Ukraine

[Vrede too]

Word on the street is PornHub has sanctioned Russia. When Russian users try to visit they're presented with a Ukranians flag. Damn everybody hates Russia right now. Even the Taliban are calling for people to chill.

Taliban urges restraint in Ukraine, 6 months after it took over Afghanistan by force




PornHub reverses the Russian invasion on Ukraine

[Whack9]

I don't recall ever seeing the whole damn world so pissed off at one country.

Putin really, really, messed up.

Russia is going to be wrecked economically.

20th century geopolitics simply does not work when nearly every person on the planet can livestream everything happening on the ground.

Also quick shout out to President Zelensky. What a bad ass.

[billy.pilgrim]

I don't recall ever seeing the whole damn world so pissed off at one country.

Putin really, really, messed up.

Russia is going to be wrecked economically.

20th century geopolitics simply does not work when nearly every person on the planet can livestream everything happening on the ground.

Also quick shout out to President Zelensky. What a bad ass.

It is always a good thing when the war monger countries lose their ass. Let's hope this one continues to go downhill for putin.
Who knows, maybe the Russian people will start chanting, Lock him up.

[Ulysses]

Why Putin didn’t flinch in the face of an onslaught of financial sanctions

Hopefully Ukraine's determined resistance will change this.

Sanctions against Russia may not achieve their aim of forcing Vladimir Putin back to the negotiating table if his forces succeed in achieving their military objective before the country feels the economic pain.

Russia may be enfeebled by years of dependence on commodity exports, yet the Kremlin has fattened itself on the proceeds of last year’s inflationary boom in energy prices. That means it’s now in a prime position to weather reprisals designed to sap his fiscal ability to wage war.

“We will weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernize, and in addition we will freeze Russian assets in the European Union,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Thursday only hours after Putin launched combat operations.

Waves of increasingly punishing financial sanctions imposed by Western allies may ultimately take too much time to unfold their full effect—valuable time Ukraine may not have. “President Putin’s decision to escalate the military confrontation into a war suggests a willingness to accept near-term economic pain in favor of securing long-term geopolitical goals,” wrote Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of global wealth management at UBS on Thursday....

[Vrede too]

I don't recall ever seeing the whole damn world so pissed off at one country.

Putin really, really, messed up.

Russia is going to be wrecked economically.

20th century geopolitics simply does not work when nearly every person on the planet can livestream everything happening on the ground.

Also quick shout out to President Zelensky. What a bad ass.

Iraq did not have many supporters when it invaded Kuwait, but that's the only comparable episode I can think of.

By invading Ukraine, Putin loses allies in eastern Europe

[GoCubsGo]

There sure are lot of social media reports of things like this. Hope there is something to them.

[billy.pilgrim]

There sure are lot of social media reports of things like this. Hope there is something to them.

If true, funny.

[GoCubsGo]

There sure are lot of social media reports of things like this. Hope there is something to them.

If true, funny.

Or pathetic.

From what I've read the Russian troops are all conscripts, they don't want to be there and don't even know why they are there.

Not the stuff that dedicated fighting forces need to be successful.

[Ulysses]

Russia Used Beatings and Tricks to Forcibly Send Rookie Troops to Ukraine, Rights Group Says

Russian soldiers from all across the country were deceived into heading to the Ukrainian border, and some were beaten if they resisted, according to the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, a Russian non-governmental organization that works to expose human rights violations within the military.

The group is reportedly preparing a complaint for the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office alleging that their sons only recently joined the military as conscripts and were told they were going to the border with Ukraine for drills. But their statuses were then abruptly changed to contract soldiers— a role for those with more combat and training experience—and they were suddenly thrust into war.

“They are switching entire regiments to contract [soldiers,] although the guys did not submit any formal requests for this, and took no such initiative. There are instances of physical violence, and beatings of those who refuse to become contract soldiers. And after that it’s completely unknown [what happens to them], because they take away their phones,” Andrei Kurochkin, the deputy chairman of the group, told Takie Dela.

“We've had a flurry of calls from scared mothers all over Russia. They are crying, they don’t know if their children are alive or healthy,” he was quoted saying, adding that it’s a “complete catastrophe” when military service is performed “under duress.”

I couldn't find any sites that state "all" the Russian troops in Ukraine are conscripts, as GCG has asserted. But it does sound like a lot of them are.

[GoCubsGo]

Who's naive enough to think that soldiers, conscripted or otherwise have choices on where to serve or civilian civil rights?

[Whack9]

There sure are lot of social media reports of things like this. Hope there is something to them.

Lol I think that's the video where the civilian is like do you need me to tow you back to Russia? And then the Russians ask how the wars going and the civilian replies "good for Ukraine, you guys keep getting lost and running out of gas" or something

[Vrede too]

Lol I think that's the video where the civilian is like do you need me to tow you back to Russia? And then the Russians ask how the wars going and the civilian replies "good for Ukraine, you guys keep getting lost and running out of gas" or something

A pic of a horse cart towing a Russian APC could win a Pulitzer.

[Whack9]

Damn. Even Donald Trump has come out in support of Ukraine, reportedly saying "I should've bitten off Putin's dick back when I was sucking it."

[GoCubsGo]

Damn. Even Donald Trump has come out in support of Ukraine, reportedly saying "I should've bitten off Putin's dick back when I was sucking it."

[GoCubsGo]

Hit them where it hurts.






Starting to think Vlad may have miscalculated, which opens up a whole other can of worms.

[GoCubsGo]

[Vrede too]

Hit them where it hurts.

Starting to think Vlad may have miscalculated, which opens up a whole other can of worms.

Some articles say that Russia has been prepping for the backlash for years, and that it made enormous gains from energy price increases in the past year.

Hit innocents where it hurts:

Russian Vodka Is Getting Taken Off The Shelves Over Putin's Invasion Of Ukraine

Already paid for by wholesalers and retailers.

Ditching vodka to protest Russia? You might be surprised where that bottle is actually from.

... Stoli vodka, which is made in Latvia (which is a NATO member country) is owned by a company in Luxembourg that is controlled by Yuri Shefler, a Russian-born billionaire who left Russia, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer....

[Ulysses]

Damn. Even Donald Trump has come out in support of Ukraine, reportedly saying "I should've bitten off Putin's dick back when I was sucking it."

[Vrede too]

Anti-war sentiment grows in Russia despite govt crackdown

Right on, but may be wishful thinking. Anti-war sentiment has rarely had a practical effect in supposedly more democratic America.

[Ulysses]

Russian Billionaires Lose $39 Billion in a Day on Ukraine Attack

Russia’s wealthiest individuals were already feeling the squeeze from escalating tensions between the nation and Ukraine. It got much worse for their net worth after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. In less than 24 hours, they lost $39 billion — more than they had up to that point this year.

The damage was across asset classes. Russia’s benchmark MOEX Russia Index closed 33% lower in Moscow, the fifth-worst plunge in stock market history in local currency terms. It marked the first time since 1987’s Black Monday crash that a decline of that magnitude hit a market worth more than $50 billion.

UBS Group AG, meantime, triggered margin calls on some wealth management clients that use Russian bonds as collateral for their portfolios after cutting the lending value of some debt from the country to zero, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News. The Swiss wealth manager says it caters to half of the world’s billionaires.

...

“There are a lot of people in the U.S. and Europe who want to hit them directly,” Chris Miller, co-director of the Russia and Eurasia program at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, said of Russian billionaires in an interview. “I don’t think there’s any good news in the sanctions for them.”

Good news for the world.