Putin's Bikers on Red Army Victory Tour

[Razgovory]

Siberia was pretty beneficial. Lots of oil and other resources, hardly any unruly natives.

Siberia (except the farthest-east portion, which has its own independence movement) is to Russia as the North Sea is to the UK.

Technically the Far East is not Siberia.   But, you are right.  That's is why they keep an entire flotilla of ships in Omsk.

[alfred russel]

I think this may be the worst biker gang ever. Associating with politicians, going on history tour bike rides, and upholding traditional national values?

[alfred russel]

Speaking of traditional russian values, check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqZ7OAUClKc

Supposedly it comes from some school, and has some sort of connection to WWII, and people in charge are going to jail.

Siege and Ed will probably lose their mind.

[Martim Silva]

Russian expansion prior to 1815 (and after 1815) was akin to Britain's expansion overseas.  Chechnya is to Russia as Palestine is to the UK.  Like the UK, Russia will eventually retreat from empire out of sheer weariness.  I certainly don't expect Russians to do the smart thing and abandon their empire without a fight; like the French, they will lose as many wars as they can economically afford to, and then lose one more.  Hopefully, like the French, that last war will shock them to their senses.

Palestine was an overseas possession, and belonged to the UK between 1918 and 1948 (30 years). Chechnya is directly linked by land to Russia and has been Russian since 1859 (156 years). Quite a bit of a difference.

That said, I find odd the idea of giving up an Empire as being the "smart thing". How is it "becoming small, militarily irrelevant and ever more populated by your former subjects who then groom your little girls for sex" working for Britain? Making the country ever greater?

Hah, the British now only have two things to look for in the future: being absorbed by an European superstate, or eventually dilluting into a tiny backwater between America and Europe called England, if that.

For that analogy, why doesn't the US do "the smart thing" and closes all its overseas bases, withdraws all its troops from other countries and returns Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico?

Also, as part of that "smart" deal, tell you what America can also do: Russia gets all of the Alaska. But, since Moscow is so nice, the US gets to keep the panhandle.

If you don't like this agreement, your're an "impossible person to deal with".

Also find funny the alleged amazement of Western leaders that "Russia still thinks in terms of spheres of influence". And then they go apeshit if someone seems to step in *their* spheres of influence.

That is why the US is currenty trying to make a free trade deal with the Asian countries that specifically excludes China, in order to prevent more chinese influence in the area, which would reduce its sphere of influence. Imagine the American reaction if Beijing tried to make a free trade pact in the Americas that excluded the US...

America could also be more honest about why the US Congress was delaying the long-agreed reform of the IMF and World Bank - it was clearly in order to prevent the Chinese from gaining power in them, reducing the influence the US has over these institutions.

This also led China - annoyed at the lack of progress in the IMF/World Bank reforms because of the US - to decide to set up its own world financial institution last year, the AIIB. Which made Washington ask the other nations not to join it.

It was fun to see the American dismay at the fact that that only its political puppet Japan obeyed the instructions, while everyone else, recognizing the rise of Chinese power, decided to join Beijing's development bank, even the British, ever so eager to try to cling to whatever little straws of their former power [namely, the financial prowess of the City of London] they still have.

Siberia (except the farthest-east portion, which has its own independence movement) is to Russia as the North Sea is to the UK.

Oh, didn't realize that the UK had its third-largest city in the North Sea. Not to mention a large industrial area and tens of millions of its inhabitants.

But, you are right.  That's is why they keep an entire flotilla of ships in Omsk.

Hard to station ships in Omsk, given that is landlocked and 6.400km (4.000 miles) away from the Far Eastern ports.

Don't you mean Vladivostock,  Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy and Vilyuchinsk instead?

[Admiral Yi]

 

[Eddie Teach]

Texas, California, Alaska, etc are full of Americans. Not really comparable to India or Palestine.

[Martim Silva]

Texas, California, Alaska, etc are full of Americans. Not really comparable to India or Palestine.

Grumbler was comparing Chechnya to Palestine, not me. I was pointing out the comparison is absurd. Would be akin to suggesting that all the Native Americans should move to Oklahoma and making that state independent because it's the "smart thing to do" [althogh Oklahoma has been a US state for less time that Chechnya has been part of Russia, actually].

If you want population comparisons, there are 8.3 million ethnic Russians in the Ukraine (and there were 1.1 million more in the Crimea). How many Americans live in Alaska, exactly?

Not to mention large Russian minorities in other states - Russians make up almost 24% of the population of Khazakstan, for example.

And that country, the 10th largest in the world [roughly a third of the size of the US], has less than 17 million people living there - it's very sparsely inhabited.

Since Americans love to justify their annexation of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas with "there were few Mexicans there anyway", what prevents the same reasoning to be applied by Russia to Khazakhstan?

[DGuller]

  Martim was more interesting to read when he was writing about getting handjobs from ambassadors.

[Admiral Yi]

  Martim was more interesting to read when he was writing about getting handjobs from ambassadors.

Speak for yourself.  I think this stuff is great.

[dps]

Grumbler was comparing Chechnya to Palestine, not me. I was pointing out the comparison is absurd

Yeah, a better analogy to the relationship of Russia to Chechnya would be that of Austria to Bohemia.

Since Americans love to justify their annexation of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas with "there were few Mexicans there anyway", what prevents the same reasoning to be applied by Russia to Khazakhstan?

Aside from the fact that I don't think I've ever heard another American use that justification, I'm not sure that "there were few Mexicans living there anyway" would provide much justification for Russian taking back Khazakhstan.   Though I suppose it is factually correct that there are few Mexicans living here.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Since Americans love to justify their annexation of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas with "there were few Mexicans there anyway",

what

[Norgy]

Putin was a man that could be worked with.  I feel that if the West was willing to play the give and take of diplomacy, Putin could probably be dealt with.  However, at this point, Putin is well aware that the West expects Russia to give whatever they ask, in exchange for nothing.  Did people really think that they could just carve countries out of Russia's sphere and that the Russians wouldn't react?

You have got to be joking, Neil. You're a fairly reasonable man. But you don't live in a country neighbouring Russia.
Putin is a mad dog that needs to be put down. Plain and simple.
If that means upping the defence budget tenfold, so be it. I, for one, won't stand for what Putin does.

[Razgovory]

  Martim was more interesting to read when he was writing about getting handjobs from ambassadors.

I dislike when the dingus doesn't get my joke.  Still his geo-political analyses is as trenchant as ever.  European susperstate!

[Razgovory]

Since Americans love to justify their annexation of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas with "there were few Mexicans there anyway",

what

Otto did that once, of course he's just some old drunk.

[Eddie Teach]

It's true though. The Comanche and Apache didn't care much for Mexicans.