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The ONLY thing that matters in any country is the elites. Which is true regardless of whether you have a monarchy, a democracy, a communist dictatorship, or any other form of government.
The only role the common people have is in taking sides in an intra-elite war. And an intra-elite war only occurs when the minority faction(IE those not currently in power) are supported by a foreign power and where conditions are bad enough that the common people(especially the police/military) are unwilling to defend the ruling regime.
But this minority faction is driven by self-interest, not sentimentality, yet the common people require the elites to lead them because they are incapable of leading/organizing themselves. It doesn't matter how many North Koreans starve to death as long as the North Korean elite are happy and the minority faction is incapable of colluding with foreign elites for the means to carry out a revolution.
What you are saying is true for smaller European countries, but not for such huge and complex place as Russia. So your PROJECTIONS that you are making on that country are incorrect, as the majority of them.
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As for Prigozhin, he CANNOT rise to power unless he is supported by either the "majority"(IE the faction in power) or an anti-Putin minority financially and logistically-backed by the west(covertly). If neither the Russian elite nor the foreign elite want Prigozhin, the only thing he can do is stir up trouble.
He can't rise to power, unless what he is saying is true ( be that the situation in the army or in business,) and there are enough of people out there in Russia, that recognize it.
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God knows I'm not saying people everywhere are identical, but Russians and Ukrainians are pretty close to it.
OK, we are getting somewhere. Somewhere, at the back of your mind YOU KNOW that Anglo-Saxons are not the "clay" that can be easily manipulated, because even though back in the day they could have been supporting the "intra-elite wars," with time all of them became some kind of the "world elite," and will scrutinize and analyze anything that comes their way, before they will "join" anything.
But it's the "other" people out there, with "clay" mentality that Anglo-Saxons can manipulate, and this goes first of all to someone like Ukrainians.
Then you make next logical connection - if Ukrainians are so similar to Russians, then Russians can be as easily manipulated as well, right?
Wrong.
Now I will explain to you why.
On one hand, Russians and Ukrainians are one and the same people - the "Northern" and "Southern" versions of it, but the difference is - the head of the "octopus," the spiritual/cultural think tank, the operational center remains in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The tentacles go all the way to Siberia and Ukraine. And those "tentacles" are basically identical - be they in Siberia or Ukraine.
Once you cut the "Ukrainian tentacles" from Russia, these tentacles are trying to grow their own head, but this head ( along with tentacles) can be easily manipulated by the foreign powers.
Not so the head that is located in St. Pet/Moscow, and tentacles that are closely attached to it.
Because this is a separate power with its own "engine," that doesn't possess "clay like" qualities, or posses by it only up to a very limited degree.
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Though when I say Russians I'm referring to ethnic Russians not Churkas.
Be very careful there too, because although the lower ladder of these people ( the tentacles) indeed deserve this nick-name, their upper ladder can be quite sophisticated, such as;
In any case, this is really about the extent someone identifies his country as his people/family. Or to put it another way, who loves his countrymen more, Ukrainians or Russians? I don't know the answer, but I don't imagine Russia as an overly united country.
Whatever at is, at this point I see Russia as more united and coherent than the US ( particularly when it comes to "minorities" issues.)
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I mean, compare modern Russia to say Nazi Germany. Who was more united and willing to sacrifice more?
I would say Nazi Germany.
Germans overall are the perfectionists ( at least used to be,) so whatever they did, was striving to this "excellence" level, and this would include "unification."
The only exception here is probably the battle field. That's where Russians know how to pull together their effort like no one else.
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I don't mean this to be a criticism of Russia necessarily. The United States is one of the least united countries in the entire world. I can't imagine what would happen if America tried to institute a draft.
I hear you, and wouldn't know what to answer to you at this point.
( Exactly - what "if"?)
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What do rich people want? Like, how much money do they want and why? What's the point of having more money than you could ever spend in a hundred lifetimes?
I don't have answer here either.
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And why would Putin have a dozen mansions and yachts that he literally never uses, and will probably never use because he will probably die as president.
I personally think that his ego is more important to him than the yachts.
If he'd have a choice between having those yachts in Nice and being the "most powerful man in the world" ( or whatever he sees it, being a ruler of Russia,) I am sure he'd sacrifice the yachts.
When I see Putin interacting with Russian oligarchs, I see a servile and almost obsequious Putin. To me, Putin is just a frontman for the oligarchs. Acting as their representative, doing their dirty work for them(like pretty much all other world leaders). Your view of Putin is almost exactly the opposite. That Putin is essentially running everything and that the oligarchs have to bow down to him and give him whatever he wants(which is supposedly tens of billions of dollars a year in cash that Putin has tucked in his mattress).
If what you are saying here were true, few of the oligarchs of the "first wave" (Khodarkovsky including) wouldn't be thrown out of the game/jailed by Putin.
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Rofl, no. Zelensky is a cokehead actor playing a role. Same with Prigozhin. You are so gullible.
It's not that I am "gullible" - it's just that I've been watching Zelensky long before he became a president.
So I am more aware of who he really is.
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No, it is cancer. Trust me, I live here. America is also the most anti-white country in the entire world. I have literally no idea why white Americans put up with it, except that many/most seem to be suicidal, and the rest are retarded.
George Carlin once said... "When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat."
Former Commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army (CAA) Major General Ivan Popov claimed in leaked audio that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu dismissed him for expressing persistent grievances about problems on the western Zaporizhia Oblast frontline to senior commanders. Russian State Duma Deputy and former Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District (SMD) Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev leaked Popov’s audio message on July 12 in which Popov stated that Russian command fired him for expressing grievances over the lack of support for Russian forces and replaced him with Lieutenant General Denis Lyamin.[1] Popov claimed that he expressed concerns to the “highest level†of Russian command over the lack of Russian counter-battery warfare capabilities, the absence of artillery reconnaissance stations, significant Russian casualties from Ukrainian artillery fire, and other issues.[2] Popov claimed that Shoigu fired him because his honesty in voicing various problems in the Russian military threatened the Russian command. Popov claimed that he chose to “call a spade a spade†in the name of his dead comrades instead of “remaining in silent cowardice.â€[3] Russian sources previously claimed that Chief of the Russian General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov dismissed Popov for expressing concerns over the need for troop rotations in western Zaporizhia Oblast amid Ukrainian counteroffensive operations.[4]
Currency collapse and capital withdrawal from Russia - Russian media The Moscow Times
A failed mutiny of Wagner PMC under the leadership of Yevgeny Prigozhin, which came as close as 200 km to Moscow, led to serious consequences for the Russian economy. As a result of the rebellion, a large-scale withdrawal of capital from the Russian banking system was observed.
A drop in the total amount of currency held by individuals and legal entities in the Russian banking system is now $152.4bn - a new low since 2008.
The sharp decline in foreign currency deposits directly indicates a powerful outflow of capital from the country.
A drop in the total amount of currency held by individuals and legal entities in the Russian banking system is now $152.4bn - a new low since 2008.
The sharp decline in foreign currency deposits directly indicates a powerful outflow of capital from the country.
Napoleon, Hitler, Japan, Italy, Germany (twice), the Ottomans, Persia, the Romans, the list goes on and on, if a country invades another country - it might even be temporarily successful - but cannot end the war, it will eventually lose. Other nations will get involved sooner or later, even if just economically.
Russia in particular, is vulnerable to long wars because of her weakish economy. She has had to back down several times in history because she could not continue the war. World War 1 is a good example. So is the Crimean War.
In all fairness, you're talking about attrition warfare where each "side" is trying to outlast the other. As for other nations getting involved, foreign nations are always involved prior to every war. You mentioned the Crimean War, in that war each of the powers had been scheming for years before war finally broke out.
You have to understand two principles of war... 1) War is politics by other means. 2) War is always a miscalculation of your own strength or your enemy's weakness. While you are correct that the side who seems to be winning can still lose. The side who seems to be winning can also win, even if it takes a long time.
You are correct that the longer a war continues, the more people tend to get involved, and the more the war escalates. But in the Ukraine/Russia war, which side is gaining more friends? Are there more people supporting Ukraine now or less?
Since this is a war of attrition, which side can outlast the other? To put it another way, which side has the greater population, natural resources, and industrial production? Ukraine and its friends or Russia and its friends?
As for Russia's economy. The real question is 1) What will energy prices be in the future? 2) Will Russia's friends(BRICS/OPEC) move to stabilize the Russian economy if things were to get dire?
Last edited by Redshadowz; 07-13-2023 at 10:08 PM..
He can't rise to power, unless what he is saying is true and there are enough of people out there in Russia, that recognize it.
He can only rise to power if he has been getting financially supported by the government for years, if he gets praised by the government/media as a hero fighting for Russia, and if he is allowed a podium from which to speak the things some fraction of the population wants to hear(whether true or not).
Same basic logic applies to Donald Trump. What he says doesn't have to be true. People just have to want it to be true. Both Prigozhin and Navalny are completely full of ****, but there are plenty of Russians who want to believe.
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Originally Posted by erasure
OK, we are getting somewhere. Somewhere, at the back of your mind YOU KNOW that Anglo-Saxons are not the "clay" that can be easily manipulated
Quite the opposite my friend. Anglos are extremely easily manipulated. White people in general are a bunch of cucks who let their elites rule them almost without question. Africans are infinitely less trusting and less obedient than white people(and less fearful of consequences).
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Originally Posted by erasure
If what you are saying here were true, few of the oligarchs of the "first wave" (Khodarkovsky including) wouldn't be thrown out of the game/jailed by Putin.
Only with the support of the other oligarchs, and only because they were plotting something. Regardless, dictatorships are always oligarchies. Xi Jinping is not all-powerful either. These are political parties filled with intrigue, always looking to cut each other's throats. If the Russian elite actually became fearful of Putin, they would collude to have him killed. Just like the barons/lords would murder the King or collude with foreign Kings.
Tape of General released by a politician. He criticizes military leadership, including Shoigu and said he was fired over it.
Which probably saved his life as his replacement got killed the next day or so in a strike. The Ukrainians have killed a TON of Russian officers so far.
A drop in the total amount of currency held by individuals and legal entities in the Russian banking system is now $152.4bn - a new low since 2008.
The sharp decline in foreign currency deposits directly indicates a powerful outflow of capital from the country.
Russia is going broke.
US money supply is also shrinking - at the fastest rate since the onset of the Great Depression. The higher interest rates being used to fight inflation are being blamed as the cause in the US. US is also losing some foreign treasury deposits and the amount of money that people have in banks has dropped a lot. Seems like many countries globally are going through this same thing perhaps from excess debt, inflation and coming out of a pandemic.
Last edited by michiganmoon; 07-14-2023 at 05:55 AM..
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because although the lower ladder of these people ( the tentacles) indeed deserve this nick-name, their upper ladder can be quite sophisticated, such as;
