I saw that rumor too.
But, take a look at a map. How the hell they gonna get to Moldova? I guess they could invade Ukraine, then invade Moldova, then continue their invasion of ukraine from there?
I imagine they are hoping for Ukrainian capitulation.
Rumor? The map was right there with the little arrows.
Rumor, as in that is actually their plan and not just an (fairly bumbling) attempt at cointel.
My Finnish professor who has lived in Michigan, Russia, and Canada, and is married to an Armenian woman, said in class tonight (History of Modern Russia, funnily enough, weâll have lots to talk about when we reach the Putin section) that his mother-in-law, whoâs still in Armenia, is âgladâ the Russians are doing what theyâre doing. She doesnât like the Ukrainians. (I didnât get the impression that my professor agreed with this viewpoint.)
Anyone, maybe @loppar or @hankthetank89, have any opinions on why that may be? I didnât get the chance to ask him about it.
There is so much of bullshit in the above link its not funny:
âLook at his face, see how that has changed â he now has an oval face,â
âHeâs on either anabolic steroids as a bodybuilder and heâs very proud of his muscles and strips to the waist and everything like that â or heâs on corticosteroids. If youâre on these drugs, this gives you this face.â
âIt reduces your immunity and makes you more vulnerable to Covid. This man has been in complete isolation, quite extraordinary, wonât see anybody, stays miles away, tremendous pressures. Which indicates heâs on a steroid and probably, maybe, a combination of both.â
I will tell you why people dont like Ukrainians. They are double sided. They have a strong patriotic feel, but no identity. They appear nice, but they will fuck you up when you do not expect it. I know a lot of Ukrainians, was friend with a lot as well. I am not anymore due to thr fact every single one of them tried to fuck me up.
I am a bit terrified that Ukrainians are getting refuge in my region in Bulgaria. While demografically it is good, I can sense some violence and crime spike once they settle.
Regarding the war. I dont think Russians are competent enough to win. Nor their army wants to win. While Ukrainians are determined to defend and so far has done it very well.
My post was not about being moral equivalents about what was happening in Ukraine. My post was a response to saying we should dehumanise the middle east because they donât meet our standards of morality, which I then questioned this alleged moral high ground.
Because she is brainwashed. I know people who live in ukraine now and their parents live in Russia, and their parents call them and happily say âyou are about to get freed by Putinâ like itâs the best news ever. And they dont believe when she says that there is no fascism in ukraine and it doesnt look like nazi Germany at all. They dont believe it because their whole life they have never read a single article on forreign website or watched a single piece of world news on non-propoganda chanel.
Armenia doesnât share a border with Russia, which is a prerequisite for not hating them.
Second, Armenia, a Christian Orthodox nation (actually, the first Christian nation in the world, before the Roman Empire adopted Christianity) is surrounded on three sides by Muslim countries, and has suffered a lot during Ottoman/Persian rule (Armenian genocide being the most recent example) and welcomed Tsarist Russian expansion to the Caucasus in the 18th and 19th centuries. In other words, anything is better than Muslim rule and thatâs pretty much the defining worldview of Armenians.
Therefore, they perceive Russian Orthodox brethren as their protectors, and much like the Serbs in the Balkans their love towards Russia is not necessarily reciprocated. Russia didnât do anything during the Azerbaijan invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh last year for example because he cut a deal with the Azeris.
There are many Armenians living in Russia (duh) and in order to break the glass ceiling due to them being non-Slavic and non fully white (yes, Kim Kardashian wouldnât be considered white had she lived in Russia) the either have to change their surname or dial Russian nationalism to 150% to overcompensate.
The most notorious Russian propagandist of the current war is RTs Margarita Simonyan, and sheâs Armenian. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is half-Armenian (his actual surname is Kalantaryan) but he took his motherâs maiden surname to appear more Slavic.
Why would the crime spike? You guys will start robbing them?
My school held a panel discussion on the Ukraine situation any my former Russian History prof brought up three points tk consider:
- The Russian Government feels somewhat entitled to Ukraine due to history
- The separatists arenât some monolithic group acting as Russian puppets. Just like how a transition away from coal and manufacturing created difficult economic conditions the rust belt, joining NATO and the EU would kill off industry in Eastern Ukraine. Some of them donât necessarily like Russia, but they care about their economic futures
- The Russian governmentâs initial demands werenât unreasonable. First, Gorbachev was promised that NATO wouldnât expand into Eastern Europe (promos broken) and NATO has missiles pointed at Russia from strongholds in or near Eastern Europe (ie Romania, Turkey).
Suppose that the tables were flipped and Gorbachev promised whoever was the president that the Warsaw Pact wouldnât expand into North America but then two decades later has incorporated the Dominican Republic, Mexico and is now recruiting Canada and Quebec is trying to break away and join. Also, the USSR has missiles in Cuba⊠wait that happenedâŠand almost started a nuclear war when the US flipped out (for good reason)
Re Crimea: imagine if the US gave Guam back to Japan as a gift and now relations are deteriorating. Remember, Sevastopol is arguably more important to Russia.
In both scenarios, my prof (I share her opinion) stated that sheâs not convinced that the US would act much differently
Note: this isnât condoning the invasion. The point is that we shouldnât be âRussia evil and stupidâ
They feel entitled to the entirety of Tsarist Russia. Thatâs a stupid point. In the same vein, UK could âfeel entitledâ to the East Coast or Canada due to shared history.
Yes, they are. The current leader of the DPR was an unemployed MLM fraudster on the run before appearing out of nowhere, the head of LPR is a security official that literally defected to Russia. Itâs worth noting that whenever someone of the âseparatist leadersâ would not 100% listen to Kremlin, he would be immediately killed (Zahrchenko, Motorola, Givi)
No he wasnât. And the demands were made to be rejected as Russia flat out requested pre-1991 conditions.
There arenât missiles in Romania, thereâs an anti missile shield in Romania. Oh, and missiles in Turkey are from the 1950ies, so I fail to see the connection to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The fundamental reason is that the USSR/Russia could and can not voluntarily attract new members to its military alliance in any shape of form.
So they get to have it because âitâs important to themâ? And by the way, Crimea was not a gift. Look what happened to Belgorod oblast.
You might be right. Iâm just relaying what I heard. The idea wasnât to make excuses for Russia. Her talk was to bring some perspective, even if theyâre wrong. Itâs hard to fight an adversary if you donât get into their head.
That would be funny
Oh, another point (from the same discussion). Another panelist pointed out that the âmore concerningâ aspect about the current Russian regieme seems to the their opposition to democracy, not just to anti-Russian governments
Eastern Germany in 2016 was still very different from Western Germany (I drove all the way from Luxembourg to the Czech Republic with stops), both in economy and appearance. Mostly it seemed to be a holdover from the Iron Curtain, but WWII had a pretty strong hand in creating the Iron Curtain.
Also I spoke with some Germans from the west when we were in Iceland and they indicated there is still a pretty strong political divide between west/east Germans. How correct were they? I canât say.
Theyâre totally pro-democracy. As long as you vote for them.
Its not a murderous regime though. Theyâre just super competitive. Like full contact, no holds barred.
This is the largest issue most people/countries seem to have with the administration.
Thatâs what Iâd think tbh. The USSR is mostly to blame for that 
What I was referring to is the demographic issues from so many men dying