The State of Affairs in Russia

[KRonn]

Funnily, American entertainment is wildly popular in Russia, it's one of the biggest foreign markets for American movies, for example.

Yeah, American movies, and I'm sure popular movies of other nations, are well received in Russia. Not that movies are the biggest issue but if those can no longer be shown then it's going to be very noticeable by the average citizen. Meanwhile China has been opening up to allow more western/US movies, while also building up their own home grown film industry.

[celedhring]

The Duma passed a law recently that allows the Russian government to unilaterally change release dates for foreign movies (so they can favor local industry). So it's on the crosshairs too.

[jimmy olsen]

http://itar-tass.com/en/russia/773830

Members of the Russian parliament mull drafting a statement to condemn the annexation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) by the Federative Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1989, a historic event commonly known as the reunification of East and West Germany.

Here's a little more detail on their squirrelly motives.

I'm sure it will do wonders for relations with Germany.

http://www.newsweek.com/bid-condemn-annexation-east-germany-russian-parliament-302785

Bid to Condemn 'Annexation of East Germany' in Russian Parliament
By Damien Sharkov 1/28/15 at 1:54 PM

The speaker of the Russian Parliament, today announced that if Russia 'annexed' Crimea, then the West 'annexed' eastern Germany in 1989. Sergey Naryshkin put forward a motion in front of the parliamentary committee for international affairs which would condemn the German reunification as an annexation.

The proposal originally came from Russian MP Nikolay Ivanov who had taken great offence to comments made by Anne Brasseur, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, when she referred to Crimea's controversial decision to join Russia as an annexation, earlier this week.

"I suggest the following step - we prepare a statement condemning the 'annexation' of the German Democratic Republic by the German Federation in 1989," Ivanov told Narishkin and other parliamentary colleagues. 

According to Ivanov, there is even greater case for eastern Germany to be considered an annexed territory, as opposed to Crimea, because: "Unlike Crimea, there was never a referendum in eastern Germany."

"97% of Crimean citizens voted to join their homeland - Russia," Ivanov added, referring to the unrecognized referendum held last March in the region. Although the results indicated that Crimeans wished to leave Ukraine and join the territory of Russia, neither Kiev nor any Western government has recognized the result.

The speaker of the Russian parliament has decided to pass Ivanov's motion towards the relevant parliamentary committee, which will now decide whether Russian parliament will agree to the term or not.

There is currently no set date for the decision but Narishkin has urged the committee to take Ivanov's motion and "dwell on it specifically". Narishkin himself expressed a similar line of argument on Tuesday, during his visit to the Council of Europe on Tuesday.

In an off the cuff reaction to Brasseur's comment, Narishkin said "originators of this kind of logic can also hold that western Germany annexed eastern Germany."

However Narishkin had given no indication he would support such a motion, prior to today, saying that he simply believed the term should not be used in reference to either Crimea or the German reunification.

[KRonn]

I saw a news item where Putin mentioned something about going after Estonia with similarities to what he did in Ukraine or Crimea. Now they're even making noise over East Germany but that's just bluster and distraction to try and make some relationship to Crimea.

[Syt]

Britain summoned the Russian ambassador, because Russian bombers flying over the channel disrupted civil air traffic.

[DGuller]

What is Russia's game with this?  Is it childish behavior, intimidation, or a play akin to a training exercise right before invasion?

[Razgovory]

What is Russia's game with this?  Is it childish behavior, intimidation, or a play akin to a training exercise right before invasion?

It's just history repeating itself.  First as tragedy, the second  as Farce.

[Martinus]

What is Russia's game with this?  Is it childish behavior, intimidation, or a play akin to a training exercise right before invasion?

It's just history repeating itself.  First as tragedy, the second  as Farce.

I read it as "France" instead of "Farce". Which I suppose is the same thing.

[Martinus]

The Duma passed a law recently that allows the Russian government to unilaterally change release dates for foreign movies (so they can favor local industry). So it's on the crosshairs too.

As if Russians actually paid for their movies. 

[Syt]

More details:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31049952

Russian military planes 'disrupted UK aviation'

Russian military planes flying near UK airspace caused "disruption to civil aviation" on Wednesday, the Foreign Office has said.

It said the two Russian planes did not enter UK airspace, but the manoeuvres were "part of an increasing pattern of out-of-area operations" by Russia.

The planes were "escorted" by RAF jets "throughout the time they were in the UK area of interest", officials added.

Russia's ambassador said the patrols were "routine" and dismissed concerns.

Typhoon fighters were scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Coningsby to escort the Russian aircraft, and the RAF said the mission lasted 12 hours.

The Foreign Office refused to give details of the disruption to civil aviation.

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said the Russian planes - two Tu-95 Bear H bombers - came within 25 miles of the UK.

They travelled from the north, past the west coast of Ireland and to the English Channel before turning and going back the way they had come, he said.

He said the bombers did not file a flight plan, did not have their transponders switched on and "weren't talking to air traffic control".

'Calm and focused'

Russia's ambassador to Britain, Alexander Yakovenko, met with British officials to discuss the incident, the Russian embassy said.

In a statement, the embassy said he "stressed that the concerns of the British side are not understandable given that two Russian military aircraft were on a routine air patrol duty over the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean."

Mr Yakovenko also said they complied with legal norms and "cannot be regarded as threatening, destabilising or disruptive."

This is the latest in a series of similar incidents involving Russian aircraft, and last month Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK was concerned about the "extremely aggressive probing" of its airspace by Russia.

In a statement on the RAF website, one of the controllers involved in the mission said: "Thanks to our integration with air defence systems across Nato, we were able to begin mission planning early and therefore were ready to act in good time."

The controller added: "The operations room was both calm and focussed.

"We constantly train for these scenarios so that we are well rehearsed and ready to maintain the integrity of our airspace."

The RAF said air-to-air refuelling for the Typhoons was provided by RAF Voyager aircraft from RAF Brize Norton.

Going near civilian traffic routes without transponders or communications is an accident waiting to happen.

[celedhring]

The Duma passed a law recently that allows the Russian government to unilaterally change release dates for foreign movies (so they can favor local industry). So it's on the crosshairs too.

As if Russians actually paid for their movies. 

Contrarily to the cliché, they do. 8th biggest box office market in the world. The ruble crash will probably put a dent in that, mind.

[CountDeMoney]

Russian military planes 'disrupted UK aviation'

Going near civilian traffic routes without transponders or communications is an accident waiting to happen.

It doesn't carry the same importance as it once did, or is as nearly as important as what's going on in the South China Sea as far as international dick-measuring goes, but from a pure throwback perspective I enjoy how Russia thinks it can still wear its big boy pants.  We should conduct multiple carrier battle group force projection exercises off the Kola Peninsula for old times sake.

[grumbler]

Contrarily to the cliché, they do. 8th biggest box office market in the world. The ruble crash will probably put a dent in that, mind.

Eighth largest market but about 60% the capita rate of Germany or France or England.  I'd say the facts don't support the assertion that Russians "paid for their movies." Russia is more like Mexico than it is like The Netherlands.

[Ed Anger]

Was reading about how the supposed 'NATO revival' shit has slowed down under the typical EURO bullshit of expecting Daddy America to provide the heavy lifting.

fuck Europe. US OUT OF NATO

[Zanza]

I'm sure it will do wonders for relations with Germany.

We don't give a shit.