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Alexei Navalny has died

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Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#511
post #406

A 47 year old man killed by the 72 year old president. Nothing shows the conflict of generations in Russia better than this. The old farts of Russia/Soviet Union are killing the younger generation and by that are killing Russias future. For what, grandpa? For what?

What future? Between the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and the collapse of the USSR, Russia has only a few generations left before experiencing demographic collapse.

There simply aren't enough young men there to keep the Russian population growing and the population there doesn't value diversity enough to consider producing more Russian children with immigrants.

This is what many believe (e.g., Peter Zeihan) to be the real reason behind the invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine is "Russian enough" in their eyes, so combining the two populations would help stave off demographic collapse.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#512

Earlier 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. There is nothing in the parent post to even hint that they are saying that the US is to blame for what happened. The US cannot be trusted to fulfill it's approved upon role in NATO if and when the push comes to shove (that damage to the US reputation is done). I wan…

>>> The US cannot be trusted to fulfill it's approved upon role in NATO if and when the push comes to shove (that damage to the US reputation is done). What role as the US failed to fulfill in Ukraine? Ukraine isn't a NATO member, the US had no obligation to come to their support, yet we did anyways. Meanwhile Germany divested their entire domestic energy security and became subservient to Russia for energy - enablin…

Yes, like buying LNG from the US [0]

[0] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-lng-export-pause-...

"Europe became addicted and depended to Russian fuels "

Yes like the US was addicted to oil from the middle east. The difference, Europe couldn't invade Russia and take the gas away.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#513

The (small) upside of all this missery, death and pain is Europe will lose some territory but gain it's own military security after decades of living from the US strategy alignment. Countries like Poland will no longer buy US weapons but increase European defense spending - they fear just like Ukraine that US congress just turns around and will stop delivering parts for F-35s in a conflict [0]. The US lost all it's t…

why rant and rave against US? This isn't 2012 post-Snowden era of "friends don't spy on friends". The US are not the enemy here but our long-term ally. Right now Russia, China, the Assad regime, and IRGC are.

> We just need to get our act together, not every country building or buying it's own incompatible weapons (like tanks, planes, frigates).

If "we" means Europe I agree, that "we" need to reintroduce mandatory military service, prepare to fight Russia and its allies on their own turf, defend against Russian terrorists on our own turf. Ans most importantly we must wage war against pro-Russian mouthpieces in our own countries, e.g. Geert Wilders, Marine Lepen, Meloni, Bjorn Hoecke and AfD, the entire Orban government, current Slovakian regime, and anyone who takes money from Putin and spouting their propaganda.

War is already here in Europe. It's just unequally distributed.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#514
post #41

So 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…

Let's keep in mind the man was no saint either, perhaps his regime would have preferred sending some rockets to the Georgian "rats" rather than Ukrainians.

Context: https://web.archive.org/web/20200414045757/https://navalny.l...

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#515

There are smart people who work for Russia, or worse - for russian gov. Without them it would not be possible. How can an individual have both the critical thinking and still have the gut to contribute to this? I grew up in rural russia. It's much much worse than what you see on the facade. My neighbour was a police man. His 15 years boy raped a kid from local orphanage and captured it on a video. No justice followed…

> It's a case of mass inheritable PTSD

About 8% of the world suffers from PTSD symptoms. There was a recent study done in Poland that said over 15% of population has symptoms. It is generational PTSD from WW2.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhhh that’s why it’s better to fund Ukraine to fight the battle for us before it’s actually on NATO’s doorstep. Not that confusing.

Sure, I support funding Ukraine 100% for that very reason, but consider what happens when Ukraine runs out of troops. Russia has a 3:1 advantage. https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-demography-of-war-ukraine-vs-...

Consider what happens when the Taliban runs out of troops. The United States has a 28:1 advantage.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#517
post #503

Rest in peace. It's wild to me how everyone has a (very energetic) opinion about a conflict nowhere near their home, helmed by people they don't know, fought by people they don't understand, over problems they don't understand. I wish we could return to when not every conflict between nations was a considered a global emergency.

The war affects everyone. Some people die, some suffer because they are under shelling or occupation, some suffer cause their loved one die. But those outside war zone suffer as well. Due to broken food chains, crazy economic inflation and general political instability. For sure it's as bad as when you're dead because of the random shell hitting your home, but still. When a man with a nuclear button savagely kills hi…

I don't understand why people are so scared specifically about Putin's nukes. He's not the only murderous dictator with a big red button, but he's the only one I hear people worrying about. Xi + the CCP is just as much, if not more, of a threat.

And due to the way things are going, they're testing the waters in cooperation and friendship.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> nobody bats an eye That's not the problem. Here we are all batting our eyes, but that doesn't help. Thousands of Russians went out to the streets to protest the war and got arrested without making a difference. I'm very unclear on what kind of sacrifice would be required at this stage to change the situation in Russia.

A full general strike of some kind. But Putin is popular and so is the war. Russia is a top 10 world economy, rivalling Germany in GDP PPP. This article "The Majority Never Had It So Good", was enlightening for me about the situation in interior Russia: https://russiapost.info/regions/majority Effectively a lot of stuff we talk about (no more travel, hard to get money outside of Russia) is meaningless to many Russian…

Do you remember what happened with the large general strikes in Syria a decade ago?

You don't "just" protest these kind of authoritarian regimes; there's tons of examples for this.

In Nazi-occupied Netherlands there was a large general strike to oppose the Jewish deportations ("February strike"). This worked out about as well as one would imagine. It was stopped in about a day by force, with several casualties. Most of the organizers were summarily executed days later without much of a trail, dozens others were sent to prison for a decade, and the Germans warned "we let you off easy this time, but next time the consequences will be serious". So that was the end of that kind of protest for the rest of the war.

There's an old Iraqi joke from the 90s (controversy surrounding Bush's Iraq war notwithstanding, it genuinely was an authoritarian regime and atrocious by any standard): "Congratulations mister President, 99.98% of the people voted for you in the election! Only 0.02% of the people voted against you; a fantastic result! What more could you want? The President growls: "their names". It's pretty funny, and also describes the kind of fears people have. Often these fears are very realistic.

Lots of things you and I can "just" do in free democracies just don't apply to authoritarian regimes. I never lived in those kind of circumstances, and I think it takes some amount of effort to really understand what it's like.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get so tired of these sentiments. Without a doubt the US pushes its might around the world BUT in the case of Europe, European countries do not have the willpower to create a military like the US's. How did the US lose all its trust? Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Europe was frolicking around for decades, most countries with no real economy and making many mistakes a long the way regarding energy security.

"European countries do not have the willpower to create a military like the US's." Yes, not yet, except Macron. "long the way regarding energy security." Germany is switching to US LNG as fast as it can just for the US to signal it will no longer support LNG in Europe. This kind of energy security? [0] [0] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-lng-export-pause-...

The French military will likely continue to be bogged down in Africa, given that the situation there is pretty dire and French vital interests are threatened.

The French betrayed Czechoslovakia in 1938, then got steamrolled by the Wehrmacht themselves, and their credibility in Central and Eastern Europe has been shot ever since.

Re: Alexei Navalny has died

#520

There are smart people who work for Russia, or worse - for russian gov. Without them it would not be possible. How can an individual have both the critical thinking and still have the gut to contribute to this? I grew up in rural russia. It's much much worse than what you see on the facade. My neighbour was a police man. His 15 years boy raped a kid from local orphanage and captured it on a video. No justice followed…

You must do something about the horrific crime your neighbour did. Simple things. Collect the info: his name, surname, adress, etc - everything you can. The date this happened. List the other witnesses, potential witnesses, and other people and facts that can help investigation. Other possible crimes he committed? Who was aware and not acted?

Then submit it to authorities: investigative commitee, child ombudsmen, prosecutor's office, etc. Not local, but higher, maybe even central.

If the video is available, submit it too.

If not adressed by all authorities (unlikely), go public with the specific and detailed information.

Make sure to protect the victim's info from public.

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