24132

Russian Journalism.

“It’s time to flee to Russia.” Americans were stunned by Putin’s words about the West
Twitter users from the U.S. wanted to move to Russia after Putin’s words about the West

If local Twitter users from the U.S. want tips on living in Russia I can help.

24133

Meanwhile, Prigozhin (Wagner PMC dude) posts gore NSFW photos of dead Wagner soldiers and begs for supplies in Telegram.

What a time to be alive.

24134

MAGAs should absolutely flee to Russia. It’s the Utopia they yearn for.

24135

From their own mouths:

24136

I’ll happily contribute to a GoFundMe to help them get there.

24137

Another funny stream about Prigozhin is he’s the owner of Russian political bot farms.

Right now there’s an anniversary patriotic concert in Moscow. It is streamed. The stream has comments. All of the comments are “GIVE WAGNER AMMO”.

24138

Another perspective on Wagner’s complaints is that their supply allotment has been cut down to match what every formation in the regular army gets.

24139

I was assured Russia had infinite ammo

24140

They do, they’re just lulling the West into a false sense of security.

24141

It’s also conceivable they could launch something from Transnistria. If I were the Russians, I’d be putting forces there in order to tie down troops on Ukraine’s southwestern border.

24142

They already have troops stationed there for some time, IIRC.

24143

Yup – for like 30 years! The frozen conflict zones are bonkers.

24144

Wow, it really has been three decades? That’s nuts.

I refuse to believe the 90s were three decades ago. I’m not that old, damnit!

24145

I considered this for its own thread, but at the very least, I wanted to share it with you guys here. At some point last year, my friend Bruce pointed me to a series of lectures given at Yale by a historian named Timothy Snyder and posted online on YouTube. These were just unremarkable hour-ish videos shot from a camera at the back of the class, and the subject is, quite simply, the history of Ukraine. There are over 20 lectures in the series, and they’re all very colloquial, delivered in Snyder’s affable professorial style.

I’ve probably watched about half of them, and I find them captivating. They’ve apparently been passed around enough that he got to write about their value in a guest editorial on the Washington Post today (gift link below):

https://wapo.st/3klFQUu

His premise for the editorial is the pretty simple fact that history gives us greater context for understanding the present, but he links to the lectures at the top of the editorial. So for anyone who wants to listen to some of the larger context, I heartily recommend Snyder’s lectures. They start here…

(Heh, he’s using some book jacket photo for his YouTube thumbnail! That’s a pretty funny picture now that I’ve spent hours watching him nattering away smartly at his students. But who am I to begrudge a fella for wanting to look cool for a book jacket?)

…but there’s no need to watch or listen chronologically. You can just pick from among the subtitles for an “ep” that interests you. But I should warn you that’s how it starts; a few hours later, you’ll realize you’ve gotten nothing done for the day other than learn about a swathe of Eastern Europe.

24146

I used to see this guy on MSNBC pretty often, citing his book, On Tyranny - Wikipedia, which was quite relevant during the Trump administration. Smart guy.

24147

That’s fantastic, I’m going to bookmark that and watch it when I have some time. Thanks, Tom!

24148

The Russian troops in Transnistria are largely a local militia and aren’t really capable of doing anything to Ukraine, or even Moldova for that matter. Transnistria is a mess, more here:

24149

Thanks for posting that, Grifman. I agree 100% – Transnistria is a mess! – but it’s largely a mess where Russia has a relatively free hand. The 1500 Russian soldiers there now aren’t a significant force, but if I were in Russia’s shoes I would be reinforcing the crap out of those soldiers in order to make a western front a credible possibility (just as Russia will likely do in Belarus to make a northern threat).

Of course, all of this assumes Russia has bodies to send to Transnistria and Belarus, and that appears to be up for debate.

24150

There is no way Russia could keep a larger force supplied there let alone conduct a successful offensive.

24151

And how does Russia get those reinforcements there? Transnistria is surrounded by Moldavia and Ukraine.