What's new in Syria

Discussion in 'World Events' started by Schmelzer, Dec 13, 2015.

  1. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    And Mother Russia is more interested in keeping Assad's government in place than fighting ISIS. Assad's rule over a small portion of Syrian territory is sustained by Russia and Iran which also practices strict Sharia compliance and is equally militant and fundamentalist.

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/i...-rights-day-barack-obama-nuclear-deal-152311/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_involvement_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War

    Russia is at odds with itself. It's foreign policies are not consistent and often contradictory. Russian officials have been trying to reform a new OPEC in order to drive oil prices higher and rescue its failing economy, while at the same time opposing those same states in what remains of Syria. Putin's ego, is a cost which is too much for the Russian state to bear.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2016
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  3. Schmelzer Valued Senior Member

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    First of all, these there not Putin's "green men", but local militias. I have seen fotos of the border checkpoints, they were all defended by local militias, one can distinguish them easily. Then, if the OSCE want to visit Crimea, they have to consult the government of Crimea for permission. They haven't. Then, learn the difference between a warning shot and "shooting at".
    All have been invited, the politically correct have rejected the invitation, of course they can blame the others have not been politically correct. The point being?
    Of course, not. It separated from the Ukraine after the power has been taken in Kiew by some Nazi gangs, and then, after a referendum, became part of Russia. Learn to read.
    Your sentence makes no sense, because Russia has not done such things.
    Who cares about your guesses? And, no, who he was was known several months, it was not really a secret, and he has lost his post under Russian pressure. There were around 10% or so among the volunteers with Russian passports, at that time there was no necessity for visa for Russian citizens. And it was his political direction - fight against the Kiew Nazis up to the complete victory, without any ceasefires or so - which was the reason to get rid of him.
    If some Western source names somebody a former advisor of Putin, what follows is propaganda nonsense.
    To quote you: "Georgia ... had no US weaponry when Mother Russia invaded and occupied portions of the country". So Bushmaster is some Chinese firm?
     
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  5. Schmelzer Valued Senior Member

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    Unfortunately, at least in Ibta the surrender of the town seems to have failed yet - the Syrian flag had been hissed, but then some Al Qaida guys are said to have taken it down again. One will see.

    But, positive, as the liberation of Deir Jarmal by the Kurds, as of Kafin has happened without fighting, the islamists have simply left. And the same has now happened in Kafr Naya, which, it seems, is now already controlled by the Syrian army (on the twitter level, thus, not at all certain).

    The Kurds have also taken another village, Kaft Antun, so they are now almost completely in control of the former "jihadi highway" from Azaz to Mayer. There is only a military airport yet on the road, and Azaz itself.

    And there are a lot of highs in Latakia which have been taken by the Syrian army.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2016
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  7. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    What, you cannot speak Russian or read English text now? Putin is on Russian state produced video admitting he planned and executed the invasion and annexation of Crimea.

    "At first President of Russia Vladimir Putin stated that the men in green were not part of Russian Armed Forces, but groups of local militia who had obtained their weapons from Ukrainians.[11] The SACEUR of NATO Allied Command Operations General Philip Breedlove on the other hand asserted that these "green men" were in fact Russian troops.[12]

    In March 2014 Putin continued to back the Russian viewpoint,[13][14] stating "the heavily armed, tightly coordinated groups who took over Crimea's airports and ports at the start of the incursion – they were merely spontaneous "self-defence groups" who may have acquired their Russian-looking uniforms from local [military] shops (voyentorg)".[15][16]According to the Ukrainian Gun Owners Association, Ukrainian law does not allow the selling or carrying of firearms other than for hunting.[17]

    On 17 April President Putin admitted for the first time publicly that Russian special forces were involved in the events of Crimea, for the purposes of protecting local people and creating conditions for a referendum.[18][19][20][21][22][23] Later he admitted that Russian Armed Forces had blocked Ukrainian Armed Forces in Crimea during the events.[24] " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_green_men_(Ukrainian_crisis)#Official_Russian_reaction

    Except, per previous references, they were not. A UN observer and investigator was harassed and ousted, again per previous references. The point being, the "referendum" was rigged.

    The only Nazi gang is the one in the Kremlin comrade. The fact is there were only two options on the referendum and both would have resulted in the Russian annexation of Crimea. There was no option to remain in Ukraine.

    Ukraine didn't separate from Ukraine. As has been previously and repeatedly brought to your attention, Russia took over Crimea's parliament and installed its own parliament.

    Additionally the one who needs to learn how to read, is you comrade. But I think your problems run much deeper than that. You have a long and well established habit of just mindlessly repeating and promulgating whatever Mother Putin wants you to and ignoring and without merit summarily dismissing real facts and real evidence.

    Well then you should be able to disprove it using credible sources, but you cannot. Because it is true. This is yet another example of how you summarily and without merit dismiss inconvenient facts and evidence. Unfortunately for you and Mother Putin, the world isn't as dumb and Mother Putin needs it to be.

    What guess? I haven't made any guesses. The fact is the "rebel leaders" in Crimea were the same "rebel leaders" in the Donbass. The leaders in each instance were Russian state security officers. I was more than just one Russian state security officer. And those officers were dismissed after it became widely known the pseudo insurrection was being led by Russian state security officers. It kind of undermines Mother Putin's assertion this was a home grown Ukrianian insurrection when the leaders of that insurrection and many of the troops weren't Ukrainians but Russian state security officers and Russian troops.

    And just because you don't like the government in Kiev, it doesn't make them Nazis. As as been previously pointed out to you, the only one taking pages out of Hitler's playbook is Putin and his comrades. Kiev hasn't invaded its neighbors and annexed their lands, Mother Putin has.

    Facts are not propaganda comrade.

    I was referring to American military equipment - remember context? As previously pointed out to you, Bushmaster doesn't produce small arms for the US military. Bushmaster produces and sells hunting rifles in the US, not military hardware...oops.
     
  8. Schmelzer Valued Senior Member

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    First, Putin has never stated that the men in green were not part of Russian army. Then, there have been also a lot (several thousands) local militias, also with weapons, in part the Crimean parts of the Ukrainian Berkut police special forces which after the coup returned to Crimea with their weapons.
    I have seen this interview in Russian. So don't tell me translated distortions. Some stupid journalist has formulated an quite imprecise question about some men in uniforms, and Putin has, roughly, answered, uniforms can be bought in any militaria shop.
    "Admitted" LOL. There was already before an open statement that the government of Crimea has asked the Russian army located in Sewastopol to support them by retaining the public safety and order. And the chief of the garnison has also openly said that this will be done.

    Again, there was a coup in Kiev, and as the legal president of the Ukraine, as the local government of Crimea have officially asked Russia for military support.
    That your sources have been silent about the invitations is their fault, it does not mean that they did not exist. And, again, official persons of whatever organizations who refuse to accept the legal power (which was, after the separation, the government of Crimea) should not wonder if nobody cares about their diplomatic status - this is symmetric, if they do not acknowledge the Crimean government, but behave as if the Nazis in Kiev were a legal government, is not acknowledged as a diplomat. They should blame themself.

    And despite some irrelevant claims of minor distortions, it is clear that even the most fair referendum would have given an overwhelming support for becoming part of Russia.
    The other was not annexion by Russia but independence, and return to the 1992 constitution. In this constitution, Crimea was officially nonetheless part of Ukraine - simply with much greater autonomy.
    Nonsense. The democratically elected parlament of Crimea as well as of Sewastopol remained up to some elections later.
    Nonsense. Former security officer Strelkow was in Crimea too, but far from being a leader there. The leaders in Crimea remained as politicians in Crimea.
    Indeed. What makes them Nazis are their own political beliefs and, in particular, their open support for the Ukrainian Nazist traditions (Bandera and his UPA).
     
  9. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Except none of that is true. Gun ownership in Ukraine with the exception of hunting weapons. Putin's little green men didn't have hunting weapons. The fact is Putin first denied and then admitted the little green men were his.

    You aren't being honest comrade.

    The world isn't as ignorant as Putin needs it to be comrade. Per previously referenced materials, Mother Russia's armed forces took over the the Crimean parliament and by force of arms installed their own government. They took a guy who had garnered only 4 percent of the popular vote in the last election and made him prime minister. You are either extraordinarily ignorant or completely dishonest.

    Except there wasn't. Putin's man was legally impeached and removed from office. A request came from the Crimean government Russia illegally installed in Crimea. Facts do matter in the real world comrade.

    Where is the evidence "my sources" remained silent? My sources are the UN. The fact is Russia's forces harassed UN and European observers and refused them entry even going so far as firing shots to warn them off. That isn't an invitation even in Mother Russia. Russian troops also harassed journalists who were there to report on events.

    The fact is you cannot prove your claim invitations were issued. Because they weren't, as previously proven. Again, you are not being honest comrade. And again, just because the Ukrainian government in Kiev doesn't go along with Mother Russia, it doesn't make them Nazis. As previously and repeatedly pointed out to you, the only Nazis in the region is Mother Russia. Mother Russia is the only country pulling pages from the Nazi playbook.

    Oh, and where is your evidence for that one? Let me guess, just as with all of your other assertions, you have none.

    Not really, the "other" choice was to defer the decision to Russia's hand picked and illegally installed Ukrainian government.

    The truth isn't nonsense. As has been repeatedly pointed out to you, Putin's little green men took over the Crimean parliament by force of arms and installed its own government. It took a man whose party only garnered 4 percent of the vote and installed him as prime minister. Per my previous references, before, those Russians troops took over the Crimean parliament with force of arms the free Crimean parliament had condemned Russia's actions in Crimea and urged resistance.

    Again, per previous references, that just isn't true either. And as previously mentioned, he wasn't alone either. There were other Russian state security officers who led the "insurrection" too. The self-appointed first prime minister of the Donbass People's Republic is also a Russian state security officer and a Russian citizen and he too participated in the Crimean invasion and annexation.

    Bandara died more than a half century ago. You and your beloved Putin have a habit of scapegoating people and organizations and in particular your victims for your own transgressions. The fact is neither the Ukrainian government or Georgia are Nazi's. As has repeatedly pointed out to you, the only country mimicking the Nazis, is your beloved Mother Putin. They haven't invaded and annexed the lands of their neighbors as Nazi Germany and Mother Putin have both done.
     
  10. Schmelzer Valued Senior Member

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    5,003
    The Berkut special forces have had better than hunting weapons, the local police stations which have been taken under control by the local militias too. And, on the other side, the Nazis have had a lot of weapons too. All this was not that much as a short time later, when a lot of military weapons simply have been sold by the corrupt Ukrainian army to everybody who paid. And, I repeat, Putin has never denied that the polite green men were his. From day one the runet was full of details where they come from, and all what Putin has done was to make a joke of the stupid question of the journalist. He did not admit it in that interview, but as well he did not deny it.
    No. After some violent demonstrations the day before, the speznas has protected the building of the parliament. The guy was elected by the same democratically elected parliamentarians, after the former leadership has discredited itself and resigned. The parliamentarians have chosen to elect somebody who was not discredited by former government participation, so it was natural that he came from some opposition to the former leadership. But anyway he was a member of the parliament, and elected by elected parliamentarians, following legally all the procedures necessary.
    LOL. He was not even Putin's man, he was the man of the Donezk oligarchs. Which is a big difference. Putin despised him, protected his life, that's all. And of course, there was nothing even remotely legal in his "impeachment".
    No, these where the local militias, which have protected the border. The Russian speznas has protected a few critical buildings (like the parliament, some government buildings, the airport). Later the Russian army (from Sewastopol) have, openly in cooperation with the government, participated in protected those Ukrainian army barracks who have not accepted the separatist Crimean goverment and, instead, accepted the Kiev Nazis.

    And, of course, if some OSCE or UN or whoever does not even consult the Crimean government, but tells only the Kiev Nazis that he is visiting Crimea, he is in no way invited to Crimea. Don't mingle these cases with the invitaions of the OSCE and EU parliamentarians to observe the referendum. Those who have accepted these invitation have not had any problems.
    The fact is that nobody can prove anything to people like you who are known to ignore all proofs.
    LOL, joepistole has invented a new political entity, a free Crimean parliament.
    As Hitler. So what? Those who openly admire Hitler in Germany are named Nazis. Those who hail each other "Heil Hitler" or "Sieg Heil", or who use Hitler's birthday as their holiday. And the Ukrainian Nazis are those who openly worship Bandara, use the Ukrainian Nazi greeting "Slava Ukraine" and use the founding day of the Ukrainian variant of the SS, the UPA, as their holiday. This has nothing to do with scapegoating, with naming anyone right of Merkel a Nazi, this is naming a Nazi those who openly, by their own choice, put themself into the traditions of the Ukrainian Nazi movement.
    What does this have to do with Georgia? Except that the former US proconcul of Georgia, now a wanted criminal in Georgia, Saakashvili, became governor of Odessa, thus, part of the Nazis ruling Ukraine.
     
  11. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Well not surprisingly, you are being dishonest yet again. The subject was Georgia - remember...or is dementia setting in or is it just plain old dishonesty? No one said the Berkut had hunting riffles. The Berkut was a Ukrainian police unit, which is now under Russian control along with the rest of the country. Your misrepresentation of the Berkut as a militia is either gross ignorance or blatant dishonesty.

    Except that isn't true either, as previously pointed out to you, the Crimean prime minister publicly encouraged resistance to Russia's invasion. The next day, Russian armed troops (i.e. Putin's little green men) by force of arms took over the Crimean parliament and replaced the Crimean prime minister with their stooge, a man who only gathered 4 percent of the vote in Crimea's last free election.

    But he was and remains, Putin's man. Where did he flee to and where does he reside now? He fled to his master and to this day, he resides in Mother Russia under his master's protection and is under indictment for corruption and murder and has been found guilty of corruption in Ukraine. You don't like what happened to Putin's man. The man who did Putin's bidding in Ukraine, but that doesn't change the facts of the matter.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych

    Except, Ukraine had no "local militias" in Crimea. And the the people who reported these incidents were UN and European observers, and journalists, Putin's little green men were clearly identifiable as such because they were not wearing any identifying insignia. If they were "local militias" as you have asserted, they would have worn insignia. Insignia would have given the units credibility. But they didn't wear insignia because they were not local milita as you and your beloved Mother Putin have asserted.

    Sorry comrade, but the facts are very clear and they don't support your assertions.

    That doesn't even make sense. The fact is UN and OSCE observers along with journalists were harassed and threatened by Russian troops, and Russia refused to allow credible observers to observe the "referendum", even going so far as to fire shots to warn them off. But even so, given that there were only two options, and not being annexed by Mother Russia wasn't one of them in and of itself makes the referendum illegitimate. Under those conditions even one vote for either option would have resulted in annexation. And then there is the matter where a number of Russians (i.e. non Crimeans) were allowed to vote. That isn't a legitimate referendum comrade.

    Well, that is indeed funny coming from the guy who never has any credible proofs and always summarily and without merit dismisses all credible evidence, and is fond of posting material which is blatantly false (i.e. Russian state controlled propaganda). You are scapegoating again comrade.

    Hmm....so you think that a parliament which doesn't have armed Russian troops threatening them and telling them how and what to do isn't free? So in your view a parliament with an armed Russian troop presence telling parliamentarians what to do and when to do it is a "free" parliament? Well, that's not how the rest of the world sees it. I understand that this is how Mother Russia has long done business. But that isn't how it works elsewhere. I don't think many of you Russians understand the meaning of freedom, nor want it. It's much easier to be told what to do and when to do it. You don't have to think that way.

    That doesn't make the Ukrainian government Nazi's as you have repeatedly alleged. Mother Russia has similar parties and people who openly admire Hitler, advocate Nazism and greet each other with sieg heil, so if you want to be intellectually honest, you have to also say Mother Russia is ruled by Nazi's. But you don't want to be intellectually honest, do you?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Nazism#Russia

    What is a proconcul? If you mean proconsul, the US doesn't have any. I just pointed out, that contrary to your repeated assertions, the government in Ukraine and Georgia aren't Nazi governments as you have asserted. Just because you don't like a government or a person, that doesn't make them Nazi's. If you are call people Nazis as you have repeatedly done, you better have some credible evidence of same. But you don't, you never do.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2016
  12. Schmelzer Valued Senior Member

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    Complete confusion on your side. The subject of this thread is Syria. Your anti-Russian attacks cover a lot of the usual memes of the anti-Russian NATO propaganda, including Georgia (where you have stultified yourself by claiming they had no US weapons) and Ukraine, where you appear unable to identify Nazis even among the completely open Bandera admirers. Berkut was and is a Ukrainian police unit, and the part of it located in Crimea immediately switched sides after the Nazi coup and supported the Crimean antimaidan separatists. This has given the Crimean antimaidan forces also all the weapons under control of Berkut. There have been more sources of weapons, namely all the other Crimean parts of the Ukrainian army and police which supported the government of Crimea instead of the Kiev Nazis and which followed the order of the Crimean government that they had to claim their allegiance to the government of Crimea instead of the Kiev junta.

    And there were a lot of local people who created local militias to defend Crimea against the Bandera Nazi hordes. These had whatever they were able to get as weapons, from hunting weapons to weapons taken illegally from various other sources, like the Berkut and other pro-Russian police and army sources. So, of course, Berkut is not a militia, but the guys from Berkut have taken their weapons and participated in these militias, supporting them with all the weapons they were able to control.
    Nonsense, because there was no Russian invasion. Axjonow was elected democratically by the Crimean parliament. Which was, indeed, protected against the danger of violent maidan forces by polite men in green. There was no Russian force necessary for this, because the majority there was an overwhelming pro-Russian one, the remains of the former Yanukovych party, which, according to you, was Putin's man. But the Yanukovych guys have been discredited not only in Kiev, but also on Crimea itself, so these parliamentarians naturally switched sides to a non-discredited but of course pro-Russian politician. Which was Axjonow.

    Yanukovych is in Russia, but plays no politicial role - he was allowed to come to Russia for legal reasons - as the legal president of the Ukraine, he could, and did, legitimate the actions of the Russian army in Crimea as well as other parts of the Ukraine.
    These there local self-defense militias, which have formed based on the local antimaidan movements and which have been founded immediately after the Kiev coup.
    ROTFLBTC. I tell you a secret: The polite men in gree were easily distinguishable from the militias, but not because they were not wearing any identifying insignia - the militias didn't too.
    Again, no, the Russian speznas guys were named "polite men in green", because they were special forces with clear focus on their jobs, which was to protect a few buildings of central importance, and they were, that's why, extremely polite, with the clear aim to avoid any unnecessary escalations. Quite different from the militias, which were simply local self-defense guys without any appropriate professional education (except participation in the military long ago in the past). These guys have, of course, harassed anybody who looked or behaved like a Bandera-fan. And they have stopped at the border everybody who looked suspect to them. Of course, without any professional education about how to behave at a border, because there was no border control before, they have created one out of nothing to defend their homes from the Bandera Nazi hordes.
    Nonsense. At the time of the referendum, the separation from the Ukraine had been already declared. In this sense, the other option was simply the status quo - independence based on the constitution of 1992, that means, no Russian annexion.
    A minor problem, it certainly hasn't changed the result. The Iowa results are, in this sense, much more suspect. I have heard about 6 coin tosses all of which Hitlary won, LOL.
    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/02/john-v-walsh/hillary-rig-results-iowa/
    No, I know that there was no such Crimean parliament which has made what you claimed. There was only one, the democratically elected pro-Russian one, and it has, after the demise of the former governor, elected a new one.

    Because a day before this there has been a violent demonstration (some pro-maidan demonstrators fighting against antimaidan demonstrators) before the building, the building itself was protected by some obviously professional guys. Their job was to control those who enter the parliament if the have the right to do this, and to prevent a storm of the parliament by demonstrators, which was a real danger in these days, and has happened in many Ukrainian towns. They have done this job.
    That they have done such things is a NATO propaganda claim. And there was no need to do this. Because anyway the parliament was in its majority pro-Russian - according to your idea that Yanukovich was Putin's man, all they were already Putin's parliamentarians.
    LOL. Imagine the German Bundestag makes Hitler's birthday an official holiday, and Merkel uses the "Heil Hitler" greeting even in official speeches. This would not make the German government Nazi's?
    Why? They are not even in the parliament. Instead of having a majority there, which allows the the Ukrainian Nazis to make the founding day of the UPA (the Ukrainian SS, which has killed a lot of Russians, Poles and Jews) an official holiday.

    The existence of Nazis means nothing. Their political power is what matters.
    I have not named the Georgian government Nazi, they have been simply American puppets after their "revolution of Roses". And the Georgians themself have managed it to get rid of this criminal Saakashvili. Which now makes American policy in Odessa. The Ukrainian government is openly Nazi, simply judging by their own identification with Bandera as their national hero.
     
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  13. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    LOL...come on comrade....get honest.

    Well that is the OP, but this discourse between you an I has been going on for some time now. So your about comment is more than a little disingenuous. You don't like the heat.

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    The truth is just the truth comrade. And just because you don't like the truth, it doesn't make it anti-Russian propaganda. You are doing what you have always done, summarily and without merit, dismiss credible evidence which points out your many errors and misrepresentations.

    Bandaras was a Ukrainian nationalist who was jailed by Nazi Germany and subsequently colluded with Nazi Germany to fight Mother Russia (i.e. the Soviets). And as pointed out to you previously, just because there are Nazi supporters in Ukraine, it doesn't make it a Nazi state as you would have people believe. As previously pointed out to you, Mother Russia has its own home grown Nazi's, including the guy who leads the country. Contrary to your previous assertions, the Berkut wasn't a militia. It wasn't apart of Putin's little green men. And the rest of that paragraph makes no sense.

    Oh, then where is your evidence to support that claim? As with almost all of your claims, you have none. The fact is there were no militias. It was a ruse used by Putin, a ruse to which Putin later admitted. We have been down this road many times. You have been repeatedly presented the evidence. But you do as you have always done and continue to do, summarily and without merit dismiss credible evidence as NATO propaganda. You have never been able to prove NATO has propaganda much less all the many sources which have been provided to you are in anyway related to or controlled by NATO.

    Oh ...that isn't what your beloved Putin has said. Is Putin part of your NATO conspiracy too? The facts are Putin did initially deny involvement. But after months had passed, Putin admitted the little green men were indeed his and that he had planned the invasion. A few posts ago you were given a video in which Putin makes those admissions. You have been given all the evidence. And you have no evidence to discredit it, yet you continue to deny it. Sorry comrade, the truth speaks for itself. And you are not speaking it.

    If Crimeans wanted to leave the Ukraine, they didn't need Putin's little green men to do it, to have a vote in their parliament. The fact is Russia forcibly took over Crimea and installed its own parliament with the barrels of guns and thugs. A guy who only has 4 percent of the vote cannot control 96 percent of the body. It really is a simple matter of math.

    And the fact is Putin's little green men took over the Crimean parliament by force of arms the day after Crimea's prime minister publicly urged Crimeans to resist the Russian invasion. And Russia replaced the Crimean prime minister with a man who had only garnered 4 percent of the vote in the last election.

    Yes, he fled to Mother Russia where Putin has protected him and supported him. Per my previous post and video reference, you have Putin admitting on video he planned to rescue Yanukovych using Russian troops.

    Bullshit, where is the evidence for that crap? You have none.

    LOL....except there were no militias. But if there were, there would have been no reason for them to strip their insignia. As previously pointed out to you an insignia would have given them credibility - credibility Putin's little green men dearly needed.
     
  14. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Well that is how Mother Russia has tried to characterize it. But I don't call shooting guns and roughing up and threatening journalists, observers, officials, and others as polite. Invading and annexing another country is never polite.
    This is what you have failed to mention comrade. That "vote" occurred while Putin's troops controlled Crimea's parliament. It was taken illegally and under threat of armed thugs.

    "On 27 February, unidentified troops widely suspected of being Russian special forces seized the building of the Supreme Council of Crimea (the regional parliament) and the building of the Council of Ministers in Simferopol.[102][103]Russian flags were raised over these buildings,[104] and barricades were erected outside them.[105] Whilst the "little green men" were occupying the Crimean parliament building, the parliament held an emergency session.[106][107] It voted to terminate the Crimean government, and replace Prime Minister Anatolii Mohyliov with Sergey Aksyonov.[108] Aksyonov belonged to the Russian Unity party, which received 4% of the vote in the last election.[107] According to theConstitution of Ukraine, the Prime Minister of Crimea is appointed by the Supreme Council of Crimea in consultation with the President of Ukraine.

    And it doesn't change the fact the "referendum" only effectively allowed once choice. So even if one person voted, it would have been a vote for annexation. While that is the way referendums are done in Mother Russia (i.e. rigged), that is how they are done in the civilized world.
    That's part of the caucus process used in some states. When sides are deadlocked, they use a coin flip. It's not untoward and it unlike Putin's invasion of Crimea, it isn't illegal.

    The violent demonstrations where orchestrated by Putin's bikers. And you don't have to take over buildings to control crowds. The fact is Mother Russia took over the Crimean parliament and illegally replaced its government. And it is that illegal government which you reference.
    Well, that hasn’t happened. And they don’t officially celebrate Nazis in Ukraine either.
    You just don’t like him because he opposed Soviet domination and fought against Soviet (i.e. Russian) tyranny.
    Then why have you relied upon that argument when you accuse Ukraine of Nazism? The fact is both Ukraine and Russia have Nazi supporters within their borders. The difference being Mother Russia has a Nazi president and Ukraine doesn’t.
    Except it isn’t, this Ukrainian government has not endorsed Bandera. As previously pointed out to you Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist. He sought Ukrainian independence from Mother Russia (i.e. the Soviet Union) and that is why he is loved by some Ukrainians. He was arrested and imprisoned by Nazis, but toward the end of WWII, he collaborated with the Nazis in order to fight for Ukrainian independence. Because of his affiliation with German Nazis he has become controversial. So, at the very least, you are not telling the whole story, nor do you want it to be told.

    You have accused a lot of people of being Nazis because they don’t go along with you, all the while ignoring the biggest Nazi of all, your beloved Putin.
     
  15. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    I was reading Tolstoy's, "War and Peace" again and I became curious about Borodino, so I went to Googlemaps to find out how far it was from Moscow. Googlemaps said it was about 77 miles from Moscow and a drive would take about 2 hours. I was shocked. In the US, that is about an hour drive, or less, depending on speed limits. Apparently the roads in Mother Russia are atrocious.

    "According to the World Bank, Russia's current road infrastructure is one of the main obstacles for the country’s economic growth, as only 30% of domestic roads meet the global standards of quality." http://www.worldhighways.com/sectio...ia-seeks-outside-investment-in-road-building/

    Putin can invade his neighbors, but he cannot invest in basic infrastructure? That's a big problem.
     
  16. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Their army’s equipment and strategy was “outmoded”; their air force’s bombs and missiles were “more dumb than smart”; their navy was “more rust than ready”. For decades, this was Western military leaders’ view, steeped in condescension, of their Russian counterparts. What they have seen in Syria and Ukraine has come as a shock.

    Russian military jets have, at times, been carrying out more sorties in a day in Syria than the US-led coalition has done in a month. The Russian navy has launched ballistic missiles from the Caspian Sea 900 miles way, and kept supply lines going to Syria. The air defences installed by the Russians in Syria and eastern Ukraine would make it extremely hazardous for the West to carry out strikes against the Assad regime or Ukrainian separatists.

    Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the commander of the US army in Europe, has described Russian advances in electronic warfare in Syria and Ukraine – a field in which they were typically supposed to be backward – as “eye watering”.

    The chief of US Air Force operations in Europe and Africa, Lieutenant General Frank Gorenc, has disclosed that Moscow is now deploying anti-aircraft systems in Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed from Ukraine last year, and in Kaliningrad, an enclave between Lithuania and Poland. It is doing so, he says, in a way that makes it “very, very difficult” for Nato planes to gain access safely to areas including parts of Poland.

    It is not just Nato member states watching the Russians with concern. Israel, too, sees the build-up of Russian weaponry across its northern border in Syria and wonders where it will all end. Their apprehension is that the advanced equipment already in situ in the Middle East will end up with Iran, viewed as an existential threat to the Jewish state, or with other Arab countries, thus eroding the air superiority that is Israel’s primary advantage over its neighbours.
    ...
    In Syria the Russians have been conducting as many air strikes a day, up to 96, as the US-led coalition has carried out in a month. This is in marked contrast, Western military planners have noted, to how quickly Nato began to feel the strain when bombing Libya and Kosovo.

    One reason for the dearth of coalition sorties is that its Sunni state members are carrying out scarcely any missions, focusing instead on Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Operations by Turkey, meanwhile, have been overwhelmingly against the Kurds rather than Isis.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...i-tech-shock-to-west-and-israel-a6842711.html
     
  17. CptBork Valued Senior Member

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    6,465
    Wow, Russia's delivering a real shocking beatdown against two third-rate forces that don't even qualify as professional armies. I bet they could kick Greece's ass too if they went mono-a-mono, better watch out!
     
  18. CptBork Valued Senior Member

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    6,465
    Even if a majority of Crimea's residents truly wanted independence from Ukraine; even if we ignored the investments, services and property Ukrainians and the Ukrainian state held there prior to seizure; and even if we ignore the waves of imposed immigration and colonization by ethnic Russians over the centuries, Crimea can't legally separate from Ukraine regardless unless the various regions of Russia are given the same rights to vote freely for their own independence in kind.
     
  19. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    22,910
    Well, you are smoothing over a few things, like a quarter of the cruise missiles Mother Russia shot at targets in Syria went off course and crashed well short of targets. The bombs Mother Russia have been very low tech dumb bombs and carpet bombs, technologies which have been around since before the Vietnam war. And there is nothing remarkable about the sorties Russia has been flying. Already, within a few weeks one of Russia's warplanes was shot down by a NATO aircraft...so much for Russia's air defense capabilities. The new air defense system Mother Russia installed is its latest and best technology. But it presents no threat to the US or allied nations. US and allied air flights continue as before.

    Additionally, it isn't surprising to hear American hawks and Israel talk up the "Russian threat", it's an old tactic. It was done during the Cold War and it's being done again. It's a tactic used to cause the nation to support more military spending.
     
  20. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    22,910
    It is true the Ukraine was not legally separated from Ukraine and it is very clearly so.
     
  21. Schmelzer Valued Senior Member

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    5,003
    The Ukrainian Nazi disagreed with the German Nazi about the role of the Ukraine. The German Nazi thought that Ukrainians are subhumans and deserve to be only slaves, the Ukrainian Nazi wanted an Ukrainian Reich. For the Jews there was no difference, above agreed that they have to be exterminated and have tried to realize this.

    But continue to admire Bandera, this fits nicely with your general behavior, with your admiration for the Syrian terrorists whenever they choose another name as ISIS.
    So you don't know even one of the main participants of what happened at Crimea. What sense would it make to talk about Crimea with you?

    http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/uk...here-pro-russia-militias-patrol-crimea-n45246
    Quote him. Given your status as a discredited liar, with reference to the source. Given the status of Western translations as unreliable, with reference to the speech in Russian.
    They could have tried to protect their parliament with unprofessional militias, they preferred to have reliable professionals there.
    He can, if above are pro-Russian, and the leadership of the majority has been discredited politically and resignated.

    Correct. And the point is that shooting guns and what you name "roughing up and threatening journalists, observers, officials" is not what the polite men in green have done. This may have been done by some of the militias. The men in green have simply professionally protected some key buildings.

    And the establishment winning 6 times out of 6. LOL.
    You obviously like all the Nazis because they have fought against the Soviets. Whatever, I do not name somebody a Nazi if he does not openly support Nazis. And the Bandera movement is the Ukrainian fascist movement, and in murdering Jews, Russians and Poles they were even more radical than the German Nazis. They have, fortunately, not reached the necessary power to kill more at that time.
    Poroshenko has used the Bandera greeting "Slava Ukraine" even in his speech in the Congress. And the founding day of the UPA, that gang of mass murderers, is now an official holiday.

    Feel free to defend the main Ukrainian Nazi Stepan Bandera and his gangs who have murdered a lot of Poles, Russians and Jews (not soldiers, civilians) because they were not Ukrainians, as freedom fighters. You are expected to do such things, you also love Al Qaida, naming them "moderate rebels", so what?
     
  22. Schmelzer Valued Senior Member

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    5,003
    A cheap propaganda lie. It was, at that time, supported by a foto of some Iranians sitting aroung a bomb crater of a size which corresponds to a usual mortar or so. CNN or so.
    The modern Russian devices are able to throw such old low tech bombs with high accuracy, a few m from 5000 m. And no, the Russians don't use carpet bombing.
    There was an agreement with the NATO how to avoid any conflicts in the air. Relying on this agreement, the Russian bombers were not even supported by fighters to defend them, and Turkish planes were, as part of the NATO forces, not considered as enemies. So far about relying on agreements with the NATO.
    The one installed now, after the incident. And, no, Turkish flights did not continue as before. The Russian flights near the border became, instead, even more intense. In particular here:
    writes http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/kurdish-forces-reportedly-capture-mennagh-airbase/ This would be fine.

    There have been also some advantages - a lot of small villages, I will not list their names, too much and too small - in Northern Latakia.

    Another good news, even if it has taken a long time: the Iraq army has declared that Ramadi is now completely free form ISIS.
     
  23. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    22,910
    Yet again, you are not being honest comrade. You are again deliberately misrepresenting the facts. What have I written that could lead you to believe I admired Bandera? You are making stuff up again. You are lying and using illogical arguments again. The fact is, as I said before, he was a Ukrainian nationalist who was first imprisoned by German Nazis when they invaded Crimea. Nazi Germans did think Russians and Ukrainians were subhumans and deserved to be enslaved. But that doesn't change the fact Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with Nazis to fight against Russia (i.e. the Soviet Union).
    And yet again, you are being more than a little dishonest. First, this discussion was about Putin's little green men and your assertion his little green men were Ukrainian militias. Clearly they were not local militias as you have asserted. They didn't exist prior to Russia's invasion of Crimea. The article you referenced clearly distinguishes Putin's little green men as separate and apart from the so called "militias" your article referenced and didn't exist prior to Russia's invasion. I guess you didn't read the article you referenced.

    The text below is from the article you referenced:

    "During a congressional hearing Wednesday, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey if they had asked their Russian counterparts for information about the military men in Crimea.

    Dempsey said he did ask the Russian defense chief that very question and the answer was that they are "not regular forces, they were well-trained militia forces responding to threats to ethnic Russians in the Crimea.”

    But Dempsey doesn't buy that.

    He said his "military judgment is that these are soldiers who have been taken out of their traditional uniforms and re-purposed for placement in the Crimea as a militia force."

    So who were these post-Russian "militias"?

    "On the steps of Slavyansk's occupied town hall a group of armed men in fatigues posed happily for photos. They were equipped with Kalashnikovs – military-issue AK-74s – commando knives, flak jackets and walkie-talkies. Round the back, close to the main square with its Lenin statue, was a green military truck. It bore no insignia.

    Who exactly were they? "We're Cossacks," one of the group explained. "It doesn't matter where we are from." He declined to give his name. Instead, he offered a quick history lesson, stretching back a thousand years, to when Slavic tribes banded together to form Kievan Rus – the dynasty that eventually flourished into modern-day Ukraine and its big neighbour Russia.

    "We don't want Ukraine. Ukraine doesn't exist for us. There are no people called Ukrainians," he declared. "There are just Slav people who used to be in Kievan Rus, before Jews like Trotsky divided us. We should all be together again." The man – a middle-aged commando with a bushy beard – said he had come to Slavyansk "to help". He didn't intend to kill anybody, he said. Producing a long knife, he said: "I can't kill my brother Slavs."

    The mysterious "Cossacks" arrived in Slavyansk, 40 miles (65km) north of Donetsk, on Saturday. Similar "Cossacks" popped up in Crimea too, soon after Russia invaded and then annexed the territory. According to Kiev's hapless interim government, Russia is behind the apparently co-ordinated takeover by masked men in military uniforms of government buildings all across eastern Ukraine. The US and EU agree. Moscow denies the charge. It says that the west blames it for everything.

    One of the "Cossacks", however, admitted on Monday that he had just arrived from Crimea, where he spent a month "helping" with Russia's takeover there. How had he managed to travel from Russian-controlled territory to the east of the country? And from where did he get his Kalashnikov? He declined to answer but claimed the weapon had come from a seized police station, although Ukraine's police use different, smaller ones.

    According to Igor Todorov, a professor of politics at Donetsk University, Vladimir Putin's goal is simple: to ramp up tensions ahead of Ukraine's presidential election next month, with a view to wrecking them." http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ill-vacuum-kiev-control-eastern-ukraine-slips

    Many were imported from Mother Russia. As I previously stated, those so called "militias" didn't exist prior to Mother Putin's invasion.

    Before you go calling other people liars comrade, you should take a very long and serious look at yourself. As has been repeatedly noted, you have a very long history of summarily and without merit dismissing truth and evidence as "unreliable Western translations or NATO propaganda, etc.".

    The only one who has lied here is you comrade and you have lied consistently and mindlessly dismissed as evidence and reason in favor of Russian (i.e. Putin's) state controlled media. And you never have any credible evidence to support your assertions, hence your heavy reliance on illogical arguments. Just in your last two paragraphs you have created a straw man and used ad hominem....not impressive.
     

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