zkom

KEO beer in a marina bar in Cyprus

So the US and European collaborations with Roscosmos got cancelled and now they are coming up with new ideas lol

The youtube vlogger NFKRZ I linked sometime earlier already left Russia for Georgia.

There's something going on in the Putin administration Anatoly Chubais who was Putin's long time advisor has quit and fled the country https://news.yahoo.com/longtime-putin-advisor-reportedly-resigned-130847160.html Also apparently Sergei Shoigu who is the minister of defense and a general of the army hasn't made a public appearance for 12 days. Pretty weird during a war. Link in Russian https://theins.ru/news/249548 Besides that Russian commanders keep getting killed in Ukraine https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-every-russian-commander-killed-fighting-ukraine-war-1691064

It's also a bit more complicated. The shit happened in the 90s. The safety assurances, like mutual military assistance in case of war, were weakened for multiple purposes. First of all the EU countries that were also NATO members didn't want to weaken NATO influence. But also multiple countries that were outside NATO like Finland, Sweden, Ireland and Austria were against compulsory military help and would have probably not signed any agreements that would have implemented them. In the end there were no compulsory military help to keep the unity of EU. There's another interesting thing.. The NATO collective defense agreement or Article 5 only covers attacks against NATO members only in Europe and North America. So now some EU countries are interested in making the EU safety assurances to cover all EU territory, which expands outside Europe also. For example there are the Spanish exclaves in North Africa and the French overseas territories all over the globe.

Today I heard Basshunter's Boten Anna after a long while. Jfc, remember when IRC was so popular that there was an eurodance song about a fucking IRC bot that went into top ten charts across Europe? Early 2000s, man.

This is basically why the country of Mongolia exists between China and Russia. Communist Mongolia was a Soviet puppet state working as a buffer zone between China and Soviet Union because despite both being communist countries they really didn't get along. But I think in this case it's more complicated that that because Putin also wanted Kyiv to be one of the centers of the new Eurasian Union he was building out of the former soviet countries and "losing" Ukraine to the west was a big humiliation. Add to that the mythology of Kievan Rus' as the mythical origin of the Slavic/Russian peoples, the importance of the Black Sea in Russian military strategy, the shock that Russians felt from the 1991 Ukraine independence referendum, Stalin annexing the Crimea to Ukraine, Donbas situation already during the collapse of the Soviet Union, etc it's a big fucking mess. I don't think there's a single strategic reason.

It's actually been a couple of years since I read this but it's now available also in English. Jessikka Aro's Putin's Trolls: On the Frontlines of Russia's Information War Against the World. As the name says it's about Russian troll factories and disinformation campaigns especially in Finland and in the Baltics. She's been targeted and harassed for years by far-right groups in Finland. There was also some kerfuffle when the US State Department International Women of Courage Award was rescinded apparently because she criticized Trump. The book also mention's one former watmmer's sister, who you might remember from back when the Russian annexation of Crimea happened.

I'm a bit confused why people think he's just too young to understand things properly. He joined over 11 years ago. Was he 10 or 12 when he joined and then just went straight to deep end with MRA and cryptos?

If Russia wanted to stop NATO expansion it's not going very well. For the first time in history the majority of Finns support joining NATO and it's already up to 62% in the latest poll https://yle.fi/news/3-12357832

Fun fact: There was supposed to be a Simpsons movie already in the 90s and it was supposed to have a duet between Bart and Mike Love from the Beach Boys. But the movie got cancelled and the Beach Boys went to perform the song on Baywatch.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-16/china-coronavirus-cases-double-nation-battles-growing-outbrea/100913692

Not too keen about a seated concert hall gig but I guess I'll get a ticket. No idea if I'll be in Helsinki in September though. For anyone who can't come I guess it's notwotwo. I'll get me coat

The video has English subtitles available

I don't really know how much Dugin is behind Russia's foreign policy in reality but he has some interesting ideas about Russia's old pal China for sure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

Oh looool, it's not like this is a fucking secret. Come on.. Here's the fucking Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Koreans_in_Russia CNN piece https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/15/europe/russia-north-korea-labor-intl/index.html Le Monde Diplomatique piece https://mondediplo.com/2006/04/08koreanworkers The Guardian piece https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/04/like-prisoners-of-war-north-korean-labour-russia-world-cup-st-petersburg-stadium-zenit-arena The Moscow Times piece https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/03/31/north-korean-slaves-building-key-russian-world-cup-stadium-a57602 The Independent piece https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/north-koreans-in-russia-work-basically-in-the-situation-of-slaves-a7841831.html South China Morning Post piece https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3042820/un-deadline-looms-north-koreas-overseas-workers-return-home I could go on and on but it doesn't just hinge on one BBC video

Yes, as I said it's unverified but funny. I don't think it's true. Russia and DRPK are bff because Kim sends his citizens to work as slaves in Russia for peanuts https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-33614982

Not verified but funny: ‘Too insane for us’ Kim humiliates Putin after Russia begs North Korea for help https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1580806/russia-news-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin-begs-help-north-korea-ukraine Also China's "friendship" with Russia is not that strong maybe? This can't be good for the Russia's partnerships: Russia to suspend grain exports to Eurasian Economic Union until Aug 31 https://www.reuters.com/business/russia-suspend-grain-exports-eurasian-economic-union-until-aug-31-2022-03-10/ And..

Foxconn shutting down factories that produce for example iPhones in Shenzhen due to a covid lockdown https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22976414/foxconn-production-shenzhen-lockdown-apple-china-covid Anyone wanted some more supply chain problems?

China has managed pretty well with the zero-covid policy so far but is the omicron variant finally going to break it? Hong Kong was also doing well until they got the shit kicked out of them by omicron. China battles worst Covid outbreak for two years as cases double in 24 hours https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/13/china-battles-worst-covid-outbreak-for-two-years-as-cases-double-in-24-hours China locks down city of 9 million amid new spike in cases https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-china-changchun-fbe63032924a44e4f7874d0bf0a2988f Covid News: China Dismisses 2 Mayors and Shanghai Closes Schools as Case Numbers Rise https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/11/world/covid-19-mandates-cases-vaccine If the omicron gets out of control in a country of 1.4 billion people with a bit questionably vaccine efficacy and coverage then oo boy..

Well, just my guesses: 1) You can't really do an occupation with just air strikes and drones, you need military on the ground to take over the cities 2) Drones cost a lot of money, conscripts and contract soldiers are cheap 3) Russia thought that there's not going to be a much of resistance, just show up with superior firepower and people will surrender Even if Russia takes over Kyiv and installs a puppet government it takes a shit ton of troops to keep the occupation going. The historical data says you need 5-50 troops per 1,000 inhabitants. Ukraine has a population of 44 million. That would mean a Russian occupation would need somewhere between 220k to 2.2 million troops to keep the occupation going. Russian military has 1M active personnel and 2M reserves. This would seriously deplete the Russian military. The cost of occupation AND the economic sanctions combined, that's going to be something.