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Putin & Russia

From this article it seems they are rounding up all the men of fighting age in Donetsk and Luhansk and forcing them to join the military.

https://novayagazeta-ru.translate.g...=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

A girl from Donetsk contacted the editors of Novaya Gazeta. For security reasons, we cannot name her (audio recordings of the monologues are at the disposal of the editors). She told how forced mobilization was organized in the “DPR”. They have already taken away all the guys whom she personally knew, her university classmates, relatives, and acquaintances. None of them had served in the army before. From some there are reports that they are already in Ukraine. We publish the monologues of a girl and her friends who are faced with mobilization.

“At first, even before [the “special operation”], before the evacuation, they began to take away all state employees. Those who worked in the Central Bank, who worked as teachers, lecturers, who worked in tax and other structures. More than 50% of the men were taken there. On some - 100%, where they were not vital. In the bank, for example, only the male collectors were left, and the rest - up to the bosses - were all taken away.

Then, already during the evacuation, they began to pick up students. It didn't seem like it was necessary. You had to come to the dean's office and confirm that you are in Donetsk. My classmate went in this way, he was told to come to the military registration and enlistment office at the place of residence, to confirm that he was in the full-time department, but it all ended with the fact that they were taken to the training camp a week and a half ago and since then they have not returned. Those students who tried to leave for Russia together with the evacuees were not released by the “DPR”. We have only three checkpoints with Russia. All cars are checked. If there is at least one man from 18 to 55, they are sent to prison and put into something like a paddy wagon and taken to mobilization points. There are no options to leave. Men, like dogs, are caught in the streets.

Even if a man just goes to the store, he can be stopped and asked for documents. If there are no documents, then they are taken to the police department to establish their identity. If there is, but there is no mark from the military registration and enlistment office that he is not subject or has already undergone military training, then they are taken immediately to the mobilization point. There are no men in the city now. Those who have not yet been taken away - there are very few of them - they sit at home and do not go out in principle.
 
If anyone feels over-invested in Ukraine’s independence and the survival of Zelenskiy, and is looking for a way to restore insouciance as the country is reduced to rubble, can I recommend Servant Of The People, the show that brought the prime minster to unlikely fame and power, which is now on All4? Ten minutes of it and you will secretly be rooting for Russian warships.
 
ShipOfGoldblum said:
If anyone feels over-invested in Ukraine’s independence and the survival of Zelenskiy, and is looking for a way to restore insouciance as the country is reduced to rubble, can I recommend Servant Of The People, the show that brought the prime minster to unlikely fame and power, which is now on All4? Ten minutes of it and you will secretly be rooting for Russian warships.
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Too late. I read this morning that Tom Odell had recorded a song for peace in Ukraine and I'm already team Putin.
 
Rorschach said:
A superb interview here with historian Stephen Kotkin
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/stephen-kotkin-putin-russia-ukraine-stalin
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Its a good piece, I like his focus on history with one caveat. He says because Russia acted like this in the 19th-century, we can't say that NATO or other actors had an effect on Russia. That is like saying because Britain was imperial in the 19-century it's attitudes are now. Sure we carry that history and maybe it affects things a tiny bit say with Brexit - some believe in Great Britain ruling the waves still - but mostly that is history. It is important to understand this history. But lets not overstate its influence. The US was grabbing land from native Americans in the 19th Century, doesn't mean they do that now.

He then goes on to talk about how Russia effectively defines itself against the west. Yet western encroachment on its borders (via NATO) has no effect on this 'Russian ego' that he identifies? I think he has his own kind of pro-US bias, and that is normal, he is a patriot too. Everyone has bias.

Re. Afghanistan - it spiraled out of the Soviets control largely because the US funded the insurgency. Without that, I am not sure the Soviets would have 'failed' in Afghanistan.

He also says Putin is not like a Tzar, but then says private property depends on the ruler Putin. That is rather regal Tzar-like no? Putin is probably closest to a Tzar Nicholas type - more than a communist leader.

Agree that Zelensky has been amazing for wartime Ukraine. Gave them conviction in those crucial days after Russian troops violated Ukraine. In wartime, you need a performer. Reality does not matter so much as brazen bravado. Zelensky's management of the media messages, and playing his part as a confident leader, has been huge. Without that, I don't know whether Ukraine would have resisted with the same galvanised national and international unity.

The professor's view that China's rise has no link to the state is absurd however. It was the Chinese people, nothing to do with the state is what he says. This is his bias against autocratic regimes (an understandable bias to have). Why aren't other places like Russia seeing the same successes then? They have plenty of hard-working entrepreneurial people. Of course the state played a vital role in China's monumental rise. I don't think another nation has developed as quickly in history. A focused (largely benign) dictatorship like China is probably the optimum in governmental effectiveness. You have a vision, and you do it. Without concern of criticism or interests slowing you down. There are plenty of negatives that come with that, and often the ruler is not benign. But the state has been vital to China's rise.

The interviewer is as smart as the professor, and I could not agree more with Steve's conclusion:

Question: Steve, Sun Tzu, the Chinese theorist of war, wrote that you must always build your opponent a “golden bridge” so that he can find a way to retreat. Can the United States and nato help build a way for Russia to end this horrific and murderous invasion before it grows even worse?

Answer: You hit the tickle my balls with a feather. That’s a brilliant quote. We have some options here. One option is he shatters Ukraine: if I can’t have it, nobody can have it, and he does to Ukraine what he did to Grozny or Syria. That would be an unbelievable, tragic outcome. That’s the pathway we’re on now.

Even if the Ukrainians succeed in their insurgency, in their resistance, there will be countless deaths and destruction. We need a way to avoid that kind of outcome.

The problem now is not that the Biden Administration made mistakes; it’s that it’s hard to figure out how to de-escalate, how to get out of the spiral of mutual maximalism. We keep raising the stakes with more and more sanctions and cancellations. There is pressure on our side to “do something” because the Ukrainians are dying every day while we are sitting on the sidelines, militarily, in some ways. (Although, as I said, we’re supplying them with arms, and we’re doing a lot in cyber.) The pressure is on to be maximalist on our side, but, the more you corner them, the more there’s nothing to lose for Putin, the more he can raise the stakes, unfortunately. He has many tools that he hasn’t used that can hurt us. We need a de-escalation from the maximalist spiral
 
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Jordinho said:
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Then hopefully current sanctions would stand until they do give it back. In the meantime Ukraine immediately becomes part of NATO so no further territory can be taken.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
Then hopefully current sanctions would stand until they do give it back. In the meantime Ukraine immediately becomes part of NATO so no further territory can be taken.
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If Ukraine is part of NATO then the occupied land counts as aggression against a NATO member and the Russian military ceases to exist.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
Then hopefully current sanctions would stand until they do give it back. In the meantime Ukraine immediately becomes part of NATO so no further territory can be taken.
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Sanctions would end instantly because the western world is capitalist to the extent that it’s happy to trade away other nations territories, and right to govern, so that it can resume ‘business as usual’.

They’d end the sanctions and Russia would use the peace time to further build their forces before taking the rest.
 
Craig_J said:
Sanctions would end instantly because the western world is capitalist to the extent that it’s happy to trade away other nations territories, and right to govern, so that it can resume ‘business as usual’.

They’d end the sanctions and Russia would use the peace time to further build their forces before taking the rest.
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Yep, it is how empires run. All of them.
 
Came through the airport earlier and saw a large group of Ukrainian refugees waiting to be processed. What an utterly heartbreaking sight.
 
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