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Boycotting the games has historically proven to be a bad idea. You just hand a the Russians a bunch of gold medals, letting them leverage them into a propaganda victory, and you piss off all the athletes who may not ever get another shot at competing.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Depriving Russia of the Worldcup doesn't mean the worldcup wouldn't go ahead. I'm going out on a limb here, but my guess is that the bulk of the money made in football, also during the worldcup, is money made in Europe.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wraith
At the moment I have not heard about any sanctions that are out of the question. Most people are very aware of the fact that sanctions are going to hurt us a lot, but it doesn't seem to be a consideration any longer.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
And the longer bodies are rotting in the fields of eastern Ukraine the more people feel sanctions will be entirely justified.
Over and over governments prove they don't care about Russia's actions.
How about getting serious? Ban all Russian nationals from coming to and from other countries that find Russia's actions deplorable. Cut off diplomatic ties. Put real teeth into sanctions. Invite all the tiny Eastern countries into NATO. Basically its "well Russian is bad we'll make some speeches maybe do minor changes in policy but you know let's not upset them too much."
Actually, your government already is quite serious about sanctions against Russia.
Sanctions were made on oil, but not gas. Is that because Europe (Germany in particular) doesn't want to pay more for non-Russian imports, or have an energy-related recession during a tepid recovery? Maybe it's both, but it's still "less expensive" than the alternative -- priming the pumps of Putin's Russia as a petrol-power, isn't it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
Sanctions are not part of a plan to make mortal enemies of all Russians. To impose a ban on imports of gas from Russia would throw their state into immediate default. Smart politicians don't pursue policies that don't have an exit.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
Virtually every bullet fired by separatists in Ukraine ricochets around the Kremlin and takes down yet another Putin crony. And even before they have finalized the technical details of the last round of sanctions the EU is already talking about imposing new ones. Things are going pretty fast at the moment. It doesn't hurt to wait untill we can tell if the sanctions we imposed are having an effect.
I'm actually quite impressed by the sanctions I've been hearing about. They're by no means going to destroy the Russian economy, but they significantly undermine its growth prospects. Assuming the sanctions get implemented properly (not a certainty), they would be a proportionate response to Russia's actions. It also leaves the door open for harsher sanctions if Russia decides to send its troops into Ukraine.
Well, it could hurt, actually, but it's not really avoidable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
One can only hope that EU politicians no longer think they can cut back on defense; the so-called peace dividend may turn out to be quite costly I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
Large Number of Ukraine ServicemenUnwilling to Fight, Refuse to Obey Orders of Kiev Regime
By GlobalResearch News
GlobalResearch, July 29, 2014
http://www.globalresearch.ca/large-n...regime/5393940
The ShrinkingCauldron – The Surrender of the 72nd Brigade
Posted by GlebBazov ⋅ August 4, 2014
http://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.c...ng?w=600&h=372
http://slavyangrad.org/2014/08/04/th...king-cauldron/
----------------------
August 04,2014
More than 400Ukrainian troops have been allowed to cross into Russia after requestingsanctuary. It’s the largest, but not the first, case of desertion into Russiaby Ukrainian soldiers involved in Kiev’s military crackdown in the east of thecountry.
http://cdn.rt.com/files/news/2b/64/c...-refuge.si.jpg
http://slavija.proboards.com/thread/...kraine?page=46
Geeze, just came back from an informal meeting among colleagues before school starts again tomorrow. The colleague I already mentioned was also there. (Just yesterday she posted a link to a site about which one of my acquaintances asked: "Is this something akin to 'The Onion' or what?" - sadly, said site is a German hotbed of conspiracy theories and general misinformation)
Then, out of the blue, she started to talk about Russia (she's half-Russian, btw). Good grief. She made Putin out to be some kind of saint and I myself was "naive" because I used my three axioms*) to deduce what probably happened. Not to mention that logical consistency is not her thing - when she stated that Putin had never been involved in a war (like that made any sense), I asked about Chechnia. Well, according to her that wasn't a war and relatively small and the Chechens now like to be part of Russia and (this is important) separatism cannot be allowed.
Right. She also got into how such a big non-coincidence it was that it was Malaysian airlines again (and even suggested that it was the same (yes, you read that right: Same! Not similar) plane) and so on and so forth.
Good grief. We also touched upon Ebola (for whatever reason) where I had to educate her that, since Ebola is not an airborne disease, a large-scale outbreak in 1st world countries is quite unlikely. And this woman teaches biology, for chrissakes!
*) Axiom 1: Occam's razor - The simplest explanation is most likely the correct one.
Axiom 2: Don't attribute to malice what can also be explained by either incompetence or stupidity
Axiom 3: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Sadly that sounds about typical for people who follow Russian news.
When I mentioned this law she said: "I'm okay with that."
I can't take this woman seriously anymore.
But bloggers are a threat to Russian security. Putin says so!
That idea made it to my father and he's gone nuts. He's now convinced it's about to sweep the US and create apocalyptic conditions. He's buying breath masks, plastic sheeting, water filters, stocking up massively on canned and dried goods (and toilet paper) and is talking about getting a gun.Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
I blame headlines like "Ebola victim in the US!" for that.
That's just the best. :haha:Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
I love the idea that a $250M plane and a few hundred people can just disappear for months, then re-appear to embarrass Putin.Quote:
Right. She also got into how such a big non-coincidence it was that it was Malaysian airlines again (and even suggested that it was the same (yes, you read that right: Same! Not similar) plane) and so on and so forth.
I think my axiom is just to ask people "how". How does someone do this with an airplane? How does ebola spread into the 1st world when it's not airborne?
Oh, I just remembered on particular bit of the conversation which would have made me go WTF all on its own:
I mentioned that I have jewish relatives in Tel Aviv and she promptly goes: "Oh, yes, one can see that in you!"
I then explained that said relatives are related by marriage.
Then I would call em in-laws not relatives.
relative
ˈrɛlətɪv
noun
plural noun: relatives
1. a person connected by blood or marriage.
She is a gem. :heart: :bored:Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
I still call them in-laws. Many words are ambiguous, that doesn't mean you have to use them ambiguously especially if there is a non-ambiguous alternative.Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
I'm not exactly sure why I should have bothered to make that distinction?
Well, in the context of this discussion it seems like you inadvertently invited the misunderstanding by your lack of precision, though the comment would still have been "off."Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
Well, she interrupted me mid-sentence so even if I had wanted to there would have been no time to explain ;)
Antiwar Protests Spreading in Ukraine asGovernment Wages All-Out War in the Southeast
August 3 2014
The protestsare paralleled by a rise in Ukraine army desertions and refusals of men andwomen to heed conscription orders.
Army introuble
Exact numbersof army desertions are not known and are the subject of considerable debate andcounter-debate. This website report, for example, publishes a purported Ukrainearmy report saying that close to 3,500 soldiers deserted in the third week ofJuly and that 1,600 soldiers died and 4,700 were wounded in that same time.Sources in Russia say the documents it cites are not authentic.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302...+the+Southeast