Admiral Beez
Major
By today's measure, that of a people's self determination, yes the Confederacy should have been allowed. The voluntarily joined the union and should have been able to leave it just as easily.
"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (4 Viewers)
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SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Is Putin aware of that?
RE post #800
RE post #800
buffnut453
Captain
Again, what about the people who want to stay in the union but live in the secessionist state(s) (use of lower case is deliberate)? In the Donbas, those people who remained loyal to Kyiv had zero choice...their homeland was forcibly separated from the rest of Ukraine. Is that fair? Is that self-determination?
By the time of the American Civil War, the US had over 80 years' experience in evolving its democratic approach...and that was based on a number of centuries of freedoms inherited from the United Kingdom. Ukraine has had a non-autocratic government for, what, eight years? Democracy and democratic values require time to take root. Given the relative ease with which Russian operatives could disrupt the situation in the Donbas, what chance any referendum on Donbas secession being free and/or fair?
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Crimea_River
Marshal
He is now.
Didn't he lose a family member in the Holocaust?
The state controls the media. Reports are coming though that Putin us losing control of that.
buffnut453
Captain
This is timely...from the BBC:
Two leading independent media outlets - TV Rain and the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio channel - were taken off air on Tuesday night.
This follows a complaint from the Russian prosecutor general's office that both outlets have been airing "calls to extremist activities" and "premeditated false information about Russian servicemen".
Both TV Rain and Ekho Moskvy have denied the allegations.
They remain visible and able to operate on social media and YouTube.
Separately, Russian Wikipedia said that media watchdog Roskomnadzor had issued it with a warning, demanding it remove an article entitled "Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022", or risk being blocked.
Russian authorities and the state-controlled media do not refer to the "invasion" of Ukraine or the "war", instead calling it a "military operation".
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
His entire family, except for one of four brothers, was murdered.
The lone survivor was his Grandfather.
Damn, and Putin wants to play the Nazi card?
Thumpalumpacus
Major
We had expired MREs in Desert Storm the first few weeks we were at Moron AB. They were indeed edible, but in typical GI fashion we broke the acronym down to "Meals Refused by Ethiopians."
buffnut453
Captain
Ministry of Truth, remember?
Is that Truth Social ?
Pentagon official says Russian troops have 'deliberately punched holes' in their own gas tanks 'presumably' to avoid combat as morale declines: report
In an apparent attempt to avoid combat, some Russian troops have punched holes in their vehicles' gas tanks, a Pentagon official said, according to the New York Times.
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
Right?
Back to the discussion about Russian equipment. Since the fall of the Soviet Union (and probably long before) they have always had issues with equipment.
I certainly don't think they are what they used to be, or what we thought they were. Russian doctrine was always to overpower with superior numbers. How do you think they beat the Germans in WW2?
I actually worked with Russian soldiers in Kosovo back in 2002-2003. There equipment was atrocious. They did not even have winter boots. I had one soldier offer to trade me his bayonet if I bought him a pair of US Army winter boots from the camp PX.
Their aviation unit had Mi-24 Hinds. They were constantly grounded for maintenance largely due to lack of parts, and aircraft looked like they were maintained by a kindergarten class. I remember sitting in the aircraft and thinking it would come apart.
I certainly don't think they are what they used to be, or what we thought they were. Russian doctrine was always to overpower with superior numbers. How do you think they beat the Germans in WW2?
I actually worked with Russian soldiers in Kosovo back in 2002-2003. There equipment was atrocious. They did not even have winter boots. I had one soldier offer to trade me his bayonet if I bought him a pair of US Army winter boots from the camp PX.
Their aviation unit had Mi-24 Hinds. They were constantly grounded for maintenance largely due to lack of parts, and aircraft looked like they were maintained by a kindergarten class. I remember sitting in the aircraft and thinking it would come apart.
Thumpalumpacus
Major
Thumpalumpacus
Major
Thumpalumpacus
Major
The media in Russia is controlled.
WASHINGTON/ST. PETERSBURG — "For more than a decade I've seen how dramatically the space for independent journalism has been shrinking at the regional level," Moscow-based freelancer Artem Filatov told VOA.
Speaking ahead of a constitutional vote that gave President Vladimir Putin sweeping powers, the former Echo of Moscow radio journalist said, "There is little critical reporting toward Putin's system. And many Moscow-based media are also under control [of the state or state-aligned corporations]."
Since Putin came to power in 2000, Russia has moved to limit news media and critics. Steps have included passage of a 2014 law threatening bloggers and a 2019 law to control the internet, plus measures on extremism, foreign interference and false news that can be used to punish journalists.
Media buyouts by state-owned companies or Putin supporters have led to journalists quitting over censorship. While some independent news outlets have survived or emerged, many are located overseas for protection from interference or retaliation.
Impunity has increased the sense of threat. Since January 2000, at least 25 journalists have been killed for their work, but full justice has been achieved in only one case — Anastasiya Baburova of Novaya Gazeta — according to a count by the press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). A Moscow court in 2015 sentenced the leader of an extremist group to life in prison for her murder. Two others were convicted in connection with the killing 2011.
Russian Media Fights for Survival Under Putin
Over two decades of media suppression, Russia’s independent journalists move online or outside nation's borders
www.voanews.com
The access of the average Russian to non-state-controlled media seems pretty slim ... and dangerous to its purveyors. Perhaps not DPRK-level control, but there's definitely a hand at the helm, steering the message.
Thumpalumpacus
Major
Solzhenitsyn documents the use of Samizdat going back to the 60s in the USSR in his opus The GULag Archipelago.
The trouble with oppressing people is that they try to find workarounds.
