Russian invasion of Ukraine

[jakedee]

Yes, but I’ve never met a nice South African.

That's not surprising.

[ICTChris]

Ukrainian authorities are claiming that Russian planes have bombed Belarus in a 'false flag' to draw Belarus into the war.  Seems a strange story - Belarus is a Russian vassal state, they hardly need a justification to get them in.  As noted earlier in this thread, Belarus' armed forces are very low in combat readiness, effectiveness, morale etc.  Things must be going shoddily if they are relying on this lot.

I think it could be that bombs have been released in Belarus by mistake or that empty shells were released over a village.  A lot of the missiles launched have fuselage that drops off at a certain point, could be that.   Who really knows.

[Granny Danger]

4 minutes ago, jakedee said:

21 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

Yes, but I’ve never met a nice South African.

That's not surprising.

 

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

Should be on here at 3pm I think. Could be quite a circus, memories of Colin Powell come to mind.

https://media.un.org/en/webtv/schedule

Think it's been moved back till 4pm.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Newbornbairn said:

Has anyone ever met a nice Russian?

This probably won't go down well, but since we're getting personal then I'd have to say that the worst nationality of people that I've ever come across are in fact the Ukranians closely followed by the Russians.

I should add that I would never generalise, however if you're asking the question then my honest answer would be that I've found every Ukranian I've ever met to be aggressive, self obsessed, arrogant and generally not very nice people. (sample group of under a hundred I should add, outwith those I came across at the football).

I've probably just been unlucky though that I've run into a bunch of tossers across Eastern Europe and Northern Spain where I've encountered them.

On the other hand, nearly every Pole I've met have been great, as they've come across as outgoing, friendly, intelligent, honest and generally just really good people.

Just your luck I suppose.....

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Ukrainian authorities are claiming that Russian planes have bombed Belarus in a 'false flag' to draw Belarus into the war.  Seems a strange story - Belarus is a Russian vassal state, they hardly need a justification to get them in.  As noted earlier in this thread, Belarus' armed forces are very low in combat readiness, effectiveness, morale etc.  Things must be going shoddily if they are relying on this lot.

I think it could be that bombs have been released in Belarus by mistake or that empty shells were released over a village.  A lot of the missiles launched have fuselage that drops off at a certain point, could be that.   Who really knows.

Or alternatively, it really WAS the Ukranians / West behind it ??

[welshbairn]

13 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Ukrainian authorities are claiming that Russian planes have bombed Belarus in a 'false flag' to draw Belarus into the war.  Seems a strange story - Belarus is a Russian vassal state, they hardly need a justification to get them in.  As noted earlier in this thread, Belarus' armed forces are very low in combat readiness, effectiveness, morale etc.  Things must be going shoddily if they are relying on this lot.

I think it could be that bombs have been released in Belarus by mistake or that empty shells were released over a village.  A lot of the missiles launched have fuselage that drops off at a certain point, could be that.   Who really knows.

Bit surprised if Ukrainians aren't trying to take out the Belarus sites where a load of missiles have been fired from. 

[DiegoDiego]

Has anyone ever met a nice Russian?

I've met a number of nice Russians. I was once interrogated by a charming FSB officer who made me a cup of tea.

I also used to live across from two lovely Ukrainian girls, one of whom I stayed with for a few days in Odessa and the other got a job with the OSCE.

[Newbornbairn]

I wonder if it's me?

[djchapsticks]

13 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

This probably won't go down well, but since we're getting personal then I'd have to say that the worst nationality of people that I've ever come across are in fact the Ukranians closely followed by the Russians.

I should add that I would never generalise, however if you're asking the question then my honest answer would be that I've found every Ukranian I've ever met to be aggressive, self obsessed, arrogant and generally not very nice people. (sample group of under a hundred I should add, outwith those I came across at the football).

I've probably just been unlucky though that I've run into a bunch of tossers across Eastern Europe and Northern Spain where I've encountered them.

On the other hand, nearly every Pole I've met have been great, as they've come across as outgoing, friendly, intelligent, honest and generally just really good people.

Just your luck I suppose.....

It's certainly the case. Every Russian I've met including my former team leader, was absolutely brand new.

Same with Poles, fucking cracking people, but in Wroclaw a couple of years back for a stag do and we were in a pub on the Sunday morning and there were 3 or 4 of them walking about shouting 'white power' in a pub populated exclusively with white people so you get c***s everywhere.

[williemillersmoustache]

Has anybody ever met anyone nice from Falkirk? 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

3 minutes ago, williemillersmoustache said:

Has anybody ever met anyone nice from Falkirk? 

no

[welshbairn]

19 minutes ago, Newbornbairn said:

I wonder if it's me?

Probably to do with where you met them. Any Russian who met Scots on a stag night in Prague would think we're all c***s too.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I'm by no means a sociologist or a historian, but I'd imagine one of the risks of being a despotic dictator is that you end up surrounded by yes men and can end up totally out of touch with what is actually happening outside your bubble.

Yes men tell you what you want to hear not what you need to hear.

[The Real Saints]

With one or two exceptions, the Russians I've met have been absolutely awful people. However, I met them during my time at a private school in the middle of Scotland. It's fair to say that they (and their Russia-based parents) would probably fit a certain demographic.

[Granny Danger]

33 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

This probably won't go down well, but since we're getting personal then I'd have to say that the worst nationality of people that I've ever come across are in fact the Ukranians closely followed by the Russians.

I should add that I would never generalise, however if you're asking the question then my honest answer would be that I've found every Ukranian I've ever met to be aggressive, self obsessed, arrogant and generally not very nice people. (sample group of under a hundred I should add, outwith those I came across at the football).

I've probably just been unlucky though that I've run into a bunch of tossers across Eastern Europe and Northern Spain where I've encountered them.

On the other hand, nearly every Pole I've met have been great, as they've come across as outgoing, friendly, intelligent, honest and generally just really good people.

Just your luck I suppose.....

 

O wad some pow’r the gift tie gie us to see oursells as ithers see us…

[Michael W]

Found the Russians absolutely fine when I was in Russia. Especially the ones that could speak English to a reasonable degree - all quite happy to have a chat and went out their way for you. Was quite surprised at that as I expected them to be fairly reserved. 

Experiences of people that have met large numbers of Russians on holiday seem to differ. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Michael W

[welshbairn]

Thread on the twitter propaganda battle. Much of the bio warfare stuff comes from accounts where the second most common word is MAGA, followed by Trump, god and conservative. 

 

[strichener]

5 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Thread on the twitter propaganda battle. Much of the bio warfare stuff comes from accounts where the second most common word is MAGA, followed by Trump, god and conservative. 

 

Donald Jnr has probably provided Vad a list of the sites in exchange for a Gazprom directorship.

[velo army]

5 hours ago, craigkillie said:

I'm by no means a sociologist or a historian, but I'd imagine one of the risks of being a despotic dictator is that you end up surrounded by yes men and can't end up totally out of touch with what is actually happening outside your bubble.

Organisational/industrial psychology talks about this in terms of "authority gradient", where the flatness of the authority gradient is in direct correlation with the effectiveness of the organisation. I.e. where people feel that they have space to challenge the prevailing directives or particular orders. I didn't expect it to be, but IP is fucking fascinating.