The Russian Invasion of the Ukraine.

[theprestige]

Putin's popularity in Russia is up since the war began. His average popularity since 2012 is insanely high.

Source please.

 

[trustbutverify]

You haven’t been paying attention. He was claiming the invasion warnings were a CIA hoax, claiming that Russiagate was a hoax, taking Trump’s side with the whole Hunter Biden thing and the extortion of the Ukrainian President by Trump for dirt on Biden. The list is endless. Of course he does not say “mmmm… I love Putin!” but a mere modicum of ability to read between the lines shows he is con

Plausible deniability is the name of his con game. And it's paid off in the millions.

 

[trustbutverify]

Source please.

Here:

Approximately 69% of Russians now approve of Putin, compared to the 61% who approved of him in August 2021, according to Russian polling agency the Levada Center. And 29% of Russians disapprove of Putin, down from 37% in August 2021. The polling group is the leading independent sociological research organization in Russia and is widely respected by many scholars, including myself.

Putin has enjoyed relatively high approval ratings since he first became president in May 2000. His popularity averaged 79% in his first 20 years in office.

 

[theprestige]

Here:

Why is it so hard to just say "Russian polling agency Levada Center", and link to their actual report?

Why does it have to be an uncited claim, and then a secondary or tertiary citation when asked?

 

[lobosrul5]

Here:

How can we possibly know if those numbers are real or made up though?

 

[trustbutverify]

Why is it so hard to just say "Russian polling agency Levada Center", and link to their actual report?

Why does it have to be an uncited claim, and then a secondary or tertiary citation when asked?

Because that's where I read it, so that's where I posted it from. I don't think that's any great crime.

 

[trustbutverify]

How can we possibly know if those numbers are real or made up though?

The Levada Center has a fine reputation. However, if you have a better source for Russian opinion polls, i'd be interested in reading it.

 

[Aridas]

To poke at the subject of opinion elsewhere...

Audience Applauds Russia just before Marjorie Greene spoke to the America First Conference

White Supremacist gathering cheers on Putin. Not a huge surprise there.

Elsewhere, Anonymous is claiming to have hacked a bunch of Russian state TV channels.

 

[Meadmaker]

But it's not going to work in the Information age.

You would think.

But then I think about the fact that a huge number of Americans, with all sorts of access to information, think that the 2020 election was stolen, Covid is a fraud, etc.

Don't be sure that even his praise of Putin is going to turn out badly for him. All Donny is saying is that Putin is smart. Putin is going to win this war, and a lot of people will think that makes him smart, i.e. that Donny is right, again...in their heads.

 

[Meadmaker]

They will love him more than ever. His secret is he has absolutely no respect for his audience.

Well, I guess that's one thing that he has in common with most of us here.

But I think you are right on both counts.

 

[Major Major]

The Ukrainians are engaged in a full-bore hoax! So says the knowledgable (for some values of knowledge) Paul Craig Roberts. There are no Russian troops in Ukraine.

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/02/25/ukraine-update-2/

And Murray Rothbard thought Harry Elmer Barnes was a prophet who had been silenced . . .

 

[Michel H]

BBC rolling report

Multiple reports of explosions at an oil depot outside of Kyiv and a gas pipeline in Kharkiv
The country's second-largest city, Kharkiv has been under rocket attacks since Day One.
There's much commentary that Russia may now be targeting gas and oil infrastructure, after first going after Ukraine's military bases.

Three days late but the Russians seem to be waking up.

Do you think it's good, that Russia is now targeting gas and oil infrastructure?

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Do you think it's good, that Russia is now targeting gas and oil infrastructure?

It's a sign that they are losing and will have to withdraw soon, at least in my opinion.

 

[BillC]

I read several tweets from military analysts who are shocked at how poorly Russia is performing.

The amphibious assault near Mariupol apparently failed. It was done at night, Russia apparently has no known history of training to do that at night. Their military is not as well equipped with night vision gear as NATO troops usually are. They have night vision gear, but not as much.

This is remarkable, if true. In the 1980s, the USSR invested considerable resources in building up a marine force, developing large air cushion vehicles and landing craft, vessels for shore bombardment and landing support, and so on. Russia would seem to have since lost these skills and capability if so.

 

[angrysoba]

Don’t worry, anti-war and totally anti-Putin “journalist”, Glenn Greenwald is here to pour water on your Western media claims of Russian military difficulties.

 

[Wildy]

A problem for Putin is that if Zelensky dies, he's a hero, If he lives, he's a hero and Putin looks like the bad guy either way.

I'm sure that's what the show trial will be for.

A pair of Russian Air Force An-124 transport planes were spotted on Flightrader24, transiting through Belarusian airspace, and, judging by the altitude, using their air bases.

At this rate, we might as well just refer to Belarus as being part of the Russian Federation.

Considering it's one of the two members of the Union State you're not far from the truth.

Edit: Regarding removing Russian banks from SWIFT, there was talk that they would probably move over to China's CIPS in order to lessen the blow.

I think part of that might have been the reason why they were apprehensive to do it. In some ways we're at a point where the power of the dollar is starting to wane.

Azerbaijan's state oil company, SOCAR, has confirmed to the BBC that it will provide Ukraine's firefighting and ambulance services with free petrol for the duration of the conflict.

The move follows a phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

Aliyev also pledged to provide Ukraine with deliveries of medicines and medical equipment.

That's something I find interesting, along with Kazakhstan refusing to send troops to Ukraine to fight for Russia. I find it interesting that countries that I'd have expected to support Russia though this (like Belarus obviously) aren't.

Already 100 000 or so Ukranian refugees. Makes me wonder whether that was Putin's plan all along.

I doubt it. It might have been an additional benefit.

Undermining the unity in the European Union is definitely on his wishlist. Various refugee/migrant crises have shown that immigration is controversial issue for which the EU has not yet come up with a unified solution. If anything can split up the EU, that might be it.

I doubt it in this case. Ukraine has a lot of support, and most of the anti-refugee rhetoric is based around foreign brown people coming into Europe and not integrating.

We've already seen the attempt of getting refugees into Poland from Belarus.

As part of a coordinated human trafficking operation undertaken by Minsk in order to enact some kind of "revenge" after the EU was angry over a series of incidents including hijacking a flight in order to arrest a journalist.

Poland managed to beat most of them back. God only knows how these poor people are doing stuck in Belarus.

Probably worse than they could be considering back in August Belarus refused to allow Poland to provide humanitarian aid for these people in Belarus. My view on this is that Minsk invited these people into their country, therefore it's Minsk's responsibility to these people since their plan to illegally smuggle them into Poland and Lithuania has failed.

 

[angrysoba]

Totally not a Putin supporter, who was mocking claims that Ukraine was a democracy and has been making the rounds of Fox News and even spoke at CPAC, having blamed NATO for the war now realizes maybe she has made her shilling for Putin a bit too obvious and now asks for him to calm down (“You’ve made your point”).

What a despicable clown.

 

[Venom]

Tulsi Gabbard = fascist sympathizer

**** her and her fans

 

[rdwight]

Seeing too many initial things I thought accurate turn out to be untrue. Going to change my outlook and assume anything currently trending is propaganda in some form or half truths.

 

[BillC]

Can we get a "Downfall" Video of Putin complaining about his failed invasion?

Hitler reacts to Russia invading Ukraine