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Russia begins Invasion of Ukraine

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Another opponent murdered. Whether directly or just slowly killed over time (which we'll probably never know), a murder without doubt.
 

Nikodemos

Member
RIP the poor guy. His fate was sealed the moment he went back. I understand the reason why he returned, but the price paid was too high.
 

Fluo

Member
If true, Putin just made a martyr. Verification is still pending.

This will ripple harder than Boris Nemtsov's assassination.
Will it?
As a jaded russian who has supported Navalny since early 2010s, I highly doubt it. Every one who could leave have already left. What a cursed timeline it is.
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
Will it?
As a jaded russian who has supported Navalny since early 2010s, I highly doubt it. Every one who could leave have already left. What a cursed timeline it is.
Thanks for responding, Fluo. Hope you are okay.

He was a significant opposition leader. His passing will definitely have an impact given the current circumstances. Nemtsov was a prominent figure too, but his incident happened during a different Russia. One not nearly as authoritarian as its become now. Navalny wasn't some random freedom fighter. His courage was symbolic. It won't go down well regardless of what state-controlled information channels will say.

Btw, I won't go deep into it, but it seems like some things are rumbling.
 
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Nikodemos

Member
I went to read up on how Vladimir Kara-Murza is doing (he's currently imprisoned as well), and this gave me a knot to my stomach:
On January 29, 2024, it was reported that Kara-Murza had disappeared after prison authorities informed his lawyers that he was no longer held at IK-6. British foreign secretary David Cameron demanded that Russia account for Kara-Murza's whereabouts.
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
RIP the poor guy. His fate was sealed the moment he went back. I understand the reason why he returned, but the price paid was too high.
He should never have gone back dammit. Should have lived outside of Russia exposing the regime and done his best to stay out of reach.
Despite the alleged outcome, I disagree. He understood the risks and was willing to take them. You can only admire Navalny for standing up against the dangers he faced.

He was a much needed leading voice for the increasingly, suppressed Russian population.
 

MadAnon

Member
If true, Putin just made a martyr. Verification is still pending.

This will ripple harder than Boris Nemtsov's assassination.
Martyr for whom? Relatively, there's very little support for him in russia. If anything, he seems to have bigger audience outside of russia. If you mean some kind of significant changes in russia then this will ripple like a fart in a wind.
 
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Hypereides

Gold Member
Martyr for whom? Relatively, there's very little support for him in russia. If anything, he seems to have bigger audience outside of russia. If you mean some kind of significant changes in russia then this will ripple like a fart in a wind.
"No one", obviously. That's the image you see when every information channel is tightly controlled.
 

MadAnon

Member
"No one", obviously. That's the image you see when every information channel is tightly controlled.
Nah, you just need to be familiar with russian mentality and culture to understand Navalny has very little impact in shaping political outlook in russia. Putin's propaganda has successfully painted him as a western agent who wants to destroy traditional russian values.
 

FUBARx89

Member
Is anyone shocked by this?

I hope no-one thinks this will change the political landscape in Russia, He did survive an assassination attempt with very little blowback in Russia. Dying won't change anything.
 

Bojji

Member
Russians had democracy for like 10 minutes in the nineties, their society is not ready for it and they don't really care (they don't know any better). Tsars, communists and now Putin were oppressors for hundreds of years.

I think there is very little chance for any meaningful changes in this country.
 
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Liljagare

Gold Member
mgKfOHu.jpg
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
The Russian prosecutor's office is now "warning" citizens against joining protests in Moscow. How considerate:


EDIT: Supposedly, Russian social media venues are getting flooded with posts encouraging protests in the capital.
 
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nemiroff

Gold Member
So they just killed him.. No one is surprised at that.. Holy fuck what a volatile shithole ruZZia is.


What a sad sack of shit.. Anyway, here in Norway they did the coin thingy for a couple of years, and then reversed it as they found out it was trying to solve a problem which didn't exist in the first place. I'm sure they still need it in ruZZia tho.
 
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Thaedolus

Member
Tucker leaning reeeeeeal hard into that “useful idiot” role. And btw the nicest super market in Moscow looks like the dumpiest backwater/ghetto super market over here. Wow! Radicalize me already!
 
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Navalny could've chosen to never go back to Russia. He knew what would happen when he did and he went anyway because he was willing to put his life on the line to stand up to a dictator. Bravery personified.
Sadly Russian obedient dogs will forget him in about 2 weeks. He should've never gone back and just kept opposing Putin from abroad. Would've probably been more meaningfull.
 

winjer

Gold Member
Navalny could've chosen to never go back to Russia. He knew what would happen when he did and he went anyway because he was willing to put his life on the line to stand up to a dictator. Bravery personified.

Let's not pretend that Navalny was a good guy.
He opposed Putin, but not because of the Ukraine war, or because of democracy. He was a nationalist, that also believed in Russia rebuilding his empire.
What he disagreed was on how things should be done. So he probably would have some different methods, but trying to achieve similar results.
 

TwinB242

Member
Ukranian soldiers are retreating from many positions in Avdiivka. Unfortunately at this rate the city is going to fall before Putin's re-election which will be a big win for his campaign.
 
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Forsete

Member
Ukranian soldiers are retreating from many positions in Avdiivka. Unfortunately at this rate the city is going to fall before Putin's re-election which will be a big win for his campaign.
Possibly 30k Russians dead to give him this "gift". :messenger_tears_of_joy:

These people really are retards.
 

TwinB242

Member
Possibly 30k Russians dead to give him this "gift". :messenger_tears_of_joy:

These people really are retards.

But we already know that Russians are sheep willingly being lead to the slaughter. Putin will brag about he 'liberated' a frontline town thats been fought over for 9 years, and also how Donetsk is now further out of range of Ukranian attacks. Its pure propaganda that will be used to further justify continuing the war, and naturally he will refrain from mentioning Russian casualties.
 
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Forsete

Member
But we already know that Russians are sheep willingly being lead to the slaughter. Putin will brag about he 'liberated' a frontline town thats been fought over for 9 years, and also how Donetsk is now further out of range of Ukranian attacks. Its pure propaganda that will be used to further justify continuing the war, and naturally he will refrain from mentioning Russian casualties.
It really doesn't make a difference.

Putin is a dictator, he will win no matter what.
The war will continue with or without the former town of Avdiivka.
 

Fluo

Member
Let's not pretend that Navalny was a good guy.
He opposed Putin, but not because of the Ukraine war, or because of democracy. He was a nationalist, that also believed in Russia rebuilding his empire.
What he disagreed was on how things should be done. So he probably would have some different methods, but trying to achieve similar results.
This is a lie and a wild mischaracterization of him. He opposed putin long before Crimea annexation happened, he was one of the opposition leaders back in 2011-2012 protests at Bolotnaya square along with Nemtsov.
Here's his 2018 presidential campaign platform, you can decide for yourself whether he had any imperialist narrative.
Alexey had his flaws and he said some wildly inappropriate things about Georgia and Ukraine, but democratic reforms were his main platform.
Let the man rest, he was a hero.
 

winjer

Gold Member
This is a lie and a wild mischaracterization of him. He opposed putin long before Crimea annexation happened, he was one of the opposition leaders back in 2011-2012 protests at Bolotnaya square along with Nemtsov.
Here's his 2018 presidential campaign platform, you can decide for yourself whether he had any imperialist narrative.
Alexey had his flaws and he said some wildly inappropriate things about Georgia and Ukraine, but democratic reforms were his main platform.
Let the man rest, he was a hero.

Writing a pretty political speech is easy. Even Hitler and Stalin made speeches about helping the people, the workers, etc.
But you forget his ultranationalist speeches while part of Yabloko. Or that he supported the invasion of Georgia.
The reality is that he was not a hero. He was just a contender for the throne. A wolf in sheep clothing.
 

Fluo

Member
Writing a pretty political speech is easy. Even Hitler and Stalin made speeches about helping the people, the workers, etc.
But you forget his ultranationalist speeches while part of Yabloko. Or that he supported the invasion of Georgia.
The reality is that he was not a hero. He was just a contender for the throne. A wolf in sheep clothing.
I'm fairly certain I followed his career much more closely than you did. I'm not absolving him of his nationalist beginnings and every other misstep you're referring to.
The reality is that you've read some twitter thread where he is painted as ultra-nationalist imperialist and that's all you know.
Wolves in sheep clothing don't put their lives on the line. He has been opposing putin for 15 years, and paid the ultimate price in this fight. That's more than any of us did. And that's heroic.
 
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winjer

Gold Member
I'm fairly certain I followed his career much more closely than you did. I'm not absolving him of his nationalist beginnings and every other misstep you're referring to.
The reality is that you've read some twitter thread where he is painted as ultra-nationalist imperialist and that's all you know.
Wolves in sheep clothing don't put their lives on the line. He has been opposing putin for 15 years, and paid the ultimate price in this fight. That's more than any of us did. And that's heroic.

I'm not saying he didn't oppose Putin.
I'm just saying he is not a person that believes in democracy and nations rights.
He gambled that Putin would not kill him and that he would be in the right place if Putin's regime were to fall, because of the war. But he lost that one.
 

Fluo

Member
He gambled that Putin would not kill him and that he would be in the right place if Putin's regime were to fall, because of the war. But he lost that one.
My dude, Alexey believed putin would not start the war a week before the war, he certainly didn't foresee it back in 2021 when he returned.

He's the guy who insisted on peaceful protest and change through democratic and lawful means (and that's his biggest miscalculation).
He's the guy who was always open to debate his opponents in 2012 Moscow mayor elections and in 2018 during his presidential campaign.
He's the guy who toured though the country to talk with the public and gather their support solely sponsored by his supporters' donations.
He championed democratic process every step of the way, what are you talking about?
 

winjer

Gold Member
My dude, Alexey believed putin would not start the war a week before the war, he certainly didn't foresee it back in 2021 when he returned.

He's the guy who insisted on peaceful protest and change through democratic and lawful means (and that's his biggest miscalculation).
He's the guy who was always open to debate his opponents in 2012 Moscow mayor elections and in 2018 during his presidential campaign.
He's the guy who toured though the country to talk with the public and gather their support solely sponsored by his supporters' donations.
He championed democratic process every step of the way, what are you talking about?

I'm talking about his ultranationalist views and his support for war, such as the Georgian invasion.
Nobody changes politics so fast, unless he is trying to convince the people to vote for him.
We have seen many times, these kind of politicians making all forms of promises, while planning the opposite in the background.
You seen to be very enthusiastic about him. And maybe he was better than Putin.
But now he is dead and the Russian people will do nothing. As usual.
 

Fluo

Member
I'm talking about his ultranationalist views and his support for war, such as the Georgian invasion.
Nobody changes politics so fast, unless he is trying to convince the people to vote for him.
We have seen many times, these kind of politicians making all forms of promises, while planning the opposite in the background.
You seen to be very enthusiastic about him. And maybe he was better than Putin.
But now he is dead and the Russian people will do nothing. As usual.
I was his supporter. I would not support an ultra-nationalist war-hungry politician. Whatever nationalist rhetoric he had, he didn't use it during 2010s and that's when he came to prominence and the forefront of russian opposition.

Russian people inside russia will do nothing because they actually can't. The one thing the enlightened commenters seem to not understand about current authoritarian regimes is that population pretty much can do nothing. The population is powerless, weaponless, frightened and divided. Your telephone calls are easily accessible by authorities, your social networks too, soon they're gonna implement and enforce their own SSL certificates issued by government agency and that's the end of any protected internet communication. It's done, they will find you by cameras long before you get to the place of protest. If you protest en masse, they just wait till the protest dies down, then the authorities will find out every participant and arrest you at the safety of your home.

As for russians outside russia. We're doing what we can. We're helping Ukrainian refugees and not paying taxes to support putin regime. Plenty of protests today at the russian embassies as well.
 

winjer

Gold Member
Russian people inside russia will do nothing because they actually can't. The one thing the enlightened commenters seem to not understand about current authoritarian regimes is that population pretty much can do nothing. The population is powerless, weaponless, frightened and divided. Your telephone calls are easily accessible by authorities, your social networks too, soon they're gonna implement and enforce their own SSL certificates issued by government agency and that's the end of any protected internet communication. It's done, they will find you by cameras long before you get to the place of protest. If you protest en masse, they just wait till the protest dies down, then the authorities will find out every participant and arrest you at the safety of your home.

As for russians outside russia. We're doing what we can. We're helping Ukrainian refugees and not paying taxes to support putin regime. Plenty of protests today at the russian embassies as well.

Doing a revolution is not easy, but Russia has done it before. During WW1 for the same reasons that another could be done today.
And a lot of people in other countries have done it as well. Once again, it's not easy, but it's always possible.
 
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Forsete

Member
Doing a revolution is not easy, but Russia has done it before. During WW1 for the same reasons that another could be done today.
And a lot of people in other countries have done it as well. Once again, it's not easy, but it's always possible.
If each little town will cost 30k+ they better start a revolution soon.

But todays russians seem to be more weaksause compared to the their ancestors.
 

Fluo

Member
Doing a revolution is not easy, but Russia has done it before. During WW1 for the same reasons that another could be done today.
And a lot of people in other countries have done it as well. Once again, it's not easy, but it's always possible.
Are you talking from experience? Any recent examples? There's 2014 revolution in Ukraine (and kudos to them for pulling it off) and there's a 2018 revolution in Armenia.
2020 revolution in Belarus failed.
Recent Iranian revolution failed.
Recent protests in France failed to achieve their goal.
Whatever pro-Palestine protests tried to achieve failed as well.

Have any of you actually protested in an authoritarian regime akin to russian?
 

winjer

Gold Member
Are you talking from experience? Any recent examples? There's 2014 revolution in Ukraine (and kudos to them for pulling it off) and there's a 2018 revolution in Armenia.
2020 revolution in Belarus failed.
Recent Iranian revolution failed.
Recent protests in France failed to achieve their goal.
Whatever pro-Palestine protests tried to achieve failed as well.

Have any of you actually protested in an authoritarian regime akin to russian?

Here in Portugal we had 2 revolutions in little over a century. In the first one, we even killed the king.
And in 1974 we had another revolution, this one has a few parallels to what is happening in Russia.
During this time, Portugal had a fascist dictatorship. And it was trying to maintain it's colonies in Africa, so it sent many men fight in Angola and Mozambique.
Not to dissimilar to Russia today, trying to regain it's colonies, such as Ukraine and Georgia.
But the people got fed up of the fighting, they got fed up with the persecution, the lack of freedom, the lack of rights.
So a lot of soldiers, even some officers, the people, turned against the regime and marched on Lisbon.
Cooler heads prevailed on both sides, so only a couple of people were killed during the revolution.
Although after the revolution, there were a string of terrorist attacks from communists that didn't want democracy and wanted to take power.

But let me remind you of the history of your own country. A little over a century ago, Russia was fighting a very bloody war.
Russia had a highly authoritarian monarch, Tsar Nicolay II. One that even before the war, was aggressively putting several manifestations and attempts at revolution.
Things got so bad, he was forced to create the Duma, although this didn't last long.
But when WW1 started, discontent was rising. And it got even worse, when the people starving in Moscow protested for food, and the Tsar ordered the army to shoot at the women and children.
With the losses increasing in the frontlines, the people fighting in the trenches turned their guns against the officers and against the Tsar.
The people captured the Tsar and for a moment created a democracy with parties and elections, in Russia.

This all happened when most Russians were still serfs. But even back then, Russians had a lot more spirit and fought for their freedom.
Today it seems Russians have a stronger serf mentality, than the Russian serfs of a century ago.
Like I said before, a revolution is not easy. But change won't happen if most Russians are sitting at home, hoping that someone else will do it for them.

Another issue, is that you are conflating regular protests with revolution attempts.
The recent protests in France were not meant to topple a regime. They were meant to stop some laws from passing.
But France is still a democracy and Macron and his party are probably going to have a bad result in the next elections.
The same thing in Iran, it wasn't a revolution. It was just protests against the oppression of women not wearing the hijab.
And the protests for Palestine are mostly fueled by racism and antisemitism. The same people doing those protests did nothing when Assad was killing 150k civilians in Syria. Or while China has over a million Uyghurs in concentration camps. Or protest against for the Tibetan people.

Another issue is that the revolution in Belarus failed because Russian military intervened. If it wasn't for that, the Belarussian people could now have a democracy and be on their way to prosperity and freedom.
But because Russians allow dictators to control their country, other countries have to suffer for it.
A good example of this was the fall of the USSR. Several countries did their own revolutions, when they realized that Russia wasn't sending the army to protect the dictators in their respective countries.
So don't blame the Belarussians for failing their revolution, when the reason for that, was the Russian army and the passivity of the Russian people.
 
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RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Nobody is blaming the Belarusians, we all seen the massive anti government protests, huge crowds turned out and then we all seen the cunt Russians come in and ruin it for them cause cunt Russians love to be miserable fucks and don't want anyone around to be anything other than miserable fucks, hateful country populated by mindless zombies, the sooner the whole lot implodes into a civil war the better, I have zero fucking sympathy for Russia or its inhabitants
 

Fenix34

I remove teeth
Nobody is blaming the Belarusians, we all seen the massive anti government protests, huge crowds turned out and then we all seen the cunt Russians come in and ruin it for them cause cunt Russians love to be miserable fucks and don't want anyone around to be anything other than miserable fucks, hateful country populated by mindless zombies, the sooner the whole lot implodes into a civil war the better, I have zero fucking sympathy for Russia or its inhabitants
Like me .Those people live life like nothing happens.
 
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