Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[LaCroix]

They were people moved to the Baltic States to act as Russia's influence counters.  They victims here.  I specifically said that.  So...what are you lecturing me on here?  That I should ignore realities and instead demand sunshine and lollipops for all?

you seemed to be excusing the discrimination based off an event that occurred many decades ago.

[derspiess]

They're people who should be repatriated back to Russia.

if the african countries started systematically deporting whites forcefully and at gunpoint, would you agree with that?

NO

[The Larch]

The Russians in the Baltics are mostly the descendants of regular Ivans who moved there after WWII as blue collar workers following the Soviet industrialization plans of the region. They were pawns in Stalin's plans to russify the region. Besides them, there's a smaller group of Russians that already lived there before the war, as there was already a Russian minority there since the times of the Russian Empire.

[Valmy]

They were people moved to the Baltic States to act as Russia's influence counters.  They victims here.  I specifically said that.  So...what are you lecturing me on here?  That I should ignore realities and instead demand sunshine and lollipops for all?

you seemed to be excusing the discrimination based off an event that occurred many decades ago.

First this is the old world.  Things happen based off events that happened many centuries ago with regularity.

Second I was not excusing it so much as explaining why the EU was unlikely to be able to stop it.

[Valmy]

They're people who should be repatriated back to Russia.

if the african countries started systematically deporting whites forcefully and at gunpoint, would you agree with that?

Think some of them have right?  Or at least it seems like something like that happened in Zimbabwe.

[Duque de Bragança]

They're people who should be repatriated back to Russia.

if the african countries started systematically deporting whites forcefully and at gunpoint, would you agree with that?

Think some of them have right?  Or at least it seems like something like that happened in Zimbabwe.

This has been the rule actually.

[garbon]

Aww, poor kid makes a mistake on instagram and loses his livelihood.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/soldier-whose-instagram-selfies-appeared-to-show-him-in-ukra#39jqgut

A soldier whose Instagram photos that appeared to show that Russian troops were operating covertly in eastern Ukraine says he is facing dishonorable discharge from the army after his Instagram account went viral.

Alexander Sotkin, a communications specialist who posted two Instagram photos that were geotagged inside Ukraine in July, said on Wednesday that he was facing discharge after he became an internet celebrity following a BuzzFeed story about his account.

"It hasn't really finished yet, command says that I'm a faggot who disgraced the unit, they're going to discharge me, plus all this score-settling after all the hype, baaasically there's not much good about it," Sotkin wrote in private message via VKontakte, the Russian social network similar to Facebook.

[Admiral Yi]

Betcha he loses a lot more than his livelihood.

[garbon]

Betcha he loses a lot more than his livelihood.

Yeah that was actually my thought when his instragram photos first went viral. I was like run dude.

[LaCroix]

First this is the old world.  Things happen based off events that happened many centuries ago with regularity.

Second I was not excusing it so much as explaining why the EU was unlikely to be able to stop it.

sure. there tends to be outrage, however, when the victim is of a more "sympathetic" ethnicity.

then i apologize if i miss-characterized your post

Think some of them have right?  Or at least it seems like something like that happened in Zimbabwe.

yup, that's why i mentioned it

[Sheilbh]

Well they were put there to undermine the Baltic States' independence and enforce Russian power and control.  It is hard to imagine that going well for anybody involved.  You must treat people well who were put in your country with the purpose of creating an existential threat to your country?  Hmmmm yeah without a pretty enormous stick and a particularly yummy carrot they are not going to do that.  Suicide is a lot to ask from a country.

So? You could say exactly the same about white Zimbabweans.

You've got to deal with reality and these people are there. They're often stateless and they've very limited opportunities to change their situation short of renouncing their background. Protecting minority rights, broad education and citizenship are basic parts of the European package and, in my view, should've been insisted on.

This point to a fundamental weakness in the EU, a ideologically motivated activist foreign policy without an organised military to provide substance/a back-bone.

Well see the Eurozone. How many countries were let in despite not meeting the basic criteria to make a political point? How many of them are now causing issues?

Second I was not excusing it so much as explaining why the EU was unlikely to be able to stop it.

Given the number of hoops most countries jump through to join the EU and the Baltic countries need to join the West, precisely to save themselves from Russia, I think the EU could've done it. It didn't because the decision to admit them had already been taken despite the inadequate steps on protecting a minority.

It's the same with Cyprus. The decision was already taken so it didn't matter that the Greek Cypriots were the ones who rejected a UN and EU endorsed peace deal. Now they're in and they get a veto over all sorts of issues.

[derspiess]

So what did the Baltic states do that was so wrong?

[Grinning_Colossus]

My ancestors also colonized territory captured in an aggressive war, but if the original country re-took it and some nationalist asshole told me that I couldn't vote in the land of my birth, I'd be pretty angry. And if I could vote, I'd vote to have the territory leave Mexico and re-join the United States, as well.

[The Brain]

Russians can go home to Russia.

[Razgovory]

So what did the Baltic states do that was so wrong?

Well nothing you would feel is wrong.