well, that's a lesson for every western-backed opposition wannabe:
don't trust your German handlers (probably told him, they will support him like a murderer Khodorkovsky, and get him out later)
prisons are bad for your health
Alexei Navalny has died
311–320 of 1001 posts
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#312Does anyone know why NATO/US never gave Ukraine what they were asking for! jets, Anti-air systems, ATACMs, etc?
Maybe because, on the other side of the table sits a lunatic with a massive amount of atomic bombs. Also, because Ukraine is not NATO.
And now they want to put those atomic bombs into space, cause we let them know that we won’t do anything about it.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US has provided more funding to Ukraine than the world combined by a large margin, and the lesson you take away is that the US is somehow at fault. The one bill that was blocked by Congress would be more support than Europe as a whole has provided to Ukraine to date. While I agree that European countries should start to take their defense seriously I don't see how you fault US support of Ukraine.
Not sure about the US providing more funding (especially not by a large margin): This chart shows EU outspending the US. https://www.statista.com/chart/28489/ukrainian-military-huma... .
The US and the EU are mostly at parity when it comes to total spending (that includes military spending), with the difference being of about 5-10% last time I checked (which was sometimes in September of 2023). By how things have progressed since then it is fair to say that the EU has taken the upper hand on that.
And this is all without counting the "externalities" of the war in Ukraine which Europe had to absorb all by itself, such as higher energy prices, selling assets in Russia at very discounted prices (for comparison, the US and the UK didn't have that much stuff to sell there anyway) and the material help and assistance provided to the millions of Ukrainian refugees.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure about the US providing more funding (especially not by a large margin): This chart shows EU outspending the US. https://www.statista.com/chart/28489/ukrainian-military-huma... .
Total aid, yes. Military spending no. In fact this war has highlighted that NO ONE was ready for the fight that came about. Skip the money for a moment. Ukraine right now is marginally fucked for one reason: 155mm artillery shells. There isnt enough global production to have a war. The US is far and away the largest producer. EU can not keep up and did not bring on anywhere near enough capacity to defend itself in a…
I wonder if there is such a clear cut between aid and military spending. Most of the aid of Europe is send to Ukraine government such that the government can spend that money. I understand that about 90% of the USA military spending stays in the USA and is actually stimulating the economy.
This war is also a display of weapons produced by defense industries in the USA and increase the spending of foreign countries in the USA. So, the netto effect might be actually turn out to be possitive, if it were not chilled by the current position of the USA in not providing weapons. This is definitely not making European countries happy and might actually result in the EU on putting substantial effort in developing it own weapon systems in the coming decades and reduce the spending the USA.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#315So in latest news, last opposition figure in Russia dies together with any hope for regime change while Russia's war effort is starting to get some traction with it's overwhelming man power and Ukraine is forced to cede more territory all while west is busy either with it's in-fighting or comparing each others superior GDP and how Russia will crumble just any day now (TM). Man, are we in for a ride next decade in Eur…
> I would have never believed all this just a few years ago, how it will go down. The writing is on the wall for a while now, the only problem is that people talking about it are promptly labeled as not worthy of being listened to
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Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#316So in latest news, last opposition figure in Russia dies together with any hope for regime change while Russia's war effort is starting to get some traction with it's overwhelming man power and Ukraine is forced to cede more territory all while west is busy either with it's in-fighting or comparing each others superior GDP and how Russia will crumble just any day now (TM). Man, are we in for a ride next decade in Eur…
> how Russia will crumble just any day now (TM) Have you ever thought about what Russia's influence in the AI sector would be by now if they would have focused on developing it instead of starting a war? Developing it while pretending a peaceful cooperation with the West? It might well be that China supports Russia's war effort so much because it knows that this way Russians will have zero time and resouces to focus…
Putin's Russia does not have a good track record of developing strategic projects with big R&D component. If anything, they spectacularly failed in space, in nanotechnology and other fields which were designated as strategic 15 years ago. All Russian successes were in commercial sector so far thanks to many technology entrepreneurs and ignorance of Soviet boomers - the generation currently in power. Despite the enormous brain drain, Russia may be now in a better position to start and make significant progress in something. Russia is traditionally better in mobilizing the nation in times of war than in peaceful times and it shows now, when they were able to scale military-industrial complex capacity very quickly.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
> how Russia will crumble just any day now (TM) Have you ever thought about what Russia's influence in the AI sector would be by now if they would have focused on developing it instead of starting a war? Developing it while pretending a peaceful cooperation with the West? It might well be that China supports Russia's war effort so much because it knows that this way Russians will have zero time and resouces to focus…
This sounds so random. Did Russia ever proved they can do AI in any significant capacity?
Yandex was doing alright: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yandex_self-driving_car
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#318Fell down the stairs and accidentally shot himself in the back 8 times? How are these events viewed internally in Russia? Is it just widely known that the government arranged it and it was “good, because he was a traitor”?
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Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#319Sad times for Russia... Barred anti-war Russian presidential candidate [Boris Nadezhdin] fails in two legal challenges [0] [0] https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/barred-anti-war-russian...
I feel it worths noting that the meaning of the word 'legal' is different for ears of western than some eastern nations. It may be inaccurate to describe for western minds what actualy is happening there as legality and law is an instrument of the ruling party for the benefit of the ruling party not some independent supervising power for the goodwill of all. I feel using the English word 'legal' is completely inaccurate expressing Russian public matters, some other was better to adapt/coin for the situation, unsure what though.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#320People are throwing hyperboles while the incident is merely symbolic. Nothing changes whatsoever.
And while it's easy to armchair guestimate Russia and its future, we western folk simply cant truly understand the nation and its people. They've endured WWII, USSR and some say take pride in how much they've suffered.
But Europe certainly should get its act together, especially regarding its ammo production. There was plenty of time to ramp up after Crimea,now the improvements are predicted to finish in couple of years. And US is again proving its indecideness in maintaining foreign policy.
The war in Ukraine is existential to Putins Russia and I am wishing the democratic nations win. However, I'm not holding my breath. It's the same as having a street fight. Without outside inference, the one who is more willing for absolute violence most likely wins.