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Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

reuters.com

101–110 of 330 posts

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#101

Lots of weird extremely Russian-patriot sounding comments in this thread. Russia is sending paratroopers because they don't want another Ukraine situation. They don't want Kazakhstan to break away from Russia because of a popular uprising like Ukraine did. And it's a lot easier for them to prevent it than it was for Ukraine because Ukraine doesn't border Europe so the west won't protest it as much. I expect a whole l…

> Lots of weird extremely Russian-patriot sounding comments in this thread. This kind of nonsense comments appear whenever there are people with positive comments on China or Russia. I guess my top level comment on this thread will be one of the "Russia-patriot" ones. For the record, I am an Indian living in Malaysia - I simply choose to read proper sources and be informed of geopolitical events rather than parrot US…

It's kinda funny to see Chomsky make that point, considering he tolerates totally-not-genocides as long as the perpetrators are politically aligned with his views (or so he thinks).

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#102

The wealthiest European countries have problems with rising energy prices (remember the French yellow vests?) so I'm interested to see how Kazakhstan thinks they can placate their citizens. My own government is giving me €400 this winter which is nice.

Is that 400 for everyone?

Our government (UK) is not changing the existing single payment of £140 (means tested).

On top of that, the PM “misspoke” and told Parliament it was £140 a week…

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#103
post #58

It seems noteworthy that Kazakhstan represents ~22% of Bitcoins hashrate (~45 TWh/year of electricity), at the same time as people are out in the streets rioting over the price of heating their homes.

I’ve read this note about Kazakhstan and BTC a couple of times now but I havnt seen any documentation for the claim. For a crypto novice, what would be a method for validating this claim? BTC and other crypto seem to gravitate toward less expensive energy sources, yet require a substantial capital investment. Is crypto an emerging method for dictators to expropriate wealth? Are there going to be “blood bits” similar…

> Is crypto an emerging method for dictators to expropriate wealth

Yes, same for local mafiosi/siloviki who can force the electricity company guy to look the other way (at gunpoint).

> Are there going to be “blood bits” similar to “blood diamonds”

Given the recirculation and tumbling, probably a majority of BTC/Ether went through shady people's hands (just like most $100 bills have coke residue on them...). Bitcoin advocates usually tout this as a feature not a bug.

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#104

The wealthiest European countries have problems with rising energy prices (remember the French yellow vests?) so I'm interested to see how Kazakhstan thinks they can placate their citizens. My own government is giving me €400 this winter which is nice.

They already reinstated the subsidies that halve the LPG prices and made a song and dance about firing some ministers. But at this point, the discontent is bigger than that...

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No no no, it's all the war between US and Russia, people are just dust, they can only be manipulated! /s (this is what every russian bot is saying)

Is it not against the rules to keep calling other users bots simply because they do not agree with you?

I don't call other users bots. I understand that people can have an opinion that coincides with what Russian propaganda impose. In this case, the fact that they sound the same as Russian bots is completely unrelated to me, my opinions, or my comments.

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#106
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you assume Putin and western corporations are antagonistic? Please don't try to change the subject. Putin sent Russia's paratroopers to Kazakhstan to use them against Kazakhstan's civilian population to quelsh unrest. It's not the US, Switzerland, Finland, the EU, nothing. This is Russia intervening in Kazakhstan to preserve Russia's interests, and no amount of whataboutism changes this.

Russia's interests are aligned with western companies interests that buy Russian exports. Also I'm not changing the subject because we have a whole branching forum here, not a single coversation that can talk only about one thing at a time. If you are not interested in that branch of the discussion simply skip it.

> Russia's interests are aligned with western companies interests that buy Russian exports.

Just to be clear you are blaming “the west” (US, UK, Sweden, France, Canada, Switzerland, etc.) for Russian intervention in Kazakhstan because those countries buy Russian products? (Leaving aside all the other countries in the world which do the same but w/e).

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#107
post #37

My own experience in Kazakhstan a few years ago was amazing — kind, generous people. I had the most surreal (but standard) Russian Bath experience: sitting with a bunch of naked folks as they self-flog with branches in rooms so hot you needed wool caps to keep the top of your head from singeing. When I was getting dressed a huge guy next to me said something in Russian, I was certain I had committed some bath faux pa…

Most probably the OP visited the left bank of River Ishim side of Nur-Sultan which is indeed quite dull and built for cars. OTOH the right bank, the historical city, is much better IMHO, especially the central part. I was born there in 1970 and visited it quite recently in 2019, nothing much have changed there, it is still very approachable by feet and cozy, with lots of great restaurants and shops.

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kazakh elite keeps its money in western banks, flies western planes to western capitals and owns land and property in top western locations. Same for Russian elite. In the Cold War, dealing with Soviets was unthinkable. Now, the West is complacent, there is even a term for it, Schröderizatsiya. See this opinion piece by the former Estonian president [1]. [1] https://news.err.ee/1608362130/toomas-hendrik-ilves-alexei-…

> Kazakh elite keeps its money in western banks, flies western planes to western capitals and owns land and property in top western locations. Same for Russian elite. So does the Russian elite as you say, even Putin himself. The US's currency is the reserve currency of the world and the currency most commerce is done in so western banks are used. They also are much more stable than banks in their own countries where…

Don’t bother wasting your time. These trolls just want to make you hate yourself and your country. Of course it’s your fault comrade, if you didn’t buy caviar from Russia then they wouldn’t have to invade Ukraine to feed the workers who make the caviar. It’s always your fault nobody else’s.

The goal with these sorts of comments is to try and get liberal democracies to stop engaging in the rest of the world. If you keep getting told it’s your fault eventually you say “fine I’m done” and then that’s when they win.

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#109
post #58

It seems noteworthy that Kazakhstan represents ~22% of Bitcoins hashrate (~45 TWh/year of electricity), at the same time as people are out in the streets rioting over the price of heating their homes.

I’ve read this note about Kazakhstan and BTC a couple of times now but I havnt seen any documentation for the claim. For a crypto novice, what would be a method for validating this claim? BTC and other crypto seem to gravitate toward less expensive energy sources, yet require a substantial capital investment. Is crypto an emerging method for dictators to expropriate wealth? Are there going to be “blood bits” similar…

https://ccaf.io/cbeci/mining_map

This data is from geolocation of the IP's of miners connecting to the servers of mining pools. Note the obvious flaws in the methodology:

1. IP geolocation data may not accurately represent the location of the mining hardware (e.g. VPNs could be used) 2. The participating mining pools may not be a representative sample of the total hashrate distribution.

So take the data with a grain of salt. Especially since China banned all crypto mining in the past year, going from a reported 35% share to nothing in an instant, it seems plausible some miners are operating underground using a VPN. Some people are saying that up to 20% of total capacity is actually still operating in China.

Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising

#110

Lots of weird extremely Russian-patriot sounding comments in this thread. Russia is sending paratroopers because they don't want another Ukraine situation. They don't want Kazakhstan to break away from Russia because of a popular uprising like Ukraine did. And it's a lot easier for them to prevent it than it was for Ukraine because Ukraine doesn't border Europe so the west won't protest it as much. I expect a whole l…

> Lots of weird extremely Russian-patriot sounding comments in this thread. This kind of nonsense comments appear whenever there are people with positive comments on China or Russia. I guess my top level comment on this thread will be one of the "Russia-patriot" ones. For the record, I am an Indian living in Malaysia - I simply choose to read proper sources and be informed of geopolitical events rather than parrot US…

I'm an American and can tell you that whatever you think of Trump - the Democrats, MSNBC etc. chose to deal with him by implying, or even saying, that he was a Trojan horse put in by Putin, that the house of representatives was run by "Moscow" Mitch McConnell, that Trump was put in by Moscow fixing the elections etc. With little mention of US/CIA/NED involvement in subverting Russia within Russia, being involved in color revolutions etc. Victoria Neuland and people like her have been doing it almost openly, and she has shown contempt not just for Russia but Western Europe ("Fuck the EU") as well.

So you have upper middle class Europeans, and some upper middle class Europeans living in their media bubble. Other views outside this bubble are heretical and suspicious.

Even YC founder Paul Graham touched on this lightly in his essay about how "submarine" PR articles about men's formal suits make it into the press. Noam Chomsky (who also writes books about the language of Turing machines) covers the corporate media more thoroughly. People who actually talk about what the US is doing like journalist (and former programmer of open source port scanners) Julian Assange are imprisoned.

Also, Kazakhstan has troops coming in from Belarus, Tajikistan, Armenia and Russia. So just mentioning Russia in the headline is already a slant.

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