Featured Problematic Artifacts

With parents and grandparents who were in the Dutch Resistance, and having been raised as if we were still a Resistance cell, I have a bit of a second generation war syndrome. Only a bit. But certain Nazi-related things give me a jolt, so I'd rather not say his name.
Besides, I'd be giving him too much respect. So the Austrian guy it is, and I'm glad you joined me.

 

It is always someone else's fault, especially when things don't go as planned.

 

Maybe in the same way as during the Cold War - economically. The problem is that many Western companies did not and still don't want to give away the economic cooperation with Russia for their own benefits. No matter the sanctions. Also China is a factor to respect now. And it was made a factor to respect by the same Western companies in their pursuit for maximum profit. Now the big economic powers started realising it and taking action but I am afraid it might be too late. In any case, if it cannot be done, there will be no change in Russia.
It's politics, yes but it is much related to looting artefacts and as such, to the subject of the discussion If there were no wars, there would be no looting or at least very limited.

It proved wrong, indeed. Because they didn't know the Orthodox imperial Russian thinking and anticipate that Russians value the same things as people from the reformist churches' societies - yes, it has much to do with religion, IMO. Although it is another topic but this mistake comes IMO from inability to understand how the Russian society and minds work.

Agreed. No songs, it is just the harsh reality.

 

Putin's messages are for internal purposes. Few people outside Russia believe his messages because he proved to be either delusional, or an outright lier. Inside though, they believe him. Glukhovsky formulated it in a good way - it is because Russians need to have someone to blame for their poor living and it cannot be themselves (as they are "the best"), and Putin gives them a scapegoat. Of course, with the aids of much propaganda.
B.t.w., a recently leaked quote of Lavrov's words in response to Kremlin high-ranking officials who complaint that they were not informed or consulted about staring this war "He (Putin) has three advisers - Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great". Which gives enough detail about his state of mind.

 

Unfortunately many countries don't see war in Ukraine as a problem they should concern themselves with. They have internal problems, like poverty and political instability. If they can buy cheap Russian gas and grain, they will do that.

True. Wars and civil unrest.

Not just Russians, many cultures and systems around the world have no affinity with Western culture or democracy. And Western leaders have no idea what those cultures are like and why democracy fails there.
I'm not saying that they should know all those cultures, that is impossible. But they should realise that not everyone wants to be like us.

Absolutely.

 

Lavrov is an intelligent man, which doesn't mean that he is reliable where we are concerned. At least he is someone you could negotiate with. But as far as I know, he has been pushed to the sideline by Putin, and is only accepted occasionally to liaise with the West.

 

Peter and Catherine the Greats were, I'm told, pretty sharp cookies. If Putin was consulting them he wasn't taking their advice.

 

Besides, Peter the Great wanted more contact with the rest of Europe, and even lived and worked in the Netherlands for a while. And Catherine the Great was German born, and also had many contacts across Europe.
These leaders are called Great because they had a vision that worked, and did much to develop their country. Putin's vision backfired and it damaged his own country as well as a neighbouring country.

 

Damaged......is too mild a word, for the pain & suffering that he's afflicted on the Ukrainian people and beyond !

 

...& no one dares to disagree with him now because you may just happen to slip near an open window on the 10th floor of a building.

 

nah...poison.....he luvs old style KGB poison !!

 

I know a fair number of words for what he's done - Abomination comes to mind. The rest are more common and less printable. He knows what the world thinks of what he's done and frankly doesn't care; he wants what he wants and no one else counts.

 

it saddens me....and irks me...to think that the avg Russian person is buying his twisted crap ...........

 

The little kids are being spoon-fed it in school. I think the older folks who know better don't want to end up as cannon fodder or "accidentally" being poisoned or tossed down some stairs.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/top-russian-military-official-dies-fall-window-high-rise-2023-2

 

maybe he outsourced that one to the Wagner group !

 

Indeed, now poisoning is an less applied method, falling "incidentally" from windows is the preferred one. It happens mainly but not exclusively to oil and gas officials, and oppressive apparatus officers. A list of 59 suspicious deaths of Russian rich:
Suspicious deaths of Russian businesspeople (2022–2023) - Wikipedia

The quotation of Lavrov is meant to explain that Putin lives in a different time-space continuum and there is no use in trying to reach to him. I have read that in the past 10-15 years he has become more and more obsessed by history and being amateur, has been misinterpreting the facts and reasons behind them, and twisting them to match his own imperial theories. And because the few that are knowledgeable and can oppose him are either dead or expelled from Russia, he keeps burring himself deeper and deeper in his false historical narratives.

His obsession with Peter I and Catherine II is due to their imperial conquests, he does not bother himself to deal neither with the reasons and strategies behind, nor with the difference in the world affairs since the Middle Ages. Also the other two were very open towards the world, had experience and advisors, and good knowledge about the state of affairs around, while he has been continuously isolating himself without connection with the real world, and relying on "files" (a dossier prepared by his closest servants with reports on what is going on, usually distorted to please him) to take decisions which explains the numerous mishaps and failures during the war.

He may not be able to do what the other two did for Russia but he is capable enough to cause a lot of suffering.

 

I read that too. His self-imposed intellectual and mental isolation sends him in a downward spiral of suspicion and aggression.

 

I knew when Putin declared himself "President for life" that there was trouble ahead.

 

I knew when I heard that Putin was former KGB that there was trouble ahead.
Mind you, Andropov was also KGB, but he was a different man, and those were different times, with a stronger Politburo. Not that the Politburo was a blessing, not at all, but at least it wasn't a one man show.