I hope you’re right, but I don’t believe in anything other than using force against the russians.

That would mean going beyond our current attacks with drones and locally produces missiles and doing at least 50-100 ballistic missile strikes against the russians per week. This is just one example; a similar comprehensive approach would need to be applied in multiple areas.

Beyond that, we would need to arm freedom fighters in occupied nations to allow both utilization of senior collaborators, but also anti-air system to bring down russian planes and a bombing program to disrupt russian logistics.

Took nearly 4 years of full scale invasion even though sabotage by russians in EU was conducted before Feb 22.

And they are still allowing entry by random russians.

And that’s why they are sending thousands of their citizens to help the russia’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine.

A true vanguard against imperialism!

Terrible headline.

Yeah, energy blackouts where manageable before last night (maybe 4 hours a day), expect this to increase to about 8-12 hours in the coming days.

This was a helpful and concise blogpost.

Americans oligarchs are comical in their approach to corruption.

Thank for taking the time to reply. I too am interested in understanding perspective on this issue because I have American friends in both political camps (centre-right and far-right).

I see your logic and I think your arguments have weight and are done in good faith. That being said the gulf in our perspectives and experiences is simply too far apart, where it may almost seem like we are talking about different things (and we are from different sides of the planet).

I don’t see why I or other any SJW member should be subject to bad faith, corporate spam. I am not interested in “demagogue destroys [political opponent]”, "[political opponent] is a member of Al-Qaeda] or “[US Oligarch says some a propaganda]”. All found in the first two pages of maga.place. What is this point of this?

I do not believe in “safe spaces” or “echo chambers”. The latter in particular is a loaded, polemical term that means nothing. You can very much be open to new experiences and perspective without wanting malicious goons shitting up a forum that you use. There is a beautiful irony that US conservatives claim to oppose echo chambers when they are the biggest enablers of this concept. Is it unreasonable to claims that almost all US conservatives oppose real regulation of social media (other than to dictate and force their own interpretation of moderation policies on others) to address harmful engagement algorithms?

Just recently Facebook was found to have earned $16.5 B in 2024 from commissions on fraud and scams. Am I acting in bad faith by stating that most conservatives in the US would oppose true action (not words) against FB’s leadership and those who implemented this policy? Real action; prison, asset seizure, breakup of criminal organizations.

I don’t believe in American polemics about “big government spending”. First of all, fiscal policy is a pretty complicated thing, “I want lower taxes no matter what” is not a serious policy proposal (and that is the sole prerogative of US conservatism). Legitimate reform approaches (even more technocratic proposals) are rejected outright by US conservatives. Secondly, there is the moral imperative. US is a very a rich country and is more than capable of providing healthcare for all, not to mention there are economic reasons why such a system allows for more efficiency (purchasing economies, remove of massive insurance company and healthcare administration bureaucracy). My friend works in healthcare in the US, from my discussions with him it seems clear (to me), that the current US healthcare system is simply a local scheme for corruption and criminality. Third, from the research I did, US conservatives are more than happy to be the beneficiaries of government spending (e.g. farming, certain conservative states/regions de facto existing on government initiatives).

For me, it’s not good enough to say “I don’t like what ICE is doing, but I will tolerate their actions because I want to remove illegal immigrants”. Security services beating people up, arbitrarily arresting people and deporting citizens is unacceptable. Excuses don’t count. When you ignore such things, you get russia.

Russia became the way it is because the people were willing to tolerate putin because they thought he was doing the right thing. I lived in russia in the 90s, you could criticize the government and there was some hilarious satirical shows (sometimes very high quality subtle satire). There partially free elections. They lost it all that because they thought putin was doing the right thing.

I also disagree that the US has fully free elections. There are parts of the country where people aren’t allowed to vote (and US conservatives largely support this). The approach to districting is also clearly malicious and strongly suggests US conservatives oppose real democracy (districting is just one example, there are many others).

When I mentioned the distinction between the conservative movement in general (on a global scale) and US conservatives I was referring to the above points. You can be a conservative in other countries and not support security services setting up check points for non-whites, beating up people and deporting your own citizens.

It is also the height of arrogance to think it is impossible for a political movement to be fundamentally flawed and lacking in any real positives. There are more than enough political movements in world history (both left and right) that have been completely discredited. To believe this is impossible in the US is how you get putin and your country turning into russia.

I have no issues with conservative perspectives, you need a balance to keep both sides honest, but that doesn’t mean I must believe an American political movement cannot be rotten to the core by the virtue of being American. And that’s why I think it is legitimate to preemptively ban oligarch propaganda and borderline degenerate spam “demagogue destroys [political opponent]” from what I consider to be a fundamentally malicious movement.

Apologies for the rather negative tone, but this is my perspective.

Kurashov himself never testified. According to court reporters, his lawyer Anna Karpenko said her client “sincerely repented” and that he believed he had simply been following orders from above not to take any prisoners.

What a russian thing to say.

That’s fair.

enough material for russian propaganda to legitimate further acts of war.

You should watch some russian propaganda. They already show “news” pieces about how their nukes can reach London and other European cities. That ship has sailed.

I agree with you on all the points that you mentioned (with the exception of “people seeking political asylum”, with some qualifiers), however, I think you misunderstand the mentality of the overwhelming majority of russians who support genocidal imperialism.

Remember that when WW2 began, the russians collaborated with the Nazis to split up Europe. To this day, even allegedly liberal russians (who publicly oppose the full scale invasion) don’t really recognize this. They still think that people believe their victim-hood narratives and don’t see them for who they really are. This is a key point in understanding russian mentality and finding effective solutions to dealing with them.

These measures you describe are fundamentally carrots. There is nothing in what you’re saying that would affect the calculus of any russian. From the poorer ones in the provinces, to the rich professionals in Moscow to the leadership and oligarchs. The “costs” inherent to your proposals do not represent a risk of loss to change their behaviour.

You mention fighting fire with fire. I am not calling for a pointless suicide march. I am calling for a sober approach to truly raising the costs for all russians.

The first point is recognizing that russia is a continental empire that is currently occupying many independent nation and I am not about Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. The list is much longer.

You need the strike the underbelly of the their colonial empire. Provide freedom fighters in countries like Chechnya with monetary and financial support, so the population at large feels that they have a chance to get rid of the russians. Provide them with weapons (at least manpads) so they can take down russian planes. Intel so they can utilize senior collaborators like Kadyrov.

It’s not only about Chechnya and Dagestan, but Buryatyi, Komi Republic, Yukutia…

Utilize the children of senior leadership and oligarchs when they are on vacation in Dubai or the Maldives.

Provide financial support for developing the language and culture of occupied peoples. Show them that they have a chance.

I strongly disagree with providing “political asylum” to ethnic russians (with some exceptions for individuals truly opposed to imperialism).

Look at Vladimir Kara-Murza, the darling of the west, who was freed in a prison exchange.

Let’s see, what does he think about russian imperialism:

“I spoke with a colleague who works extensively with prisoners of war on both sides. So she had spoken a lot with Ukrainian prisoners of war who had been released from Russia, and with Russian prisoners of war who are still in Ukraine. And she told me there’s another reason why Russian Defense Ministry recruits so many representatives of these national minorities — because, allegedly, they say it’s psychologically really difficult for Russians to kill Ukrainians. Because it is… Because we are the same… We are the same, these are very closely related peoples, as everyone knows. We have almost the same language, the same religion, centuries and centuries of shared history… But if it’s someone who comes from another culture, allegedly, it’s easier. That’s what this colleague told me yesterday. I had never thought of it that way. For me, it was mostly about economic reasons, but since she told me that yesterday, I’ve started thinking about that too.”

Same fucking bullshit about “same people” and some racism on top.

And this is Vladimir Kara-Murza, can you imagine what goes through the head of the average russian?

Just as there was a report about how 10% of FB revenues are based on commissions from frau and scams.

Elon Musk is a true degenerate (in the dictionary definition of the term, not as a generic insult).

I don’t disagree (look at Schroeder, he is still walking free), but my point stands, the number is a tiny percentage of EU GDP.

Even the costs saving of using russian gas were something along the lines of 0.2% of EU GDP (and thats ignoring the cost of the caustic effect that the russians have had on democracy and governance in EU).

I used to live in russia (this was before they invaded Georgia). I have former friends who I know are supporters of russian genocidal imperialism (that’s why they became former friends), you can most probably still find the evidence for this on their social media.

That being said, based on chatting with another friend who uses FB, they are bit more careful these days and tend to go with more implicit public statements of support “I hope there will be peace soon and I can visit Moscow via a direct flight from London”.

And appeasing them has not led to war?

If they make small incursions into the Baltic nations, would you also support appeasement and enabling such actions?

The reason I ask is that I have close friends living in the central EU and they’ve definitely mentioned the presence of an attitude of cowardice among certain people “let them have the Baltics, they probably won’t get to us”.

What are those economic interests? What is the number? What is it as a percentage of annual EU GDP?

Of course there is support by EU of Ukrainian strikes against Russia.

But EU is not directly targeting russia even though russia is directly targeting the EU (including drone attacks and airspace violations).

The EU can’t even arrest Timchenko who is a citizen of Finland.

Not to mention basic counter-intelligencence programs such as a review of all russian citizen and permanent residents (e.g. benefiting form the putin regime, but also evidence of support for genocidal imperialism on social media) in Europe.

Thank god Merkel wasn’t the Chancellor when the russians launched the full scale invasion. For Ukraine, she would have been far worse than Trump. She would have sold us out for extermination by the russians (don’t forget Bucha and the massive kill list and internment program that was planned by the russians following “victory in three days”).

Even in retirement she is working for the russians:

Ex-German chancellor Merkel blames Poland and Baltic States for war in Ukraine (Oct 2025)

I hope she ends up in a russian interment camp. But that is unfortunately unlikely to happen. I will settle for her getting Alzheimer’s (I don’t say that lightly, close family member had it, it’s a nightmare).

And yet the Europeans are too cowardly to launch sabotage programs against the russians without US backing.

That being said, respect to Poland and the Baltic nations for taking a sober understanding of what the russians are like.

Merkel and Schroeder are some of the biggest enabler of russian genocidal imperialism in recent years.

@[email protected]

Apologies for pinging you, you made a lot of arguments for why we should give MAGA movement member the benefit of the doubt. Those argument don’t align with reality in my opinion.

Chomsky, legitimately, does not believe in the implementation of a Soviet-style regime, unlike, say, Michael Parenti.

Neither does modern russia or the modern CCP.

That’s not much of an achievement.

Chomsky is pretty close to being a tankie IMO.

Let’s hope Chomsky will find his own peace in a russian internment camp (let him experience what he wishes for Ukrainians in the occupied territories).