Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[DJ]

I don't get why Russia would be eager to invade Finland. Was it really that much fun the last time?

[Sean Mirrsen]

In other news, the view out my window is probably the nature's way of celebrating April 1st.

Either that, or the Russian Winter had smelled a possible invasion and decided to give us a few more months of coverage just in case we need 'er.
(seriously, it's a damn blizzard out there)

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I don't get why Russia would be eager to invade Finland. Was it really that much fun the last time?

Spoiler: End result of Winter War II (click to show/hide)

[Knit tie]

 Cathartic as it would be for UR to see all russians die horribly and Russia itself fall apart, I honestly don't see it happening, the falling apart, I mean. There haven't been any  indication that russian regions want to do that, or that they have necessary political power.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I don't get why Russia would be eager to invade Finland. Was it really that much fun the last time?

Spoiler: End result of Winter War II (click to show/hide)

Fun (and inaccurate - isn't there a peninsula the author forgot?) as that is, I find this rather more entertaining.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[miljan]

According to Russian news bulletins, this is the new Russian anthem, approved by Mr. Putin himself.

Nahhh, this is the russian new anthem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk_VszbZa_s 

[Helgoland]

Sean: Hmmm, why do these countries want to join NATO? It can't be because they're afraid of Russia - you guys are such great neighbors, especially to countries who are trying to join. You know which one I mean.
If Russia is encircled, it fully deserves it. And if war breaks out, it won't have been NATO's fault.

Anyway, I was gonna make an April Fools joke about Germany reintroducing conscription with Merkel giving a Churchill-style speech... But naah.

[DJ]

Weird how there's a huge NATO base right in the middle of Serbia.

[Comrade P.]

In other news, the view out my window is probably the nature's way of celebrating April 1st.

Either that, or the Russian Winter had smelled a possible invasion and decided to give us a few more months of coverage just in case we need 'er.
(seriously, it's a damn blizzard out there)

Moscow too. Fukken snow all over the city.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Fun (and inaccurate - isn't there a peninsula the author forgot?) as that is, I find this rather more entertaining.

I love how Russians treat Crimea as Russian territory with almost no countries recognizing it. Who cares about that international laws?
That map is a joke. Finland will not double it's territory and Ukraine will not try to annex South-Western Russia no matter what will happen

As for Russia breaking apart. That will happen. Not in the way like on the map, but it will.  Any large country that gives zero rights to regions is doomed as soon as any large crisis will arrive.  USSR in 1980s looked like a monolith but... Russian empire is convulsing. In that convulsion it may even start a nuclear apocalypse but that will not change it's fate. 

[Sean Mirrsen]

I love how Russians treat Crimea as Russian territory with almost no countries recognizing it. Who cares about that international laws?

There's the de jure, and then there's the de facto. Crimea is now de facto part of Russia, and taking it away via any sort of legislative means is not going to happen. Easily, at the very least. For one, in order to legally return it to the Ukraine, you have to first legally admit it has changed ownership, which Ukrainian government isn't too keen on doing. As long as its legal status in Ukraine remains as "a part of Ukraine", it can't be given back to Ukraine. By legally - by its own constitution - admitting newly self-declared independent Crimea into itself, Russia has turned a legally sketchy situation with the unrest, referendum and independence, that seems to have been the playground for every major power around, into a legal quagmire that isn't likely to be resolved.

When countries wage legal war, it's not likely to end quickly. Sometimes not at all. Just as with big companies doing the same. The most likely outcome is, like with companies, a settlement - which between countries is called diplomacy, which is what they're now doing. Exactly what the costs will be, and what will happen, I've no idea - only time will tell.

[Sheb]

Yeah, we're going to reach a compromise: Russia can keep Crimea, and in exchange Putin accept to take Crimea.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

For one, in order to legally return it to the Ukraine, you have to first legally admit it has changed ownership, which Ukrainian government isn't too keen on doing.

So you mean, that if I'll decide to form an armed squad and capture a factory and force workers to say that they want to work on me then I'll be a de facto owner and to have a chance to take it back, the real owned must admit that I am a legal owner of the building and engage in negotiations with me?

[Sean Mirrsen]

For one, in order to legally return it to the Ukraine, you have to first legally admit it has changed ownership, which Ukrainian government isn't too keen on doing.

So you mean, that if I'll decide to form an armed squad and capture a factory and force workers to say that they want to work on me then I'll be a de facto owner and to have a chance to take it back, the real owned must admit that I am a legal owner of the building and engage in negotiations with me?

In principle? Yes. Except you'd have to force the existing management to resign their positions or transfer them to you (not just make the workers swear loyalty to you at gunpoint), and of course the owner can just storm the building with his own armed squad and kick you out. That's called a "hostile takeover", by the way, except in this case it's literally hostile, and I've seen a few news reports of it happening in Ukraine.

With Russia... eh, you can try taking Crimea back by armed forces, but I think it's been generally agreed here that that's not going to end well for anyone, least of all Crimea. And Ukraine.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Heh...  You are mixing owning and controlling here

De facto Crimea is controlled by Russia, nothing more and nothing less. It is not a part of Russia.

It is not a part of Russia for business, because if any company to have any business activity in Crimea it should ask the government in Kyiv for license and pay taxes to Ukrainian budget or it will be sued in international courts
It is not a part of Russia for any visitors because anyone entering Crimea breaks Ukrainian border control laws and has a full right to arrest and jail that person as soon as possible.