Russia invades Ukraine again?

[JimC]

The Kremlin says Putin is a democratically elected leader and that it is for the Russian people, not Washington, to decide who leads their country.

The first part of that sentence, not so much, the second, sure...

[Svartalf]

I find it disturbing that the guy who so masterfully rode the dissolution of the USSR still takes so many points straight from Stalin's book.

[Tero]

Last time (1940s) we only had to evacuate the Finnish speakers. Now the Russians. They are still coming by car. Clever! Take property out of Russia!

CNN
(Reuters) — Finland's national railway operator said on Friday it would suspend services between Helsinki and St. Petersburg in Russia on Monday, closing the rail link between Russia and the European Union.
VR, the operator, said it had been told by the Finnish state it was no longer appropriate to run the service, known as the Allegro, in light of sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

"So we are suspending traffic for the time being," Topi Simola, VR's head of passenger traffic, said in a statement.
Russian Railways said in a short statement they were aware of the Finnish decision due to sanctions.
Trains from Russia to Finland's capital Helsinki have been packed with Russians in recent weeks as some used it to leave the country urgently and mutual airspace closures cut off flight connections between Russia and the EU.

Video of buses and cars a couple of weeks back.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12343862

this is the road that leads to the border
https://www.kelikamerat.info/kelikamera ... en_risteys

The crossing is closed at night for cars. But trucks can cross, no buses.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11785172

[Tero]

Old people! Stupid world-wide.
Many in Russia DO believe Ukraine had biological weapons targeted to Russia

I’m against the war, and most of my friends and people I know feel the same way. These are mostly people around my age with the same level of education. However, when it comes to family, I, unfortunately, do have a conflict with my parents. This has been pretty hard as we have very different views.

I can’t even really tell why they believe what they believe. It could be their Soviet past, or the government propaganda that has been poured out for so many years, or just that there is too much fear and anxiety to actually allow the thought that the world is different from what they expect. Regardless, I’m having a pretty hard time with it. Being far away from them helps because we try to prioritise keeping our relationship intact and caring for each other more than anything. Sometimes I can’t help but try to convince them, which obviously doesn’t work. For the record, they don’t support the war in general, they do want it to stop; however, they can justify it in their heads somehow.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022 ... ung-people

[rainbow]

Old people! Stupid world-wide.
Many in Russia DO believe Ukraine had biological weapons targeted to Russia

Many in the US believe that China was doing the same, some not so old.

[Brian Peacock]

Russian govt flooding social media with cool videos of military hardware and soldiers doing flash mobs.

[Svartalf]

YouTube experts say that the hardware is not so hot
and if they have nothing better to be doing with their soldiers, they must be winning handily.

[Tero]

Russia is reducing its military operations "radically" around Kiev
at 3:39 p.m .: Russia plans to reduce its military operations around the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, says the country's deputy defense minister, Alexander Fomin . The reason for this is the talks in Istanbul, which Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinski describes as "relevant."

According to Fomin, hostilities will also be reduced in the vicinity of Chernivtsi.

- The decision to radically reduce military action in the Kiev-Chernivtsi region has been taken as negotiations on Ukraine's neutrality and nuclear disarmament have progressed in practice, Fomin says.

According to Medinski, Ukraine's proposal will next be submitted to President Vladimir Putin .

Earlier, Ukraine's representative Oleksander Chaly said the talks had progressed to the point where the presidents of both countries could meet.

https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/fac ... b6ff6476e4

TIP to Zelensky: bring your own bottled water to the meeting!

[Sean Hayden]

--fingers crossed

[aufbahrung]

There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap.

[Sean Hayden]

--fair

[Tero]

Like Grozny again:
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022 ... t-chechnya
Were you in Grozny during the two Chechen wars?

Yes, both of them. For the first one, I was just a child. I was nine in 1994. On November 26, days before the war officially started, I saw the first destroyed Russian tanks and the first bodies of Russian soldiers. People gathered their body parts at a square – it was a horrible sight. It had a powerful psychological effect on me as a child and I started feeling that the war was coming. Then the start of the “operation to restore constitutional order” was announced on December 11 – of course, Russia never calls a war, a war. They are always operations.

If in the first war I didn’t understand what was going on, in the second, I did and I was afraid. I remember when they bombed the central market in Grozny [in which 150 people died], I went there the day after and it was a shocking scene. By then, people had taken away the bodies, but there was blood, empty streets, broken windows and a deadly silence.

[Tero]

Weather camera at Finnish Russian border, photos every 30 min, is capturing one truck from Russia maybe every third photo,

[Cunt]

Still seeing 'strava' runners posting their runs, rides and workouts in various areas of Ukraine.

Feels complicated man.

[Tero]

If you look at Google maps satellite views of Mariupol it still shows all the buildings standing.