PJShannon
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‘Don’t you dare mention yourself in the same breath as the name of Comrade Stalin, you are unworthy.’
TrollScotsman is clearly amusing himself at our expense. Sad that he’s got nothing better to do with his time. I have.
What is more likely, that prominent rich opponents of Putin’s war happen to die accidentally in bizarre circumstances, along with their wives and children, and within a short space of time, or that Putin’s hit men are on a campaign to scare the shit out of anyone who speaks out against him?
I feel sorry for the kids, they didn’t deserve to die like that, whatever their parents did. To see you making a joke out of all this is pretty sickening too.
“I call bull shit. Citation needed.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62750584
The chairman of Russia’s Lukoil oil giant, Ravil Maganov, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, reports say.
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Lukoil board called for the conflict to end as soon as possible, expressing its sympathy to victims of “this tragedy”.
Several Russian energy oligarchs have died in unusual circumstances in recent months:
The body of millionaire Novatek former manager Sergei Protosenya was found alongside his wife and daughter at a Spanish villa in April
A former vice-president of Gazprombank, Vladislav Avayev, was found dead with his wife and daughter in their Moscow flat, also in April
In May, a former Lukoil tycoon Alexander Subbotin died of heart failure, reportedly after seeking alternative treatment from a shaman.“this forum generally does take the view that Russia was provoked into military action by NATO expansionism.”
I don’t. What has Putin done about Sweden and Finland joining Nato? Nothing. And in the era of hypersonic missiles, the geographical location of missile bases is irrelevant. I think the invasion was about securing pipelines and the huge unexploited gas fields in Ukraine, the largest in Europe outside Norway. If you look on a map, the gas fields are precisely underneath the Russian-occupied areas. Were these to fall into western hands, Russia’s economy would be cut off at the knees. I also think Putin is becoming increasingly isolated, deranged and unrepresentative of Russian ruling class interests, as evidenced by the fact that he is assassinating dissenting Russian oligarchs with gay abandon, including their wives and children. Surely a palace coup can not be far off?
That’s very good Alan (although shame about the brand plug at the end). Maybe we should have that on our front page?
This well-made 39-minute video makes a persuasive case for the Russian adventure being primarily a land and resources grab, given the recent discovery of huge oil and gas reserves in Ukraine (in Crimea and Dnieper/Donbas), which threatened to wreck Russia’s near-monopoly in European sales.
It argues that Russia always makes its strategically most risky moves when the oil price is high or peaking, as in Afghanistan, Georgia, Crimea and in February this year. In this view, the geopolitical situation vis a vis Nato looks rather beside the point.
‘The ex governor of the state of California was a member of the hitler youth’.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in 1947.
‘I didn’t know that Karl Marx was Russian.’
https://www.indy100.com/news/karl-marx-university-florida-russia
This article is interesting in more ways than one:
‘Marx influenced the world with his book, The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Although some cite Marx’s work as inspiration for Russia’s communist revolution, most historians agree it was not implemented the way Marx intended.’
‘So NATO is preparing for war with Russia.’
I don’t see how that makes sense. Without playing at armchair generals, it seems to me that Nato’s best play is probably to hang back, surreptitiously (or not) continue to arm Ukraine, and hope Russia exhausts its economy and resources fighting another 20-year Afghanistan bloodbath. Meanwhile Venezuela and Iran will be swiftly rehabilitated and brought back on-board as suppliers. All that would knock Russia out as a global competitor more surely than a hot and very risky war. For the scenario to play out, western governments just need to keep the jingoism shrill to encourage the Ukrainians to commit mass suicide, which Zelensky seems to have every intention of making happen.
Sorry if someone’s already said all this.
The article doesn’t say the mine is designed to look like a toy, merely that a child might pick it up mistaking it for a toy. That’s unlikely if what they’re referring to as a ‘lepestok’ (‘petal’) mine is in fact the PMA-2 mine described here, as these are designed to be buried, not ‘fired’, and you can’t bury mines in urban streets.
‘I was surprised to find this on the BBC, debunking pro-Ukrainian propaganda photos and videos. I wonder when they will be given a D notice or whatever telling them to stop.’
It’s not really pro-Uke propaganda, just devilment by amateur fake-news social media bullshitters craving some attention. The BBC’s ‘Reality Check’ journalists are pretty good at exposing this sort of thing, and also regularly debunk claims by the Tories as well as Biden, Trump etc, to say nothing of Putin. The D-notice system is voluntary anyway and predicated on issues of UK national security, which certainly wouldn’t apply in this case.
Given the situation, and in lieu of any official EC statement as yet, I’ve taken the unilateral liberty of posting an extract from Aljo’s SOYMB blog post on the SPGB home page. It felt like the right thing to do in the circumstances but if that’s not ok with members please say so and I’ll restore the old page.
