Русский корабль - иди нахуй

[Schulz2.0 28652]

 

 

[Viper 11954]

On 1/6/2024 at 1:38 PM, KYHorn said:

 

Ritter and Kadyrov, just two guys united by their desire to fuck kids

Edited January 7 by Viper

[Bevo 13440]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

The Petraeus post is spot-on, plus it actually points out one of Putin’s many miscalculations. Had Russia invaded and quickly conquered one of the Baltic states (which it easily could have done in 48 hours) pre-January 20, 2021, there’s a very good chance the US would have sat on its hands, NATO states would have been divided in their response, and NATO would have suffered a fatal blow.
I really thought that an attack on a Baltic state was more likely than an attack on Ukraine back then. Putin thought otherwise. I think he screwed up.

24 February 2022 or take your hot take to the CR

[Gatorubet 29789]

On 1/6/2024 at 1:38 PM, KYHorn said:

Man, if we could smuggle just one missile with one of those tungsten BB payloads to a location near enough to Chechnya that the next time that dip shit gathers his private army, they can also say hello to their little friend, tungsten BB, at the same time. 

[B00M 6033]

I don’t get why they’re fighting for Russia. What’s stopping them from declaring their independence? 

[Brisketexan 103656]

I don’t get why they’re fighting for Russia. What’s stopping them from declaring their independence? 

Kadryov is a psycho warlord who owes his position (dictator of Chechnya) to Putin. The anti-Russian Chechen movement lost, Kadryov runs the pro-Russian Chechen faction.

[atomheartbevo 89054]

25 minutes ago, B00M said:

I don’t get why they’re fighting for Russia. What’s stopping them from declaring their independence? 

6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Kadryov is a psycho warlord who owes his position (dictator of Chechnya) to Putin. The anti-Russian Chechen movement lost, Kadryov runs the pro-Russian Chechen faction.

When Putin is no longer in power, I have a feeling quite a few republics will break away.  As it is, this war has weakened Russia’s military and internal forces quite a bit, and the fact that Russia is unable to get militarily involved in some of the disputes (Armenia’s problems for instance) going on is significant.  Makes me wonder what happens to Syria when Putin is out.  Is Iran willing to send in large numbers of troops?

[F250 28543]

Take your hot takes to the appropriate thread. This thread is strictly for posting twitter links or some shit.

[atomheartbevo 89054]

1 hour ago, B00M said:

I don’t get why they’re fighting for Russia. What’s stopping them from declaring their independence? 

I would toss in that the leaders in some of those areas have quotas to send to Ukraine, and if they aren’t met, their family members can be conscripted and the Russians can come in and mobilize even more from those areas.  Putin has also tied their well-being to his own - if he goes down, there’s nobody in Moscow to back them up.

All of this is a big part of why Putin can’t exit Ukraine except on terms favorable to him (keeping huge chunks of Ukraine).  If Ukraine succeeds - Putin is weak, and a bunch of the leadership of the republics have to decide whether to stay with Putin, and run the risk of breakaway factions realizing that Putin won’t (or can’t) rescue the leaders, or try to get ahead of things.

With that said, if Putin really ramps up mobilization for Ukraine after his election, after having really bled the ethnic minorities in the republics over the past two years or so, and he tries to bleed those republics truly dry to avoid St. Petersburg/Moscow conscriptions, I do wonder if one or more republics start shit.  We have talked a shitload about demographics in this thread, but it has to be a massive crisis in some of those outlying areas of Russia.

Maybe we should start a thread (or just have it here) where everybody makes their predictions for his year.  Like:

• Will Putin win his election in March, and why will he only get 95% of the vote?
• Will Putin still be in power in December?
• How many will he try to mobilize after his election and how many from Moscow/St Petersburg?
• Will any Russian republics break away?
• Will there be riots in Moscow/St. Petersburg as a result of mobilization?
• What will be the next major area liberated by Ukraine?
• If they are using female prisoners from Russian penal colonies on  the frontline, which group will they call up next that will surprise us?  Afghan veterans?
• What will be the next major Russian atrocity in Ukraine?
• Will Ukrainian F-16s happen?  And why will it only be 20?

Edited January 8 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 89054]

My 2024 predictions - spoiled for the TLDR crowd.

Spoiler

My 2024 predictions - Russian Homefront

• Putin will win his election in March with 85% of the vote, but I think some shit will go down at some polling locations with protests.  78% is what he got in 2018, and it has to be more this time around.
• Putin will probably still be in power in December
• Gerasimov and Shoigu will be out of power and/or dead by  December
• I think he tries to do a "general mobilization" of at least 500,000 after his election (will more likely be closer to 200-300,000 when you factor in Russian corruption and how many have already left Russia that will still be on the rolls).  He'll use the cover of giving everybody that's currently fighting in Ukraine a break, but we know those sad sacks will not actually be pulled off the front lines.  They are there until they die.   Counterpoint: He'll openly say 250,000 are being mobilized, but he'll continue heavy stealth mobilization of the prisons and foreigners and poors and minorities.
• He'll probably mobilize 25-50,000 from Moscow and St. Petersburg combined and they'll mostly be prisoners/malcontents/draft dodgers from previous mobilizations, and students, or people who did their normal conscription in 2018-2021.  Or the unemployed. I don't think he risks mobilizing the middle/upper classes either, and he does have to keep the economy somewhat going.
• I think there were will be growing protests in Moscow/St. Pete's - it's already happening with small numbers of women/families openly protesting, and with everybody knowing Putin rigged the election, and with a coming general mobilization, those that were not able to flee Russia may not see anything to be lost in protesting, since they'll be going to Ukraine anyways.

Russian Republics and Neighboring Countries

 

• I don't think any republics break away from Russia unless Putin ends up out of power and/or loses in Ukraine
• I think the CIS/CSTO is finished this year - Armenia is leading the way after Russia couldn't do anything about Azerbaijan, and I think Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan will follow suit. Armenia wants Russian troops gone, and it's aligning itself with NATO/USA.  Economically all four nations would be better off aligning with other countries.  Russia really fucked up by being unable to live up to the CSTO.
• I think Belarus will partake in Anschluss 2.0 later this year, whether it wants to or not.  Lukashenko cares more about remaining in power than helping Putin, and Putin knows it, and can use that to his advantage (i.e. Lukashenko can cooperate and remain in power, or be done).
• I think Moldova will start to truly be rid of the Transnistria nonsense later this year.  They are working towards it.
• I'm on the fence about Georgia.  It's holding a shitload of Russian men who fled conscription, and Putin would love to get his hands on them. If Russia invaded the rest of Georgia, it's not like sanctions are going to be any worse than they are right now.  The flip side is that even a decent resistance in Georgia would spread an already too-thin Russian military out even more, and if they had the logistics to invade Georgia right now, we would have seen them making a dent in Ukraine. And of course, if he goes into Georgia proper, it'll probably increase aid to Ukraine from the West.
• China continues feeding Russia cheap shit from Ali Baba and doesn't supply anything militarily significant (and they may have their own military hardware problems, see the China thread).
• If shit goes down with Iran in the Middle East, and some factories start getting blown up, Putin might panic.  It would be in his interest to get Iran to back the fuck off now, and keep those factories running.

Ukraine Proper

• I think Ukraine makes major gains in Crimea.  Russia is spread to thin and hasn't been able to boot them out.  
• I think Ukraine will mostly leave DPR alone as Russia is doing its best to turn the people there against it through conscription, and the suburbs of Donetsk are soaking up lots of Russian dead.
• The next major Russian atrocity in Ukraine will probably be either an all-out air attack on Kyiv going at the government or probably fucking around with one of the nuke power plants.
• Ukraine will get F-16s in the summer. Will they change the game?  They make it easier to use NATO munitions, and they could be used in a lot of roles, including suppressing air defenses (thanks to AGM-88/HARMs). I don't see flights of F-16s roaming Crimea or the Russian border looking for targets of opportunity or going after Russian bombers.
• I think we'll see a major incident involving Russian mines or missiles and EU countries. Could result in a NATO-manned air-defense bubble over Western Ukraine, and could see NATO ships acting as escorts.  Turkey has not been happy about Russia's mines floating around because it fucks with their commerce.
• I am slightly optimistic that Ukraine will see an uptick in supplies from the West - European and American factories have been increasing their output quite a bit, as well as refurbishing stuff that's been in storage or was on its way to storage.  HIMARS production has nearly doubled, US artillery ammo production is steadily ramping up to 100,000 rounds a month, air-defense system production is steadily increasing.
• Ukraine has more domestic production coming online, including long-range missiles, drones, etc.

•  

[atomheartbevo 89054]

New Russia, same as old USSR.  The first guy they killed on the submarine in The Hunt for Red October.

 

[atomheartbevo 89054]

This guy had been around.  May still be around.

 

[atomheartbevo 89054]

For a group of people who fetishize dead soldiers...

Hey kids, your future awaits you

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89054]

Let's step back for a moment to Lieutenants - 47 years old and he made it to Senior Lieutenant

 

This guy didn't last long..

But hey, climb that stairway to Heaven

[atomheartbevo 89054]

Another lieutenant who didn't survive very long. Kind of a trend.  Another trend is taking forever to setup a shitty memorial.

As a commentator mentioned, the flowers are just thrown on the table (of course, it could have been mourners walking by), the girls are not even in matching clothes, and it's fucking t-shirts to boot, not even a couple of soldiers in uniform.

When you've lost nearly 1,700 lieutenants alone, I guess you start to cut corners.

[Neonmoon 38126]

Is Russia already sending kids in to fight?

[Gatorubet 29789]

6 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Is Russia already sending kids in to fight?

[Gatorubet 29789]

Dead, and no soul. Sad.

[Schulz2.0 28652]

 

[Schulz2.0 28652]

 

Russian armor go boom.

[Schulz2.0 28652]

From The Guardian's Ukraine live blog:

[cactusflinthead 27244]

On 1/7/2024 at 12:49 AM, atomheartbevo said:

Roman got a visa to an EU country  he won’t have to risk going back to Russia and being imprisoned and sent to Ukraine 

 

Outstanding!

[Gatorubet 29789]

1 hour ago, cactusflinthead said:

Outstanding!

He sounds clinically depressed.  

And too bad dealing with the Russia hate.   His country is doing stuff to make us hate Russia.  And all the people like him who fled rather than try to change the country are doing absolutely nothing to reduce russian shitiness. The truth is, everyone leaving Russia who had a semblance of ethics did a whole lot to hurt the country the last couple years, as all opposition fled.  I get self-preservation, but nothing he did hinders Putin. 

if he wasn’t so depressed, I’d tell him to get off his ass and go join the Russian Battalion in Ukraine, and fight the foe. 

[Nivek 16691]

12 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

He sounds clinically depressed.  

And too bad dealing with the Russia hate.   His country is doing stuff to make us hate Russia.  And all the people like him who fled rather than try to change the country are doing absolutely nothing to reduce russian shitiness. The truth is, everyone leaving Russia who had a semblance of ethics did a whole lot to hurt the country the last couple years, as all opposition fled.  I get self-preservation, but nothing he did hinders Putin. 

if he wasn’t so depressed, I’d tell him to get off his ass and go join the Russian Battalion in Ukraine, and fight the foe. 

Meh, not everyone is cut out to fight.   Leaving hurts them.  Staying and fighting them is a choice, but how effective was it?  He would have already been on their lists of potential spies.   He has one life to live, and he has to make and live with the choices he made.   Nazi Germany didn't fall due to inside forces acting against them.  The Kurds didn't overthrow Saddam.  The Russian resistance isn't going to overthrow Putin.  There are too many people content with it what is happening.  Best he could do, is probably raise cash to buy supplies for Ukraine.  

[Chopper 16692]

A repulsing russian advance. Rather, a repulsed russian advance. Debate over whether the ukes blew up one of russia's thermobaric weapons.

 

[SydneyCarton 47486]

2 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

He sounds clinically depressed.  

And too bad dealing with the Russia hate.   His country is doing stuff to make us hate Russia.  And all the people like him who fled rather than try to change the country are doing absolutely nothing to reduce russian shitiness. The truth is, everyone leaving Russia who had a semblance of ethics did a whole lot to hurt the country the last couple years, as all opposition fled.  I get self-preservation, but nothing he did hinders Putin. 

if he wasn’t so depressed, I’d tell him to get off his ass and go join the Russian Battalion in Ukraine, and fight the foe. 

If it were my son, I'd want him to flee. It's pretty easy for folks not in that situation to tell folks in that situation they need to suck it up and join the revolution when we have nothing at risk. 

[Schulz2.0 28652]

 

 

 

[Schulz2.0 28652]

 

 

 

[bolverk 29105]

26 minutes ago, Schulz2.0 said:

 

 

 

 

It seems those Serbs never heard the expression "never meet your heroes". In this case, it's especially true since their biggest hero is Russia.

[Parliament 14022]

3 hours ago, Schulz2.0 said:

 

 

 

Seems like they deserve eachother.

[Gatorubet 29789]

4 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

If it were my son, I'd want him to flee. It's pretty easy for folks not in that situation to tell folks in that situation they need to suck it up and join the revolution when we have nothing at risk. 

Well, the British army is the mightiest in the world, so King George is OK….

Look, I hear you.  You are right - I have no dog in the hunt like he does. 

But 900,000 Russians fled.  If they each got just one person to accompany them to a demonstration you’d have almost two million people protesting.   We will never know what that would have changed.   Mostly I have no use with whining about people being mean on line to Russians.   That’s worse than rape rooms torture chambers and bombing day cares and hospitals?

[SydneyCarton 47486]

8 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

Well, the British army is the mightiest in the world, so King George is OK….

Look, I hear you.  You are right - I have no dog in the hunt like he does. 

But 900,000 Russians fled.  If they each got just one person to accompany them to a demonstration you’d have almost two million people protesting.   We will never know what that would have changed.   Mostly I have no use with whining about people being mean on line to Russians.   That’s worse than rape rooms torture chambers and bombing day cares and hospitals?

I don’t give a fuck if people are mean to Russians online. Treat them all like shit. But let me tell ton what happens when they try to organize a march: FSB conscripts them in advance and then they’re fighting in Ukraine. 

[dimyh 1873]

22 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

My 2024 predictions - spoiled for the TLDR crowd.

  Reveal hidden contents

My 2024 predictions - Russian Homefront

 

• Putin will win his election in March with 85% of the vote, but I think some shit will go down at some polling locations with protests.  78% is what he got in 2018, and it has to be more this time around.
• Putin will probably still be in power in December
• Gerasimov and Shoigu will be out of power and/or dead by  December
• I think he tries to do a "general mobilization" of at least 500,000 after his election (will more likely be closer to 200-300,000 when you factor in Russian corruption and how many have already left Russia that will still be on the rolls).  He'll use the cover of giving everybody that's currently fighting in Ukraine a break, but we know those sad sacks will not actually be pulled off the front lines.  They are there until they die.   Counterpoint: He'll openly say 250,000 are being mobilized, but he'll continue heavy stealth mobilization of the prisons and foreigners and poors and minorities.
• He'll probably mobilize 25-50,000 from Moscow and St. Petersburg combined and they'll mostly be prisoners/malcontents/draft dodgers from previous mobilizations, and students, or people who did their normal conscription in 2018-2021.  Or the unemployed. I don't think he risks mobilizing the middle/upper classes either, and he does have to keep the economy somewhat going.
• I think there were will be growing protests in Moscow/St. Pete's - it's already happening with small numbers of women/families openly protesting, and with everybody knowing Putin rigged the election, and with a coming general mobilization, those that were not able to flee Russia may not see anything to be lost in protesting, since they'll be going to Ukraine anyways.

Russian Republics and Neighboring Countries

 

• I don't think any republics break away from Russia unless Putin ends up out of power and/or loses in Ukraine
• I think the CIS/CSTO is finished this year - Armenia is leading the way after Russia couldn't do anything about Azerbaijan, and I think Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan will follow suit. Armenia wants Russian troops gone, and it's aligning itself with NATO/USA.  Economically all four nations would be better off aligning with other countries.  Russia really fucked up by being unable to live up to the CSTO.
• I think Belarus will partake in Anschluss 2.0 later this year, whether it wants to or not.  Lukashenko cares more about remaining in power than helping Putin, and Putin knows it, and can use that to his advantage (i.e. Lukashenko can cooperate and remain in power, or be done).
• I think Moldova will start to truly be rid of the Transnistria nonsense later this year.  They are working towards it.
• I'm on the fence about Georgia.  It's holding a shitload of Russian men who fled conscription, and Putin would love to get his hands on them. If Russia invaded the rest of Georgia, it's not like sanctions are going to be any worse than they are right now.  The flip side is that even a decent resistance in Georgia would spread an already too-thin Russian military out even more, and if they had the logistics to invade Georgia right now, we would have seen them making a dent in Ukraine. And of course, if he goes into Georgia proper, it'll probably increase aid to Ukraine from the West.
• China continues feeding Russia cheap shit from Ali Baba and doesn't supply anything militarily significant (and they may have their own military hardware problems, see the China thread).
• If shit goes down with Iran in the Middle East, and some factories start getting blown up, Putin might panic.  It would be in his interest to get Iran to back the fuck off now, and keep those factories running.

Ukraine Proper

• I think Ukraine makes major gains in Crimea.  Russia is spread to thin and hasn't been able to boot them out.  
• I think Ukraine will mostly leave DPR alone as Russia is doing its best to turn the people there against it through conscription, and the suburbs of Donetsk are soaking up lots of Russian dead.
• The next major Russian atrocity in Ukraine will probably be either an all-out air attack on Kyiv going at the government or probably fucking around with one of the nuke power plants.
• Ukraine will get F-16s in the summer. Will they change the game?  They make it easier to use NATO munitions, and they could be used in a lot of roles, including suppressing air defenses (thanks to AGM-88/HARMs). I don't see flights of F-16s roaming Crimea or the Russian border looking for targets of opportunity or going after Russian bombers.
• I think we'll see a major incident involving Russian mines or missiles and EU countries. Could result in a NATO-manned air-defense bubble over Western Ukraine, and could see NATO ships acting as escorts.  Turkey has not been happy about Russia's mines floating around because it fucks with their commerce.
• I am slightly optimistic that Ukraine will see an uptick in supplies from the West - European and American factories have been increasing their output quite a bit, as well as refurbishing stuff that's been in storage or was on its way to storage.  HIMARS production has nearly doubled, US artillery ammo production is steadily ramping up to 100,000 rounds a month, air-defense system production is steadily increasing.
• Ukraine has more domestic production coming online, including long-range missiles, drones, etc.

•  

My only sure-fire prediction is that Russia will lose another boat to a country that doesn't even have a navy.

 

[cactusflinthead 27244]

1 hour ago, Gatorubet said:

protesting.  

 

[MissingInAction 24431]

55 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I don’t give a fuck if people are mean to Russians online. Treat them all like shit. But let me tell ton what happens when they try to organize a march: FSB conscripts them in advance and then they’re fighting in Ukraine. 

Yes. 

My grandmother, great grandmother, and great grand father escaped Germany in the 30s when they saw the writing on the wall.

I'm told I spoke German before English.

No memory of that.

People fleeing bullshit is not new.

Edited January 9 by MissingInAction

[atomheartbevo 89054]

10 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

 

I don't know if this stuff will ever coalesce into something much larger, but I have a feeling these will pick up, especially if after the March election, they ramp up mobilization in Moscow/St. Petersburg.

[Parliament 14022]

13 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

 

7:48 pm?  He was dead by 8.

[atomheartbevo 89054]

Inside Russia has his 2024 predictions.  He's another one that I'm surprised was able to escape.  Easy to listen to in the background (he likes to listen to himself talk sometimes).

This is a lot of talk about the Russian economy - he obviously thinks that Russia's economy going in the shitter is what's going to overshadow everything in Russia.

 

[atomheartbevo 89054]

10 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

Outstanding!

8 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

He sounds clinically depressed.  

5 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

If it were my son, I'd want him to flee. It's pretty easy for folks not in that situation to tell folks in that situation they need to suck it up and join the revolution when we have nothing at risk. 

He's definitely been depressed - it's been hanging over his videos for much of last year - he's one of the few anti-Putin Russian YouTubers that's kept up a steady stream and he was actually anti-Putin and stirring shit up prior to February of 2022 on a lesser scale (being somewhat careful until he got out of the country).  Had he not pulled off getting a visa to an EU country....I don't know if he would have killed himself, but he was pretty blunt that he was going to have to go back to Russia (his time in Georgia had a time limit on it) and Russian authorities had been making it hard on him and were after him.  I think they had even tried to draft him (both through email and physical summons). He was on a lot of shit-lists.

I'm actually surprised they hadn't killed him and a few of the others.

There's a few Russian YouTubers or Russian-centric (or adjacent) YouTubers I watch:

Bigger Picture

• Julia Davis/Russian Media Monitor -  reports about what Russian state TV is saying (what the Russian government is projecting)
• Zeihan - not Russian-centric, but knows/talks a lot about Russia and talks about the strategic picture (although I don't always agree with him)
• Perun - not Russian-centric, but knows his subject matter for the nitty-gritty details

English-speaking Russian YouTube personalities:

• Roman/NFKRZ  (the guy mentioned above) is one of those you either like or hate, and he spends a lot of time mocking the shitshow that is happening within Russia itself, and he relates everything back to individual Russians (how they are getting around mobilization, how bad things are, etc.).  He'd be fun to have a drink with. You can listen to him like a podcast.
• Inside Russia - Another guy that is interesting, and he spends a lot more time talking about the bigger picture inside of Russia, but not zoomed out to 35,000 feet like Zeihan, and not personal like Roman.  He gets into the socio-political things happening because of the war in Ukraine.  He's old enough to have lived through the fall of the USSR and so has a much better grasp of the USSR -> Russia than the young YouTubers, and talks a lot about how current problems are rooted within that transition, etc..  He was an engineer and then business exec and talks a lot about economic issues, both internal and eternal.  He'd be interesting to have a beer with - he spent a few years in the US (I think he was working). You can listen to him like a podcast.
• Natasha's Adventures - I can't stand a lot of her videos because they are the same, so I skip most (especially now that she's out of Russia and is making tourism videos more than anything), but before she got her degree and got out of Russia in 2022 or 2023, she had some interesting stuff.  Because she's from the Far East of Russia (we are talking stone's throw from the Pacific), watching some of her videos gives you a perspective on the people being drafted to go fight against Ukraine.   For all of the shit we talk about parts of America being 3rd world (Indian reservations, Appalachians, Mississippi, East Texas, etc.), some of her videos of Far East Russia were on another level, complete with outhouses, having to pump and boil water (no running water within villages), and not a sign of paved roads anywhere.  We are talking outer edges of China or Africa, just with Russian people.  Very trashy places.

There's others here and there, but the ones still in Russia are either pro-SMO or at least trying to gloss over everything and pretend like the SMO isn't happening. Like the cute redhead a lot of people love, who tries to present only the good parts of Russia, and in her case, she's magically able to travel and do things most Russians can't, almost like somebody's looking out for her.  She tries to avoid the topic of Ukraine while bemoaning how the supermarkets aren't as full for her and her daughter, and damn, it sure feels like Russian propaganda.

 

 

 

[cactusflinthead 27244]

25 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Far East Russia

Any particular recs? 

[Gatorubet 29789]

34 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Like the cute redhead a lot of people love, who tries to present only the good parts of Russia, and in her case, she's magically able to travel and do things most Russians can't, almost like somebody's looking out for her.  

[atomheartbevo 89054]

19 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

https://www.youtube.com/@ElifromRussia/videos

Russians do weird shit voluntarily as it is.  Probably vodka-fueled.  A lot of her videos are weird - they are portraying a "positive" side to Russia, but you're like "who the fuck would voluntarily live there?" and some of them, you can see how easy it is to recruit some of the men to go fight in Ukraine.

 

[elfenix 34127]

33 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

Any particular recs? 

best viewed from 40,000 feet as you're flying somewhere not a total shithole. ridiculously rugged countryside.  pretty in the way that wilderness is.

 

/was really annoyed that the stew kept telling me to put the window shade down while flying to shanghai in 2019

[atomheartbevo 89054]

36 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

Any particular recs? 

It's not too hard to see that some of these people are never going to have a decent life, and when you're halfway around the world, or in the outer reaches of Russia, what you hear on Russian state TV about the war in Ukraine may sound pretty appealing. I don't think a lot of Americans/Europeans understand just how isolated the outer reaches of Russia are.

This is just me quickly grabbing a few that are in my YT history - I'm sure she has others, but like I said, I stopped watching/listening after she left Russia.

Not the worst, but where she grew up:

Get a taste of the 1970s Soviet life in the 2020s:

The crown jewel of the Far East for them I guess, if you like 1980s Soviet Union architecture.

 

[Schulz2.0 28652]

[atomheartbevo 89054]

Nucking Futs Yuri is back, and explains what happens when the Free Bird solo kicks in, no idea when it was taken

https://www.reddit.com/r/NonCredibleDefense/comments/191z4ot/when_the_freebird_solo_kicks_in/

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89054]

8 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

no idea when it was taken

I want to remind everyone who sees this video Yuri has survived Three HMMWV explosions man is literally too angry to die. Per Yuri this video is from 2022 so no concerns about him giving away info, unlike the Russians he knows how to do OPSEC. Yuri has since returned to the US after serving in the UAF and being awarded the Golden Cross and Order of Courage 2nd Class

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11569]

12 hours ago, MissingInAction said:

My grandmother, great grandmother, and great grand father escaped Germany in the 30s when they saw the writing on the wall.

mine escaped in 45 when the writing was on the wall

[Bevo 13440]

4 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

mine escaped in 45 when the writing was on the wall

Are you Roach?

[orange dream 1227]

13 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I don't know if this stuff will ever coalesce into something much larger, but I have a feeling these will pick up, especially if after the March election, they ramp up mobilization in Moscow/St. Petersburg.

I think that is the tough part.  These protests can't start as a few hundred that grow to a few thousand.  They need to start as at least tens of thousands growing to hundreds of thousands.  Anything less and they all just get arrested.

Building the initial tens of thousands without being ratted out is close to impossible.  Really sad situation for the average Russian and I can see how many just choose to flee if they have the means, or just keep their head down and hope for this to end.  Obviously I know there are shitbird Russians who support Putler, but there are also a lot who just don't know what else to do but try to keep living their life and hope they see the end of this before their life is destroyed.