Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look what happened to Armenia that tried to appease both Russia and the West. It's more important to have few close allies than appeasing everyone.
Worked out pretty well for India, they still court Russia and the US
Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
111–120 of 330 posts
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#112Lots 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…
And yet in your other comment you linked to "Moon of Alabama", anonymous blogger which always takes a pro-Kremlin position. How is that a "proper source"?
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#113It 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…
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#114I traveled many post-Soviet countries in the past years with my old camping car. My personal impressions in Kazakhstan were frightening. A deeply corrupt state, much worse than Russia. Aggressive armed bandits in police uniform tried to rob me several times. Kazakhstan is true mafia state where every part of the regime tries to enrich itself at the expanse of the people. In contrast to the rich oil elite there are th…
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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
#116I found the explanation of this article quite convincing.
The key takes is: Tokayev, the Kazakhstan's president, does not completely trust his own forces and is afraid they might be more loyal to the old president, or the elites might see him as weak and try to plot against him. Therefore, he asks Putin for his armed forces to assist in stabilizing the situation. This is good for both of them: Tokayev stabilizes his position and gets some time to fire or prosecute the officials he doesn't trust, and Putin gains more influence over Tokayev in the future — Tokayev becomes dependent on Putin's support.
Over the last two days, Tokayev has made some big changes in the government structure. For example, he fired the old president Nazarbayev from his current position of The Chairman of the Security Council (which he technically wasn't authorized to do). The old president hasn't made any public response to that, and is rumored to have escaped to Europe with his whole family (flightradar has shown a few private jets leaving the country as the riots got violent). Tokayev has also removed some of the Nazarbayev's people (people who served under Nazarbayev for a long time) from their positions yesterday; one big example is Massimov, the head of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, the country's main intelligence service.
Watching the local news closely these last days, I'm getting convinced that someone is orchestrating the violence and shooting on the streets. There's a footage of people handing out firearms to the protestors (it looks more like hunting rifles and shotguns, so it must be the loot from the firearm stores; but some of them have combat AKs they captured from the police, one video shows them having an RPG grenade). And those armed people with no uniforms are too organized: they give actual armed fights to the police and army forces — not something you could expect from a spontaneously gathered crowd. The organization and determination are shocking: they move from one government building to another, seizing things, burning cars and buildings, focusing on important ones (firearm stores, police offices, city administration) in the situation where mobile broadband is off. Yesterday, the government has withdrawn its forces from the city (friends of my friends who are in the police say they were ordered not to wear uniforms) and evacuated the main buildings. Today they are entering back and fighting the bandits, they report that a few groups were already eliminated.
Having said this, obviously not everyone who's out on the streets now is one of those organized bandits. There are many people who genuinely came for a peaceful protest before it was hijacked into what it is now, and there's also people who are seizing the opportunity to loot and wreak havoc unpunished and drunk (what comes to mind is the video of a guy trying to set a traffic light on fire using a gas burner).
Disclaimer: I'm not in Kazakhstan right now, but I'm watching the situation closely through media and my friends there
EDIT: Removed the news of TV broadcast tower being stormed, it turned out to be fake
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#117It 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…
I see now that their most recent figure has changed to 18.1%.
The electrical power figure was then calculated based on the total global power consumption published in the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#118My 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…
Reading and watching about these places on YouTube (BaldAndBankrupt) and recently numerous videos about Pakistan, Afghanistan, India. I can't help but feel modern Western society has lost and forgotten something within. It's hard to describe but easier described as nearest to changes in warmth and compassion. It's only getting worse and these old places it seems ingrained.
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#119I traveled many post-Soviet countries in the past years with my old camping car. My personal impressions in Kazakhstan were frightening. A deeply corrupt state, much worse than Russia. Aggressive armed bandits in police uniform tried to rob me several times. Kazakhstan is true mafia state where every part of the regime tries to enrich itself at the expanse of the people. In contrast to the rich oil elite there are th…
Re: Russia sends troops to Kazakhstan to put down deadly uprising
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pray tell, what exactly happened on 6th of January outside the Capitol? Why some people are allowed to fight corruption, but others aren't? Isn't the US lobiying another word for corruption?
You have it backward. The January 6th Riot was not motivated by a desire to oust a dictator. At the time, Donald Trump was President, and he wanted to remain President despite losing the election. As for corruption in the US, I acknowledge it, but it’s laughable to compare it to what happens in countries run by Putin and Pals. In Russia, Kazakhstan, Syria, etc. the people’s only choice is rebellion. In the US, we (st…