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Level of educational attainment – the great political divide – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 11,766
edited March 2022 in General
imageLevel of educational attainment – the great political divide – politicalbetting.com

One of the great things about Ipsos-MORI is that the firm always asks polling respondents to state what their level of educational attainment was. I regard that as being particularly important because education has provided a great political divider.

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  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,459

    Leon said:

    Tell you what, if I was Vlad V Putin, and I'd spent several billion pounds ensuring that the Tory Party and thus the UK was safely in my pocket, I'd be quite pissed off to discover that "in my pocket" actually meant the Tory Party and the UK arming my sworn enemy, over years, with several thousand anti-tank missiles which have now wiped out 25% of my mechanised military

    God knows what Britain might have done if Putin HADN'T bought us off with his billions in London. Given nukes to Kyiv?

    Perhaps Putin thought that his crack military (crack in sense of elite NOT lead by crack-heads) would roll over UKR in matter of days, and he'd get the UK arms as spoils of war?

    Does seem Putin though the war would be a pushover, or that he'd intimidate Ukrainians & etc. into backing down without a fight?

    Could all that Ruski money sloshing around London, have helped embolden Putin to unleash his dogs of war?

    One problem with bribing people, is that the type who will take the dough, are also the kind to rat & renege on you when the going gets rough & tough.

    It is quite remarkable how blindsided so many are when the real reason for Putin's war chest is the disaster that was Angela Merkel when she sold Germany and the EU's soul to Putin by becoming so dependent on his gas

    Germany to this day is sustaining Putin's war
    It is quite remarkable to see how quickly you forget your own piteous and pious cries for unity.

    Is Germany an appeaser, collaborator or both?
    Germany *was* an appeaser. They thought that by creating a co-dependent relationship with Russia, they reduced their capacity for mischief.

    Such a view was woefully misguided.

    But they have since changed. Nord Stream 2 has been binned, Germany is building LNG import terminals, and generators have been told to enter into long term supply contracts with LNG exporters.

    Will they get rid of all demand for Russian gas? Probably not. Will they move to a situation where Russia can only cause annoyance by limiting exports? Yep.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,734
    Still third rate, like Johnson
  • Options
    EPGEPG Posts: 6,199

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Up to a point. Something like this was a problem with social grade for a long time. Still if you took a bunch of non-degree and degree young people, I'd guess the same pattern would emerge.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 59,025

    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819
    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 59,025
    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    A nation is born.

    If Mad Vlad thinks he will subdue these people then he is even madder than we thought.

    Time for the white coats to intervene.

  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    EPG said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Up to a point. Something like this was a problem with social grade for a long time. Still if you took a bunch of non-degree and degree young people, I'd guess the same pattern would emerge.
    So, hang on, the data is pretty much irrelevant except as a platform from which to guess about patterns?

    OK my turn: my guess is you are wrong, and if you limited it to proper universities - Oxford and LSE, really - the data would turn sharply right.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    A nation is born.

    If Mad Vlad thinks he will subdue these people then he is even madder than we thought.

    Time for the white coats to intervene.

    What is surprising is the total lack of Russian counter-attacks in social media - or that they are so feeble they don't register

    I read t'other day that this is because Russia is concentrating its fire on social media in LatAm. India, Africa, Asia. I frankly don't believe this. Public opinion in much of the global south is irrelevant. Sad but true. India is perhaps more germane, but it is not a crucible of rich, powerful opinion like Europe. And Europe has turned, en masse and decisively, against Putin

    I suspect it is because the Ukrainians have whipped the Russians, in the social media war, so comprehensively the Russians have abandoned any hope of changing western minds and are indulging in fairly pointless distractions elsewhere, just because it is something to do

    Of course one reason the Ukrainians have won THIS theatre of the war is that they so clearly have the truth on their side, and they have all the tragic but powerful videos to prove it

  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819
    Disappointing they apparently got distracted by some historical allusions from talking about what to do now.

    A quick survey of Israeli and Jewish Twitter and Zelensky’s speech seems to have fallen relatively flat.

    https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/1505590656940523528

  • Options
    darkagedarkage Posts: 4,839
    I was vaguely sympathetic to Russia before the start of this. I am so glad that I never went particularly far down that rabbit hole.

    Anyone who has been supportive of the Russian Regime in the past must be feeling very stupid now.

  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819
    darkage said:

    I was vaguely sympathetic to Russia before the start of this. I am so glad that I never went particularly far down that rabbit hole.

    Anyone who has been supportive of the Russian Regime in the past must be feeling very stupid now.

    Always time for sinners to repenteth.
  • Options
    edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,166
    edited March 2022
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    A nation is born.

    If Mad Vlad thinks he will subdue these people then he is even madder than we thought.

    Time for the white coats to intervene.

    What is surprising is the total lack of Russian counter-attacks in social media - or that they are so feeble they don't register

    I read t'other day that this is because Russia is concentrating its fire on social media in LatAm. India, Africa, Asia. I frankly don't believe this. Public opinion in much of the global south is irrelevant. Sad but true. India is perhaps more germane, but it is not a crucible of rich, powerful opinion like Europe. And Europe has turned, en masse and decisively, against Putin

    I suspect it is because the Ukrainians have whipped the Russians, in the social media war, so comprehensively the Russians have abandoned any hope of changing western minds and are indulging in fairly pointless distractions elsewhere, just because it is something to do

    Of course one reason the Ukrainians have won THIS theatre of the war is that they so clearly have the truth on their side, and they have all the tragic but powerful videos to prove it

    The same seems to be true of cyber attacks as well, there was supposed to be a whole cyber dimension to the next conflict with Russia and it's completely failed to materialize - if anything, Russia is being attacked more than it's attacking.

    I'm thinking maybe it shows that a lot of the Russian cyber effort generally was - as Putin claimed - voluntary not directly state-organized. Young, educated Russians do not support the invasion, and you can't win an information war if you're depending on these people.
  • Options
    FarooqFarooq Posts: 11,314
    tlg86 said:

    Headline in the guardian was “car crashes into crowd”

    Mind you, I suppose they did report it.
    Sorry this didn't turn out the way you wanted it to.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,459
    IshmaelZ said:

    EPG said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Up to a point. Something like this was a problem with social grade for a long time. Still if you took a bunch of non-degree and degree young people, I'd guess the same pattern would emerge.
    So, hang on, the data is pretty much irrelevant except as a platform from which to guess about patterns?

    OK my turn: my guess is you are wrong, and if you limited it to proper universities - Oxford and LSE, really - the data would turn sharply right.
    So, basically you think people who have a proper grasp of mathematics or the sciences shouldn't count?
  • Options
    AslanAslan Posts: 1,673
    This is horrific.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1505664388891557892

    Putin is a case where comparison to Hitler isn't overblown. We need him killed.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    A nation is born.

    If Mad Vlad thinks he will subdue these people then he is even madder than we thought.

    Time for the white coats to intervene.

    What is surprising is the total lack of Russian counter-attacks in social media - or that they are so feeble they don't register

    I read t'other day that this is because Russia is concentrating its fire on social media in LatAm. India, Africa, Asia. I frankly don't believe this. Public opinion in much of the global south is irrelevant. Sad but true. India is perhaps more germane, but it is not a crucible of rich, powerful opinion like Europe. And Europe has turned, en masse and decisively, against Putin

    I suspect it is because the Ukrainians have whipped the Russians, in the social media war, so comprehensively the Russians have abandoned any hope of changing western minds and are indulging in fairly pointless distractions elsewhere, just because it is something to do

    Of course one reason the Ukrainians have won THIS theatre of the war is that they so clearly have the truth on their side, and they have all the tragic but powerful videos to prove it

    The same seems to be true of cyber attacks as well, there was supposed to be a whole cyber dimension to the next conflict with Russia and it's completely failed to materialize - if anything, Russia is being attacked more than it's attacking.

    I'm thinking maybe it shows that a lot of the Russian cyber effort generally was - as Putin claimed - voluntary not directly state-organized. Young, educated Russians do not support the invasion, and you can't win an information war if you're depending on these people.
    Yes, good point: three weeks ago I was reading articles that basically said Russia can take down the internet and cripple half of western media and hi-tech industry with its brilliant army of cyberwarr......

    yet nothing.

    SO FAR Russia is proving the paperiest of paper tigers. Let us hope that continues
  • Options
    FarooqFarooq Posts: 11,314
    darkage said:

    I was vaguely sympathetic to Russia before the start of this. I am so glad that I never went particularly far down that rabbit hole.

    Anyone who has been supportive of the Russian Regime in the past must be feeling very stupid now.

    Depends what you mean. Sympathetic to Russia? Absolutely, some of the Russians I've met have been crazy fun. One in particular was just crazy, but ok.

    Or sympathetic to the Russian government? No, in that case you mustn't have been paying attention.
  • Options
    So what is Johnson's big plan to win another majority? On 2019 numbers he'd get a Hung Parliament, Labour's numbers are currently going nowhere.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819
    Farooq said:

    darkage said:

    I was vaguely sympathetic to Russia before the start of this. I am so glad that I never went particularly far down that rabbit hole.

    Anyone who has been supportive of the Russian Regime in the past must be feeling very stupid now.

    Depends what you mean. Sympathetic to Russia? Absolutely, some of the Russians I've met have been crazy fun. One in particular was just crazy, but ok.

    Or sympathetic to the Russian government? No, in that case you mustn't have been paying attention.
    I think when people talk of sympathy with or anger at Russia the meaning is usually pretty clear, and very few could be reasonably assumed to be aimed at your average Russian person, so the lack of direct clarification wouldn't undermine that.
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,616
    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,837

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    A nation is born.

    If Mad Vlad thinks he will subdue these people then he is even madder than we thought.

    Time for the white coats to intervene.

    What is surprising is the total lack of Russian counter-attacks in social media - or that they are so feeble they don't register

    I read t'other day that this is because Russia is concentrating its fire on social media in LatAm. India, Africa, Asia. I frankly don't believe this. Public opinion in much of the global south is irrelevant. Sad but true. India is perhaps more germane, but it is not a crucible of rich, powerful opinion like Europe. And Europe has turned, en masse and decisively, against Putin

    I suspect it is because the Ukrainians have whipped the Russians, in the social media war, so comprehensively the Russians have abandoned any hope of changing western minds and are indulging in fairly pointless distractions elsewhere, just because it is something to do

    Of course one reason the Ukrainians have won THIS theatre of the war is that they so clearly have the truth on their side, and they have all the tragic but powerful videos to prove it

    In US, ranks of Pimps for Putin have thinned considerably, now lead it seems by Fucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene. With #45 laying VERY low after his initial "Putin is a genius" gambit.

    Am interested to see how this may play out in upcoming Republican mid-term primaries and subsequent general elections. Esp in states with large Ukrainian American concentrations, including battlegrounds Pennsylvania & Ohio.

    Speaking of Ohio, am personally interested in how JD "Hillbilly Elegy" Vance will make out for US Senator in Ohio Republican Primary, scheduled for May 3 but possibly delayed due to court challenge to GOP congressional gerrymander.

    For it was Vance who infamously said (on Steve Bannon's podcast), "“I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” He then attempted to "fix" this - on Fucker Carlson Show - by taking same line aired on PB by other Putin apologists, that West was to blame for poking the Bear (I paraphrase).

    Result is that Vance was (to coin a phrase) cancelled as keynote speaker at annual Minnesota Republican Party Lincoln-Reagan fundraiser. Talk about poetic justice!

    As for Dems, all but a few so-called "Democratic Socialists" are either supporting Ukraine (for real) or keeping their traps shut. The exceptions (such as Ben & Jerry's saying "Biden is fanning the flames of war" just before Putin invaded) getting overall adverse reception from intended audience of fellow lefties.

    Of course they are soft-peddling (like Vance) or doing 180 (like _____). Will be interesting to see how this plays in Peoria and other places in 2022 Democratic primaries from sea to shining sea. My guess is not too well, leastways in competitive primary races
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892
    kle4 said:

    darkage said:

    I was vaguely sympathetic to Russia before the start of this. I am so glad that I never went particularly far down that rabbit hole.

    Anyone who has been supportive of the Russian Regime in the past must be feeling very stupid now.

    Always time for sinners to repenteth.
    Especially IF their election isn't until late 2022 or beyond . . .
  • Options
    FarooqFarooq Posts: 11,314
    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892
    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    National Neo-Communism? North Korea with borscht instead of kimchi?
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,459

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,459

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323
    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,459

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    A nation is born.

    If Mad Vlad thinks he will subdue these people then he is even madder than we thought.

    Time for the white coats to intervene.

    What is surprising is the total lack of Russian counter-attacks in social media - or that they are so feeble they don't register

    I read t'other day that this is because Russia is concentrating its fire on social media in LatAm. India, Africa, Asia. I frankly don't believe this. Public opinion in much of the global south is irrelevant. Sad but true. India is perhaps more germane, but it is not a crucible of rich, powerful opinion like Europe. And Europe has turned, en masse and decisively, against Putin

    I suspect it is because the Ukrainians have whipped the Russians, in the social media war, so comprehensively the Russians have abandoned any hope of changing western minds and are indulging in fairly pointless distractions elsewhere, just because it is something to do

    Of course one reason the Ukrainians have won THIS theatre of the war is that they so clearly have the truth on their side, and they have all the tragic but powerful videos to prove it

    In US, ranks of Pimps for Putin have thinned considerably, now lead it seems by Fucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene. With #45 laying VERY low after his initial "Putin is a genius" gambit.

    Am interested to see how this may play out in upcoming Republican mid-term primaries and subsequent general elections. Esp in states with large Ukrainian American concentrations, including battlegrounds Pennsylvania & Ohio.

    Speaking of Ohio, am personally interested in how JD "Hillbilly Elegy" Vance will make out for US Senator in Ohio Republican Primary, scheduled for May 3 but possibly delayed due to court challenge to GOP congressional gerrymander.

    For it was Vance who infamously said (on Steve Bannon's podcast), "“I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” He then attempted to "fix" this - on Fucker Carlson Show - by taking same line aired on PB by other Putin apologists, that West was to blame for poking the Bear (I paraphrase).

    Result is that Vance was (to coin a phrase) cancelled as keynote speaker at annual Minnesota Republican Party Lincoln-Reagan fundraiser. Talk about poetic justice!

    As for Dems, all but a few so-called "Democratic Socialists" are either supporting Ukraine (for real) or keeping their traps shut. The exceptions (such as Ben & Jerry's saying "Biden is fanning the flames of war" just before Putin invaded) getting overall adverse reception from intended audience of fellow lefties.

    Of course they are soft-peddling (like Vance) or doing 180 (like _____). Will be interesting to see how this plays in Peoria and other places in 2022 Democratic primaries from sea to shining sea. My guess is not too well, leastways in competitive primary races
    Vance - even before this latest 'issue' - is highly likely to crash and burn in the Ohio Republican Primary.
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,837
    edited March 2022
    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,953
    Worth noting that Mariupol is about the size / population of Brighton.

    Bigger than you might think.
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892
    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
  • Options
    FarooqFarooq Posts: 11,314
    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    You're the one policing people's historical comparisons, not me. I don't think you're wrong to draw the line back to Stalin, but to tell people not to compare a fascist with fascists is strange and I don't know why you did.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323
    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819
    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    That wasn't why I used the term Nazi. You're correct that they don't need another inspiration to draw upon, and frankly I find the still present reluctance to see Stalin era in particular crimes as as horrific as they were to be deeply bizarre (and no, that we allied with a monster to defeat another monster doesn't explain it).

    It simply resonates quite strongly given Russia's own justifications about their opponents, wilfully blind to the fact that the shadow they purport to be chasing is the one they are casting.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,953
    edited March 2022
    The other interesting thing about Mariupol is that population is 1/3 Greek heritage. Hence, perhaps, that diplomat’s visit.

    I understand there has traditionally been residual Russian sympathy in some parts of Greek society. One presumes that’s another casualty of Putin’s atrocities.
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,269
    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    That wasn't why I used the term Nazi. You're correct that they don't need another inspiration to draw upon, and frankly I find the still present reluctance to see Stalin era in particular crimes as as horrific as they were to be deeply bizarre (and no, that we allied with a monster to defeat another monster doesn't explain it).

    It simply resonates quite strongly given Russia's own justifications about their opponents, wilfully blind to the fact that the shadow they purport to be chasing is the one they are casting.
    Your last paragraph is a fair point.

    I just note that there is still among some a reluctance to acknowledge the enormity of Soviet Russia's crimes. It's as if the worst evil man could do has to be by definition Nazi. It's lazy and inaccurate thinking.
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,616

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
    We know from day to day reporting that some of the areas shown on the French map as deep within "Russian territorial gains" are contested, so what are the French playing at?
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,603
    edited March 2022
    Does it really matter? The average voter is not a graduate and Boris won a bigger majority in 2019 losing graduates than Cameron did in 2015 winning graduates.

    It is also partly a reflection of age, only about 10% of over 60s are graduates compared to about 40% of under 30s and obviously as the Tories do best with pensioners and Labour with young people that will be reflected in the voting intention figures.

    Electoral Calculus do a more up to date calculation than the Guardian's, which is over a decade old, of education level in each constituency, taking account of the number of voters with both A levels and a degree. Though obviously with similar results
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892
    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    Note that Putin's top lie for his own subjects, is that the invasion is to suppress Ukrainian NAZIS. Led by Jewish Nazi & his fellow Fascist insects, bent on keeping the good folk of THE Ukraine down & out.

    Pointing out that PUTIN is the real Nazi here, is NOT playing his game, instead it's calling his bluff.

    And does NOT deflect from obvious linkages Czarist Autocracy > Soviet Communism > Putin National Neo-Communism.

    Which from a hearts-and-minds perspective viz-a-viz Russian people, is probably NOT very persuasive for average Russians. In a nation where Stalin is still a national icon, for a nation that takes its icons VERY seriously. Methinks sanctions & economics will have more & better effect than history & political science lessons . . . from foreigners.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323
    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819

    The other interesting thing about Mariupol is that population is 1/3 Greek heritage. Hence, perhaps, that diplomat’s visit.

    I understand there has traditionally been residual Russian sympathy in some parts of Greek society. One presumes that’s another casualty of Putin’s atrocities.

    Even recently if you didn't like your own government, government systems or its international alliance structures (take your pick), it was relatively easy for someone to slip into sympathy for more reasonable sounding Russian government positions around Western hypocrisy etc, even though any kind of focus on them would have a good chance of showing it to be insincere or nonsense, or both. We do bad stuff and interact with bad people, so it could be easy for people looking for an excuse to ignore that even though that is true, Putin goes well beyond that.

    This cannot be ignored. He will hope, when he is done, that it can be ignored again in future. Let us hope that is not so. No return to what had been normal.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,603
    edited March 2022

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Indeed at the 2019 general election for example the Conservatives won over 65s with a degree by 49% to 24% for Labour but Labour won 18 to 34s with no qualifications by 51% to 30% for the Conservatives. The main divide in UK politics is therefore still age not education level or indeed now social class either.
    https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
    We know from day to day reporting that some of the areas shown on the French map as deep within "Russian territorial gains" are contested, so what are the French playing at?
    I don't believe it is anything nefarious or conspiratorial, just different intel assessments? And the French one is more likely to be wrong, given their intel was clearly inferior to US/UK intel before the invasion
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,837
    edited March 2022
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


    On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69]

    Also:

    1942
    January–December: Direct Nazi artillery bombardments of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg from a distance of 16 km from the Hermitage
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 45,235
    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    That wasn't why I used the term Nazi. You're correct that they don't need another inspiration to draw upon, and frankly I find the still present reluctance to see Stalin era in particular crimes as as horrific as they were to be deeply bizarre (and no, that we allied with a monster to defeat another monster doesn't explain it).

    It simply resonates quite strongly given Russia's own justifications about their opponents, wilfully blind to the fact that the shadow they purport to be chasing is the one they are casting.
    Your last paragraph is a fair point.

    I just note that there is still among some a reluctance to acknowledge the enormity of Soviet Russia's crimes. It's as if the worst evil man could do has to be by definition Nazi. It's lazy and inaccurate thinking.
    In other circumstances, I would agree. There is plenty of awfulness in the history of Soviet Communism to draw on for the most ghastly regime.

    But Putin & Co are deliberately buying into Blood & Soil Nationalism combined with Fascism. See "Foundations of Geopolitics" etc etc.

  • Options
    darkagedarkage Posts: 4,839
    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
    Based on Mariupol, this seems to be the strategy: total destruction of Ukraine. Destroy the cities, kill or enslave the population. Is there any reason to assume this isn't the case?
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
    We know from day to day reporting that some of the areas shown on the French map as deep within "Russian territorial gains" are contested, so what are the French playing at?
    Different interpretation as to what "territorial gains" means?

    For example, isn't it fielder's choice whether to consider turf controlled, when the invaders are rolling across the local road grid by day, even if they do NOT travel at night, or control anything considerable on either side of the highway except for (some) towns and other outposts?

    One analyst may say yes, another may say no. Not necessarily evidence that one group or another is playing at anything.

    Also not evidence to the contrary either. Though not sure what point might be in this instance?
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819
    edited March 2022
    If Ukraine were the USA they'd probably be gearing up for the pre-Primary jostling of presidential candidates for the next election for now. Unless any peace terms that might occur are REALLY unacceptable to the Ukrainian people I'm going out a limb that Zelensky is probably going to be in with a strong shout. Just a guess.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


    On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69]
    OUTSIDE the perimeter.

    I'm talking about central St Petersburg. The Nevsky Prospect and the Admiralty. The Neva Embankments and Pushkin's House, the Winter Palace and the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood

    It all survived relatively intact, I believe

    And it is glorious. I have had wonderful wonderful times in St Petersburg with brilliant, generous and darkly funny Russians. I want that Russia back. Not this Nazi shit. That is not Russia
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 45,235
    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    "verloren hoop"
    "forlorn hope"
    "Les Enfants Perdus"
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    "verloren hoop"
    "forlorn hope"
    "Les Enfants Perdus"
    Richard Sharpe made it through at least 2 or 3 of those, piece of cake.
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,837
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


    On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69]
    OUTSIDE the perimeter.

    I'm talking about central St Petersburg. The Nevsky Prospect and the Admiralty. The Neva Embankments and Pushkin's House, the Winter Palace and the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood

    It all survived relatively intact, I believe

    And it is glorious. I have had wonderful wonderful times in St Petersburg with brilliant, generous and darkly funny Russians. I want that Russia back. Not this Nazi shit. That is not Russia
    It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria.[17]

    Although various theories have been put forward about Germany's plans for Leningrad, including making it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear Hitler's intention was to utterly destroy the city and its population. According to a directive sent to Army Group North on 29 September:

    "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban centre. [...] Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population."[18]

    Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns.[19][20]
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323
    darkage said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
    Based on Mariupol, this seems to be the strategy: total destruction of Ukraine. Destroy the cities, kill or enslave the population. Is there any reason to assume this isn't the case?
    Perhaps I am struggling to comprehend the enormity of the crime being contemplated; perhaps I just don't want to believe it

    The total enslavement/murder of a nation of forty four million people

    Can this really be the plan?? Is Putin going to do a Mariupol on every Ukrainian city, one after the other?

    If he does, and looks like succeeding, I fear NATO will be drawn into the conflict. I can't see us standing by and allowing that to happen
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 48,323

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


    On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69]
    OUTSIDE the perimeter.

    I'm talking about central St Petersburg. The Nevsky Prospect and the Admiralty. The Neva Embankments and Pushkin's House, the Winter Palace and the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood

    It all survived relatively intact, I believe

    And it is glorious. I have had wonderful wonderful times in St Petersburg with brilliant, generous and darkly funny Russians. I want that Russia back. Not this Nazi shit. That is not Russia
    It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria.[17]

    Although various theories have been put forward about Germany's plans for Leningrad, including making it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear Hitler's intention was to utterly destroy the city and its population. According to a directive sent to Army Group North on 29 September:

    "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban centre. [...] Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population."[18]

    Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns.[19][20]
    That's where I had my dinner served by a waiter who was the direct descendent of a waiter who served Rasputin in the very same restaurant: the Astoria

    Hitler's plan seems a bit confused. On the one hand, he wants to have a grand victory dinner in its most glamorous hotel, on the other: raze it to the ground?

    Anyway it has survived, either restored or unhurt, and I hope that it will one day be free of this fucker Putin (who is a native St Petersburger, ironically)
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892

    The other interesting thing about Mariupol is that population is 1/3 Greek heritage. Hence, perhaps, that diplomat’s visit.

    I understand there has traditionally been residual Russian sympathy in some parts of Greek society. One presumes that’s another casualty of Putin’s atrocities.

    Yes, in that part of Ukraine significant Greek presence, dating to antiquity but reinforced by subsequent immigration of refugees from Ottoman oppression, and later by Greek communists after they lost Greek Civil War in 1940s.

    Greek-Russian connection goes back to Byzantine Varangian Guard and (dare I say) Kievian Rus. Followed centuries later by Russian support for Greek Revolt, for example by Alexander I's chief minister (for a time) John Capodistria, who was a Greek from Corfu. This despite fact that Alex himself opposed the revolt, on grounds that it was against the "legitimate" ruler, who was the Sultan. But most Russians, including in military, political & ecclesiastical establishment, favored the Greek cause.
  • Options
    FarooqFarooq Posts: 11,314

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    Note that Putin's top lie for his own subjects, is that the invasion is to suppress Ukrainian NAZIS. Led by Jewish Nazi & his fellow Fascist insects, bent on keeping the good folk of THE Ukraine down & out.

    Pointing out that PUTIN is the real Nazi here, is NOT playing his game, instead it's calling his bluff.

    And does NOT deflect from obvious linkages Czarist Autocracy > Soviet Communism > Putin National Neo-Communism.

    Which from a hearts-and-minds perspective viz-a-viz Russian people, is probably NOT very persuasive for average Russians. In a nation where Stalin is still a national icon, for a nation that takes its icons VERY seriously. Methinks sanctions & economics will have more & better effect than history & political science lessons . . . from foreigners.
    Projection is an insidious tool. If your fascist enemy calls you a fascist first, then just saying it back to him/her makes you look like you're trading insults instead of making a substantive and true claim. See also Trump, D., with all his allegations of others' elitism, lying, corruption, and sexual violence.
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,837
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


    On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69]
    OUTSIDE the perimeter.

    I'm talking about central St Petersburg. The Nevsky Prospect and the Admiralty. The Neva Embankments and Pushkin's House, the Winter Palace and the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood

    It all survived relatively intact, I believe

    And it is glorious. I have had wonderful wonderful times in St Petersburg with brilliant, generous and darkly funny Russians. I want that Russia back. Not this Nazi shit. That is not Russia
    It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria.[17]

    Although various theories have been put forward about Germany's plans for Leningrad, including making it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear Hitler's intention was to utterly destroy the city and its population. According to a directive sent to Army Group North on 29 September:

    "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban centre. [...] Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population."[18]

    Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns.[19][20]
    That's where I had my dinner served by a waiter who was the direct descendent of a waiter who served Rasputin in the very same restaurant: the Astoria

    Hitler's plan seems a bit confused. On the one hand, he wants to have a grand victory dinner in its most glamorous hotel, on the other: raze it to the ground?

    Anyway it has survived, either restored or unhurt, and I hope that it will one day be free of this fucker Putin (who is a native St Petersburger, ironically)
    He WANTED a grand victory parade, but like Putin, he underestimated the resistance his army faced from the natives. So, SUBSEQUENTLY, he told the Wehrmacht "Fuck this, just bombard the place to dust and don't worry about the fate of the natives".
  • Options
    darkagedarkage Posts: 4,839
    Leon said:

    darkage said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
    Based on Mariupol, this seems to be the strategy: total destruction of Ukraine. Destroy the cities, kill or enslave the population. Is there any reason to assume this isn't the case?
    Perhaps I am struggling to comprehend the enormity of the crime being contemplated; perhaps I just don't want to believe it

    The total enslavement/murder of a nation of forty four million people

    Can this really be the plan?? Is Putin going to do a Mariupol on every Ukrainian city, one after the other?

    If he does, and looks like succeeding, I fear NATO will be drawn into the conflict. I can't see us standing by and allowing that to happen
    I don't think it is the plan. The "plan" is that Ukraine will surrender. But if they don't, it seems to me that it is what Russia will end up doing. It is the inevitable consequence of their style of fighting and having zero political support amongst the local population.

    There is another question though, which is can they actually do it? Won't they run out of soldiers at some point?
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819
    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    Note that Putin's top lie for his own subjects, is that the invasion is to suppress Ukrainian NAZIS. Led by Jewish Nazi & his fellow Fascist insects, bent on keeping the good folk of THE Ukraine down & out.

    Pointing out that PUTIN is the real Nazi here, is NOT playing his game, instead it's calling his bluff.

    And does NOT deflect from obvious linkages Czarist Autocracy > Soviet Communism > Putin National Neo-Communism.

    Which from a hearts-and-minds perspective viz-a-viz Russian people, is probably NOT very persuasive for average Russians. In a nation where Stalin is still a national icon, for a nation that takes its icons VERY seriously. Methinks sanctions & economics will have more & better effect than history & political science lessons . . . from foreigners.
    Projection is an insidious tool. If your fascist enemy calls you a fascist first, then just saying it back to him/her makes you look like you're trading insults instead of making a substantive and true claim. See also Trump, D., with all his allegations of others' elitism, lying, corruption, and sexual violence.
    Or even, dare we say, PBers calling one another fools.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 45,235

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
    We know from day to day reporting that some of the areas shown on the French map as deep within "Russian territorial gains" are contested, so what are the French playing at?
    Different interpretation as to what "territorial gains" means?

    For example, isn't it fielder's choice whether to consider turf controlled, when the invaders are rolling across the local road grid by day, even if they do NOT travel at night, or control anything considerable on either side of the highway except for (some) towns and other outposts?

    One analyst may say yes, another may say no. Not necessarily evidence that one group or another is playing at anything.

    Also not evidence to the contrary either. Though not sure what point might be in this instance?
    Though if Mariupol is completely surrounded and that far behind Russian lines - how come it hasn't fallen as yet? If the Russians have pushed 50-100 km past it, then there is no possibility of resupply from the rest of Ukraine.
  • Options
    FarooqFarooq Posts: 11,314
    kle4 said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    Note that Putin's top lie for his own subjects, is that the invasion is to suppress Ukrainian NAZIS. Led by Jewish Nazi & his fellow Fascist insects, bent on keeping the good folk of THE Ukraine down & out.

    Pointing out that PUTIN is the real Nazi here, is NOT playing his game, instead it's calling his bluff.

    And does NOT deflect from obvious linkages Czarist Autocracy > Soviet Communism > Putin National Neo-Communism.

    Which from a hearts-and-minds perspective viz-a-viz Russian people, is probably NOT very persuasive for average Russians. In a nation where Stalin is still a national icon, for a nation that takes its icons VERY seriously. Methinks sanctions & economics will have more & better effect than history & political science lessons . . . from foreigners.
    Projection is an insidious tool. If your fascist enemy calls you a fascist first, then just saying it back to him/her makes you look like you're trading insults instead of making a substantive and true claim. See also Trump, D., with all his allegations of others' elitism, lying, corruption, and sexual violence.
    Or even, dare we say, PBers calling one another fools.
    Well, I think everyone is a fool at some point, so that's just a matter of getting your timing right.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,819

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


    On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69]
    OUTSIDE the perimeter.

    I'm talking about central St Petersburg. The Nevsky Prospect and the Admiralty. The Neva Embankments and Pushkin's House, the Winter Palace and the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood

    It all survived relatively intact, I believe

    And it is glorious. I have had wonderful wonderful times in St Petersburg with brilliant, generous and darkly funny Russians. I want that Russia back. Not this Nazi shit. That is not Russia
    It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria.[17]

    Although various theories have been put forward about Germany's plans for Leningrad, including making it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear Hitler's intention was to utterly destroy the city and its population. According to a directive sent to Army Group North on 29 September:

    "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban centre. [...] Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population."[18]

    Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns.[19][20]
    That's where I had my dinner served by a waiter who was the direct descendent of a waiter who served Rasputin in the very same restaurant: the Astoria

    Hitler's plan seems a bit confused. On the one hand, he wants to have a grand victory dinner in its most glamorous hotel, on the other: raze it to the ground?

    Anyway it has survived, either restored or unhurt, and I hope that it will one day be free of this fucker Putin (who is a native St Petersburger, ironically)
    He WANTED a grand victory parade, but like Putin, he underestimated the resistance his army faced from the natives. So, SUBSEQUENTLY, he told the Wehrmacht "Fuck this, just bombard the place to dust and don't worry about the fate of the natives".
    Not an uncommon stance to be honest. See the common siege etiquette of 'Let us in and some will die. Resist and if we have to break our way in its indiscriminate slaughter'.
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
    We know from day to day reporting that some of the areas shown on the French map as deep within "Russian territorial gains" are contested, so what are the French playing at?
    Different interpretation as to what "territorial gains" means?

    For example, isn't it fielder's choice whether to consider turf controlled, when the invaders are rolling across the local road grid by day, even if they do NOT travel at night, or control anything considerable on either side of the highway except for (some) towns and other outposts?

    One analyst may say yes, another may say no. Not necessarily evidence that one group or another is playing at anything.

    Also not evidence to the contrary either. Though not sure what point might be in this instance?
    Though if Mariupol is completely surrounded and that far behind Russian lines - how come it hasn't fallen as yet? If the Russians have pushed 50-100 km past it, then there is no possibility of resupply from the rest of Ukraine.
    Surrounded pockets ranging from small holdouts to whole cities are NOT uncommon in war.

    For example, Stalingrad. Also "motti" during Winter War, when Russians surrounded by Finns sometimes held out for weeks, with few resources and no resupply.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,953
    Leon said:

    darkage said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
    Based on Mariupol, this seems to be the strategy: total destruction of Ukraine. Destroy the cities, kill or enslave the population. Is there any reason to assume this isn't the case?
    Perhaps I am struggling to comprehend the enormity of the crime being contemplated; perhaps I just don't want to believe it

    The total enslavement/murder of a nation of forty four million people

    Can this really be the plan?? Is Putin going to do a Mariupol on every Ukrainian city, one after the other?

    If he does, and looks like succeeding, I fear NATO will be drawn into the conflict. I can't see us standing by and allowing that to happen
    I don’t think @darkage is correct.

    Mariupol is a significant pocket of resistance. If/when it falls, Russia can connect the Donbas to Crimea and focus what is currently a three or four front war into one or two.

    Mariupol has refused to concede, thus it looks like Russia is threatening wholesale butchery of its citizens.
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892
    edited March 2022
    Farooq said:

    kle4 said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    Note that Putin's top lie for his own subjects, is that the invasion is to suppress Ukrainian NAZIS. Led by Jewish Nazi & his fellow Fascist insects, bent on keeping the good folk of THE Ukraine down & out.

    Pointing out that PUTIN is the real Nazi here, is NOT playing his game, instead it's calling his bluff.

    And does NOT deflect from obvious linkages Czarist Autocracy > Soviet Communism > Putin National Neo-Communism.

    Which from a hearts-and-minds perspective viz-a-viz Russian people, is probably NOT very persuasive for average Russians. In a nation where Stalin is still a national icon, for a nation that takes its icons VERY seriously. Methinks sanctions & economics will have more & better effect than history & political science lessons . . . from foreigners.
    Projection is an insidious tool. If your fascist enemy calls you a fascist first, then just saying it back to him/her makes you look like you're trading insults instead of making a substantive and true claim. See also Trump, D., with all his allegations of others' elitism, lying, corruption, and sexual violence.
    Or even, dare we say, PBers calling one another fools.
    Well, I think everyone is a fool at some point, so that's just a matter of getting your timing right.
    Farooq said:

    kle4 said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    Note that Putin's top lie for his own subjects, is that the invasion is to suppress Ukrainian NAZIS. Led by Jewish Nazi & his fellow Fascist insects, bent on keeping the good folk of THE Ukraine down & out.

    Pointing out that PUTIN is the real Nazi here, is NOT playing his game, instead it's calling his bluff.

    And does NOT deflect from obvious linkages Czarist Autocracy > Soviet Communism > Putin National Neo-Communism.

    Which from a hearts-and-minds perspective viz-a-viz Russian people, is probably NOT very persuasive for average Russians. In a nation where Stalin is still a national icon, for a nation that takes its icons VERY seriously. Methinks sanctions & economics will have more & better effect than history & political science lessons . . . from foreigners.
    Projection is an insidious tool. If your fascist enemy calls you a fascist first, then just saying it back to him/her makes you look like you're trading insults instead of making a substantive and true claim. See also Trump, D., with all his allegations of others' elitism, lying, corruption, and sexual violence.
    Or even, dare we say, PBers calling one another fools.
    Well, I think everyone is a fool at some point, so that's just a matter of getting your timing right.
    Correction: for "at some point" read "all to often".

    Speaking from personal experience!

  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 45,235

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
    We know from day to day reporting that some of the areas shown on the French map as deep within "Russian territorial gains" are contested, so what are the French playing at?
    Different interpretation as to what "territorial gains" means?

    For example, isn't it fielder's choice whether to consider turf controlled, when the invaders are rolling across the local road grid by day, even if they do NOT travel at night, or control anything considerable on either side of the highway except for (some) towns and other outposts?

    One analyst may say yes, another may say no. Not necessarily evidence that one group or another is playing at anything.

    Also not evidence to the contrary either. Though not sure what point might be in this instance?
    Though if Mariupol is completely surrounded and that far behind Russian lines - how come it hasn't fallen as yet? If the Russians have pushed 50-100 km past it, then there is no possibility of resupply from the rest of Ukraine.
    Surrounded pockets ranging from small holdouts to whole cities are NOT uncommon in war.

    For example, Stalingrad. Also "motti" during Winter War, when Russians surrounded by Finns sometimes held out for weeks, with few resources and no resupply.
    Stalingrad was never cut off. Maintaining the connection was considered vital to the defence - and was protected at vast cost in life and equipment.
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    "What I saw, I hope no one will ever see' says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol - Reuters News

    "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad""


    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/?taid=6237831952440400013b7e0f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    I'm not sure he means Leningrad. Which survived relatively intact due to the Nazi siege: it was not invaded and conquered. He probably means Stalingrad

    But still. Chilling

    Leningrad was pretty much flattened by artillery and air raids:

    The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[23][68]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Effect_on_the_city
    Reading accounts like that reminds me of reading about troops storming castle walls, in that it almost beggars belief that anyone involved actually survived.
    I'm still not convinced central Leningrad was "flattened".

    Here's the worst air raid they suffered:

    "The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[61]"

    It's not Hamburg or Dresden, it's not Coventry or the Blitz

    IIRC Hitler actually wanted to preserve beautiful St Petersburg so he could parade down it. He even had a menu for the victory feast that he planned in its most famous hotel (I've eaten there, I was served by a waiter descended from
    a waiter who served Rasputin, in the same restaurant).

    He just wanted it completely devoid of Russians, hence the terrible, murderous Siege: that was an easy and interesting way of killing all of them, without risking German lives


    On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69]
    OUTSIDE the perimeter.

    I'm talking about central St Petersburg. The Nevsky Prospect and the Admiralty. The Neva Embankments and Pushkin's House, the Winter Palace and the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood

    It all survived relatively intact, I believe

    And it is glorious. I have had wonderful wonderful times in St Petersburg with brilliant, generous and darkly funny Russians. I want that Russia back. Not this Nazi shit. That is not Russia
    It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria.[17]

    Although various theories have been put forward about Germany's plans for Leningrad, including making it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear Hitler's intention was to utterly destroy the city and its population. According to a directive sent to Army Group North on 29 September:

    "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban centre. [...] Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population."[18]

    Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns.[19][20]
    That's where I had my dinner served by a waiter who was the direct descendent of a waiter who served Rasputin in the very same restaurant: the Astoria

    Hitler's plan seems a bit confused. On the one hand, he wants to have a grand victory dinner in its most glamorous hotel, on the other: raze it to the ground?

    Anyway it has survived, either restored or unhurt, and I hope that it will one day be free of this fucker Putin (who is a native St Petersburger, ironically)
    He WANTED a grand victory parade, but like Putin, he underestimated the resistance his army faced from the natives. So, SUBSEQUENTLY, he told the Wehrmacht "Fuck this, just bombard the place to dust and don't worry about the fate of the natives".
    By that point, German army pretty depleted on Leningrad front, thanks to diversions to other fronts.

    Plus Finns were no help at all, despite Hitler flying to Finland to wish Marshall Mannerheim "happy birthday" in person.
  • Options
    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    Map on Wikipedia:

    image
    The Wikipedia maps seems to split the difference.
    Differences in military assessments as reflected on maps, may have less to do with national bias, than with somewhat varying expert views, analysis and sources.

    Nobody know 100% of what's happening everywhere, not in the bunkers or battlefronts. What actual % is for different countries and their military analysts, who knows?
    We know from day to day reporting that some of the areas shown on the French map as deep within "Russian territorial gains" are contested, so what are the French playing at?
    Different interpretation as to what "territorial gains" means?

    For example, isn't it fielder's choice whether to consider turf controlled, when the invaders are rolling across the local road grid by day, even if they do NOT travel at night, or control anything considerable on either side of the highway except for (some) towns and other outposts?

    One analyst may say yes, another may say no. Not necessarily evidence that one group or another is playing at anything.

    Also not evidence to the contrary either. Though not sure what point might be in this instance?
    Though if Mariupol is completely surrounded and that far behind Russian lines - how come it hasn't fallen as yet? If the Russians have pushed 50-100 km past it, then there is no possibility of resupply from the rest of Ukraine.
    Surrounded pockets ranging from small holdouts to whole cities are NOT uncommon in war.

    For example, Stalingrad. Also "motti" during Winter War, when Russians surrounded by Finns sometimes held out for weeks, with few resources and no resupply.
    Stalingrad was never cut off. Maintaining the connection was considered vital to the defence - and was protected at vast cost in life and equipment.
    I was referring to Red Army's encirclement of Stalingrad.
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    SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 15,892

    Leon said:

    darkage said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
    Based on Mariupol, this seems to be the strategy: total destruction of Ukraine. Destroy the cities, kill or enslave the population. Is there any reason to assume this isn't the case?
    Perhaps I am struggling to comprehend the enormity of the crime being contemplated; perhaps I just don't want to believe it

    The total enslavement/murder of a nation of forty four million people

    Can this really be the plan?? Is Putin going to do a Mariupol on every Ukrainian city, one after the other?

    If he does, and looks like succeeding, I fear NATO will be drawn into the conflict. I can't see us standing by and allowing that to happen
    I don’t think @darkage is correct.

    Mariupol is a significant pocket of resistance. If/when it falls, Russia can connect the Donbas to Crimea and focus what is currently a three or four front war into one or two.

    Mariupol has refused to concede, thus it looks like Russia is threatening wholesale butchery of its citizens.
    Seems that Russian army doctrine is essentially unchanged from Great Patriotic War. Taking pages straight out of Red Army playbook, only with (somewhat) updated weaponry?

    Sort of how at start of WWI, generals & most officers on all sides were convinced they were staging a reenactment of the Napoleonic Wars, only with rifles instead of muskets?
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    AslanAslan Posts: 1,673

    Leon said:

    darkage said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
    Based on Mariupol, this seems to be the strategy: total destruction of Ukraine. Destroy the cities, kill or enslave the population. Is there any reason to assume this isn't the case?
    Perhaps I am struggling to comprehend the enormity of the crime being contemplated; perhaps I just don't want to believe it

    The total enslavement/murder of a nation of forty four million people

    Can this really be the plan?? Is Putin going to do a Mariupol on every Ukrainian city, one after the other?

    If he does, and looks like succeeding, I fear NATO will be drawn into the conflict. I can't see us standing by and allowing that to happen
    I don’t think @darkage is correct.

    Mariupol is a significant pocket of resistance. If/when it falls, Russia can connect the Donbas to Crimea and focus what is currently a three or four front war into one or two.

    Mariupol has refused to concede, thus it looks like Russia is threatening wholesale butchery of its citizens.
    I don't think this is right. It could change them from a four front war to a three front war. That is a benefit but not a massive one. Plus, the Russians have taken such losses from Mariupol and elsewhere, the redeployment from Mariupol to the Donbass just restores them to where they were a week ago.
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    DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 25,049
    kle4 said:

    Disappointing they apparently got distracted by some historical allusions from talking about what to do now.

    A quick survey of Israeli and Jewish Twitter and Zelensky’s speech seems to have fallen relatively flat.

    https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/1505590656940523528

    Possibly the other way round, and the decision to do not much found its excuse in historical allusions.
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    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,616
    Russia is apparently also trying to recruit Libyan mercenaries.

    https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1505660086517215238
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,517
    This backs up the view I've had for ages: the higher qualifications you have, the less able you are to live in the real world. ;)
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,734

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There is nothing strange about pointing out that Putin is copying what Stalin did. What is strange is the need to refer to the Nazis when describing Russia's behaviour when there are direct examples of exactly the same behaviour in Russia's own history. It's as if there is a need to downplay the very obvious likenesses between Putin and earlier Russian leaders, specifically Stalin, not least because Putin himself has praised what Stalin achieved and bemoaned the loss of the Russian Empire he created.

    The Nazis were not the sole embodiment of evil in 20th century Europe. Stalinism and what he got the Soviets to do were quite as evil. Putin may choose to airbrush his and Soviet crimes from history. We in the West should not.
    That wasn't why I used the term Nazi. You're correct that they don't need another inspiration to draw upon, and frankly I find the still present reluctance to see Stalin era in particular crimes as as horrific as they were to be deeply bizarre (and no, that we allied with a monster to defeat another monster doesn't explain it).

    It simply resonates quite strongly given Russia's own justifications about their opponents, wilfully blind to the fact that the shadow they purport to be chasing is the one they are casting.
    Your last paragraph is a fair point.

    I just note that there is still among some a reluctance to acknowledge the enormity of Soviet Russia's crimes. It's as if the worst evil man could do has to be by definition Nazi. It's lazy and inaccurate thinking.
    In other circumstances, I would agree. There is plenty of awfulness in the history of Soviet Communism to draw on for the most ghastly regime.

    But Putin & Co are deliberately buying into Blood & Soil Nationalism combined with Fascism. See "Foundations of Geopolitics" etc etc.

    And, more widely, he is clearly a right wing nationalist dictator with an oligarchic economy, based on private ownership; they are no longer trying to run things along socialist lines. The emphasis upon empire and conquest is more reminiscent of right-wing dictatorship, as is the male-oriented culture around the leader. Economically people are relatively free to act, constrained by the actions of gangster individuals rather than directly the state. The trappings of a socialist dictatorship including relative gender equality (at least superficially) and the (fake) emphasis upon the collective are missing. Religion is tolerated.

    The one element of fascism overtly missing from Putin’s Russia is public policy based on racial discrimination, although the way he has ‘decided’ that the Ukranians are really Russian and hence due for incorporation within his state is essentially how the Nazis saw the Dutch and Scandinavians.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,734

    Leon said:

    darkage said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    There's something strange about the maps put out by the French ministy of defence. They're more favourable to the Russian position than even the Russian maps.

    Compare the French map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/Armees_Gouv/status/1505589694880489475

    With the British map of the conflict:

    image

    https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505498948177432576

    There's some good evidence that even the British map is excessively generous to the Russians, as their troops rarely leave the highways. So their real zone of control is much more limited than it appears.
    I've mentioned this before: this is a really uncanny echo of Vietnam

    The Americans would say "we have pacified Area 32 of the Mekong Delta and are now in full control". What that meant was: our soldiers have driven down Highway 32 in the Mekong Delta and wiped out any Viet Cong who attacked us

    As soon as the Yanks departed Highway 32, the VC would flood back in the night, infiltrate the villages, and start attacking the Americans, all over again

    You cannot occupy and defeat a nation which is completely committed to getting rid of you, unless you are prepared to go full Roman Empire (or Stalin/Hitler) - total genocide and deportation of populations

    Is Putin ready to do this? Is Russia?

    Maybe Putin is, I doubt Russia is
    Based on Mariupol, this seems to be the strategy: total destruction of Ukraine. Destroy the cities, kill or enslave the population. Is there any reason to assume this isn't the case?
    Perhaps I am struggling to comprehend the enormity of the crime being contemplated; perhaps I just don't want to believe it

    The total enslavement/murder of a nation of forty four million people

    Can this really be the plan?? Is Putin going to do a Mariupol on every Ukrainian city, one after the other?

    If he does, and looks like succeeding, I fear NATO will be drawn into the conflict. I can't see us standing by and allowing that to happen
    I don’t think @darkage is correct.

    Mariupol is a significant pocket of resistance. If/when it falls, Russia can connect the Donbas to Crimea and focus what is currently a three or four front war into one or two.

    Mariupol has refused to concede, thus it looks like Russia is threatening wholesale butchery of its citizens.
    The land corridor to the Crimea was probably (under Plan A) due for incorporation into Russia (or attachment to one of the fake independent republics in the east), hence it would be convenient to remove Ukranians. I don’t see any sign that this would ever have been the plan for the whole country; Leon is panic-spreading again.

    What the Russians overlook is that their actions - not just the invasion but prior, with the Donbas descending into gangster society and economy - has turned even Russian speakers against Russia.
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,717
    https://twitter.com/Hromadske/status/1505679967107092482
    Mariupol today. We publish the full text by Nadia Sukhorukova.

    I go outside in between the bombings. I need to walk the dog. She's whining, shivering, and hiding behind my legs. I want to sleep all the time. My yard, surrounded by high-rise buildings, is silent and dead. 1/13…</i
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    WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 8,503
    edited March 2022

    The other interesting thing about Mariupol is that population is 1/3 Greek heritage. Hence, perhaps, that diplomat’s visit.

    I understand there has traditionally been residual Russian sympathy in some parts of Greek society. One presumes that’s another casualty of Putin’s atrocities.

    Yes, in that part of Ukraine significant Greek presence, dating to antiquity but reinforced by subsequent immigration of refugees from Ottoman oppression, and later by Greek communists after they lost Greek Civil War in 1940s.

    Greek-Russian connection goes back to Byzantine Varangian Guard and (dare I say) Kievian Rus. Followed centuries later by Russian support for Greek Revolt, for example by Alexander I's chief minister (for a time) John Capodistria, who was a Greek from Corfu. This despite fact that Alex himself opposed the revolt, on grounds that it was against the "legitimate" ruler, who was the Sultan. But most Russians, including in military, political & ecclesiastical establishment, favored the Greek cause.
    Morning all.

    Yes, I don't think their connection will ever be the same again, in fact. There's been real anger against the war in Greece, identified as a larger power bullying the smaller, which the Greeks associate with the Ottomans, and also particular outrage at the fact that the Russians are bombing a key outpost of the historical greek diaspora to smithereens.

    That's mirrored on the religious-cultural front, where on the weekend the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople was talking in terms "when is the madness and criminality going to stop ? ". What he says matters amongt orthodox christians, because he's listened to not just in Europe, but also the middle east, and even Africa.
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    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,198


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    I don’t think they were even saying that

    They were threatening military tribunals - the mechanism for punishing traitors and collaborators- not treating them as enemy combatants
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    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,198
    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    That’s a phenomenal video.
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    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,198
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Astonishing.

    Ukraine's social media is out of this world in its boldness.

    https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1505623463687512067?s=21

    Wow. Social media is not half the battle of course, but as a tool in the modern age for rallying support and morale it is certainly not nothing. Being in English that video is obviously pitched to the world, not his fellow Ukrainians, and it packs a heck of a lot in just 1 min 43 seconds - the destruction wreaked on cities, the very personal losses they are suffering, a call for victory, and of the future dreams to be realised. They know they need to keep global attention on them, not let the anger lessen in the face of slow grinding war.

    Plays like a movie trailer - we can but hope the reality is even half like that.

    Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but now it will become great.
    A nation is born.

    If Mad Vlad thinks he will subdue these people then he is even madder than we thought.

    Time for the white coats to intervene.

    What is surprising is the total lack of Russian counter-attacks in social media - or that they are so feeble they don't register

    I read t'other day that this is because Russia is concentrating its fire on social media in LatAm. India, Africa, Asia. I frankly don't believe this. Public opinion in much of the global south is irrelevant. Sad but true. India is perhaps more germane, but it is not a crucible of rich, powerful opinion like Europe. And Europe has turned, en masse and decisively, against Putin

    I suspect it is because the Ukrainians have whipped the Russians, in the social media war, so comprehensively the Russians have abandoned any hope of changing western minds and are indulging in fairly pointless distractions elsewhere, just because it is something to do

    Of course one reason the Ukrainians have won THIS theatre of the war is that they so clearly have the truth on their side, and they have all the tragic but powerful videos to prove it

    I’m not a social media expert so, unlike most of what I post, this may be bollocks…

    But Ukraine’s social media appears to be organic - powerful videos that they put out and have been transmitted virally

    Russia’s historical investment was based on troll farms and paid networks which have been disrupted by Twitter, Facebook etc (helped by the scrutiny placed on them post Trump). So they may be producing great videos but they have no way to get them to the western consumer and they have a less sympathetic reaction (so spread less) even when they do
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,517
    On the social media war:

    Allegedly, Russia is concentrating its social media campaign on Africa, Asia and the Middle East. I have zero idea how successful they are being.

    If true, it would explain why we are not seeing much. Are they trying to build a new world axis?
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    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,198
    Farooq said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    Say what you will about Putin and his acolytes (and as the old joke goes, in Russia you cannot), but when they decide to go full Nazi they commit to it.
    They are going full Stalinist. The seizure of people and making them disappear far away, executions, lists of people being picked up etc., starving people into submission etc. They did not need to learn this from the Nazis. They simply need to repeat what previous Russian leaders did in their own recent history.

    Constantly referring to this regime as Nazi-like is wrong because it somehow assumes that Russia had to learn all this appalling behaviour from others when the truth is that it has behaved appallingly to its own and other people in exactly this way. It is copying its own playbook not another country's.
    That's a pretty strange post, given that the "intellectual" inspiration for later Putinism have been the likes of Dugin and Ilyin, two bona fide fascists.
    I don't really feel the need to correct you if you want to trace a line from Putin back to Stalin, but telling people that they're wrong to point out the fascist underpinning of Putin's regime is strange when it's probably the most accurate descriptor.
    There’s a difference between fascist and Nazi (a specifically German variant of facism) though.
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    StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,994
    TimT said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Indeed, given the way tertiary education has changed in my lifetime, level of education is little more than a proxy for age.
    Not just tertiary education.

    We forget it now, but in the 70's it was perfectly common to leave school without O Levels or CSEs. Nada. Zilch. That would mean being born in about 1960, so in your 60's now. That remained technically possible up to Ken Baker's reforms of the mid-80's.

    So partly age, but also a cohort of people who have some reason to feel that the world has moved away from them in ways they don't like.
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    WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 8,503
    edited March 2022

    On the social media war:

    Allegedly, Russia is concentrating its social media campaign on Africa, Asia and the Middle East. I have zero idea how successful they are being.

    If true, it would explain why we are not seeing much. Are they trying to build a new world axis?

    They might be having some success. There seems to be quite a lot of indifference online from those parts of the world, and much of it seems to follow a fomula that the Russians have suported, listing Western activities in the middle east. There's real antipathy on that basis, ofcourse, but the Russian online operation is now expert in framing and manipulating this sort of thing. To a certain extent I think this thought process has even influenced Putin's own intellectual development himself, so it's now a culturally familiar route for Russians to take in supporting.
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    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 68,040


    Shashank Joshi
    @shashj
    Treating civilians as combatants on the basis that they haven’t fled a city by your bogus deadline is about as war crime-y as it gets.

    https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1505655988405350403

    I don’t think they were even saying that

    They were threatening military tribunals - the mechanism for punishing traitors and collaborators- not treating them as enemy combatants
    Is there a case here for NATO fitting a load of drones with loudspeakers and flying them over the Russian forces broadcasting a warning of the likely personal consequences of taking part in such actions?
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    HeathenerHeathener Posts: 5,728
    edited March 2022
    My anecdotal 'evidence' matches this thread. The people in my life who are avowed tories and Boris fans did not go to University.

    The problem here for me as a Labour (or when the situation suits LibDem of Green) supporter is that it is all too easy to come across as snotty. This really came to the fore with Brexit where the divide was quite stark. Thick, stupid, easily misled people tended to support Boris and Brexit. Of course there are exceptions to this like our very own Leon who I am sure is very bright.

    See how easy it is to get snotty over it? It's something which is guaranteed to wind up Brexit supporters and Boris tories, who will point with some justification to the same kind of Metropolitan elitism which herded people into the Brexit fold. Concerns about ghost towns, immigration and the EU's manifest centralised corruption were ignored by the well-educated.

    I wonder if Mike and Ipsos have really hit on something. That THIS is the real and biggest divide in Britain today?
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    felixfelix Posts: 15,125

    TimT said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Indeed, given the way tertiary education has changed in my lifetime, level of education is little more than a proxy for age.
    Not just tertiary education.

    We forget it now, but in the 70's it was perfectly common to leave school without O Levels or CSEs. Nada. Zilch. That would mean being born in about 1960, so in your 60's now. That remained technically possible up to Ken Baker's reforms of the mid-80's.

    So partly age, but also a cohort of people who have some reason to feel that the world has moved away from them in ways they don't like.
    I feel the latter point particularly - but I'm unclear about the educational link as I was one of the very few to get a place in a top university in 1972 and had a successful career in teaching for 34 years. Always a Tory voter and by no means alone among my co-worker peers. Fairly sure that the world moving away thing is mainly just a product of age and a long memory.
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    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,326

    On the social media war:

    Allegedly, Russia is concentrating its social media campaign on Africa, Asia and the Middle East. I have zero idea how successful they are being.

    If true, it would explain why we are not seeing much. Are they trying to build a new world axis?

    Surely, in Africa at least they are way behind the Chinese? They might be looking to recruit a few more mercenaries there. Libya the latest it seems.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,734
    felix said:

    TimT said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Indeed, given the way tertiary education has changed in my lifetime, level of education is little more than a proxy for age.
    Not just tertiary education.

    We forget it now, but in the 70's it was perfectly common to leave school without O Levels or CSEs. Nada. Zilch. That would mean being born in about 1960, so in your 60's now. That remained technically possible up to Ken Baker's reforms of the mid-80's.

    So partly age, but also a cohort of people who have some reason to feel that the world has moved away from them in ways they don't like.
    I feel the latter point particularly - but I'm unclear about the educational link as I was one of the very few to get a place in a top university in 1972 and had a successful career in teaching for 34 years. Always a Tory voter and by no means alone among my co-worker peers. Fairly sure that the world moving away thing is mainly just a product of age and a long memory.
    There's no doubt the Tories have moved 'down market' over the decades. You only have to look at their candidates and MPs to see that. Which plays very well in our sort of electoral system, given the propensity of the educated middle classes to agglomerate within a minority of constituencies.
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    HeathenerHeathener Posts: 5,728
    TimT said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Indeed, given the way tertiary education has changed in my lifetime, level of education is little more than a proxy for age.
    But the voting intention by age charts don't correlate so well until you get into the 65+ bracket, so it's not quite a proxy?

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/517476/eu-referendum-voting-intention-in-uk-by-age/





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    felixfelix Posts: 15,125
    IanB2 said:

    felix said:

    TimT said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Indeed, given the way tertiary education has changed in my lifetime, level of education is little more than a proxy for age.
    Not just tertiary education.

    We forget it now, but in the 70's it was perfectly common to leave school without O Levels or CSEs. Nada. Zilch. That would mean being born in about 1960, so in your 60's now. That remained technically possible up to Ken Baker's reforms of the mid-80's.

    So partly age, but also a cohort of people who have some reason to feel that the world has moved away from them in ways they don't like.
    I feel the latter point particularly - but I'm unclear about the educational link as I was one of the very few to get a place in a top university in 1972 and had a successful career in teaching for 34 years. Always a Tory voter and by no means alone among my co-worker peers. Fairly sure that the world moving away thing is mainly just a product of age and a long memory.
    There's no doubt the Tories have moved 'down market' over the decades. You only have to look at their candidates and MPs to see that. Which plays very well in our sort of electoral system, given the propensity of the educated middle classes to agglomerate within a minority of constituencies.
    Interesting turn of phrase - sums of the patronising contempt shown by the emcs to those ' beneath' them.
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    HeathenerHeathener Posts: 5,728
    felix said:

    TimT said:

    A pointless claim unless you factor in the different levels of education per age group.

    Indeed, given the way tertiary education has changed in my lifetime, level of education is little more than a proxy for age.
    Not just tertiary education.

    We forget it now, but in the 70's it was perfectly common to leave school without O Levels or CSEs. Nada. Zilch. That would mean being born in about 1960, so in your 60's now. That remained technically possible up to Ken Baker's reforms of the mid-80's.

    So partly age, but also a cohort of people who have some reason to feel that the world has moved away from them in ways they don't like.
    had a successful career in teaching for 34 years. Always a Tory voter .
    Private schools or state sector?

    And primary, secondary, or tertiary?

    I ask because I know very very few tory teachers who survived for long in the state secondary sector.
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