Moscow Protests

[mat]

Putin doesn't run a democracy in the Western definition of it. Yo be honest I'm not sure what type of political system reigns in Russia.

I do find it hypocritical though that the Western media concentrate on this and arent questioning Macron and his tactics of his police (if they are police?) attacking protestors every Saturday.

 

[BobKowalski]

Putin doesn't run a democracy in the Western definition of it. Yo be honest I'm not sure what type of political system reigns in Russia.

I do find it hypocritical though that the Western media concentrate on this and arent questioning Macron and his tactics of his police (if they are police?) attacking protestors every Saturday.

I’m pretty sure the Western media were very focused on the French protests but if you want to question Macron and French police tactics then start a thread.

 

[mat]

I’m pretty sure the Western media were very focused on the French protests but if you want to question Macron and French police tactics then start a thread.

Theres fuck all over here.

All I see is video footage of citizens being attacked even when trying to help. I suppose that's something going for them. If Putin is ordering attacking protestors he'll make sure no footage gets out.

 

[FlemishDuck]

Putin is backed by plenty of weapons. One has to consider that in a traditional superpower like Russia that plays a certain role on the world stage the millitary of the country could never accept a revolt that might put someone in place that works counterproductive against the country's longterm geostrategic interrests. Indeed, they would feel that they would need to be weary about the possibilety for foreign powers to incite revolts within their country.

As such, in extreme circumstances the figurehead that is to some extend Putin could be replaced by another, but likely he would just as much play to the tune of the ruling junta and oliargy. Lest to speak even of the FSB, they are going to have a field day here.

 

[Damocles]

Putin is backed by plenty of weapons. One has to consider that in a traditional superpower like Russia that plays a certain role on the world stage the millitary of the country could never accept a revolt that might put someone in place that works counterproductive against the country's longterm geostrategic interrests. Indeed, they would feel that they would need to be weary about the possibilety for foreign powers to incite revolts within their country.

As such, in extreme circumstances the figurehead that is to some extend Putin could be replaced by another, but likely he would just as much play to the tune of the ruling junta and oliargy. Lest to speak even of the FSB, they are going to have a field day here.

Russian military power is overstated and comes from Cold War paranoia. IIRC they're pretty solid on tanks but apart from that their Navy, Air Force and Army units would get a kicking even from the Belgians

 

[FlemishDuck]

Russian military power is overstated and comes from Cold War paranoia. IIRC they're pretty solid on tanks but apart from that their Navy, Air Force and Army units would get a kicking even from the Belgians

Oh but you have no idea how much the Belgian millitary manages to make a joke of itself. All the while that we had a heated debate recently about modernizing our airforce so to have more than 4 actually functional f16's, where afcourse the Flemmish part of the goverment traditionally is like "fuck you predominatly walloon millitary you get nothing", some walloon maintainance dude managed to reduce our functional airforce by 50% due accidently triggering a button while reportedly cleaning a f16 pannel which triggered the plane's autocannon to reck 2 other f16's.

Lest to speak about the fact that more than 50% of our army consists of officers, that the average age is 40+ and that youre average life expextancy in the field would usually be about a few hours of running before a fatal heart attack caused by acute obesity.

Practicly our whole navy consists solely of minesweepers. ........ minesweepers

So i throw back youre hyperbole, hard to do worse in this regard than "no country". We'd first need propper quota just on how many Walloons would die versus Flemmish.

But youre right, the mighty bear has some of his teeth kicked in and the fake teeth are fooling noone. Russia is no real threat to Europe, but it's still a nuclear power that on the diplomatic stage can cause various issue's for the west which it can exploit to expand it's own influence. Russia still has some pretty proven millitary tech and a profitable bussiness in supplying perceived rivals of the west. From another perspective the country would logicly develop some sort of "deep state" trough it's millitary and intelligence aparatus trough the cold war that obviously still put its mark on the current regime. Putin did not just start out his carreer with the KGB but also started his political carreer as a sort of millitary strongman for Russia to deal with the shame of Chechnya. Inittially Putin eliminated a lot of oliarchs in Russia but later simply replaced them with people i presume from his former network. As it is, the leading men of Russia not only have a very strong grip on the nation but also maintain a large anti western diplomatic network that brings various perks and but also obligations.