoman land...


    Back on topic... I haven't had much to report lately, news is pretty much dead on Ukraine... I guess it'll hot up as we get closer to Sunday's "referendum"...

    Scratch that... I have a video of Victoria Nuland discussing how the US poured 5 billion dollars into Ukraine during the early stages of Euromaidan;


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    Skip to 7:27

    D3, you should start a fucking blog or something man, get in contact with a tabloid to write for them. Surely there has to be a way to put this fixation of yours to the better good. just putting it out there.

    Quote from D3ads

    No, I see it but I repeat there is no significant opposition to Putin, not because they've all been jailed but because they don't exist... Navalny has the support of about maybe 1-2% of Russians, 40,000 march in Moscow is not even a quarter of Moscow's 10 million population let alone the rest of the country. Who else is left? Zhirinovsky? Zyuganov? If Russians felt they needed an actual revolution, they'd be doing it, they've done it plenty of times before.

    Haha, I'm sure Kim uses the same arguements, after all North Korea loves him right.


    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26483940


    Seriously...


    sorry everyone, I cant help it, its so easy.

    If I made a blog, would you subscribe? I post things on Facebook semi-regularly, plus I post on a large active community forum with veterans of various wars and active military personal from around the world so most of that kind of thing is shared there... I don't think I have the will nor the time to make a blog.


    [edit]



    Seriously.. you're attempting to compare Russia with North Korea?! NK is a completely batshit crazy totalitarian state where there is only Dear Leader and the people who serves his every whim. They still worship Kim Il-Sung as the real leader of the country for goodness sake, he's been dead for 20 years! NK is 50's USSR in 2014... no comparison. Try again.

    There's nothing to "see", you're trolling.. badly. Elections in NK mean nothing... 100% election win is complete shite, Kim Jong-Un is the leader, there is only one "president" and pretty much only one party (bar a couple of those that are still connected to the WPK).. there is nothing else. In NK you either love dear Kim or enjoy a one-way trip to a labour camp... and don't reply with something about gulags because they don't exist anymore. It's not even apples and oranges, it's apples and ebola...

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