They used to have a specific strategy for accomplishing this:
The USA provided military security for Europe so that Europe would not have any need to spend money for military. The USA's goal was to minimize EU countries' military spending so that USA would remain an uncontested military hegemon. That gives it a lot of influence that can be translated into actual cash.

At the same time, EU countries saved several percents of their GDP and could use it for the good of their own populations. It was a win-win situation.

But then the Russia organized this movement called "MAGA", and that movement successfully cancelled the arrangement. (Funnily enough, the abbreviation "maga" comes from "make America great again", which would suggest strategies for increasing USA's influence, not diminishing it. But what do I know.)

Where would you say the slippery slope is leading to?

So... If the Rubble loses much of its value, then the Russia won't be able to pay these back at all?

Here's an article on where the Proton checkbox is in the Steam settings. Just now I'm playing CIV4 and I had completely forgotten to think that it probably doesn't work on Linux. Because it does now, absolutely fine :)

(The original FFVII doesn't, though. But that's the only Windows game I've encountered to not work!)

Ha, so Albania is authoritarian? And Kyrgyzstan? Or East Turkestan, actually?

Kyrgyzstan is known for having a strong democracy by the standards of Ex-USSR countries.
The Christians in Egypt or Lebanon are not really less authoritarian than the Muslims there.

But okay: You are telling that women in Albania and Kyrgyzstan have very limited rights compared to men. I would like you to give some examples of how that shows there, because that was not my impression in either country. I mean, yeah, women have worse rights than men, but is it worse in Albania than in, say, Armenia, which is the oldest Christian country on this planet.

BTW, currently the logo is the rainbow flag. Funny reading your comment complaining about it not being there when it actually is. Now. You are arguing that LGBT being banned in the Russia and Palestine means that Christianity and Islam are religions against LGBT. I would like you to elaborate on that view, please!

Germans

Mehr als ein Fünftel der Einwohnern in der EU sprechen Deutsch als Muttersprache. Durchwegs zu erwarten also!

Jedoch sind gar nicht alle deutschsprachige Deutscher! Calling all German-speakers German is like calling all English-speakers American.

If you use Steam, there's an option in the settings to always enable using Proton to handle Windows games. Works very well! Many games work faster than on Windows, but sometimes there are minor bugs.

Trump wouldn't have sent arms like Javelins to Ukraine in 2018 and he would have stopped messing around in Syria.

Putin had no reason to stop Trump from doing that.
Remember, until February 2022 Putin knew that Ukraine will become a part of the Russia in 2022. He had a lot of intel from actual Ukrainians living in Ukraine. He had spent billions for bribing various Ukrainian military officials. He knew that those Javelins will all be in the inventory of the Russian armed forces in spring 2022. Why would Putin have forbidden Trump from sending them?

Of course, Putin had not understood how much 2014 changed the Ukrainian thinking. The Russia was still more or less a friend until that. After it attacked Crimea, it absolutely was not. And suddenly very very few people would coöperate with the Russia even to the least extent. It's difficult to explain how abrupt the change was! It was not possible for Putin to understand what had actually taken place, because the Russian heart is so very different from the Ukrainian heart. Russians would never have had a Maidan. It would absolutely not fit the Russian culture to do anything like that. The feelings behind that were simply unfathomable for a member of the nation Putin hails from. But in any country there are a few percents of the population that really wants to see shit where there is none. And those felt uncomfortable in Ukraine. And those people really did think their country was going to hell and that's what they told Russians. That was really how for example Medvechuk saw things. While extremely unrepresentative of Ukrainians, those people were practically 100 % of those who gave any intel to the Russia.

And of course...
Putin rules through corruption. He gives people power by electing that for certain people no corruption will ever be noticed by the authorities. And at the same, he has the power to make the authorities see the corruption whenever Putin needs to get rid of those people. But if you choose only public officials who are corrupt, of course they will steal all the billions they were supposed to use in Ukraine. Especially since Putin told everyone around him, even Shoigu, that there will not be an attack against Ukraine – that everything is just training for the worst of the worst case scenarios. Preparation in case that EU goes crazy and attacks. And everybody knew EU won't attack and they trusted Putin when he said he has absolutely no plans to attack anything in the western direction.

But yeah, Putin has done his homework. He had made a lot of effort to get it right. And therefore he knew it doesn't matter what weapons Ukraine has. He "knew" that Ukrainians overwhelmingly want to join the Russia and he "knew" that all military districts in Ukraine had been bought with those billions he had spewed there. The more weapons Ukraine gets in 2018, the more weapons the Russia has in 2022 when it's time for the next step of the plan – the Suwałki gap, next to which there had been several very very big wargames when the future events of 2022 seemed crystal clear to Putin.
It's just... Sometimes you put a huge effort into your homework and still get a wildly incorrect answer, if you have unknowingly slept through the most crucial lessons.

I think the next guy has a high likelihood to recognize that the war cannot be won. Putin probably knows the same by now, but he has no other options than to continue (unless he's okay with dying, but he isn't).

A successor has the option to declare something akin to a coup (even if it really isn't one) and claim that "it was Putin, not the new Russia I am leading!", getting the soldiers out of Ukraine and starting the negotiations. (Or rather: starting negotiations for withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine and drafting a real peace deal.)

Kattoo ny...
Toi "Palveluntuottaja" on nimeltään VR.
Toisin sanoen: ministeri, jolla ei ole tältä alalta juuri mitään aiempaa osaamista, on törmännyt "byrokratian käppyröihin" VR:n kanssa keskustellessaan. Tarkoittaa, että VR yrittää vastarintaa, joka on ainakin jossain määrin toimivaa. VR:llä on tosi paljon vähemmän vaikutusvaltaa muihin puolueisiin kuin Vasemmistoliittoon ja SDP:hen, joten VR ei välttämättä saa tahtoaan läpi, mutta harmillista joutua lukemaan, että sitä vastarintaa on olemassa.

Hieman olin elätellyt toivoa, että nyt kun Venäjän suunta on pitkäaikaisesti kiinni, VR kokisi ihan omista lähtökohdistaan tarvetta aloitella länsi-integraatiota. Mut, eipä näköjään. Toivotaan, että ministeriö onnistuu pitämään pintansa!

So... Libya's population is now fully Italian-speaking? I mean, if Italy was doing the same magnitude of shit with Libyans that the Russia has done to the Mansi, then there are almost no speakers of languages other than Italian left in Libya. And if Italy has been doing something even worse, then that means that all non-Italian culture in Libya has been completely eradicated and the situation of Libyans is more like that of the Bering Aleuts – who no longer exist, ot like that of Mansi.

Good, I'd like to know more of what acts of genocide were committed by Italy in Libya in the 2000's, please! You seem to be knowledged, so please do enlighten me!

Then there's Belgium, whose part Rwanda was until July 1962. Yeah, that was evil shit! Not sure if it's fitting to say "NATO countries" if you mean colonial stuff in early 1960's and before. But good, here we have an example that is on par with what the Russian Empire, USSR and the Russian Federation have been doing around the 1950's and 1960's. I am thankful that Belgium has stopped that, although it will of course not bring the million dead back!

How does the Ukraine war make the Russia the winner in this comparison? Its death toll and the suffering caused by it is of course noteworthy, but it's a small fraction of what the Russia has been doing. What was being done to Ukrainians until 1991 is much worse than what is going on now.

It's not about what China wants or doesn't.

These bonds are sold to Russian civilians. Their idea is that they are a bit like tax, but the state will pay them back after the war – state bonds are a very secure investment. You give the state one million Rubbles and you know you'll get back the same one million Rubbles plus a tiny tiny interest atop it. A very secure place to save your money.

It is a very interesting, and surprising, thing that they elected to denominate those bonds in Yuans instead of their own currency! Basically this means that people in the Russia don't trust the stability of their country's currency and would not buy the bonds if they were denominated in Russian Rubbles. They would believe that when they get their money back by selling the bond back to the state, the money will not be enough to pay a quarter of a loaf of bread, even if when they invested it, it was enough to furnish a home.

If the bonds are denominated in Rubbles, then the state will never be in trouble with them.
But now, with these ones being in Yuans: If the Rubble collapses, the bonds will retain their value. If the bond is worth 10 000 Yuans, then you pay their current value in Rubbles, which is a bit under 1 000 000 Rubbles. Then, if the value of the Rubble collapses, you still get 10 000 Yuans plus a very small interest back, but in the newly devaluated Rubbles that might be 1 000 000 000 Rubbles and ABRACADABRA: you have multiplied your money by one thousand. Good for you.
Except that...
If that happens, then how the heck is the Russia supposed to pay back those bonds? If you get one million and you need to pay back one billion, you've done a damn bad deal. And you will go bankrupt and you won't pay back a thing.

So, if the Russia assumes that Russians won't want to buy the bonds if they are denominated in Rubbles, why would they buy them if they are nominated in a foreign currency? It's a safe investment because you know you will get your money back for sure. But in the case of the Russia, you don't know that.

Of course, those bonds can be bought by anyone, not only Russian citizens. If China buys them, they can use those bonds to blackmail the Russia in the future: "If you don't do as we say, we will sell you back your bonds and you will go bankrupt."

So: All in all, it makes no sense for Russians to buy these bonds, but for China it does make sense.

Nää aikoo siis ilmeisesti käyttää jotain kaupungin ulkopuolella sijaitsevia asemia. Saa nähdä, miten toimii. Jos saavat hinnan olemaan paljon matalampi kuin kilpailijalla, niin toki sitten matkustus halvennee Eurostarillakin?

Missähän vaiheessa Chunnelin rakennuskustannukset on kuoletettu? Periaatteessahan siinä vaiheessa sen todella korkeiden käyttömaksujen pitäisi madaltua?

Making an internet search for putin doesn't use internet brings a lot of results from 2023, but I did read about it around the mid-to-late 2022. It was told by a person I do trust, but I cannot find the precise source now, over 3 years afterwards.

Still, if you read through the various articles you find with that search, they together give a reasonable good image of what's going on. (Beware, of course, that many of the sites are more than just fishy!)
Sorry for not taking time to dig through them more precisely!

Putin suggested the economic union from Atlantic to Pacific. He must know that it will lead to a dissolution of the nations so he can't be that hung up on Russia.

Dissolution of what nations?

There are three security improvements to this:
Firstly, a flat land is difficult to defend. The Russia would want to bring their western borders to seashores and mountain chains. The Russia used to have pretty much those borders until 1917. I'm attaching a map of what would give the Russia the least amount of flatland to defend in case that the EU ever wanted to attack it.

(Of course there's the wee question of why would we want to attack them, but a Russian mind would want to attack others if it can do so without getting into too much trouble and therefore assumes others are the same)

Secondly, Baltic countries and Finland are simply very close to St. Petersburg and even to Moscow. It would be easy to bombard especially SPb with missiles from Finnish and Estonian territory. Or even Moscow from Latvian territory.

And thirdly,
if there lots of Russian speakers in an area and it still manages to be democratic and prosper, it shows that Russians are capable of living under democracy. Putin has put a big effort into painting an image of Russians not being capable as a nation to live in a democracy. If anyone people in the Russia identify as "Russian" prospers outside the rule of the Czar, that someone is a threat to the Czar.

The economic union suggested by Putin would have the same kind of power dynamics that USSR did. In EU independent member states lose their significance as the significance of EU grows.

When it comes to an economic union from Atlantic to Pacific, it would be strongly led by the Russia. It would have compulsory Russian in schools for those who don't speak Russian as their mother tongue. Any increase in significance of an economic union led by the Russia would translate to increase in significance of Moscow. Dissolving the nations into something led by an autocrat in Moscow would not mean dissolving the Russian nation, but rather more assimilating them into the Russian nation. Just like nobody talks about the Mari and the Komi and the Sakha now, even though those are nations of their own, in a future Atlantic-Pacific economical union nobody would talk about Finns or Lithuanians. Those nations would be seen the same way as the Komis are seen now.

I was comparing newer times. Otherwise you have to look at native Americans. My impression is that they had it worse.

About the same as native Siberians have it now. The behaviour of USA towards indigenous Americans some centuries ago absolutely does fulfil the criteria of genocide. The only difference is that the Russia really got going on that stuff once the railway was built in the native's lands, in the early 20th century, so it's an ongoing disaster, not something where the worst parts were done in the past.

in comparison the US looks worse.

This is surprising. Could you care to explain how?

People believe in American freedom

Who are these "people"? I don't think those are half as many as you think.

People ignore recent American atrocities while they remember all the Russian ones.

Please show recent-ish American atrocities that are at least on the same level as the Russian ones. (Hirošima and Nagasaki do count, but they are not things that people ignore). For the purposes of this conversation it would be good if they were from this century, or at the very latest from 1990's. When looking at what the Russia is doing now, whatever took place more than half a century ago is not very descriptive by itself, even if it does explain contemporary reactions of people in countries bordering the Russia.

Of course that doesn't justify any genociding.

Happy to hear that. You are not an .ml-ie ❤️

I think Europe was still spending more than Russia before. We should have been able to repell Russia already. To me, the increased spending means that we are preparing to escalate and beat Russia.

At least here it says that in 2021 the Russia's military spending was 4% of its GDP. The only country that was somewhat prepared for repelling the Russia before 2022 was Finland. In school I was taught this about our military strategy: "Finland's defence doctrine is based on the concept of Credible Defence. It means that the Russia would be able to overrun this country, but we are able to cause them such a high level of material losses that they would lose more than they would gain, because of which they will never attack."
This is what all Finns considered true, until around end of March 2022. By then it was clear to Finns that the Russia should by all logic withdraw from its attack and find a way out of the war without losing its face, but also that it will not do that. Which meant that the core principle of our defence doctrine was moot. If the Russia ignores economical sensibility of waging a war, then our strategy of "yeah, they could take conquer us, but it would be economically idiotic" won't be of any use to us. Therefore, we had to look for another solution, and Finns' opinions moved from 65 % anti-NATO to 80 % pro-NATO during March and April 2022. Putin's closest friends, such as Rotenberg, spend a lot of time in Finland and speak Finnish, so he was aware of this. But yeah: Our new military strategy is that it's not enough to stop the Russia if it attacks. We must be able to decisively beat them. Otherwise they will attack.

the EU and the US are preparing to take them apart.

The US is. Now in 2025, I wish EU was, as well. But it is not. Which is idiotic. As long as the Russia is in one piece, it will attack again.

Thanks. I don't have anything meaningful to say about this. I know the arguments that Russia is financing all, even the Ukrainian Nazis, but there is also German media pushing the AfD and other shady stuff. I can't yet settle to believe that it is all Russian

Hm, there were articles in the Finnish newspapers around year 2005 or 2004 when Putin started financing the neo-nazi organizations in the Russia and countries closely coöperating with the Russia, to do his dirty work. I tried going to the library of Pasila in Helsinki, where they have every newspaper published in Finland since 1880's on microfilm, but their microfilm reader was broken at that point. And the next time I tried again. I've also tried sending email to the newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, that wrote those articles back then, asking them to send them to me because they are extremely relevant now, but I never got a reply from them.

I'm far too overwhelmed with stuff in my children's life at the moment to really have the energy to go dig through those 20-year-old newspapers on the microfilms (even though I've always enjoyed going through the rolls at that library!), as I've had burnout episodes already as it is, but maybe I still should. (Meh.)
I guess there must have been articles about in other countries as well, but just like it's difficult to find a Finn who understood the gravity of the articles back than and therefore has any recall of them having ever been written, I haven't found any central Europeans who would remember what kind of articles were written about it, and by what papers.