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Putin & Russia

Robbo said:
A few from memory:

- GPS jams are quite common, especially close to the Russian border.
- Russian nationals have been arrested and expelled from Norway for entering high security areas illegally.
- Russian, or Russian connected trawlers/other vessels frequently navigate close to Norwegian military bases and undersea cables. Often with odd patterns of movement.
- Cyber attacks are common.
- Pro Russian vandalism/grafitti in Norwegian cities close to the border.
- Increased suspicious drone activity close to airports and military bases.

Police in northern Norway have reported a worrying increase in these "security threatening" incidents during the past few years.
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I find it so hard to picture Russians in Norway.
It just feels like completely different ends of a scale. It's blown my mind a bit!
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
Have you got a 'hard' border up there or is it simple to crossover if you wanted to?
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Very hard border now, but it used to be different. Traditionally there's been a lot of cross border contact, trade, etc. between Russians and Norwegians living close to the border. For those closest, there was a special permit that allowed them to travel back and forth more or less at their own will. Not anymore.

monkeybarry said:
I find it so hard to picture Russians in Norway.
It just feels like completely different ends of a scale. It's blown my mind a bit!
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Historically relations between the two people have been close up north, especially after the second world war when Russians drove the Germans back from Finnmark (the very northernmost county). They used to celebrate the liberation; I was there in 2019 for the 75th anniversary, along with Sergej Lavrov and the King of Norway, which shows how big an event this used to be.
 
monkeybarry said:
I know.
I find it hilarious.
Re! The Rus and Scandinavia - I think you are right. Pretty sure I read that in a museum in central Europe somewhere.
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They are Rus - the northern ginger hoarde kicked out of the civilised world. A deviant genetic strain of angry bastards who have ruined family photos for millenia.

And Russia is the mother lode.
 
The German elections today are critical to Ukraine, and indeed Europe. If the AFD somehow manage to win it will be a disaster. That is looking unlikely but who knows how many closet nazis there are.
 
Rorschach said:
Looks like the polls were pretty accurate.
bsky.app

NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com)

Distribution of votes in Germany. Elon lost
bsky.app bsky.app
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That's fake news from the previous election.

@Mr Gogolak, the reason France should support Ukraine vs Russia is because Putin wants to wipe out the Ukranian people entirely, and take all of their mineral wealth, and use that wealth to take the Baltic States, and use that wealth to wage war on all of Europe.

Stopping him now will take 2% of the lives, effort and cost required if we wait 10 years.
Russia is massively weakened, they used up all their modern equipment and are relying on older and older tech e.g. tanks from the 90s were used, then from the 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s now they are using civilian cars and motorbikes and just sending meat wave after meat wave in to get mown down. We just need to push a bit from the EU and they will collapse.
 
Bullet said:
That's fake news from the previous election.

@Mr Gogolak, the reason France should support Ukraine vs Russia is because Putin wants to wipe out the Ukranian people entirely, and take all of their mineral wealth, and use that wealth to take the Baltic States, and use that wealth to wage war on all of Europe.

Stopping him now will take 2% of the lives, effort and cost required if we wait 10 years.
Russia is massively weakened, they used up all their modern equipment and are relying on older and older tech e.g. tanks from the 90s were used, then from the 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s now they are using civilian cars and motorbikes and just sending meat wave after meat wave in to get mown down. We just need to push a bit from the EU and they will collapse.
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Yep looks like that map is old, but the polls were pretty close to how it ended up thankfully. It is not good news Afd got 20% but they won't be part of the coalition.
 
Bullet said:
That's fake news from the previous election.

@Mr Gogolak, the reason France should support Ukraine vs Russia is because Putin wants to wipe out the Ukranian people entirely, and take all of their mineral wealth, and use that wealth to take the Baltic States, and use that wealth to wage war on all of Europe.

Stopping him now will take 2% of the lives, effort and cost required if we wait 10 years.
Russia is massively weakened, they used up all their modern equipment and are relying on older and older tech e.g. tanks from the 90s were used, then from the 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s now they are using civilian cars and motorbikes and just sending meat wave after meat wave in to get mown down. We just need to push a bit from the EU and they will collapse.
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I'm not sure I understand the reasoning. If Russia is massively weakened, then how is a threat to all of Europe?

There's a lot of propaganda on both sides of this war, but Russia is definitely winning a war of attrition here. What makes you think they are on the brink of collapse? If anything, the more neutral observers I've read suggest it's Ukraine who are hanging by a thread. Then again, the number of casualties alone is the subject of an intense information war, ranging from 200,000 to 1,000,000+ depending on who you're listening to.

As for Putin's intentions... who knows? My guess is that it's a mix of political and strategical agendas. Judging by past aggressions, he seems to focus his attention on territories with a lot/majority of Russian-speaking people. So, yes, the Baltic States are understandably worried. Then again, some of their legislations on citizenship make them obvious targets.

My take on it is that over the past 50 years or so, no country in the world managed to occupy a foreign territory for very long. It took Russia three years to push the border 300km to the West. I really can't see them occupying the whole of Ukraine, let alone Eastern Europe.

I respect your idealism but I believe it needs to be tempered by two considerations. Firstly, Ukraine isn't the only country in the world who's suffering from a neighboring aggression. The DRC is in a terrible state, for instance, but very few people seem to care about it. Secondly - and perhaps more importantly -, even if you were correct on everything, Russia is a nuclear power. You can't make it 'collapse' and even if you could, it would be an incredibly dangerous and irresponsible move.

You only have to look as far as what Hitler did with the Berlin underground to realise that, when their backs are against the wall, people sometimes take drastic decisions. Yes, it sucks to be Ukrainian in 2025 but it sucked to be Vietnamese in the 70s too. Again, sorry if that sounds cold but a) I didn't mean to get involved in the conversation and b) I'm not saying I'm right and everybody's wrong but I do believe we all live in different 'cultural baths' and I just meant to say that what you Anglo-Saxons consider as evidence is not necessarily seen as a such in Southern Europe, for instance.
 
Robbo said:
Very hard border now, but it used to be different. Traditionally there's been a lot of cross border contact, trade, etc. between Russians and Norwegians living close to the border. For those closest, there was a special permit that allowed them to travel back and forth more or less at their own will. Not anymore.


Historically relations between the two people have been close up north, especially after the second world war when Russians drove the Germans back from Finnmark (the very northernmost county). They used to celebrate the liberation; I was there in 2019 for the 75th anniversary, along with Sergej Lavrov and the King of Norway, which shows how big an event this used to be.
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Can you now pee towards Russia without getting fined?!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1508916178298802183
 
pYytdWJ.jpeg


Great company the US have decided to join as Ukraine's resolution about the Russian invasion was voted through.
 
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