facthunter Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 The official reason COULD be correct in this case but there is still room to argue he wasn't given care. 47 years old . Nev 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Navalny wasn't the nicest person and some of his politics were distasteful, but love him or loathe him, there was no excuse for the harsh treatment of him by the authorities. putler was struggling to contain a smile during a public statement on it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 His death might provoke a bit of a shake up. He was extremely BRAVE. Could have easily just done a runner.. Nev 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 2 hours ago, facthunter said: His death might provoke a bit of a shake up. I doubt it Nev. Navalny was a lot more well known in the west than in his own country. Apart from his small percentage of followers, he's always had very little support in his own country. Most Russians outside of the two major cities couldn't give two hoots about him, if they even know who he is. The peak of his career was running for mayor of Moscow and getting 27% of the vote. But as far as other elections went, support for his group was in single digits. He was certainly brave going back to Russia, but I think it was a big miscalculation on his part. With his ego, I think he got to the stage where he thought his popularity in the west would translate to the same in Russia, hence the decision to return. If he had stayed out of the country, at least he would still be alive and could continue to groom western support and present himself to western audiences as a potential poster boy candidate for the top job. Where a lot of people get confused regarding Navalny's status in Russia is the fact that a lot of the western press insist on referring to him as the "Russian Opposition Leader". He was never anything of the sort if you think of the opposition leader in our terms as being the leader of the second most popular political party. In Russia, that position toggles between the communist party and a far right nationalist party. Navalny was the leader of an organisation that opposed the government, but he was nowhere near anything like the opposition leader. As a comparison, think of him in this country as being the head of the shooters and fishers party. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red750 Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 News reports this morning that his body has disappeared. His mother went to the Arctic prison where he died to see her son, but was told he had been sent to a mortuary 200 km away. When she wennt there, she was told he wasn't there either. With the body missing, no autopsy can be conducted. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Typical. Why hide the evidence if all is above board.? There's about 200 been arrested for protesting. IF He's of such little consequence why does Putin go to so much trouble to try to kill him. Wille I'm not naive about Navalny. I try to go a lot deeper than the headlines. Putin's continued existence requires full control of the Russian Media and "disappearing" any perceived threats.. Not sure that works forever. Nev 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 The Ukrainians are very pleased with themselves today, they managed to down 3 Russian warplanes in one go, 2 x Su-34 fighter-bombers and 1 x Su-35 fighter. The Russians are refusing to admit to the three aircraft losses, saying they only lost one - but the Ukrainians are telling the Rooskies where they can go look for their pilots, as they've picked up four Cospas-Sarsats signals that are activated when ejection seats are triggered. Of course, ejection seats being triggered doesn't always mean the pilots survived. Regardless, the loss of three very expensive Russian warplanes must hurt. https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-shoots-down-3-russian-jets-one-morning-air-chief-2024-2 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/02/17/7442337/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 It's hard to figure out why Navalny bugs putin so much. He's no electoral threat so the only thing I can think of is his organisation's work in uncovering corruption and finding the dirt on people. putin and his mates have a lot of cash and assets to keep quiet about. Since Navalny got into politics more than twenty years ago, Navalny has always been about Navalny. His position has always chopped and changed to try to gain popularity. He started out as a far right nationalist but was getting nowhere with that. In fact, he was expelled from a major right wing party for being too far to the right with his race views and appearances as guest speaker at far right rallies. But that was a long time ago in the early 2000's and he changed his spots a decade ago to court western support. As a result, these days his audience has changed from the far right to the educated urban left. He retained just enough of his nationalism to appeal to the Russian patriotism of the audience. He settled on a fairly consistent path of campaigning on cleaning up corruption and I think this is what worries the authorities. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 There's some news reports the Ukrainians have finally withdrawn from Avdiivka. They've done well to hold it since 2014 considering how close it is to Donetsk city. The Ukrainians were saying they didn't have enough artillery shells and ammunition to hold it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 How do you take over a place where nearly everyone there Hates your guts? . It would have to be pretty repressive. or do you just massacre everyone. Nev 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 I was reading where the new Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskii, is an ethnic Russian born in Russia. He came to Ukraine at age 15 when his father was transferred to a military unit there. Later on, Syrskii did his military training at the Moscow military academy and was posted to a unit in Ukraine. When the Soviet Union disbanded, his unit became part of the Ukrainian army and he's been there ever since. His parents and brother live in Russia. He still carries the rank of Colonel General which was part of the old Soviet influenced system of Major General, Lieutenant General, Colonel General and then General of the Army of Ukraine. In 2020, they adopted the NATO system of Brigadier General, Major General, Lieutenant General, General, so it looks like they allowed existing ranks to hold when they made the change. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 2 minutes ago, facthunter said: How do you take over a place where nearly everyone there Hates your guts? . It would have to be pretty repressive. or do you just massacre everyone. Nev I don't think there's any good stories coming from the occupation. It seems to work by brutality, destruction and genocide. It's no wonder the Ukrainians are fighting to the death as they see no future under Russia. A lot of them probably figure they have nothing to lose as the alternative is bad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red750 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 There was a story on the TV this morning of a woman investigating systematic torture by occupying Russian troops in Ukraine. All her attempts to get information from the Russians has been ignored. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) The takeover technique from the Stalin paybook is to flood the area you want to conquer with tens of thousands of ethnic Russians. This is where all the trouble started, in the areas of the Ukraine that Stalin flooded with Russian workers to work the Ukrainian coal mines. But the Stalin regime also used man-made famine to get rid of revolters. The Ukrainian Holodomor must have been horrible, many Ukrainians resorted to cannibalism to survive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor Edited February 18 by onetrack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Crimea and Mariupol a a couple of good examples of that, where they have imported Russian migrants to try to dominate the population mix. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red750 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Vladimir Putin sanctioned the killing of Alexei Navalny ‘as a birthday gift for Russia’s top criminal investigator’, a leading independent media outlet has claimed. Alexander Bastrykin, 70, long-time head of the Russian Investigative Committee, was a university classmate of the dictator in Leningrad, now St Petersburg. He hounded Navalny for years with bogus prosecutions as part of what respected independent SOTA media outlet describes as a ‘personal grudge’. The astonishing claim is that he was gradually poisoned after the president gave the personal go-ahead as a ‘gift’ for Bastrykin’s 70th birthday on August 27, 2023. In the event, Navalny died almost six months later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 The Ukrainians are claiming another Su-34 shot down this morning. In two days that's three Su-34s and one Su-35. That would probably be about 180 million USD worth of aircraft. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomadpete Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 I didn't see mention of either in the news. Are they getting cautious about believing the claims? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 There's usually at least a 24 hour delay before anything hits the main stream news. They probably want to wait for a bit more confirmation. A lot of stuff is Ukraine's word against Russia's so they might be getting a bit more wary about jumping the gun on reporting. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 The one thing that you can rely on, is everything that Russia says happened didn't. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry_Atrick Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) David Cameron - you know - the whimp who took the UK out of the EU to try and save his premiership - has been appointed the secretay of state of the Foregin Office.. after being arbitrarily appoointed to the House of Lords.. Apparentlly because of his excellence with Foregin Affairs (read back the bit about taking the UK out of the EU and then, after losing the referendum, resigning because he was such a whimp). Well, apparently, according to David Cameron, there are going to be consequences for Putin for the death of Navalny. Hopefully Cameron will resign again because he is a whimp.. We are still waiting for the consequence to Putin for invading Ukraine.. de nada... What a croc.. Edited February 18 by Jerry_Atrick 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Once again, that terrible affliction of mysterious fires has again affected Russia. A former shopping mall in Russia, at Izhevsk, had been turned over to Granat-4 drone production. But during the night a very destructive fire started, and caused enormous damage to the facility. Of course, the Russian media claimed the mall only produced detergents and disinfectants. https://news.yahoo.com/alleged-drone-factory-catches-fire-131024557.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/26/russia-izhevsk-drone-mall/ 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Izhevsk is where the Kalashnikov rifles are made. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 After reading the Washington Post article and seeing the level of local opposition to the drone factory in their midst - as well as the teenage schoolkids being forced to work in the place - it makes me wonder if some local set it on fire, rather than any Ukrainian commandos. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 The Ukrainian Air Force is claiming another Su-34 and Su-35 shot down, bringing their claims over three days to 4x Su-34s and 2x Su35s. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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