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Post by Telemachus on Mar 23, 2024 19:32:58 GMT
It's the Egypt bits which seem such a non-sequitor. I wasn't considering anybody else's posts terribly muchly. arab Spring was mentioned earlier This was a bit like Highland Spring, only less watery.
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Post by kris on Mar 23, 2024 19:33:11 GMT
As I said before and your not?
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Post by Telemachus on Mar 23, 2024 19:37:41 GMT
Am I a bad person for not feeling sorry for the Russians who died in the stadium attack? They allowed their country to become a dictatorship (a process that took many years) and didn’t say much when their government tried to invade an adjacent country that presented no threat to them? Lots of Ukrainians died in that process, and continue to do so. Perhaps this is Karma? I take it you do know that next month, the Russo-Ukrainian war will have been going on for ten years, right? Well not really. There were skirmishes and general naughtiness going on in the eastern border regions where lots of people spoke Russian as their first language. But it was mostly Russian infiltrators stirring up trouble. The “Unionists” (ie those wanting Ukraine to be part of Russia) were in a small minority, but with Russia’s covert help, they made a lot of mess. Putin, seeing that the west hadn’t really noticed, invaded Crimea. Then when the west didn’t squeak too much about that, he upped the ante by attempting a full-blown invasion. Which didn’t go too well, but here we are with grinding trench warfare dragging on.
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Post by Telemachus on Mar 23, 2024 19:39:23 GMT
If those minority of people who wanted to be part of Russia had just moved to Russia instead of whinging about it, lots of people wouldn’t have died.
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Post by Mr Stabby on Mar 23, 2024 19:47:23 GMT
If those minority of people who wanted to be part of Russia had just moved to Russia instead of whinging about it, lots of people wouldn’t have died. The overwhelming majority of people who live in eastern Ukraine are ethnic Russians. They speak Russian, the road signs are in Russian rather than Ukrainian etc etc etc. The locals consider where they live to be Russia. They were born there, their parents were born there, their grandparents were born there. Why should they up sticks and move elsewhere? This is not from something I read on the internet but from having spent a considerable amount of time in the Donbass region and talking to people, as a Westerner in the early 1990s I was an object of some fascination and have been invited into numerous homes in the region to share a bottle of vodka around the kitchen table, as is the tradition in that part of the world. This conflict is far more complex than "The guys in the white hats versus the guys in the black hats".
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Post by Telemachus on Mar 23, 2024 23:29:44 GMT
If those minority of people who wanted to be part of Russia had just moved to Russia instead of whinging about it, lots of people wouldn’t have died. The overwhelming majority of people who live in eastern Ukraine are ethnic Russians. They speak Russian, the road signs are in Russian rather than Ukrainian etc etc etc. The locals consider where they live to be Russia. They were born there, their parents were born there, their grandparents were born there. Why should they up sticks and move elsewhere? This is not from something I read on the internet but from having spent a considerable amount of time in the Donbass region and talking to people, as a Westerner in the early 1990s I was an object of some fascination and have been invited into numerous homes in the region to share a bottle of vodka around the kitchen table, as is the tradition in that part of the world. This conflict is far more complex than "The guys in the white hats versus the guys in the black hats". Aka “some bloke down the pub said…” Clearly more complex than white vs black, but IMO a minority bunch cannot unilaterally decide to align their country with a foreign power. It’s the same for Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland etc
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Post by Mr Stabby on Mar 23, 2024 23:38:38 GMT
The overwhelming majority of people who live in eastern Ukraine are ethnic Russians. They speak Russian, the road signs are in Russian rather than Ukrainian etc etc etc. The locals consider where they live to be Russia. They were born there, their parents were born there, their grandparents were born there. Why should they up sticks and move elsewhere? This is not from something I read on the internet but from having spent a considerable amount of time in the Donbass region and talking to people, as a Westerner in the early 1990s I was an object of some fascination and have been invited into numerous homes in the region to share a bottle of vodka around the kitchen table, as is the tradition in that part of the world. This conflict is far more complex than "The guys in the white hats versus the guys in the black hats". Aka “some bloke down the pub said…” Clearly more complex than white vs black, but IMO a minority bunch cannot unilaterally decide to align their country with a foreign power. It’s the same for Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland etc You clearly know so little about the history of this region that it is not worth wasting any more of my time on you. Goodbye.
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Post by Telemachus on Mar 23, 2024 23:40:35 GMT
Aka “some bloke down the pub said…” Clearly more complex than white vs black, but IMO a minority bunch cannot unilaterally decide to align their country with a foreign power. It’s the same for Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland etc You clearly know so little about the history of this region that it is not worth wasting any more of my time on you. Goodbye. Goodbyeeeeee. Phew I think didn’t mention the war. Or if I did, I got away with it!
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Post by Clinton Cool on Mar 23, 2024 23:50:01 GMT
Culturally, Russians and Ukrainians are more or less identical. You call see this in common behaviour. I know this isn't the deciding factor as to where borders are defined but still, it should be in the melting pot.
Personally, I'm grateful that when Wales virtue signalled by offering to be a 'super host' for Ukrainians, despite an existing chronic shortage of housing in the province, the vast majority taking up the offer were women and their children, rather than hordes of Ukrainian men.
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Post by on Mar 24, 2024 8:16:18 GMT
Z
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Post by Mr Stabby on Mar 24, 2024 8:37:18 GMT
Culturally, Russians and Ukrainians are more or less identical. You call see this in common behaviour. I know this isn't the deciding factor as to where borders are defined but still, it should be in the melting pot. Russians and the Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainians are more or less identical, Ukrainian-speaking western Ukrainians are more closely culturally Polish.
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Post by Telemachus on Mar 24, 2024 9:18:33 GMT
If you look at the history of the area, it is extremely complex. However since the fall of the USSR the country was stable, and divergent from Russia in its culture and politics for over 20 years. But Russia didn’t really like that move to the west so they fomented dissent in the Eastern states. You only have to read this forum to see how easily people are misled by what they read on the internet! Things went from quite happy but with the older generation “missing” the USSR’s social benefits, to guerrilla warfare, under the influence of Mr Stabby’s friend Putin. And we now are where we are.
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Post by on Mar 24, 2024 9:21:02 GMT
I really like Putin.
The way he took out the plane was classic.
Don't mess with the boss.
Class act.
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Post by on Mar 24, 2024 9:22:42 GMT
Obviously nobody in the west gives a shit about any Ukrainians unless they can get £500 a month housing them.
So why in reality should it not just be part of the Russian Federation?
I don't understand why this would be a bad thing.
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Post by kris on Mar 24, 2024 9:39:42 GMT
Ah yes another one with no empathy for his fellow human beings.
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