Мудак

[Lianachan]

A friend of mine is Russian, a former colleague at an old work-place of mine. On the social medias he said “Never have I been more embarrassed in my life to say that I was born in Russia… Scotland is my true home… I am so sorry… make love… not fucking war…”. Subsequently, he seems to be taking the whole thing more personally than he should be. He lives in Germany now, as it happens, and has done for a while having moved about Europe.

[Richard A]

By no means all Russians are proud of their President. Some are really not proud - Mactep's not the only one. I feel for your friend.

[Мастер]

Mactep's not the only one.

Мастер’s proper legal name would not look at all out of place in a German phone book. (Do we still have phone books?)

[Мастер]

And for what it’s worth, that particular insult sounds a bit like a Cantonese racial slur for white people.

[Мастер]

With McDonalds pulling out of Russia, the Beeb referred to the country as a “no fry zone”.

[Мастер]

So here is the real architect of the Ukraine invasion.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bed ... s-60615998

Putin has been stealing his thoughts.

[Мастер]

So mud season in Ukraine is approaching.

In Russian, it is called "распутица", transliterated as "rasputitsa".

Although perhaps we should rename it "распутинв" (rasputina).

[Richard A]

So here is the real architect of the Ukraine invasion.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bed ... s-60615998

Putin has been stealing his thoughts.

Joking aside, this is a really sad case. It reminds me of one of the first cases I had at the Bar. Our client was accused of something very similar and gave a very similar explanation. It was the only time we had officers right outside the visiting room door - and one of us sitting right by a panic button - for our own protection. (Btw, for those who worry about such a breach of confidentiality, over 30 years have passed since, so the odds of the person being identified are pretty much nil.)

[Мастер]

Road sign in Ukraine.

The source where I found this says it is helpfully adjusted into Russian. If so, the adjustment is only partial. But, straight ahead is "F*** off", to the left is "again f*** off", and to the right is "f*** off to Russia".

[Arneb]

If you look for a definition of gallow's humour, there it is.

[Arneb]

Funny. If you enter на хуй into the Google Russian - English translator, it comes out "fuck you". If you do the same in the Ukrainian- English translator, it comes out "on the dick". I guess Google translate has put more brain grease into the Russian version.

[Мастер]

it comes out "on the dick"

That would be the literal translation of the top one (which is also the last two words of the next two) in Russian.

The beginnings of the last two are Ukrainian (I guess - they're not right for Russian).

[Richard A]

But I suspect that Russian soldiers could still work them out!

[Мастер]

But I suspect that Russian soldiers could still work them out!

I think they'll get the main idea, even if the details are slightly hazy.

[Мастер]

So in various internet chatter in various places, I have seen a statement about the timing of the invasion. I wonder whether it is true.

It begins with a, hah, Putin wouldn't have dared to invade Ukraine while Donald Trump was president (something Trump himself has apparently said), this is all Joe Biden's fault. Because, as everyone knows, everything that happens everywhere in the world, is 100% about the US.

The statement I am interested in is what follows. It is that Putin was afraid of Merkel, so the timing of the invasion was set after she left office, and that this information has been leaked by the FSB.

Is there any truth to this? A quick Google search turned up nothing, and in fact turned up a number of links criticising Merkel for being too soft on Putin.

If there is any truth to this. It makes me wonder - if Scholz has been called out in public like this as a person Putin does not fear, whereas he did fear Merkel - well, if all of that is true, how is Scholz likely to behave now?

[Richard A]

Two points. First, Putin is a master of дезинформация: manipulating Western politics is what he does. Whether Merkel would have been tougher than Scholz, who knows, but that's not the point: the point is that it's in the FSB's interests to make him look bad compared to his predecessor. The EU has two key players. Putin's already dealt with Macron: led him up the garden path, got him to tell the world that he's the one who can make a deal to avoid war if only we can not be quite so mean to Russia - and then made him look a prat by invading anyway. Now it's Scholz's turn. Of course, Boris Putin doesn't need to bother with: not only is the UK out of the EU but Boris continues to demonstrate his ability to make a prat of himself without the FSB's help. Though on that note, a US friend I had dinner with just before I got covid put it nicely: "Putin saved Boris's ass."

Which takes us to the 2nd point. Same US friend, in the same conversation, said the Ukrainians could be thankful that Biden won the 2020 election: "Trump wouldn't have lifted a finger." And I don't think he would, either. There's already a strain of US conservative opinion that has referred to Ukraine as "a war in Europe that's none of our business" - definite echoes of 1939-40. The most Trump would have done would have been to make a speech saying Zelensky had had the chance to get US support but had not taken it - a bit like Trump said the fallout from Brexit was because Theresa May hadn't done it the way he told her to.

So why now? Who knows? But one possible answer may lie east, not west: I've seen commentators here saying Putin was only able to send the numbers of troops into Ukraine that he has because he's improved relations with Xi to the point where he no longer feels the need to keep large garrisons on the Chinese border. Seems to make sense.

[Мастер]

The bit about Trump and Biden is just silly partisan sniping. (A: wow, the weather really sucks today. B: yea, well ever since the libtards took over . . .)

But the two aspects of the Merkel/Scholtz bit that strike me are,

(1) it's the opposite of what I usually hear, that Merkel was too soft on and accommodating with Putin, and

(2) Scholtz is new in the job; his predecessor had it for 17 years, so must have had a certain level of success. So now, if information is leaked out of Russia that Putin was afraid of Merkel, and wouldn't have dared to invade Ukraine on her watch, maybe because she would have quickly rallied all the other European countries into a strong and united opposition, but that Scholtz is some sort of wuss that Putin can just roll over - well, will Scholtz not be really, really interested now in proving that this isn't true? Even if it is the truth, is this information Putin would want to leak and make publicly available? It seems almost to goad Scholtz into reacting strongly against this invasion.

[Arneb]

No discussions about you characterizations of Boris, Richard .

Re. Merkel and Scholz, they both believe in negotiations, compromise, balancing of interest, the lot - and Merkel was a master at that game. Since uncle Volodya isn't taking part in it any more, I doubt he would have given a wet fart's worth if Merkel was Chancellor or not. He would know, of course, that Merkel had proven several times that she can act decisively when she concluded she had to (financial crisis, bank bailout, shutting down German nuclear plants, Greece remaining in the Euro, risking her Chancellorship on a massive opening of the borders with partial loss of control), and he knew that Scholz comes from a party leaning towards a more Russia-friendly line. But the difference isn't that great. Merkel allowed the Bundeswehr capabilities to got to hell, Merkel made no effort to stop Nordstream 2, Merkel didn't push for heavier sanctions after 2014 - That Germany would fall in line and commit to heavy sanctions would have been a surprise to him in any case.

It is reported, that Putin hated Merkel with a passion. A woman in power, rational, intelligent, standing her ground, humourous, ironic, conciliatory in tone but a tough negotiator - she had had everything he hates. Knowing she can't stand dogs, he had a large bulldog frolicking around the Kremlin meeting room once, the animal trying to sniff her crotch and everything. It was a disgusting show of manspreading brutality. She was reportedly in terror, but did not let it on. Challenge passed, asshole.

[Мастер]

No discussions about you characterizations of Boris, Richard .

Re. Merkel and Scholz, they both believe in negotiations, compromise, balancing of interest, the lot - and Merkel was a master at that game. Since uncle Volodya isn't taking part in it any more, I doubt he would have given a wet fart's worth if Merkel was Chancellor or not. He would know, of course, that Merkel had proven several times that she can act decisively when she concluded she had to (financial crisis, bank bailout, shutting down German nuclear plants, Greece remaining in the Euro, risking her Chancellorship on a massive opening of the borders with partial loss of control), and he knew that Scholz comes from a party leaning towards a more Russia-friendly line. But the difference isn't that great. Merkel allowed the Bundeswehr capabilities to got to hell, Merkel made no effort to stop Nordstream 2, Merkel didn't push for heavier sanctions after 2014 - That Germany would fall in line and commit to heavy sanctions would have been a surprise to him in any case.

It is reported, that Putin hated Merkel with a passion. A woman in power, rational, intelligent, standing her ground, humourous, ironic, conciliatory in tone but a tough negotiator - she had had everything he hates. Knowing she can't stand dogs, he had a large bulldog frolicking around the Kremlin meeting room once, the animal trying to sniff her crotch and everything. It was a disgusting show of manspreading brutality. She was reportedly in terror, but did not let it on. Challenge passed, asshole.

I remember about the dog. What a мудак.

[Мастер]

Latest war news.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60872358

Looks like Russia is doing the Pee Wee Herman, "I meant to do that!"

[tubeswell]

I never did 'get' Pee Wee Herman.

[Мастер]

I never did 'get' Pee Wee Herman.

Well, for that particular quote, he was riding his bicycle, performing some stunt, showing off to some people.

But he crashed and fell off the bike.

So when he got up, he looked at them, and said, "I meant to do that!"

So I guess Russia meant to spend a month failing to take any major Ukrainian cities.

[tubeswell]

'Deepfake' video exposed

Watch on youtube.com

[Мастер]

Do all of the news channels give trigger warnings before showing damaged buildings/cars/whatever, or is it just some of them?

Makes me wonder what these Ukrainians are whining about, some nonsense about bombs falling on them or something like that. They don't know what real trauma is. We have to watch it on television.

[Мастер]

This just in.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60949706

Russia outraged that Ukraine is fighting back.