Print

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

[smjjames]

I thought Switzerland was in the EU? Though I guess understandable given their intent in trying to be as neutral as possible.

Also, pretty severe for a 'crime of passion'....

[Wolfhunter107]

I thought Switzerland was in the EU? Though I guess understandable given their intent in trying to be as neutral as possible.

They're a non-member that's negotiated treaties with the EU, iirc.

[martinuzz]

They're a non-member that's negotiated treaties with the EU, iirc.

You are correct sir

[Starver]

"Switzerland" has the name of the example case of "How in or out of the EU should Brexited Britain be?" that lies somewhere between "Norway" and "Canada"...

[martinuzz]

Switzerland did have to give up being Switzerland to get into the Free Trade Association. They had to give up their bank secret for it.

That would translate to saying to the UK they can join the free trade zone, but only if they give up speaking english and start speaking french only.

[Starver]

That would translate to saying to the UK they can join the free trade zone, but only if they give up speaking english and start speaking french only.

Sacré bleu! C'est inconceivable!! Mon aéroglisseur est plein d'anguilles!!!  Bof...

[Guardian G.I.]

Steven Seagal, the washed-up actor from action films of the 1990s, suddenly visited Belarus the other day. After making a visit to Wargaming.net's office in Minsk and applying for work there (yeah), he was invited by President Lukashenko to his residence, where he sampled fresh Belarusian vegetables straight from the President's own vegetable garden (yeah).

Spoiler: "♫You're the best around, nothing's going to ever keep you down!♫" (click to show/hide)

Social networks across the former USSR, especially Belarus, exploded with laughter. Russian media, like Lenta.ru and NTV, did not resist making spectacular puns in their titles like "Lukashenko Peeled Steven Seagal a Carrot" or "Steven Seagal Gladly Ate Lukashenko's Big Carrot". Belarusian social media pondered whether other (former) Hollywood celebrities would visit the country and endorse Belarusian food. Memes are also being made.

[Sheb]

So, question for our russosphere friends here, what's the reaction to Turkey sending ground troops in Syria?

[Sergarr]

No one really cares, AFAIK. There are far more interesting things going on here, like the upcoming elections. The ads are everywhere.

[Helgoland]

You guys still have elections?

[Culise]

Yes, Russia still has elections.  They're even mostly fair; irregularities tend to be more along the lines of disproportionate media access for preferred candidates and strict candidate registration requirements that inhibit competitors than actual ballot-stuffing.  That's one of the most depressing things about his present foreign policies; Putin, and to a slightly lesser degree his party as a whole, really does have a popular mandate in the eyes of people who view him as giving them their pride back and, for those who haven't forgotten Yeltsin and the 1990s, putting food on their plates and "putting the oligarchs in their place".  Domestically, his foreign adventurism is a selling point, not a weakness.

[Sergarr]

You guys still have elections?

There are more than a dozen parties running, actually. One communist party (KPRF), two liberal ones (PARNAS and Yabloko), one generic party of power (United Russia), one opportunistic-nationalistic party (LDPD), some pro-pensioner people (Spravedlivaya Rossiya), and also a couple of smaller and completely new parties that I haven't heard about before, including two three communistic-looking parties, a pretty weirdly named pro-pensioner party, three liberal-looking parties, and also, a Green party.

And all of them get free ads and debate hours! IIRC, the debates are actually mandatory this time, and they're going to be carried out very often. I can only imagine the decibel of yells that will be getting thrown over there, with the amount of "communist/nationalist vs liberal" match-ups that will inevitably come up.

[Helgoland]

I was kidding, you guys 

[Culise]

I was kidding, you guys 

Heh.  But when you hear that line thrown around often enough completely unironically, you start taking it at face value. ^_^

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's not like most out and out dictators don't have popular support either.

Hell, popular support in the state and crushing the Whoever is basically only lost in democracies split enough to attain bitter opposition without civil war.

one opportunistic-nationalistic party (LDPD)

Even this description is generous. They do anything crazy recently? The newest incident is Z-Man demanding Russia nuke the Bosporus to drown Istanbul with a tidal wave, but that was in 2015.