Print

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

[smjjames]

I've heard the guy had heart problems, so, it may have nothing to do with the ex-spy. However, the timing of it and the fact that he was a critic of Putin does make it look extremely suspicious.

[martinuzz]

Russia did not respond to the UK's request for clarification.
The only reply they gave, was a text on the website of their embassy, saying "our British colleagues should save their fiery propaganda and slogans for their mentally retarded domestic public, maybe it has some merit there".

The UK has sent their embassador in the Hague to the OPCW, demanding Russia give full access to inspectors to check their chemical weapons programs.
The UK accuses Russia of witholding information from OPCW for years. The embassador stressed to the OPCW inspectors that "this is the first time since WW2 that chemical weapons were used on European soil."

[smjjames]

Ouch, that's a heavy burn all right, and pretty close to qualifying for a diplomatic insult causus belli. Though that response would hardly be called diplomatic.

I wonder if that's actually an official official comment or a 'disgruntled staffer'? heh. Pulling a stunt like that with the language of the comment seems like something that would get an embassy staffer fired just about anywhere.

[Tawa]

The only reply they gave, was a text on the website of their embassy, saying "our British colleagues should save their fiery propaganda and slogans for their mentally retarded domestic public, maybe it has some merit there".

Can I get a source on this? I'm not seeing anything of quite that magnitude.

[smjjames]

The only reply they gave, was a text on the website of their embassy, saying "our British colleagues should save their fiery propaganda and slogans for their mentally retarded domestic public, maybe it has some merit there".

Can I get a source on this? I'm not seeing anything of quite that magnitude.

Same here, looked around and didn't see any mention of it, which would definetly have elicted a response.

[martinuzz]

The only reply they gave, was a text on the website of their embassy, saying "our British colleagues should save their fiery propaganda and slogans for their mentally retarded domestic public, maybe it has some merit there".

Can I get a source on this? I'm not seeing anything of quite that magnitude.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/londen-klaagt-russen-aan-om-gifgas-en-voert-zo-de-druk-op-rusland-op~a4580674/

Probably in the Dutch news first, because UK plays it via the Hague

https://www.rusemb.org.uk/fnapr/6418:

"Our British colleagues should save their propaganda fervour and slogans for their unenlightened domestic audience, where perhaps they will have some effect".

Looks like my newspaper translated 'unenlightened' to 'achterlijk' which is dutch for 'mentally retarded'
Then again, 'unenlightened' isn't much better than 'retarded' anyways. Both are diplomatic faux pas.

[Tawa]

Ah. Worded differently. Translation error, I guess. Thanks! It's definitely still a very sabre-rattling, inflammatory comment.

[smjjames]

They should have gone by the gamer mantra, 'Screenshots or it never happened.'

Ah. Worded differently. Translation error, I guess. Thanks! It's definitely still a very sabre-rattling, inflammatory comment.

The problem is that 'unenlightened' could be interpreted a load of different ways, but they're still calling British citizens dumb in a rather diplomatic way.

[smjjames]

The only reply they gave, was a text on the website of their embassy, saying "our British colleagues should save their fiery propaganda and slogans for their mentally retarded domestic public, maybe it has some merit there".

Can I get a source on this? I'm not seeing anything of quite that magnitude.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/londen-klaagt-russen-aan-om-gifgas-en-voert-zo-de-druk-op-rusland-op~a4580674/

Probably in the Dutch news first, because UK plays it via the Hague

https://www.rusemb.org.uk/fnapr/6418:

"Our British colleagues should save their propaganda fervour and slogans for their unenlightened domestic audience, where perhaps they will have some effect".

Looks like my newspaper translated 'unenlightened' to 'achterlijk' which is dutch for 'mentally retarded'
Then again, 'unenlightened' isn't much better than 'retarded' anyways. Both are diplomatic faux pas.

Agreed, calling a foriegn countries citizens unenlighted isn't nice, but as we've just seen, this is exactly the kind of word that will get mistranslated and misinterpreted.

Also, goggle translate outputted the dutch word as 'backward', which could be a PC'd version of that word, but otherwise, the output was coherent.

[martinuzz]

Nah, to call someone 'backward', you'd say 'je loopt achter' ('you are walking behind')
'achterlijk' is most definitly the word for 'mentally retarded' (literally: 'behindlike', with behind meaning being behind on mental development)

We don't really have a dutch word for unenlightened, we'd say 'niet (zo) heel verlicht' ('not (so) very enlightened')
We do have 'onverlicht' (literally unenlightened), but we use that for when someone does not have working light on their bicycle.

[smjjames]

I inputted je loopt achter into google translate and it outputted 'you're behind', would that be an accurate translation?

'Backward' in this case is using the english definition meaning undeveloped, primitive, less advanced.

[martinuzz]

Aren't those the same? Someone who is undeveloped, primitive and less advanced would be behind, no?

[smjjames]

It'd be the same meaning, yes.

[hector13]

I like how they imply that Russia is some international bastion of enlightenment.

[Tawa]

In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of some tea-sipping Brit, but because I am enlightened by my own autocracy.