geg

well, stingy
purely for information
1. embargo of goods from the US to Russia: The US government has placed an embargo on exports to Russia of high-tech and dual-use goods (things that can be used for weapons purposes). What this means in practice is hard to say. There have never been products from the United States on the shelves of stores, except for Hines ketchup, produced in Russia. I think we are talking about some kind of electronics, or drilling complexes, or something like that.
What's really pitiful: The GAZ Automobile Plant said that due to US sanctions, light trucks will no longer be equipped with Cummins diesels, this will be replaced with Russian and Chinese products. Cummins is a good diesel, the phrase "Chinese diesel" sounds like a future problem.
It is strange for me: the US Congress (or the government, I may be mistaken in jurisdiction) declared an embargo, at the same time the US Federal Reserve issues recommendations to American businesses how to bypass the embargo in order to continue deliveries.
2. Russian media may not be informing citizens: Russian media inform the citizens of the Russian Federation about the invasion. Moreover, this is being done so actively that I am already fed up with this information. Ukraine on all channels, in all news, in all talk shows. The Russian society supports the military operation, but your news media does not tell you about it.
3. Swift: Russia is disconnected from Swift. Visa and Mastercard left the Russian market. Their place is actively occupied by other systems: the Chinese Unipay and the Russian MIR. My VISA card works on the territory of Russia without problems, if I go abroad, the work will stop. Russians traveling abroad use the MIR + Unipay co-badged card - it works. Payments in the US are really difficult. Difficult, but not prohibited or restricted. I have not dived into this problem yet, there was no need. But I know people are still shopping.
4. Surprised that the GEG is still with us, the Internet is limited: the Internet in the Russian Federation is not disconnected or slowed down, I still contact you in the usual way. It is unlikely that you know, Russia is the only country in the world other than the United States that has a sovereign Internet. There are domains and emails in Cyrillic. For example, you can register a domain here: "кто.рф".
5. Propaganda. Propagandists poison the brains on both sides. Both yours and ours are doing their best. There is an information war going on. Fortunately, I can form a balanced opinion for myself. I have access to both Russian and Western media. It is not forbidden for us. Western layman, according to my knowledge, does not have access to Russian media, if I'm wrong - correct me.

geg

CNN news on my PC

donbrew

I agree both sides use propaganda. Some claims by the Ukraine side are pretty difficult to believe. But, pictures of blown up shopping centers and apartment buildings and schools are pretty damning, even if you believe the military has installations in them. We have not heard any reasonable excuse for the invasion except that Ukraine was thinking about joining NATO, which is a defensive organization.
I am using lots of "grains of salt".

geg

I will say carefully so as not to violate my obligation:
the actions of states, and even more so of civilizations, are much more extended in time than human life. The essence of the confrontation is not in Ukraine, just as before Vietnam or Afghanistan were not the main reason. The confrontation between the worlds is much wider. There is a great chess game going on - you can read about it in the writings of the American politician, the "father of the Cold War" Brzezinski. https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottab...sBoard.doc.pdf If Steve allows me, I will develop my idea in future.
But in what I agree with you - civilians are dying, it's terrible. You are a good person. I'm glad that you take it to heart, although for you these are abstract people on the other side of the world. For me, these are colleagues, relatives, compatriots. My aunt lived and was buried in Kyiv, I have distant relatives in Odessa.. The girls with whom I spent unforgettable hours when I studied at the university are Ukrainians. Maiden name of my mother - ukrinian name. I am not unique, every second person can say the same thing, because we are one people.
You are shown one side of the problem, some of it is true. I have been seeing the dead from the other side for 8 years now. You were not told that the nightmare, and the refugees, and the death of people under the bombs, has been going on since 2014? I'm not kidding - real old women and children, under real bombs. I know about this not from TV news. Refugees.
Steve, I hope I didn't go too far. If it's redundant, fix it.

PulpFriction

Geg, you can not receive PM’s because you’re out of room, and perhaps need to delete some old messages.

geg

i cleaned something

donbrew

This is in the "lounge" now. The "no politics" means "no arguing" or trolling for argument, not stating facts.

We never heard anything about Ukraine attacking Russia. Or Crimea attacking Russia. Just Russia invading them. I am interested in hearing the Russian side.

I am regularly accused of "supporting" positions when I am only trying to understand or explain the opposition. I do understand that there are global chess games going on that we are not aware of.

Oldblue

I don’t think either small country tried to go to war with Russia. As was a way to get funding as the losing side, as in “ The Mouse that Roared”
Facts are fine here, in the lounge. I would like to hear from both sides. I looked at clouds that way!

PulpFriction

Incivility such as hurling insults and other attacks is so common, even dominant, in online discourse that for many it has been normalized. People behave poorly without even realizing it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civility

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_discourse

PulpFriction

I find myself with some confusion about the rules but will do my best to comply without shrinking unnecessarily.

I would like to read about that and wondered if you could share your source for that news.

I don’t know what’s worse, corporate propaganda, or government propaganda. The same I guess. We in the U.S, don’t suffer much government propaganda because when the corporate owned media doesn’t like what the government says they simply substitute the narrative they prefer, and unlike in many other countries, our government is powerless against that, so we suffer the propaganda that is preferred buy those of great wealth instead.

I noticed you referred to both “the invasion” and “military operation.” It has been reported in the U.S. that the Russian media must us the term “special military operation” and that “invasion” and other such negative descriptions are not permitted in the media. Do you see any truth to that?

Obviously, militarily, it is an invasion. I wonder how the Russian government justifies that? Vague allusions to history will not be convincing. One argument I have heard is that ethnic Russians are being rescued, but those are rebels against their own internationally recognized sovereign state. I can see how they dislike some things that have happened or expect to happen.

But to state the obvious, most of the world sees the invasion is an unacceptable overreaction. In the context of the specter of Ukraine joining NATO, it seems the result simply proves why Ukraine should want to join NATO. There is some speculation that the goal is a land pathway to Crimea and domination of the Black Sea by placing another port under the control of Russia.

Is all this done “because we can”? Is it all a miscalculation of the consequences?

My parents suffered foreign occupation of their homeland in their youth. Because of that perhaps I am more aware of the blessings lf peace and comfort I have enjoyed though my life, and more cognizant of just how much misery humans are capable of imposing on one another.

The problem with justifying breaking peace with events from generations ago is that it makes resolution impossible and war endless. Perhaps that is the human condition but we should try to break that cycle, not accept it.