The General Russia Thread

There's something about this song that gives me chills:

edited 31st Mar '15 5:06:41 PM by Achaemenid

That's actually a pretty small part of the Russian empire...

It does include a good bit of Ukraine though...

Really though that more properly describes Russia during the late Middle ages. They didn't expand east until much later. Even now most of the population's closer to the Europe than anywhere else.

edited 31st Mar '15 5:04:15 PM by Joesolo

Well, if the geography doesn't do it for you, how about:

It's what happens when you keep a people down for years. They kick back.

edited 31st Mar '15 5:13:49 PM by Achaemenid

That video made me want to be a communist.

Yay for stabbing rich people.

Also it's occurred to me I know nothing of contemporary Russian music. Just grand historical stuff like that.

And that one Leningrad album I accidentally stole from this sketchy taxi.

What's hip nowadays there?

Try this, buddy.

Proletarii vsekh strahn, soyedinyates!

Try some more.

edited 31st Mar '15 6:07:23 PM by Achaemenid

That's just garcon being garcon, he always wants to Eat the Rich.

edited 31st Mar '15 6:18:29 PM by Joesolo

Look I'm not saying it'd be the smartest thing to do, just the most satisfying.

Eh, Nicholas the Last wasn't a bad guy, just an incompetent one. If only Stolypin had lived. Bozhe Tsarya khrani...

Also -I think I'm going to try and visit KUBINKA TANK MUSEUM before I have to go home. Anyone got any travel tips? Or even wants to come? I'd love a companion.

edited 31st Mar '15 6:48:45 PM by Achaemenid

So you are in Russia right now?

Also, have some contemporary Russian music.

@garc

OH SHIT KUBINKA. I would love to if I

A - Didn't have classes tomorrow

B - Had a way to get to russia

C-...actually thats it.

I'm going to go there at some point in my life. Hopefully after Putin kicks it and a less of a dick takes over.

edited 31st Mar '15 7:48:57 PM by Joesolo

Putin's a very nice guy to have in charge, actually. There's a reason the lowest his approval rating ever went was 65%.

Now, Putin is not a very nice guy to have as your geopolitical enemy, but that a plus in my book.

About Russia and migrants - do keep in mind that our migration laws even now are among the most lenient. The rules in USA, Australia, UK and most of the Europe are much, much harsher. Russia basically allows anyone to come in, purchase a (cheap) work permit and seek work - no prior invitation from the employer required, no necessity to show you are an uber-qualified specialist before entry or getting a work visa, you can look for any kind of work. So this is not something Russia can be fairly bashed for.

Putin has always felt like Realpolitik incarnate to me. One scary motherfucker.

,

But seriously - is a TVT Kubinka trip something that could happen? All joking aside?

edited 31st Mar '15 8:00:50 PM by Achaemenid

I do not like Putin one bit, but the problem is, pretty much any other possible candidate is much worse. If Putin leaves, we will not get a liberal, pro-Western and economically competent ruler - we will get someone more ignorant, crazy nationalistic, freaking deeply conservative and full of квасной patriotism.

I can fit up to 22 people comfortably into my palatial dacha, just so you know.

But Archie, I can't help but wonder, your last post sounded like you were in Russia right now. Is that true?

Pretty much. We really like him for that.

My personal pet theory is that first somebody like Navalny would take over and forever associate liberalism and Westernism with racism, elitism and general incompetence, and then the dismayed public would have another revolution and install a batshit crazy tyrant who shall drown Europe in blood, incinerate Washington in primordial fire and build a memorial to the glory of the Russian war machine out of dead Australian children. But that's just my inner fan of death metal and Warhammer 40k speaking.

edited 31st Mar '15 8:25:26 PM by KnitTie

Navalny probably won't be given an opportunity. But yes, he is a known and proudly self-professed nationalist (and yes, I still voted for him during mayoral elections just to see what happens) so he might well not be an improvement.And that's pretty much the best we could get - at worst we'd get Zhirinovski.

As for Realpolitik, thing is, absolute majority of the populace firmly believes in it. It is seen as a given that this is how the world works, that this is how the other countries see us, that this is what they would do given half a chance - not because they are specifically evil but because that's how the world works.

edited 31st Mar '15 8:40:14 PM by Beholderess

I think that people voting for rabid nationalist clowns just to see what happens is the only reason why Zhirik still gets any votes at all.

@ach- I dunno, doubt it. I was involved in at least 2 different attempts at a TV tropes meet up on the east coast and both burned out in the early planning stages. Actually spending money for flights to Russia? Whoa boy...

Well, I did not vote for him ever.

Between Sobyanin and Navalny, it was a rather close call for me - I do like the way Sobyanin runs Moscow and the improvements he made, he is competent, did a lot of infrastructure, citizen feedback, and added some nice bits of culture too. With Navalny, I hoped that he would take "Moscow looks and feels like a European city" further, plus I wanted to see what his "moderate nationalism" means in practice and whether he could deliver the promices against corruption he keeps making. Kind of demo version, if you will :) But the deciding factor for me was to see if an opposition candidate can actually be elected, can anything change, would it be allowed to happen, is it actually possible to change the status quo. Well, I've got answer to this question :(

I actually voted for Zhirinovsky in the last election. Purely for the lulz.

[Cheeki Breeki Intensifies]

If Putin leaves, we're fucked. It's a direct consequence of the system he set up. We've learned this in monarchies. "One-man" systems are not sustainable in the long run, no matter how "benevolent" they might seem now.

Government members will soon declare their incomes

Last time they did that was morbidly hilarious. It turned out Putin had the lowest income of them all, so he immediately gave himself a raise. But the most interesting sentence is this one:

Except the income of a CEO has nothing to do with the concept of a trade secret. Although Sechin earning 5 millions a day while constantly begging for more money because he's an incompetent dumbass is indeed breaching the "trade secret" of Putin not being anti-oligarch.