This thread is about Russia and any events, political or otherwise, that are or might be worth discussing.
Any news, links or posts pertaining to the situation involving Russia, Crimea and Ukraine must be put in the 'Crisis in Ukraine' thread.
Group of deputies wants Gorbachev investigated over Soviet break-up.
Above in the Guardian version.
Putin's war against Russia's last independent TV channel.
No discussion regarding nuclear war. As nuclear weapons are not being used by either side, nuclear war is off-topic.
Edited by MacronNotes on Feb 27th 2022 at 11:26:10 AM
Russia just vetoed a UNSC resolution about that poor Boeing. I don't really feel anything about that since the issue was so horribly politicised anyway.
Come on, people, is it so hard to say that the rebels most likely shot down that plane after confusing it for one of the Ukrainian ones in a very tragic episode of friendly fire, but they sure as hell didn't do it on purpose? Nope, the rebels are innocent. Nope, Russia is guilty of mass murder somehow. Nope, nobody's even gonna raise the question of what was that one plane doing over an active warzone where several planes flying at roughly the same altitute have been shot down already and why didn't anybody warn the pilot.
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
From what I'm seeing, nobody's saying that the rebels are innocent - in fact, the general attitude of the US media at least is that they're much more guilty than Russia due to the simple fact that they were at the trigger - while the general attitude of disdain towards Russia comes out of questions that wonder how such a horrendous incident could occur if it has been ever so frequently confirmed that Russian advisers train and oversee the rebels and their equipment.
This is keeping in mind that the average separatist militant movement in the world isn't able to use, less so obtain in the first place, high-altitude SAM systems as the Buk - whether they captured them or received them from Russia, one would at least expect the rebels' Russian benefactors to tightly rein in and set up a coordinated chain of command for long-range air defense units otherwise extremely likely to begin blasting anything they see on the radar if left to decide who and who not to shoot down on their own initiative.
Basically, it's shock from how Russia could possibly trust the militants with otherwise extremely powerful long-range weaponry when in contrast the US supplied the Afghans with shoulder-fired launchers only capable of targeting low-flying aircraft and helicopters.
A procrastination in of itself
I think Knit was mocking both US and Russian media there. And the US media (and perhaps some other media to I think) did imply at the time at least that it may have been deliberate (as in a civilian plane was targeted deliberately) which is frankly silly.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
This man gets it.
I don't think that at the time of the accident establishing anything in the rebel army outside of a general direction in which to fire their artillery was absolutely impossible. The Novorossiyans (and, for that matter, the Ukrainians) back then were a horribly disorganised, fragmented and internally squabbling mob of angry people with guns that didn't come anywhere close to being an actual army. Training all those people in basic tactics and weapon safety and organising them into something resembling a centralised command structure would take half a dozen months at the very least, and that's if all of those people turn out to be perfectly cooperative, which many sadly didn't.
edited 29th Jul '15 3:07:13 PM by KnitTie
HGW XX/7
I said it at the time, if you can be arsed digging through about 200 back pages of the Ukraine megathread to find it.
Schild und Schwert der Partei
That was not directed at you, but rather at both the Russian and the American (and some other) media.
Beware the Crazy Man.
This is why I never comment on this particular subject anymore.
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
Shameful Display
Vladimir Putin 'ordered killing', Litvinenko inquiry hears Russian President Vladimir Putin "personally ordered" the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, the inquiry into the former spy's death has heard.
Ben Emmerson QC, for Mr Litvinenko's family, said in his closing statement that Russian state responsibility had been proven "beyond reasonable doubt".
Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina said she believed her husband's "murderers and their paymasters" had "been unmasked".
But the Kremlin told the BBC it did not trust the inquiry.
I'd be extremely surprised if Litvinenko's family told the inquiry anything else.
The law in the night
Well it is very suspicious to sugar your tea with Polonium and it isn't something you can have access easily also.
That we was an assassination target it is without a doubt, but who called for it is another matter.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Exactly. The 90s in Russia were a time when everybody who wasn't dirt poor had at least three mortal enemies.
News: Another wannabe ISIS recruit from the Northern Caucasus caught in Turkey.
BBC: Russia 'may ban gay emojis' under 'propaganda' law
According to a report by Russia's Izvestia newspaper, the investigation was prompted by a complaint from Mikhail Marchenko, a Russian senator.
Mr Marchenko claims the symbols - which depict smiley-faced same-sex couples - violate a controversial 2013 law which prohibits promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships.
A procrastination in of itself
One stupid Russian senator does not a ban make.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Dear British media, please stop trying to spin inconsequential solutary statements by individual Russian officials as government-wide initiatives.
Russian weekly inflation is at zero for the second week in a row. So far everything is going exactly as predicted by Ulyukayev and co.
Russia introduces 'incinerate on site' law for banned EU food products
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
Russia Stakes New Claim to Expanse in the Arctic
If the United Nations committee that arbitrates sea boundaries accepts Russia’s claim, the waters will be subject to Moscow’s oversight on economic matters, including fishing and oil and gas drilling, though Russia will not have full sovereignty.
Under a 1982 United Nations convention, the Law of the Sea, a nation may claim an exclusive economic zone over the continental shelf abutting its shores. If the shelf extends far out to sea, so can the boundaries of the zone. The claim Russia lodged on Tuesday contends that the shelf extends far north of the Eurasian land mass, out under the planet’s northern ice cap.
Russia submitted a similar claim in 2002, but the United Nations rejected it for lack of scientific support. So this time, the Kremlin has offered new evidence collected by its research vessels. It even dispatched a well-known Arctic explorer, Artur N. Chilingarov, to take a miniature submarine to the sea floor directly below the North Pole, scoop up a soil sample and plant a Russian flag made of titanium there.
In a statement posted on its website, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the claim would expand Russia’s total territory on land and sea by about 1.2 million square kilometers, or about 463,000 square miles.
“To base its claim, Russia in this region used a broad range of scientific data collected over many years of Arctic exploration,” the statement said. “Submitting the claim to the commission is an important step in formulating Russia’s right to the Arctic Shelf in accordance with the United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea.”
Russia has set its sights northward for a long time. Under Stalin, the Kremlin claimed a huge pie-shaped section of the Arctic Ocean extending from its eastern and western borders to the North Pole.
For years nobody else paid much attention to boundaries in the high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean, populated only by polar bears, walruses, seals and the occasional explorer.
But global warming is changing that fast, as wider and wider areas of the Arctic become free of ice for all or part of the year. Russia has oil drilling projects in the Kara Sea, a part of the ocean already under its an undisputed control, and Royal Dutch Shell plans to drill north of Alaska in the Chukchi Sea this summer. Drilling even farther north now seems plausible.
Denmark submitted an expanded claim of its own to the United Nations last year, seeking control of economic activity around the North Pole and asserting that the area is part of the continental shelf jutting north from Greenland, not Russia.
The claims are aimed at a section of the Arctic Ocean known as the doughnut hole, a Texas-size area of international waters encircled by the existing economic-zone boundaries of shoreline countries. Conservation groups have opposed any claims to the waters of the doughnut hole, saying they would bring harmful oil drilling and fishing. They point to a recent international accord to ban commercial trawling in the area as the better way forward in the far north.
Greenpeace issued a statement on Tuesday by its Russian Arctic campaigner, Vladimir Chuprov, saying “the melting of the Arctic ice is uncovering a new and vulnerable sea, but countries like Russia and Norway want to turn it into the next Saudi Arabia.”
Russia is the largest country in the world by area, and it grew larger last year by annexing the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry statement said the United Nations commission should expedite the review of its claim, placing it before those of other countries, because it was first filed in 2002. The ministry said it expected a decision by autumn.
Naval War Arctic Circle just got real? 
Sure doesn't look like it - it's all seems to be just perfectly legal bureaucracy at this point.
A procrastination in of itself
Seeing as the committee rejected to previous claim in 2002 because of a "lack of scientific support" I'm not worried. I mean either Russia does have a legitimate claim in which case fair enough, it kinda should get it, or it doesn't have a legitimate claim and the committee with reject it again.
edited 6th Aug '15 1:37:40 AM by Silasw
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
All the countries have been doing extension mapping in the area, so their claims could come to a compromise.
Or they would have had Harper not thrown out all the Canadian research (what else is new) and demanded the entire thing.
edited 6th Aug '15 9:56:32 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Question, do Russians celebrate St. Mary's day and if so, how?
"Oh wait. She doesn't have a... Forget what I said, don't catch the preggo. Just wear her hat." - Question Marc
The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Dormition of the Mother of God on the 15th of August. It goes like most other Church holidays in Russia go - festive lithurgies in Churches and complete lack of anything resembling even basic awareness of the holiday among the general populace.
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
Russians despair at food destruction as Moscow says it is having desired effect
___________________
Tonnes of pork tossed into incinerators, truckloads of cheese bulldozed into the ground, and an orchard’s worth of apples buried in a shallow grave. The visuals of Russia’s stepped-up fight against sanctioned foodstuffs have been dramatic, and left many Russians wondering why so much is being destroyed in a country where millions of people live below the poverty line.
Moscow’s reciprocal measures against countries that sanctioned Russia over its actions in Ukraine have been in place for a year, but the new law stipulating the destruction of contraband shipments at the border came into force on Thursday.
Importing fruit, vegetables, meat and cheeses from the EU and other countries that instituted sanctions against Russia is banned. Moscow says importers have tried to get round the ban by putting fake labels on produce, claiming it is made in Brazil, Belarus or another sanction-free country.
On the first day, newspaper RBK estimated that more than 300 tonnes of food was destroyed. Newsflashes came in from across the country as suspect food shipments were seized at the border and at wholesale markets: 650kg of Polish apples destroyed in Novosibirsk, Siberia; nine tonnes of carrots pulped just outside Moscow; a consignment of Irish pork detected at a warehouse in the town of Reutovo. On state television, a correspondent went live on air as a bulldozer just behind her ploughed into wheels of yellow “unidentified European cheese”.
Many have pointed out that the sanctions appear to be a case of cutting off nose to spite face. The aim is to hurt western agricultural producers, and in some countries it has indeed had a major economic effect. Nevertheless, food prices have gone up in Russia as a result, and the latest move to destroy imports has created outcry, even among many who are loyal to the government.
In a country where food queues were a way of life until two decades ago, there is a deep-set distaste at the spectacle of waste, and more than 300,000 people have signed a petition suggesting the food should be given to pensioners or others who are in need.
A television presenter on a local channel in the Siberian town of Nizhnevartovsk released a satirical video in which he set alight a piece of ham and some cheese from his local shop.
“I fully support the policy of our president and parliament and want to make my own small contribution to allowing Russia to rise from its knees,” he said, spraying paraffin on the food. “It’s a shame we don’t have mobile crematoria, that would be better, and then we could burn more ... Burn, you French filth. I hope they see this in Obama’s fascist Yankeeland. Russia, arise!”
Meanwhile @Kermlin Russia, a popular parody Twitter account, joked about the fact that while the bans affect ordinary Russians, the elite can just go abroad. “Russia will create special diversionary groups made up of the children of M Ps and other officials to destroy sanctioned foodstuffs on enemy territory,” said one tweet.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Vladimir Putin, said he understood that the images of burning food were visually alarming, but the foodstuffs being destroyed were contraband goods with no certificates of origin and as such there was no guarantee they were safe for consumption, meaning it would be irresponsible to give them out as humanitarian aid to the needy.
On state television, a newscaster claimed the policy was already having a dramatic effect, citing claims by Russia’s food standards body that the flow of contraband goods reaching the border had decreased tenfold since the law came into force.
Yeah, that was pointlessly excessive. On runet, even the most fervent supporters of Putin are saying that the food should've been distributed to the needing instead.
edited 8th Aug '15 1:00:14 PM by KnitTie
We need a polandball comic with these lines.
Inter arma enim silent leges