Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[grumbler]

Did Leningrad, Moscow, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Tashkent (i.e. the Silk Road) back in the Soviet days.  The microphones in the hotel rooms were not hidden at all.  Went in February to get the real Russian experience.

[Barrister]

Closest I've been was 2008, made it to Poland, but car rental companies would not let us take a rental car into Ukraine - no way, no how.

Unless you want to count my first girlfriend who was from Ukraine back in the early-mid 90s (she left when it was the USSR).

[The Larch]

Closest for me was Latvia. I was also in Lithuania, Finland and Poland, but much further away from the border.

My parents went to St. Petersburg many years ago in an organized trip, so they did check the country off. I guess I'll have to wait for a while, but I hope to be able to visit in my lifetime.

[Maladict]

I was there in the Yeltsin years, it was pretty wild. And Crimea before it got annexed.

[Solmyr]

I was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), so it's the most familiar to me. Also various places north of it on the Karelian Isthmus, towards Viborg. In my childhood I've also been to Mariupol (then Zhdanov) for a couple of summer holidays, as well as in Abkhazia. Never actually been to Moscow.

[Barrister]

The internet is weird.

Apparently there's a whole meme out there that Kaliningrad is going to be handed over to Czechia as "historic Czech lands" because Konigsberg was named in honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia.  So there are fake referendum results, fake tourist sites, fake news releases...

[Zanza]

I was in Viborg in 1990 or 1991 (not sure) on a day trip from Finland when the Iron Curtain had already fallen, but the Soviet Union had not yet collapsed. Surreal experience as a kid. I remember that the Deutsche Mark had incredible purchasing power there.

Anecdote: My grandfather did a Soviet Union trip in the 1960s as he wanted to see the beauty of the country. His previous stay from 1941 to 1944 had not been that nice...

[celedhring]

Anecdote: My grandfather did a Soviet Union trip in the 1960s as he wanted to see the beauty of the country. His previous stay from 1941 to 1944 had not been that nice...

 

Grandparent stories must be rough in Germany.

[FunkMonk]

Haven't been to Russia but I was a stone's throw away when I was visiting my wife (then fiance) in Georgia while she did Peace Corps Response work there several years ago.

We did one of those road tours that went up to Mt Kazbek, right on the Russia/Georgia border. There were a bunch of Russian tourists with us and they were very nice but kept to themselves.

[Valmy]

I wonder if he complemented the locals on how nicely they rebuilt the village he and the boys from the 209th Infantry Regiment burned down.

[Jacob]

I thought this was a good analysis by Anders Puck Nielson of the Nord Stream explosion, using Operational Design analysis and Prospect Theory (analysing the risks involved).

The conclusion is: the analysis points to Russia, and there's a good chance that we'll see more sabotage against European energy infrastructure.

[Iormlund]

Anecdote: My grandfather did a Soviet Union trip in the 1960s as he wanted to see the beauty of the country. His previous stay from 1941 to 1944 had not been that nice...

 

Grandparent stories must be rough in Germany.

Well, our grandpas had similar stories.

Once, while playing with toy soldiers, my paternal grandpa saw me. He did not like his grandkids playing war at all.
He told me then about the time he and a few dozen people hid among the hay from what I'm now assuming were Polikarpov I-15s. The planes strafed the field and killed quite a few of his mates.
Fortunately for him he had an education and knew how to draw, so he was useful far from the front.

My cousin's paternal grandpa was shot fighting for the other side, his brother killed.

Even younger people remember the war. I once spent a week or so with a remarkable 74 year-old as roommate. He told me quite a few stories about the maquis.

[PJL]

I was in Viborg in 1990 or 1991 (not sure) on a day trip from Finland when the Iron Curtain had already fallen, but the Soviet Union had not yet collapsed. Surreal experience as a kid. I remember that the Deutsche Mark had incredible purchasing power there.

Anecdote: My grandfather did a Soviet Union trip in the 1960s as he wanted to see the beauty of the country. His previous stay from 1941 to 1944 had not been that nice...

Do you have any details on where he went on his 3-year 'jaunt' from 1941 to 1944? Especially since I expected he thought it would last 6 months at most at the start. Just curious...

[Zanza]

Do you have any details on where he went on his 3-year 'jaunt' from 1941 to 1944? Especially since I expected he thought it would last 6 months at most at the start. Just curious...

As far as I know he was a normal conscripted infantry soldier in the 123rd infantry division. With five other divisions, his division was encircled for a year several months in the Demyansk pocket near Novgorod and then afterwards involved in heavy fighting in Southern Ukraine. He got sick with diphtheria and spent the rest of the war occupying Denmark and then briefly as British POW after the war.

Edited the duration

[grumbler]

I thought this was a good analysis by Anders Puck Nielson of the Nord Stream explosion, using Operational Design analysis and Prospect Theory (analysing the risks involved).

The conclusion is: the analysis points to Russia, and there's a good chance that we'll see more sabotage against European energy infrastructure.

Agreed that this is very well-laid-out from a logic standpoint, and his concern is warranted.