The Russia is getting more evil thread

[Ginger_Yellow]

@jpinard

Why don’t they do this shit in their own waters? This is the Irish economic exclusionary zone. Throwing missiles into that area is pretty dickish.

You answered your own question.

[RothdaTheTruculent]

I might be misunderstanding your comment, but Ireland is not part of NATO. Though Putin is doing some really stellar diplomacy for NATO, so my comment might not be true for much longer.

[abrandt]

@jpinard

Why don’t they do this shit in their own waters? This is the Irish economic exclusionary zone. Throwing missiles into that area is pretty dickish.

This kind of stuff is pretty standard behavior from all sides really. Provocative but largely harmless acts to prove you won’t be bullied into backing down. The US has done this a bunch for example by sending ships through disputed areas claimed by China. Also years of US and Russian planes skirting borders and buzzing other planes(which I believe has actually killed people).

[abrandt]

@Aceris

@alekseivolchok

Among other things, full-scale invasion from several sides is not Russian MO. They’re very ashamed of Georgian operation in 2008 which was a disorganized mess. Crimean annexation was clean and neat, with no casualties (at least no obvious ones). And that was a very limited operation by special forces backed by local support. In Syria, there were very few boots on the ground and losses. Russian government really, really doesn’t want to send police to pacify protests by crying widows and mothers. They want clean victory with happy locals accepting the new rule and no losses, because Russian people are very disillusioned in geopolitical ambitions.

This is great insight, thanks.

I agree! This is exactly the kind of insight I’m very glad you bring to the table here.

[jpinard]

@abrandt

The US has done this a bunch for example by sending ships through disputed areas claimed by China.

Yea, but we’re not shooting missiles in that area.

[RichVR]

Yeah. A flyover is a bit different than dropping a missile where it might kill people.

[tfernando]

As long as they don’t re-enact the Dogger Bank Incident. :)
Dogger Bank incident - Wikipedia

[abrandt]

@jpinard

Yea, but we’re not shooting missiles in that area.

@RichVR

Yeah. A flyover is a bit different than dropping a missile where it might kill people.

I just don’t see a scenario where they are careless enough to allow it to drop near any ship that’s actually out there. Sinking a civilian vessel with a missile test near another country’s territory is not something they want. It’s a provocative fuck you, but I highly doubt they aren’t taking steps to make sure they don’t actually endanger any vessels.

[ShivaX]

Russian Naval history is basically just a series of events like this.

Becoming Communist for a time didn’t really change that chain.

[sincilbanks]

I’m sure the passengers of flight MH17 would be somewhat more sceptical of your opinion if they were alive today…

[RichVR]

@abrandt

I highly doubt they aren’t taking steps to make sure they don’t actually endanger any vessels.

Sweet summer child. :)

[Djscman]

@tfernando

Dogger Bank Incident

Wow, I’d never heard of that before. The Wiki article was pretty sure that the Japanese Navy wasn’t in the North Sea – but how can they be sure?

It seems like the same Japanese Navy forces triggered the Battle of Los Angeles a few decades later.

[ShivaX]

Dogger Bank incident was just part of a utter clusterfuck of stupidity and incompetence.

The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned

Edit:
Or a shorter memeier version:

The Dumbest Russian Voyage Nobody Talks About

[abrandt]

A very different situation.

[Timex]

Garry Kasparov

Remember back when Romney called out Russia as a prime threat, back in 2012? And people laughed at him like he was stupid.

Say what you want about Romney, but that particular statement was not stupid. What we are seeing with Russia today did not suddenly occur.

[RothdaTheTruculent]

Romney certainly does not get enough credit for expanding NATO and flipping Ukraine to the Western side.

[Dejin]

@Timex

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1485787402572640257?t=CADnOqcY38SpOMj_Umqd0Q&s=19

Remember back when Romney called out Russia as a prime threat, back in 2012? And people laughed at him like he was stupid.

Say what you want about Romney, but that particular statement was not stupid. What we are seeing with Russia today did not suddenly occur.

Romney was wrong. He wasn’t wrong that Russia was a threat. But China is a much, much bigger threat to Western Democracies. That was obvious to those paying attention in 2012.

As has been pointed out many times upthread, Russia has the GDP of Canada. China could very well surpass the US in economic power.

In addition, while Russia current government is bad, IMO China’s current government is far more problematic and exercises a level of control over its citizens that even exceeds Russia’s.

[Timex]

@Dejin

Romney was wrong. He wasn’t wrong that Russia was a threat. But China is a much, much bigger threat to Western Democracies.

Gonna have to disagree with you there.
Russia went on to invade Ukraine, and then went on to directly interfere with our election and led to the election of a manchurian candidate in the most powerful nation in the world.

China didn’t do that.

[Dejin]

You’re looking at the short term. Unless Russia wants to start a nuclear war, they can be an annoyance, but they can’t end up as the sole super power.

China potentially can. If American democracy falls by the wayside, a disunited Europe is not going to be able to challenge China.

Long term, Chinese’s totalitarian government is the prime threat to Western Democracies.

Hopefully China’s little self-created demographic time bomb will defuse the threat, but that remains to be seen.

[Timex]

@Dejin

You’re looking at the short term. Unless Russia wants to start a nuclear war, they can be an annoyance, but they can’t end up as the sole super power.

Russia literally made America elect an imbecile who fucked up the whole world with his incompetence.

Their disinformation campaign, not only in America but across the entire western world, has led to a rise of right wing fascists and seemingly a functional inability to think at all for some large portion of the population.

Like… this shit isn’t some kind of abstract imagined future event.

This is shit that ALREADY HAPPENED.

Their actions almost destroyed American democracy, dude. We had crackpots invade our capitol. For the first time in the history of America, we didn’t have a peaceful transfer of power. Trump still refuses to admit he lost, and it’s continuing to damage our country. That was all a result of Russia’s actions. And this is not ending. It’s getting worse, and they are still doing it.