newbrof
6497
I agree, but that was 2014. Why wasn’t she fired then? And why was she hired since 2014?
We can’t get Putin, well lets get them artists…
We have Russian collegues and if they would talk BS I would talk back to them, but I would not want them to be fired for their ignorance…
Soma
6498
It is a tough choice, choosing between their current livelihood on one hand, and family ties and friendship on the other hand. Because you can bet that Putin and FSB will squeeze their family and friends in Russia for speaking up. The best thing is praise those who speak out against Putin, but don’t punish those who refuse or be Putin apologists.
I´m writing specific about high profile artists like Netrebko, Gergiev etc… They used their fame and popularity to support Putin and the occupation of Crimea in the past.
Through their support they strengthened Putins position and now they have to face the consequences of their choice to support this regime. A choice that the people in Ukraine don´t have (on both side of the conflict, at least the russian conscripts are also victims in my view.)
They don´t get thrown in jail, they just lost their jobs and none of them need to worry about how to make a living.
Thanks, great analysis! Such manipulation of reality works as long as you can keep the lid on things like the economy, and folks are more or less content, and as long as you can control the flow of information effectively. It also helps when you have an audience that at some level wants to believe. In this case, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Russians probably want to be proud of their country, and want to be seen as a world player, stuff like that. Where things will probably start to go sour is when enough outside info filters in to the Putinsphere, the store shelves get empty like you note, and there’s no way to disguise the casualties the Russians are taking.
Putin probably expects, and he may be right I guess, that Russians will turn hardship into inspiration, like the Siege of Leningrad or something. With globalization of information and experiences, though, I think that’s a risky bet.
As for the cancel stuff, I tend to err on the side of compassion. Unless an artist or whatever is publicly shilling for Putin and publicly using their position to advance lies and support aggression, I’d say let them remain silent. Ditto for Chinese expats who have ties back home–it’s unfair to expect everyone to be a Nelson Mandela or something. Dude spent eons in jail for his courage, and we call folks like that heroes for a reason–there ain’t many of 'em.
I think this is quite likely, given the other examples of heavily sanctioned regimes. What isn’t likely, on the other hand, is Russia having the wherewithal to invade anyone else. So in that sense, sanctions will probably ‘work’.
As long as Putin doesn’t go totally off the deep end and start nuking or something, yeah. One does wonder how much long-term impact this is all going to have on the Russian military, too. I imagine the professionals are appalled, and no one likes being humiliated on social media. Whether they end up blaming their own leaders or turning their ire outward remains to be seen.
I’ve just seen this:
In some ways, Russia is demanding what amounts to the status quo ante, which is kind of crazy if that turns out to be their real original objective for this war. More likely, this is a combination of insincere negotiation (e.g. they say they’ll halt their attack but not that they would actually withdraw) and some recognition that they can’t actually achieve their original objective of ‘owning’ a prosperous and peaceful and Russian Ukraine.
Hard to see how any country could agree to this with a gun pointed to their head. Ukraine may actually have come to the conclusion that Crimea and Donetsk and Lugansk were lost to them before this war, but recognizing that fact officially, agreeing with it officially, may be too much for them. And of course they need better concessions than we will halt in place, just trust us from the Russians. And they can’t give up the hope of future immunity from Russian military interference in the form of joining NATO and/or the EU.
The Americans appear to have concerns about [the former Soviet Republic of] Moldova. At least enough to send Blinken. Supposing the Russians do have the strength to take Ukraine, it would be very exposed.
There is no split with the church. That was one priest. The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has publicly endorsed the war because of Nazi’s, etc. The Orthodox Church there is totally compromised.
The patriarch may be on board, but there was that open letter signed by hundreds of clergy.
It’s the same BS he told Erdogan (which I linked to yesterday).
Demilitarization basically means that Ukraine’s armed forces should lay down their arms and surrender. In short - stop resisting our invasion, and we’ll stop invading you. Stop efforts to ensure you can defend yourself against us, and we won’t invade you again (yeah, right).
I think it depends on previous political stances. If someone has previously shown pro-Putin support (e.g., in 2014), then I am totally fine with giving them the kick if they are not willing to walk back that support now (maybe not in public, but as an employer, I would want a clear statement at least internally). I wouldn’t have a problem with a Nazi-sympathizer getting thrown out of their job and these people are little different in terms of beliefs.
No, we are in 1938 again. Fortunately Europe seems to be a bit smarter this time.
Honestly, if you’re a Russian in Europe and have strong ties back to Russia right now, I suspect you need to soon decide where your loyalties lie - especially if you’re in any kind of public position. It’s not going to be possible to hold unto some imagined status of “neutrality” while the Russian army massacres civilians and millions of Ukrainians flood into Europe.
You didn’t have open communists holding public positions during the cold war either.
So last week a bunch of photoshopped road signs in Ukraine made the rounds, purporting to tell the Russian invaders to “Fuck off”, “Fuck off again”, and “Fuck off to Russia”.
A lot of people fell for the photoshops, but they were pretty easy to spot fakes.
But just today, from a Guardian reporter in Odessa:
They actually fucking did it. Amazing.
Also, apparently Reuters ran a tweet a few hours ago with video showing a Russian armored column “moving quickly” to encircle Kyiv.
Problem: the column shown was moving through moderate to heavy snow, with snow on the ground.
It hasn’t snowed in Kyiv since March 1, and there’s little to any snow on the ground in and around the area.
Reuters has deleted the tweet. Guess their partnership with TASS is going to take some extra sharp editing…
There are Russian troops on the move to the east of Kyiv - but from what I understand not in any numbers to threaten the city. Instead they’re using them (so far) to do hit and run attacks with heavy artillery/multiple launch rocket systems on targets in and around the city, then scooting back to their forward operating bases east of Kyiv.
If I, a schlub, know that - the editors at Reuters should too.
For sure.
Or, they could just check the weather. They’ve got reporters on the ground throughout Ukraine.
Yeah. Russians who are 40 now were underaged when Putin came into power. Asking them to realize the evil he’s doing is not like asking Americans who voted for Trump to become disappointed in him. It’s more like telling Americans that their founding fathers were evil conspirators and King George was totally right, and the whole history of America led to nuclear war or something. Russians have no referencing material to say what Russia do they want, cause Putin’s Russia was in most way the least shitty incarnation of their country. Who are you going to name as the greatest Russian ruler, someone from 18th century? Putin’s Russia is the least violent and most prosperous incarnation of Russia and even that ends up being a mess. Hard fact to recognize.
So Russia´s preparations to become a second North Korea are in full swing, apparently…
According to documents published by Nextra on its Twitter, all servers and domains should be moved to the Russian state domain .ru, no later than March 11. In other words, the Russian Internet will be separated from the global Internet and all content will be controlled by Russian Censor Roskomnadzor. This does not automatically mean that citizens will lose access to foreign sites. However, they will be granted access only if, according to the state censor, they are safe. Any attempts by citizens to join “unauthorized” foreign sites would be unsuccessful and Russia would create its own intranet. North Korea, for example, already operates on a similar system, but its Internet content could be backed up to one child.
…
Russia has tested disconnections from the Internet in several phases. On November 1, 2019, it began testing its own alternative to the Internet, called RuNet, which can be seen as a tool to cut off the country from the Western world. Even then, the country was preparing to limit the operation of Internet services and redirect them to Russian servers. In December 2019, the government confirmed that the “cut-off” from the Internet had been successful, and the federation should be prepared to intervene in the event of a cyber alert.
…
However, once a country disconnects from the Internet completely, VPN programs will not be able to bypass state-controlled nodes and connect to servers in Germany or the United States, for example. They do not exist in a closed network.
https://tekdeeps.com/russia-is-reportedly-going-to-disconnect-from-the-internet-youve-tried-it-before-communication-science-and-technology/
The sanctions on Russia are social as well as economic… and sometimes they are both at the same time. The point of the sanctions is to make life as difficult as possible for those supporting the Putin regime (silently or out loud) so that they will put pressure on those in power.
If you have - say - an opera that is employing Russian nationals, then you are providing both social and economic assistance to Russia, albeit in a secondhand manner. Firing those artists would suck for your opera and for those artists, but that is part of the sacrifice that we (the West) is being asked to shoulder.
As a pain-saving alternative, I don’t think that asking those artists to condemn the war is too unreasonable. If they are too worried about their friends and family, then they have the option to remain silent and wait out the sanctions.
Even by North Korean standards, that seems pretty inhumane.
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