>>23043 What about it? Ukraine wasn't going to push the Sevastopol base away, they relied on the money it gave them. In addition, it's not like Russia doesn't border the Black Sea on it's own.
The Russian military has had bases in the east of Ukraine for donkey's years. "Destabilise" is just a code word in the news for "dilute American influence". It's not a bad thing.
Diluting shit with anything doesn't make it palatable. What's going on in Ukraine is more like mixing salt into high fructose corn syrup- neither is palatable on its own, but it becomes positively revolting when mixed.
There's a list of 'valid' reasons (from the view of the Kremlin) for taking the Crimea.
1. Pure punishment for Ukraine shifting towards the EU and away from vassal state to Russia.
2. Geopolitical strategy - Black Sea port and all that.
3. Because they can.
4. Because the fact that Ukraine even had Crimea was a mistake, many normal Russians have always considered it as part of Russia (have their second homes there, go there for holidays, poetry and music written about it). They were fine with it being part of Ukraine when Ukraine was just a servant-state of Russia.
5. To stick it to perceived NATO expansionism that threatens to break into all the buffer states around Russia.
6. To give the population a positive distraction from the failing economy, and create a scapegoat for all future problems.
7. To protect ethnic Russians - in the minds of the population (moulded as they are by the media) the Kiev government is a fascist junta that will exterminate all ethnic russians.
>>23052 But do these really outweigh the negatives? Massive international distrust, capital flight, instability in the elites if maybe not the proles, is it really a rational decision to just give Ukraine and NATO a big funk you? Especially considering Russia has black Sea access already for example.
The absolutely don't outweigh the negatives. Either the Kremlin has a long-term masterplan that we can't see yet, or they are just clueless arrogant fools reacting like children. It sure seems like the second one at the moment.
They have started an economic war with a failing $2trn economy (beset with the resource curse) against the EU's $16trn and the US's $15trn economies (which hold all the critical financial, information and technological assets). If there's a definition of 'fucking stupid' then this must be it.
The latest central bank forecast is for no economic growth till the early years of the next decade. The recent economic woe's are mostly down to the Saudis deflating the cost of crude to stop shale production in the US and Russia is struggling heavily as a casualty. But the whole economy is rotten - there are no financial services, no information economy, no tech innovation. There are massive structural changes needed in education (higher and lower) and infrastructure upgrade. The pension fund has been raided to fight recession. The treasury is dropping $2-2.5bn a day in reserves to prop up the ruble.
The only positives are that it has created a real 'us' v 'them' mentality in the population (full state media control helps with that ofc). People are willing to take a loss of prosperity and income to fight imperials and fascists in an imaginary conflict.
>...the Saudis deflating the cost of crude to stop shale production in the US
I thought the Saudis were deflating crude only at the bequest of the US in order to hurt Russia? I might be mistaken - I occasionally read Zerohedge which is known to make shit up.
>>23056 I think 'Expat-lad' is generic enough that it doesn't count, if only because we know there are several expats that post regularly. It struck me as an attempt to give context to his remarks about Russia, rather than an attempt to self-name, in much the same way that someone in an /emo/ thread might use 'depressivelad' or whatever to show they're speaking from experience rather than just theory. I might be wrong, but that's how I read it.
But this is obviously the guy living in Russia who afaik is the only one who refers to himself as 'expat-lad'. Everyone moaned when Hong Kong-lad did the same.
>>23058 Oh, fair enough then - I hadn't noticed it being used before, so I assumed it was just for context in this thread. If he's trying to carve out an identity for himself as THE Expat-lad then he's clearly an arse and deserves to be chastised. It'd be like me calling myself doesn't-pay-enough-attention-lad.
>>23058 No, we moaned about the tit from HK because he dropped his being there into seemingly every post, regardless of whether or not it was relevant. In this case, I think it's relevant, this being a thread about shit Russia is getting up to.
When you're somewhere else that other people aren't, it comes up a lot in your posts. You can't help it. Like for example, your weekend thread posts are going to be different, you can't access certain websites (or at least as easily) and you might have to ask people to describe urls for you, that sort of thing.
There are quite a few expatriates on .gs though, you can't be the expatlad. There's usually more than one lad of any particular flavour.
The Saudis are dropping the price of crude to punish the Americans, not at their bequest. Russia is just a crossfire casualty in this. The Saudis want to see off the shale revolution by making it uneconomic to source. Just google Shale, oil prices and Saudi and read about it from the source of your choice.
It's fine - I won't do it again, I hate this kind of thing and felt dubious about using it. I considered the pros and cons of giving weight to my opinion v being considered a dick - given that I'm only in the UK for a couple of weeks a year, and I'm IP banned at home, I thought it worth it. HK lad was a true cunt and brought it up all the time for no reason, I'm only identifying myself as a resident of Russia in the 2 threads currently discussing Russian issues.
>>23065 >That doesn't mean the analogy is wrong.
If the analogy is "becomes positively revolting when mixed" then it definitely helps if the two things being mixed produce something revolting, as I can confirm from personal experience in the case of salt and sugar.
>>23066 A pinch of sugar actually goes quite well in most dishes, especially salty ones. I'm just saying that maybe if the US influence is HFCS and Russia is vodka (which makes more sense than salt) and those things go together well then maybe you need to re-evaluate your idea of Russian-occupied Ukraine. Maybe it's just the propaganda making you think it doesn't go well.
>John Kerry, the US secretary of state, allegedly struck a deal with King Abdullah in September under which the Saudis would sell crude at below the prevailing market price. That would help explain why the price has been falling at a time when, given the turmoil in Iraq and Syria caused by Islamic State, it would normally have been rising.
>>23073 If they played along, it would be because it was already in their interests to do so. Cheap crude helps undercut shale, and reduces the financing available to ISIx, who are decidedly non-OPEC and therefore competition.
>>23091 In Russian prison slang the rooster is the guy who gets arseraped all the time without doing any arseraping himself, the lowest of the low in the hierarchy.
I remember being told by a Russian that if people find out that you licked out a girl, you would get the shit kicked out of you because this is seen as "homosexual and weak". However fucking a guy in the arse? That's fine.
>>23100 Russian expat in the uk here
Not really, it's because so-called zashkvar since you gonna share the common mug of chefir with other respectable inmates and transmit "zashkvar" to their lips or using other objects of common use. So yes, you admit it and become a rooster.
There are worse roles in the cells. One of the worst might be "gasonyuh", who takes the farts into his mouth and then runs to the window to blow them out so not to contaminate the cell lol.
And swearing isn't allowed either because for every word you say you must take responsibility and provide proofs. So, if you call someone "petuh" and he is not, it's you who will drop in the hierarchy forever, even if transferred to another location.
When arrived at a new location, please announce your rank immediately, so the other won't get "zashkvar" handshaking you.
Lastly, If you are a rooster and very abused/mistreated the final solution for you is to kiss the cell leader. You will be dead but he'll be sort of a dead too.
But don't worry, foreign nationals are treated kindly like guests.
>>23109 >There are worse roles in the cells. One of the worst might be "gasonyuh", who takes the farts into his mouth and then runs to the window to blow them out so not to contaminate the cell lol.
Jesus.