What Happened After Russia Seized Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Site? (apnews.com) 144
The Associated Press files this report from Chernobyl, where invading tanks in February "churned up highly contaminated soil from the site of the 1986 accident that was the world's worst nuclear disaster..."
"Here in the dirt of one of the world's most radioactive places, Russian soldiers dug trenches. Ukrainian officials worry they were, in effect, digging their own graves." For more than a month, some Russian soldiers bunked in the earth within sight of the massive structure built to contain radiation from the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor. A close inspection of their trenches was impossible because even walking on the dirt is discouraged.... Maksym Shevchuck, the deputy head of the state agency managing the exclusion zone, believes hundreds or thousands of soldiers damaged their health, likely with little idea of the consequences, despite plant workers' warnings to their commanders. "Most of the soldiers were around 20 years old," he said....
The full extent of Russia's activities in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is still unknown, especially because the troops scattered mines that the Ukrainian military is still searching for. Some have detonated, further disturbing the radioactive ground. The Russians also set several forest fires, which have been put out.
Ukrainian authorities can't monitor radiation levels across the zone because Russian soldiers stole the main server for the system, severing the connection on March 2. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday it still wasn't receiving remote data from its monitoring systems. The Russians even took Chernobyl staffers' personal radiation monitors....
When the Russians hurriedly departed March 31 as part of a withdrawal from the region that left behind scorched tanks and traumatized communities, they took more than 150 Ukrainian national guard members into Belarus. Shevchuck fears they're now in Russia. In their rush, the Russians gave nuclear plant managers a choice: Sign a document saying the soldiers had protected the site and there were no complaints, or be taken into Belarus. The managers signed.
The article includes more stories from Chernobyl's staff: Even now, weeks after the Russians left, "I need to calm down," the plant's main security engineer, Valerii Semenov, told The Associated Press. He worked 35 days straight, sleeping only three hours a night, rationing cigarettes and staying on even after the Russians allowed a shift change. "I was afraid they would install something and damage the system," he said in an interview....
Another Ukrainian nuclear plant, at Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, remains under Russian control. It is the largest in Europe.
Long-time Slashdot reader MattSparkes also notes reports that researchers at Chernobyl "had been looking for bacteria to eat radioactive waste — but they now fear that their work was irreparably lost during the Russian invasion of the facility."
New Scientist reports (in a pay-walled article) that scientist Olena Pareniuk "was attempting to identify bacteria that could consume radioactive waste within Chernobyl's destroyed reactor before the Russian invasion. If her samples are lost it will likely be impossible to replace them."
"Here in the dirt of one of the world's most radioactive places, Russian soldiers dug trenches. Ukrainian officials worry they were, in effect, digging their own graves." For more than a month, some Russian soldiers bunked in the earth within sight of the massive structure built to contain radiation from the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor. A close inspection of their trenches was impossible because even walking on the dirt is discouraged.... Maksym Shevchuck, the deputy head of the state agency managing the exclusion zone, believes hundreds or thousands of soldiers damaged their health, likely with little idea of the consequences, despite plant workers' warnings to their commanders. "Most of the soldiers were around 20 years old," he said....
The full extent of Russia's activities in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is still unknown, especially because the troops scattered mines that the Ukrainian military is still searching for. Some have detonated, further disturbing the radioactive ground. The Russians also set several forest fires, which have been put out.
Ukrainian authorities can't monitor radiation levels across the zone because Russian soldiers stole the main server for the system, severing the connection on March 2. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday it still wasn't receiving remote data from its monitoring systems. The Russians even took Chernobyl staffers' personal radiation monitors....
When the Russians hurriedly departed March 31 as part of a withdrawal from the region that left behind scorched tanks and traumatized communities, they took more than 150 Ukrainian national guard members into Belarus. Shevchuck fears they're now in Russia. In their rush, the Russians gave nuclear plant managers a choice: Sign a document saying the soldiers had protected the site and there were no complaints, or be taken into Belarus. The managers signed.
The article includes more stories from Chernobyl's staff: Even now, weeks after the Russians left, "I need to calm down," the plant's main security engineer, Valerii Semenov, told The Associated Press. He worked 35 days straight, sleeping only three hours a night, rationing cigarettes and staying on even after the Russians allowed a shift change. "I was afraid they would install something and damage the system," he said in an interview....
Another Ukrainian nuclear plant, at Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, remains under Russian control. It is the largest in Europe.
Long-time Slashdot reader MattSparkes also notes reports that researchers at Chernobyl "had been looking for bacteria to eat radioactive waste — but they now fear that their work was irreparably lost during the Russian invasion of the facility."
New Scientist reports (in a pay-walled article) that scientist Olena Pareniuk "was attempting to identify bacteria that could consume radioactive waste within Chernobyl's destroyed reactor before the Russian invasion. If her samples are lost it will likely be impossible to replace them."
One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:2, Insightful)
I've said this before, that there's a bizarre juxtaposition with some of the back-woods conscripts Russia sent vs. the high tech you get from a more liberal society. This one is tragic of course. These Russians were deliberately uninformed about where they were and what could happen. Chernobyl is to them what the North Carolina coup or the burning of Black Wall Street are to some Americans; but a lack of knowledge going in to Chernobyl makes you something worse than ignorant. It makes you dead.
In anothe
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Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:4, Insightful)
If nothing else, this nicely indicates that in a world situation wherein there is general consensus that nuclear weapons are too dangerous to human survival to be used, a non-nuclear missile aimed deliberately or not deliberately at a nuclear power center can destroy an entire city and make the area uninhabitable for centuries. It indicates the world in general is too unstable to permit nuclear power to be placed where millions of people can die by a military error.
Uninhabitable for centuries? You do know people live in Hiroshima like in every other city? It got resettled right after the war. There's even a nice park right at ground zero, and no, it doesn't glow in the dark. So unless you're talking of salted bombs, "rendering anything uninhabitable for centuries" is not what atomic bombs do.
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The bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki were detonated as air bursts high enough that the fallout would be sucked upwards into the stratosphere and be distributed globally for the most part rather than concentrated locally. Detonating a nuclear weapon on the ground leaves a lot more persistent local fallout in the area. Also, a nuclear weapon contains a tiny amount of fuel compared to a typical powerplant (including the fuel in the reactor, spent fuel stored on-site, etc.), so there's a lot more highly toxi
Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:5, Informative)
The bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki were detonated as air bursts high enough that the fallout would be sucked upwards into the stratosphere and be distributed globally for the most part rather than concentrated locally.
That is complete nonsense. Is that some American narrative you get your conscious clean?
The bombs detonated in the rain season. All the fall out rained down instantly. Hint: black rain there is actually a movie about it, oh it is a action movie and not accurately in history: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]
More people died to the fall put and the decade long suffering of the Hibakusha than to the detonation itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Stupid American idiots.
Since when the fuck is an atomic bomb "safe" and does not cause radiation? How can one be so stupid to believe such bullshit?
Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:4, Insightful)
#1, They meant 'safer' and less radiation, rather than totally safe and does not cause any radiation. Anyone with an IQ over 100 would have realized that. Your comment itself displays less intelligence than theirs, despite being closer to the truth than theirs.
#2. Why do you feel the need to call them American? Can't they be stupid people? This is the best indicative of prejudice, bringing up irrelevant facts to make a group look bad.
#3. Before the bombs were dropped, literally no one knew how bad it would be. How could they? They had no experience with it at all. The only way to find out was to do it.
#4. The cities have recovered. The pop before the bombing was just under 400k, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 died (including indirect deaths), and is now over 1 million.
#4. Americans do not need a narrative to make their conscience clean. In WWII they were attacked in an ambush. The Japanese did far worse things to China than nuking them and to this DAY still do not teach what they actually did. I am not talking about refusing to admit the atrocities everyone knows they committed (rape of China, mistreatment of American POWs). Instead I am talking about how their high school leaves out major facts they admit happened. Some of their own young woman committed suicide when told about their countries surrender because they believed the Americans would do to them what the Japanese had done to the young woman in areas they conquered.
#5. America bombed once, they asked for surrender, the Japanese refused, and they repeated the process. The second bombing was as much Japans fault as anyone else. Clearly Japan did not think it was as horrendous as you claim. Yes, some of the horror came later, but this is not relevant. The refusal to surrender is an acknowledgement that the bombing was not as bad as you believe.
Innocent Japanese were punished harshly by the Atomic bombs for things their government had done over the past 5 years. Blaiming the US for what happened is like a mass murderer complaining about being beaten by the cops when he was arrested. Definitely should not have happened, but they get no sympathy from anyone and everyone thinks less of them for whining about it.
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Basically every point: wrong.
Especially #3.
They knew perfectly. They tested it on pigs, sheep: and their own soldiers.
#5. America bombed once, they asked for surrender, the Japanese refused, and they repeated the process. The second bombing was as much Japans fault as anyone else.
That is wrong. They did not refuse. They asked for surrender months before the first bomb. But either america ignored it, or the russians really kept it a secret. Second point very unlikely.
Blaiming the US for what happened is lik
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You really like arguing in bad faith, don't you? I'm not American, I think it was wrong of America to choose civilian targets for the bombs (they wanted to see the effects on relatively intact cities) and lie to their own population about it, I don't think the second nuclear bomb was really necessary.
The Hiroshima bomb was detonated at an altitude of approximately 600 metres to maximise damage from the shockwave. At that altitude, a large proportion of the fallout will rise into the stratosphere. That's
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At that altitude, a large proportion of the fallout will rise into the stratosphere.
No it wont. 600m is very low. The stratosphere starts at 10,000 meters.
You really like arguing in bad faith,
Nope. Unlike you I perfectly know that the "atomic mushroom" did not extend to the stratosphere, how the fuck would that even remotely physically be possible/plausible?
Here, something about your bad faith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] - nothing was blown into the stratosphere. It rained down later just a few hour
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Uninhabitable for centuries? You do know people live in Hiroshima like in every other city?
Did you just argue with a nuclear bomb (tens of kg of fissile material at best) as an example why an exploding reactor (tens of *tonnes* of fissile material) is safe to be around?
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Well,
it might surprise you that there is a difference between:
a1) having a nuclear bomb with like 20kg Uranium going off
a2) having heavy rain washing of the fall out into the rivers
(most people that died after the bomb died, because they bathed in the river, to cool the burns
Versus:
b) some reactor literally exploded and spread tons (not kgs) of Uranium and Plutonium around the are.
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But you talked about the reactor.
What has that to do with saying reactor?
The rector and the surrounding area is/was the topic.
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I suspect that you're describing the backwoods Americans you see around you, including the casual racist piggery. The "I don't understand this, therefore MAGIC!" stupidity is probably something buggered into you by your priests in your childhood. Priests like MAGIC as an explanation of their lies to their audience.
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Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:5, Informative)
In 1996, the state of Oklahoma created a commission to study the historical evidence related to the Tulsa Race Massacre, including an archaeological examination of mass graves. The commision's report [archive.org] concluded that white residents burned every structure in the Greenwood neighborhood to the ground and murdered between 100-300 black residents.
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Three hundred people is a lot of people to kill at one go. And displacing 25000 people and rendering a 1000 square miles of your country unusable is significant too.
Now it happens that fossil fuels, particularly *coal* ware actually worse, but many of their effects are dispersed in space and time. But nuclear accidents are by no means discountable. Safety is rightfully a major concern in new reactor designs, and nuclear power safety in war zones should be a real concern. Smaller, lower-pressure reactors
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One of these things ended the other is still ongoing.
Perhaps we just need to wait a bit.
Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:4, Insightful)
No, we won't. There will never be an accounting of deaths due to this stupidity. There will never be a final count.
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Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:5, Insightful)
Chernobyl is still capable of killing people, so tallying up the death toll now is the same bullshit that you nuclear fanboys have always done.
Nuclear fanboi here.
Is nuclear perfectly safe? Nope. But France went all in on nuclear early when everyone else was still burning coal. They saved hundreds of thousands of lives. More French died from German coal pollution wafting into France than through French nuclear accidents. The death toll for nuclear looks pretty good over the course of history. So while it's by no means perfect, what is [visualcapitalist.com][*]?
And secondly, what's the point in including Chernobyl? I assume you're a westerner: no design of anything lie that level of stupidly dangerous has ever been licensed for use in the west. Nothing we do with nuclear power in the west will hinder the ashes of the USSR doing something that stupid again. So if you have never and will never do anything that stupid, why have it as a consideration for what to do next?
[*]The numbers are hard to estimate, and I've seen them vary up and down a fair bit. Some of them now give wind a slight edge over nuclear.
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Slavery is called slavery because of the number of Slavs who were taken as slaves, hence the name.
So its not some white-enslaved-blacks only thing. You believe in that, right?
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This is a common myth. The etymology of Slav isn't clear. There seems to be a broad consensus that it stems from a form of "word" meaning people who speak the same language [wikipedia.org] in early Slavic tongues. If that seems like an odd way to name an ethnic group, consider that many Amierican "Indian" tribes have a preferred word for their people that translates simply as "the people" in their language.
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And virtually all the slaves were you know, black 99.some number of them....
Virtually all slaves in the USA and the Carribean were black. In Europe the ancients used to enslave their neighbours after defeats and in Eastern Europe this continued [wikipedia.org] though the mixes were different with quite a bit of emphasis on Slavs (which is where the word "slave" seems to come from). For example in Wallachia [wikipedia.org] there was systematic enslavement of the Roma people (likely originally from India) and that continued to the 19th century so is not completely out of relevance here.
The USA's system of slavery w
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My comment was about slavery in the US. I was sure that my references to events in the US before and after slavery made that clear. At no time did I ever imply that black people were the only slaves in the world. In fact the direction of the replies in this thread when slavery in the US is the subject is to trivialize the comment by suggesting it was "not as bad as..." or "the facts are...". My statements, my quotes.... And I was even modded down as to correct my " academic mistake"? A bit offensive while
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My comment was about slavery in the US. I was sure that my references to events in the US before and after slavery made that clear. At no time did I ever imply that black people were the only slaves in the world.
To be honest I wasn't sure at all. Even though it's always been explicitly international, Slashdot is a US based site, so there's a bit of acceptance of US bias. However, your comment was in reply to a comment
The slavery of Slavs is a historic European thing and so my main reason for my comment was that you were wrong in expecting the person you were replying to to think that slavery was a 99% black thing.
In fact the direction of the replies in this thread when slavery in the US is the subject is to trivialize the comment by suggesting it was "not as bad as..." or "the facts are...". My statements, my quotes.... And I was even modded down as to correct my " academic mistake"? A bit offensive while being typically dismissive of the entire point..In fact very offensive....
I think that the fact
Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:4, Interesting)
All of the facts you state are true. Your conclusion though is that of racists who want to brush over the less pleasant aspects of American history.
Russians ignorant of Chernobyl were compared to Americans ignorant of the Tulsa Massacre and the Wilmington coup. Someone chimed in and said the Burning of Black Wall Street (The Tulsa Massacre) was a myth. It is not. Some people just wish we'd forget it ever happened. After all, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Do some Americans want a repeat of that? Maybe some of us do. I'm sure the vast majority don't. And somehow we're now talking about the fact that Americans weren't the only ones who had slaves. It's just a distraction to somehow make us forget those parts of history, shift the blame or justify it by saying "everybody else did it too!"
China also wants their people to be ignorant of certain parts of their history. I shouldn't have to even mention what I'm talking about, but I will just in case anyone reading this never heard of Tiananmen Square [wikipedia.org].
China even has laws requiring patriotic education to tame Hong Kong's rebellious youth [reuters.com]
Imagine if a US state passed a law saying children couldn't be taught anything that might be considered a "negative account" of American history.
N.H. ‘Teacher Loyalty’ bill would restrict how U.S. history, especially racism, can be discussed in school [nhpr.org]
“No teacher shall advocate any doctrine or theory promoting a negative account or representation of the founding and history of the United States of America in New Hampshire public schools which does not include the worldwide context of now outdated and discouraged practices,” the text of the proposed bill reads. “Such prohibition includes but is not limited to teaching that the United States was founded on racism.”
As an American I'm very disturbed that some of us want to erase or rewrite our own history.
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The "Roma" people are referred to as rromani, by romanians. They are originally from kashmir (a place between modern day pakistan and india), so they should be referred to as "kashmirs".
Thanks. Got any sources for that? All I have found previously and the things Google finds me now says either that they came from Punjab or that their origins are unclear.
Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:One of the more tragic juxtopostions (Score:4, Insightful)
Right but I'm saying that slavery is the worst and most racist thing that ever happened.
Is it? Some people survived slavery. Their descendants exist to this day. No victims of actual, literal genocide ever survived, by definition. I'm not trying to make excuses for slavery, and the USA has engaged in both slavery and genocide so there's no moral high ground available to us in any case, but I'm taking exception to that characterization.
Unless someone proves that there is an afterlife, the idea that there can be fates worse than death is a religious belief.
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Yes, slavery has existed throughout history all over the world and still continues to this day in some places. What does that have to do with Americans being ignorant of our own history?
The only reason you're posting that is to distract from the fact that some people want us to forget American history. We ended up talking about slavery because someone mentioned 2 incidents in American history that a shocking number of Americans know nothing about. or want to deny. There are some people who deny the Holoca
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You're right about not overreacting to posts like that. I was tempted to post something similar, but then I remembered I'm on /. and even though I could burn through all my mod points and post AC it's clear that these aren't the kinds of posts that we want on /., hence his 0 Flamebait rating at the moment.
The link is good, but if you introduce it that way few people will even bother with it.
I had to bite my tongue when I replied to another poster and included that same link. I think I avoided trolling or fl
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That's just trolling. They don't believe in any god. And plenty of religious people here wouldn't jump to the conclusion of "enchantment" either. This is just about not being informed.
What happened? (Score:1)
Russia's economy bombed. They're no longer relevant internationally. Their assets are being seized. Need me to go on?
Re: What happened? (Score:4, Interesting)
So it's possible that all of this was Putin's last attempt at yelling "We're great, we're great, We're still great!" at the world. A fucking anti-funny circus, that's all this clown produced.
Russia is finished. They are now a piriah to the entire world, save for a motley crew of ragtags, and batshit crazy land locked sea pirates. Russia is now a joke, a laughing stock, and HATED.
Wait until Russia goes the way of North Korea, only difference is Russia will have only "show nukes" that they can't launch without them exploding inside their own collapsing silos while NK may end up sucessfuly developing the real deal (god forbid)
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Re: What happened? (Score:2)
Because the US has rule of law. Elections don't get nullified when the corporate world and a large mob decide they don't like the outcome of an election.
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Given the Republicans dirty tricks in "tightening" voter laws, the jury's still out on whether a large mob gets a do-over. R's figure there's only one way to ensure they do not lose again.
Re: What happened? (Score:2)
It doesn't matter whether it's your team or the other. Rule of law matters.
Politics would have a hope of some sanity returning if people like you would switch that obsession away from politics. Have you considered following a sports team or adopting religious fundamentalism?
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Because the US has rule of law.
The US has rule of money. We embody capitalism. And not coincidentally, our bodies are failing, because we can't get health care as a result.
Elections don't get nullified when the corporate world and a large mob decide they don't like the outcome of an election.
The corporate world didn't want another Trump presidency. One was enough. It fucked up all the spreadsheets. The only benefit to them was how he buttfucked the EPA. Trump wasn't satisfied with undoing Obama's good deeds, he had to go after Nixon's too.
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Re: What happened? (Score:2)
Elections get nullified when corporations and the mental illness community disagrees with them? That's an interesting take on constitutional law.
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As long as you're spewing propaganda, why don't you give a shout out to Putin for his great job invading Ukraine, just like Trump did.
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Concerns about Senator Feinstein's dementia come from her Democratic colleagues, not right-wingers.
From the SF Chronicle:
Colleagues worry Dianne Feinstein is mentally unfit to serve [sfchronicle.com]
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You can't be serious. Biden is even further gone than Trump.
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https://theintercept.com/2020/... [theintercept.com]
Democrats have been concerned about his state for awhile, and they're still privately discussing his mental decline (which is obvious to anyone who is not so partisan as to defend every little thing he does). Feinstein isn't the only one who's lost it.
Re: What happened? (Score:3)
What's scary is thar Russia has maintained up until this point the outer apperances of a democracy, but there was always a dictatorship structure underneath. And I imagine any one who questions Putin's mental health will 'mysteriously' disappear in an instant.
I hope that the ones who operate the actual launch keys to the missiles themselves will refuse to do so and will have enough guts to fight off/shoot their own commanders if those commanders try to force their way to those control panels to laun
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What's scary is thar Russia has maintained up until this point the outer apperances of a democracy, but there was always a dictatorship structure underneath. And I imagine any one who questions Putin's mental health will 'mysteriously' disappear in an instant.
Someone's already murdering Russian Oligarchs. The two that made the news this week weren't the first.
OTOH, considering what this whole sh.sh. has done for Russian interests, I'm surprised they haven't hoffa'd Putin yet.
Re: What happened? (Score:5, Informative)
Someone's already murdering Russian Oligarchs. The two that made the news this week weren't the first.
OTOH, considering what this whole sh.sh. has done for Russian interests, I'm surprised they haven't hoffa'd Putin yet.
Since the Russian Invasion the number of oligarchs that have died by unnaturally has risen to six [newsweek.com], all of them claimed to be suicides though with three of these "suicides" the entire family present was also murdered in bloody fashion.
Re: What happened? (Score:3)
"A man commited suicide today in Moscow. He shot his own head 6 times, the bullets penetrating right through his brain before he chained his hands behind his back and threw himself into the river tethered to a one ton weight that he hoisted over the bridge, dragging him over the railing. Russian police stated that he left a typed suicide note and was having marital problems right before he committed suicide."
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Re: What happened? (Score:2)
It's likely foul play, OTOH it could've been that their assets were being seized worldwide, and their opulent world was crumbling fast all around them.
A king one day, a beggar in the streets who might as well be a leper the next. That thought could've caused some of them to committ suicode.
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If it were me, I'd just keep a gun close by until I actually was a beggar in the streets.
Unless I were facing prison...or worse...
I mean it's a question of which prison and how long I suppose, but how long a sentence would I have to face in my own country before I'd become a fugitive unwilling to be taken alive?
And how would that differ from how much time it would take in other countries.
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Don't make the mistake of assuming that his trusted advisors don't have their own agendas. They're known for poisoning people, after all...
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I don't like Putin and I'd love for him to be sent to some gulag to do hard labour for his crimes but this video is nothing. He's not using the table for support because he is sitting and his hand appears to be working fine.
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If it's this one [youtube.com] then *snip*
Health aside, that must be a propaganda flick. I don't think dictators consult with their henchmen while posed in front of a camera.
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As Victor Davis Hanson says,
"I am a fucking hack", right?
Re: What happened? (Score:4, Interesting)
So we designed electronic circuits. I lost count of how many times one if them showed up at my desk, claiming that I.e. our lab equipment was rubbish and that he could not do his job with such worthless junk. It was a function generator, that cost roughly 10k. Sure there are more expensive ones, but these things did their job. It ended up being a typical beginners mistake, I learned the hard way myself.
Just because Biden is old and a bit slower, does not mean he is incompetent or invaluable. Especially in the field of politics, experience and connections are invaluable.
Hold your horses kids.
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Biden does not have dementia.
He used to be a stutter, that is why he is speaking slowly and sometimes hesitates to utter a word.
WTF you American idiots, even I as an European, know that! Stupid idiots, even worse than Russia, no knowledge about anything, imbeciles.
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The vast majority of us know. Some of us Americans just have a partisan narrative to push.
I was never a big fan of Biden but that's more because I was Republican-leaning despite considering myself an independent. I was raised by very 'conservative Christian' parents and I love them, but our politics have diverged over the years. At least they've never been gung-ho about Trump but like my mother said, better than the alternative (meaning Hillary Clinton) so I just said there were plenty of alternatives. The
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Russia is finished. They are now a piriah to the entire world, save for a motley crew of ragtags, and
...China.
You forgot one of the largest and most nations on the planet there, sport.
Pretty much everyone already "hated" "Russia". Everyone with any historical perspective, anyway. And pretty much everyone already hated Putin in particular. I've met multiple Russians who left specifically because Putin came to power. He was already known as a murderer.
I don't hate "Russia", I hate Russian oligarchs. But as a political entity I have always feared Russia. But then again, many fear the USA, and for many of the
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> They are now a piriah to the entire world, save for a
> motley crew of ragtags
Modi bent the knee to Putin and declared India for Russia fairly early in the war. And China has been very careful to sit on the fence and neither fully support nor fully condemn Putin yet. That's at least India's 1.3 billion in Russia's camp, plus potentially China's 1.4 billion. That's not really "a motley crew of ragtags, and batshit crazy land locked sea pirates.."
Re: What happened? (Score:2)
"Modi bent the knee to Putin and declared India for Russia fairly early in the war. "
Ok, I'm not all that familiar with Indian politics, but somehow I doubt most Indians support what he is doing, and they don't want to go off and fight for a cause that has nothing to do with them and would not benefit them in any way.
"And China has been very careful to sit on the fence and neither fully support nor fully condemn Putin yet. That's at least India's 1.3 billion in Russia's camp, plus potentially China's 1.4 bi
Re: What happened? (Score:2)
That could very well happen. They are the perfect country to annex, and it will enable China to put on a European face (racial prejudice still abounds all over the world, unfortunately).
Becoming a puppet state is as low as a country can get, and that's where Russia seems to be headed.
Re: What happened? (Score:2)
Are you nuts?! Large european countries can't drop abruptly imports from Russian gas... The sanctions are largely based on sanctioning persons, not companies...
Re: What happened? (Score:5, Informative)
'Russia cannot manufacture this equipment itself or import it, so it won't be getting any of these materials any time soon. The hardware expended in Ukraine came from historic stockpiles, developed when there was greater cooperation between Russia and Ukraine.
I wonder what changed...
Putin remains a master strategist.
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What's at issue here is not that. The sanctions haven't applied to the fossil fuel that Europe needs from Russia. And Russia isn't going to stop selling it to them either, because that's where basically all their income is from these days now that people aren't really buying their military equipment.
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They might well. China is the only nation that still wants to do business with Russia, and that only because they have faith that they can crush them at their convenience (which is probably true.)
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Authoritarian governments world wide are still doing business or abstaining from sanctions with Russia. Examples include India, Brazil and Israel. Others like Serbia and China are fence sitting.
Authoritarians are attracted to authoritarians and they out number the anti-authoritarians.
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There are multiple nations that could crush Russia at their convenience . . however . . . not without risking the loss of half or more of their urban population and the vast majority of their economies.
The nuclear deterrent is real, and is working exactly as intended, for now at least.
Is that the Luckyo propaganda? (Score:1)
Is that the Luckyo propaganda?
Ruble is only like that because Putin made it illegal for foreigners to sell it. Foreign money is trapped in Russia. (It's also illegal for foreigners to sell shares on the stock exchange, to prop that up also. Not that many stocks are even trading anyway.)
Russian companies were forced to exchange 80% of their foreign reserves into rubles. Guess how many times they can pull that trick? Russian interest rates spiked to around 20% to convince people to keep rubles in the bank.
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Russians thought Chernobyl an asset? (Score:2)
I am not a military man, but capturing some territory is usually done because it has military value, or that it is value to your opponent. I really can't see what value Chernobyl has to anybody, Russia or Ukraine. Mind you, I am ascribing rational military planning to the Russian army, and there is plenty of evidence that they just blast ahead as a mindless mob.
Re: Russians thought Chernobyl an asset? (Score:2)
Re: Russians thought Chernobyl an asset? (Score:5, Interesting)
Lukashenko must be livid at being let down by his allies like this, and is going to have to seriously consider how he's going to dig his way out of the hole he has dug his way into. But those chickens aren't going to come home to roost for months yet. Keep Calm, Crack Down Harder and Carry On! [wikipedia.org]" would be the order of the next few months in Minsk.
Did I hear mention of Russian support for Transnestria [wikipedia.org] and it's independence? So, they're looking to make their revised version of Ukraine a land-locked country. And, for that matter, an almost Russia-locked country (treating both Transnistria and Belarus as effectively extensions of Russian territory - which they will be).
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Russia just used Chernobyl area as a shortcut to reach Kiev area...
That does not explain why the Russians occupied the area, rather than marching through it. Russian troops dug trenches, like they meant to stay there for a bit.
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It was an easy path to the capital, because there was no army stationed there, for some reason. They were able to just march right through.
bacteria to eat radioactive wast (Score:3)
researchers at Chernobyl "had been looking for bacteria to eat radioactive waste
Given than it will not suppress radioactivity, what is the goal? Concentrate it to help isolate it?
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