Russia! Russia!! Russia!!!

[TheReal_ND]

Great article in NYTimes about how Modern Russia is just the Soviet Union without the communism. Anyone who tries to write or talk about history that doesn't fit Putin's narrative is a "traitor". A PhD candidate was denied his degree because his dissertation was not patriotic enough!

Https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/worl ... .html?_r=0

PODOLSK, Russia — As a former Soviet factory director, Vladimir Melikhov survived the brutal business turf wars of the 1990s to make a fortune in construction. Now he devotes his energy and money to what, in the Russia of President Vladimir V. Putin, has become a truly risky enterprise: digging into Russian history.

Mr. Melikhov has founded a private museum that is devoted to the memory of the “anti-Bolshevik resistance” and that delves into a singularly taboo topic — why many Cossacks and other persecuted Soviet citizens welcomed, at least initially, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

The museum, housed in a three-story building he built himself on his private estate in Podolsk, south of Moscow, makes no attempt to glorify Nazi collaborators. But it has enraged the authorities by focusing on the relentless persecution that followed Russia’s 1917 Bolshevik revolution, creating fertile ground for anti-Soviet treachery during a war that cost 25 million Soviet lives.

“What they really don’t like is that I make people think about what happened in the past and what is happening today,” Mr. Melikhov said.

because his dissertation was not patriotic enough!

Lol. Based Putler

[Smitty-48]

Way smarter than the Soviets, Soviet military budget by GDP; 50%, Russian military budget by GDP; 5%. Red Scare; still in effect.

[brewster]

Way smarter than the Soviets, Soviet military budget by GDP; 50%, Russian military budget by GDP; 5%. Red Scare; still in effect.

A resource efficient and aggressive authoritarian Russia is not something I find reassuring. The big question is whether he'd be able to get away domestically with a Tiananmen style repression if it ever came to that, so far it's just jailing, repression, assassinations and general bullying.

[Smitty-48]

Way smarter than the Soviets, Soviet military budget by GDP; 50%, Russian military budget by GDP; 5%. Red Scare; still in effect.

A resource efficient and aggressive authoritarian Russia is not something I find reassuring. The big question is whether he'd be able to get away domestically with a Tiananmen style repression if it ever came to that, so far it's just jailing, repression, assassinations and general bullying.

It's an Illiberal Democracy, he has an 82% approval rating, there isn't enough dissent to buck the rider, he plays to his base, so long as the pensions get paid, no problemo.

[brewster]

Way smarter than the Soviets, Soviet military budget by GDP; 50%, Russian military budget by GDP; 5%. Red Scare; still in effect.

A resource efficient and aggressive authoritarian Russia is not something I find reassuring. The big question is whether he'd be able to get away domestically with a Tiananmen style repression if it ever came to that, so far it's just jailing, repression, assassinations and general bullying.

It's an Illiberal Democracy, he has an 82% approval rating, there isn't enough dissent to buck the rider, he plays to his base, so long as the pensions get paid, no problemo.

Cmon, when dissent catches you a beating, bullet or weird poison, that's not an honest count. These things look fine till they explode, see Egypt & Mubarak.

[Smitty-48]

A resource efficient and aggressive authoritarian Russia is not something I find reassuring. The big question is whether he'd be able to get away domestically with a Tiananmen style repression if it ever came to that, so far it's just jailing, repression, assassinations and general bullying.

It's an Illiberal Democracy, he has an 82% approval rating, there isn't enough dissent to buck the rider, he plays to his base, so long as the pensions get paid, no problemo.

Cmon, when dissent catches you a beating, bullet or weird poison, that's not an honest count. These things look fine till they explode, see Egypt & Mubarak.

What makes you think the masses don't vote with their feet for thugs? Look at the Phillipines, Duterte makes Putin look like a pussycat; 80% approval rating.

Look at Venezuela, even at the end, when everything was coming a cropper, Hugo Chavez; still pulling down 57% approval.

And what exactly happened in Egypt, after the Lefties got their way? Whoops, backlash from the Silent Majority, Field Marshall Sisi FTW, new boss same as the old boss.

It's Russia; if you overthrow Putin, who you think you're gonna get, George Clooney?

Russia runs on thugs, only the thugs will survive, Putin knows the score, only the biggest baddest thug of them all can rule here, it would be the pussycat who ended up hanging from the lamppost.

Why do you think Putin amasses all the wealth that he does? Just wants to be rich? No, King of the Oligarchs, the other Oligarchs ain't gonna take you seriously if you're mooching around them for cash, to survive, you need to out oligarch the Oligarchs. You wanna rule here? Big Dick Playuh, swinging below your knees.

Russia is Capo World, Putin is Capo di Tutti Capi, you wanna take a run at the boss? You'd best not miss, sure you got the stones for that? Are you sure you wanna be boss instead?

Last time the boss got taken out, it was total fucking chaos, nobody could rule, everybody had to go to the matresses, is that what the Street really wants? You sure bout dat?

I don't find the 80th percentile hard to believe at all, just on "Devil you know" alone. The dissent rate on the Street is hovering around the 20th percentile? Yeah, that sounds about right, just how many liberal panty waists do you think there are in Russia? It ain't Massachusetts, never mind that I bet Putin would have a pretty high approval rating if he was a rootin' tootin' American Putin, might actually get something done for a change.

What, Nancy Pelosi, polonium in her tea? Oh boo-hoo-hoo, that's just tragic, but you know, she lived a long life, and that's Islamic terrorists for you, what'cha gonna do, eh? Chuck Shumer, gunned down by Chechen separatists? Ah well, just have to learn to live without him, we'll get those Chechens, Chuck, we will avenge you. Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, goes down in the DNC private jet? Hey, shit happens, bad karma, planes go down sometimes, who knew?

[adwinistrator]

Defense Intelligence Agency. (2017). Russia Military Power: Building a Military to Support Great Power Aspirations.

[pineapplemike]

Update to yesterday's story about Donny Jr's meeting with "Russians" during campaign

Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/p ... afort.html

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner only recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

In a statement on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

Republican response..

“We have learned from both our own investigation and public reports that the participants in the meeting misrepresented who they were and who they worked for,” said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for President Trump’s legal team. “Specifically, we have learned that the person who sought the meeting is associated with Fusion GPS, a firm which according to public reports, was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the President and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier. "

Reddit response..

And there it is. Direct evidence of collusion.

[ssu]

Even if from last year, one of the best down-to-Earth and realistic discussions about Russia's active measures without the usual MSM hype (or right-wing denialism).

What makes this good isn't only the historic perspective of comparing the present to Soviet actions in the 1980's, but the real pondering if the measures have been successfull in the end and is there a connection to a larger strategic objective. Then the KGB was pleased that masses of Europeans came out on the streets to demonstrate against the deployment of Pershing II's... yet politicians like Thatcher and Helmut Kohl were voted into office and the missiles did get deployed. It's argued that actually the actions might not be part of some larger strategy, but more like "let's see what we can do", even if things like the Gerasimov doctrine are discussed. What I like is the critique that cyberwarfare actually hasn't been such a big thing even in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, where Ukraine isn't some stone age country like Afghanistan. Good reasons are given to why this is so.



Also the speakers compare the whole Russian and American approach to "cyber". If Americans see "cyberwarfare" as something on it's own, a new way of warfare, the Russians see it just as a means to what basically would be information warfare.

[clubgop]

Update to yesterday's story about Donny Jr's meeting with "Russians" during campaign

Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/p ... afort.html

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner only recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

In a statement on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

Republican response..

“We have learned from both our own investigation and public reports that the participants in the meeting misrepresented who they were and who they worked for,” said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for President Trump’s legal team. “Specifically, we have learned that the person who sought the meeting is associated with Fusion GPS, a firm which according to public reports, was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the President and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier. "

Reddit response..

And there it is. Direct evidence of collusion.

WTH? So this was all a setup. This whole Russian thing was to plant a seed, with no justification?