News Items Thread

[VOL-E]

Putin announced half mobilization in Russia... what an idiot Also by their stats only 5937 people died during this war...

[ceero]

I understand he is completely short of people willing and able to fight, but wtf does he think a mobilization will solve? There already are all kinds of problems with all those transcaucasian and prisoner 'volunteers' fighting for him on Ukraine, who lack the combat skills, the training, the motivation and even the proper equipment, who flee like bitches the moment Ukrainian army advances. And his plan is take regular everyday Russian people, equip them with soviet era gear and vehicles and send them to the meat grinder as well? Like, what exactly does he think its going to do It's only going to multiply all those problems his fighters who aren't from the conventional army have. There is literally noone sane who believes the myth of the supermodern, invincible Russian army anymore, filling the corrupted non-functioning machinery with more manpower isn't going to help him. Whats this going to cause is he will piss off A LOT of those alibist every day russians who pretend not to give a crap about what their country is doing to Ukraine. Which is good I guess

[Reverse Ghost]

Mr. Shortman must have forgotten about Bloody Sunday. His day is coming

[VOL-E]

I understand he is completely short of people willing and able to fight, but wtf does he think a mobilization will solve? There already are all kinds of problems with all those transcaucasian and prisoner 'volunteers' fighting for him on Ukraine, who lack the combat skills, the training, the motivation and even the proper equipment, who flee like bitches the moment Ukrainian army advances. And his plan is take regular everyday Russian people, equip them with soviet era gear and vehicles and send them to the meat grinder as well? Like, what exactly does he think its going to do It's only going to multiply all those problems his fighters who aren't from the conventional army have. There is literally noone sane who believes the myth of the supermodern, invincible Russian army anymore, filling the corrupted non-functioning machinery with more manpower isn't going to help him. Whats this going to cause is he will piss off A LOT of those alibist every day russians who pretend not to give a crap about what their country is doing to Ukraine. Which is good I guess

Btw, I remember you are from Czech right? Do you know anything about that meeting you had in Prague or in some city about Putin/Russia overall? Or it was about electricity prices and so on?

[ceero]

Btw, I remember you are from Czech right? Do you know anything about that meeting you had in Prague or in some city about Putin/Russia overall? Or it was about electricity prices and so on?

I'm originally from Slovakia i live in Poland right now, but I moved here from Czechia last NYE (where I moved from Norway, where I moved from Hungary, where I moved from USA etc. I'm kind of a nomad at this point, I change the country of my residence like people change phones in the last years)

But yeah, I'm well familiar with the political situation in Czech republic. I'll try to explain.
Czechs have probably the best government they had in the last 15 years right now. The prime minister is a former college professor of mine and quite frankly I havent met too many people smarter than him. The government is strongly pro-western, pro-EU, pro-NATO, pro-reforms etc. and has put some extremely capable people in their cabinet. But let's be honest, these are extremely difficult times for any kind of government. Inflation is roaring, it's targetting 20% in CZ. Gas, heating and electricity prices are completely through the roof and noone really knows what's the winter going to look like (just like in basically any other european country right now). All of that after 2 years of surviving in lockdowns. And this is a complete paradise for anti-democratic populists who are in the opposition right now. It doesn't matter what the government's gonna do, these things are not going to get fixed on a national level, nor soon or easily. People are pissed of, worried, scared and government is always the scape goat in such situation, even if there is little they can do (and did not cause the situation in the first place).

Putin's agents of hybrid war in the west are very well aware of that and they try to gain the momentum by joining forces with the anti-democratic opposition. This is not a situation exclusive to Czechia, same shit is happening in Slovakia as well (and you can find former prime ministers of both countries on this side of the barricade, ironically both who are currently criminally charged for various stuff so basically trying to bring the current anticorruption governments down to protect their asses). And I'm sure you would find other countries where this is happening as well. They march to the streets with crowds of those pissed off people I was just talking about, telling them that whats happening is because of all the sanctions we have imposed on Russia and Putler - we need to lift those sanctions and try to push this narrative that the sanctions are hurting us way more than Russia. And of course we also need to stop supplying Ukraine with weapons, because that is just prolonging the war and costing more lives (...). Why should our country support some Ukraine when our own people are struggling with their bills? When we do those two things, uncle Volodya will supply us with the sweet, cheap gas and oil again and everyone will be happy. After all, we all know it's USA who started the war, right fellas??

So yeah, desperate opposition, politicians and hybrid war actors financed by Kremlin and scared, pissed of people. Great combination and exactly what desperate Putin hopes will spread all around Europe soon.

Now let me put this straight, Czechia is FAR from being a Russia loving country. There probably isnt a more communism hating country then Czechs (well, Poland maybe) and large majority of the country never forgave Russia the 40 years long brotherly occupation after the WW2. The Czech-Russian relationship got even colder last year when it has been exposed that russian agents caused an explosion of an ammunition warehouse in CZ a couple years ago (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Vrb% ... explosions ).
But in every country, you have some exceptions. Even in Poland, which is arguably the most anti-Russian country of EU they have this pro russian party Konfederacja that constantly has around 7-8% in polls. Czechs aren't an exception here (it's quite funny that the most prominent far right party in CZ thats largely pro russian and anti-immigration is led by a japanese guy ). What you have seen on that demonstration on Václavské square (which I think is what you are mentioning) is basically a combination of that actually not so huge anti-democratic, far right, pro-russian fragment of population with those people who are simply pissed of at the current government. Quite frankly, I feel we are going to see more and more of demonstrations like this all across the EU soon. Kinda sucks seeing that Czechs have made it into the world media with this demonstration, because it's really not representative of the whole country. I would argue countries like Germany, Austria or France are a dozen times more pro-russian (especially in their policies) than Czech ever were.

[VOL-E]

Oh okay. Well basically what I thought...

Lots of people aren't happy with this situation about mobilization stuff. All those patriots with "Z" just dissapeared from russian internet Its really sad about people there, because the have no choice.

1. Want to take a part in a meeting/protest? You can go to jail
2. Want to tell that what you think about this fucking war? You can go to jail
3. Don't want to take a part in war? You can go to jail

Its just crazy, how politicians are corrupt there. Now they all tell like "I could go by myself there, but I cant" ( because the law doesn't allow politicians to take part in wars. Really sad situation, because a lots of people there understand that its fucked up...

[Xurreal]

[quote="ceero"] I would argue countries like Germany, Austria or France are a dozen times more pro-russian (especially in their policies) than Czech ever were.[/quote]

Ironically enough, it is mainly the far right (Afd) and the far left (Linkspartei) taking the pro-Russian course in Germany. Currently, this adds up to around 18 - 20% of the population supporting one of 'em.

[ceero]

WTF Italy. Seriously wtf. How on earth could you seriously re-elect Berlusconi, the guy that makes fucking Trump look like a librarian These are going to be some dark times for the country and for EU, I sense Hungary 2.0

[Faber93]

WTF Italy. Seriously wtf. How on earth could you seriously re-elect Berlusconi, the guy that makes fucking Trump look like a librarian These are going to be some dark times for the country and for EU, I sense Hungary 2.0

Well, it's even worse than that, considering that a fascist party took the majority of the votes... What a shitty time to be alive

[Xurreal]

WTF Italy. Seriously wtf. How on earth could you seriously re-elect Berlusconi, the guy that makes fucking Trump look like a librarian These are going to be some dark times for the country and for EU, I sense Hungary 2.0

Well, it's even worse than that, considering that a fascist party took the majority of the votes... What a shitty time to be alive

the same people speaking out against immigration but voting a party with someone who fucked an underaged. Well, well...