The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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The European Parliament on Wednesday designated Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, arguing that its military strikes on Ukrainian civilian targets such as energy infrastructure, hospitals, schools and shelters violated international law.

European lawmakers voted in favour of a resolution calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

The move is largely symbolic, as the European Union does not have a legal framework in place to back it up. At the same time, the bloc has already imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow reacted angrily to the European Parliament decision.

"I propose designating the European Parliament as a sponsor of idiocy," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the European Parliament's decision.

"Russia must be isolated at all levels and held accountable in order to end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe," he wrote on Twitter.

Zelenskiy has urged the United States and other countries to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, accusing its forces of targeting civilians, which Moscow denies.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has so far refused to list Russia despite resolutions in both chambers of Congress urging him to do so.

The U.S. State Department currently names four countries - Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria - as state sponsors of terrorism, meaning they are subject to a defence export ban and financial restrictions.

In the EU, the parliaments of four countries have so far designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, according to the European Parliamentary Research Service: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu ... 022-11-23/

The resolution was adopted by 494 votes in favour, 58 against with 44 abstentions.

The Parliament also calls on the European Council to include the Russian paramilitary organisation ‘the Wagner Group’, the 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the “Kadyrovites”, and other Russian-funded armed groups, militias and proxies, on the EU’s terrorist list.

:thumbs:

Official press release:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/ ... -terrorism
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

Post by Megaterio Llamas »

I gather the Europeans don't believe Russians are fit for the garden...


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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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:wink:


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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

Post by Cousin Strawberry »

Ze Ruskies are not human...ve must take back Ze fatherland from them

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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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Happy to see both Biden and Macron confirm that they intend to make sure those responsible for war crimes in Ukraine are held accountable! :thumbs:

Meanwhile, the Russian terror bombing of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine has caused damage that will cost between USD 350 and 750 billion to repair, depending on which estimates you trust. Right now there are some USD 320 billion sitting around in frozen Russian assets. A start would be to transfer all those assets to the Ukrainian government.
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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Cousin Strawberry wrote: Thu Nov 24, 2022 5:16 am Ze Ruskies are not human...ve must take back Ze fatherland from them

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Yeahno... a Russian TV host, on government controlled TV, suggested Ukrainian children that disproved of Russian occupation should be drowned. :o



Russians may be humans, but they are not humane.
At least not those who support Putler and his fascist regime.
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

Post by Cousin Strawberry »

Don't confuse the people with the regime/government.

99% of them are normal people
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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Cousin Strawberry wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 2:15 pm Don't confuse the people with the regime/government.

99% of them are normal people
^^ This.... with every country.
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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Cornuck wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 4:12 pm
Cousin Strawberry wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 2:15 pm Don't confuse the people with the regime/government.

99% of them are normal people
^^ This.... with every country.
...well, if you count the deep South maybe 94% in yours.
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

Post by Cornuck »

This is not my country. Just where I live.
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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Cornuck wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 8:06 pm This is not my country. Just where I live.
Yep...I'm aware of from whence you came.

But you're there...so...semantics.
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

Post by Cornuck »

Fair enough. Here by choice, or circumstances, but here nevertheless. "I'll be back".
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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This is great news! 8-)

I’ve thought all along that Russia will never give up until the Ukrainians take the war to them! And now they finally have!

And the Ukrainians maintain the moral highground. Even though the Russians now mainly focus on destroying civilian infrastructure, especially the electric grid and water, the Ukrainians are focusing on military bases. That’s good. We don’t want them to start resorting to systematic war crimes the way Putin and his military does.

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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

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The Latvian government just shut down a Russian independent news agency operating from Riga.

I think this is a big mistake. Putin has shut down all free press within Russia, and the Russian TV stations, websites and newspapers operating from abroad are fundamental to provide the true picture of what is happening to the Russian citizens that are suffocating under the dicator's yoke.

The Economist recently had an article on how Russian journalists now are forced to work in exile, and the importance of their work.
The kremlin banned them, branded them “foreign agents”, criminalised them and chased them out of the country. It cut off their finances and tried to isolate them from their audiences. But they have regrouped, rebuilt and come back stronger. Never in the past 30 years have Russian journalists been under such assault, and never have they fought back with such vigour, calling out the Kremlin’s lies, exposing its corruption and unearthing evidence of its war crimes.

Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship does not leave much scope for street protests, but independent reporters have formed a virtual resistance movement, lobbing explosive stories at his war machine and supplying news and opinions to those who look for them. Most are doing so from outside Russia, something they call “offshore journalism”. At least 500 journalists have left Russia since the invasion, according to Proekt Media, an investigative outlet.

Scattered across Europe, in cities such as Riga, Tbilisi, Vilnius, Berlin and Amsterdam, such journalists reach a large audience, most of them under the age of 40. “Our job today is to survive and not let our readers suffocate,” says Ivan Kolpakov, the editor-in-chief of Meduza, a news website.
For the Kremlin, suppressing real news is an important part of its war effort. Some outlets remain in Russia that are not propaganda organs, such as Kommersant, a private newspaper. But they are highly constrained—they cannot call the war a war, for example. Since Mr Putin invaded Ukraine he has muzzled most independent voices, lest they sow doubt among citizens or induce a split within the elite.

tv Rain, Russia’s best known independent television channel, went dark eight days after the war started. Echo of Moscow, a radio station with 5m listeners, went silent on the same day. Soon after that Novaya Gazeta, the most outspoken newspaper, stopped printing. Alexei Venediktov, the editor of Echo, and Dmitry Muratov, the Nobel prize-winning editor of Novaya Gazeta, stayed in Russia while some of their former colleagues set up operations offshore. tv Rain is back on air, now based in Latvia and broadcasting via YouTube to 20m viewers a month, most of them inside Russia. Echo is in Berlin, streaming news and talk shows live via a new smartphone app, which the Kremlin tried but failed to block, and on YouTube.
Russians find real news via apps and virtual private network (vpn) services, which can help them bypass censorship. Before the war Russia was the 40th-largest user of vpns; now it is the largest in the world. Nearly half of young Russians use one, according to gwi, a market-research firm. Most of the users are well-educated urbanites. But even in rural areas, a fifth of people use vpns.
https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/1 ... h4saWJKzSQ
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Re: The Absurd and Whimsical Humour of Vladimir "Dobby" Putin

Post by 2Fingers »

War is big business in the USA and other parts of the world.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/03/pentago ... aider.html

100 x $700m = $70B
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