Is the USSR on it's way back?

[2tallbill]

Is Russia reverting back to the old Soviet Union days?

Will women in the future from Russia be permitted to leave?
Should I have asked another poll question?

[BC]

The creeping process of reversing course has been underway for quite some time.  It is the only way Putin can remain in power.

[krimster2]

"Is Russia reverting back to the old Soviet Union days? "

I wonder who will get there first, Russia or USA?
and I also wonder, who?
who wrote the book of love?

meanwhile, I was watching Rossiya 1
and it covered the attack on the NYC subway
but NO MENTION of the war in Ukraine AT ALL!!!  WTF??!!

[Boethius]

The USA is not even close to being authoritarian.


I think things may change when the geriatrics running the country die.  But in many ways, Russia is already like the USSR.  People can't demonstrate without governmental authority.  They are afraid to criticize leaders.  Those who disagree with Putin are jailed on trumped up charges.  Media is largely controlled by an authoritarian state.  The only differences are that outside influences are not being controoled, and it's not all being done in the name of ideology.

[Boethius]

This is another example of a return to the USSR.

http://cepa.org/the-new-iron-curtain-part-5-russias-war-against-silicon-valley/

[krimster2]

"The USA is not even close to being authoritarian."

what would you call Trumpism then, if not a failed attempt at autocracy...
the forces behind Trump will lick their wounds and look for a better idol for the masses to worship
and they'll be back for a repeat

Russia is IMPLODING while Ukraine is EXPLODING
so there ain't gonna be no Union of Republix, hence no CCCP

Pootin has lopped off the heads of the siloviki
my initial impression was that it was a RAGE reaction to the complete and total failure in Ukraine
however, because Russians have influenced my thinking
I now embrace their form of paranoia, and think that maybe Pootin thinks
the siloviki DELIBERATELY enginnered the fail in Ukraine as a stepping stone to replace Pootin

an alternative to this theory, would be that Pootin is going to fundamentally change the kleptocratic nature of Russia
and make it more state-run
by purging the oligarchs who transferred their stolen wealth offshore by seizing their Russian assets after the west seizes their offshore assets
we'll see




trump pic is self explanatory
map is the "gerrymandered" voting district for Houson, Texas
it takes this form to ensure a republican majority
this is how a democratic candidate can get the MOST total votes, but still LOSE a so-called election
remember, it's NOT WHO votes that counts, but WHO COUNTS the votes...
 

[Trenchcoat]

I think the situation we now have in Russia is more about Russian Imperialism. Remember the Ukraine region was seized of the Turks under Catherine the Great's rule so it's necessarily a case of reforming the USSR. The Oligarchs I think are a crucial difference here, they have too much of their interests involved in money and the industries, etc that they own in Russia. A Union of Socialist Soviet Republics which calls for state ownership doesn't really chine with that. Pootin in my opinion is after his place in the history books for regaining sone of the power & prestige of the Soviet Union. He may use tactics of the Soviet Union but I don't think the circumstances such as the Oligarchs lend themselves for a return of the USSR. It's questionable in my opinion if Pootin has any other support to draw upon were he to take out the Oligarchs. I think Pootin's main concern is territory in the first instance and less on reforming the USSR. Whether an attempt to reform the USSR comes later who knows. So far he doesn't seem to have been bothered trying to move in that direction.

Whether the old barriers will go up again with westerners unable to visit Russia or Russians able to leave Russia again it's uncertain but I think in light of recent events we are closer to a return to that than we have ever been since the break up of USSR. My guess is that if Pootin uses even more blatant genocide, chemical weapons, insidious means in Ukraine them we may get there possibly. So depends how bad the Pootin/Russian regime gets until western nations disallow movement either way and vice versa in my opinion.

[Patagonie]

"The USA is not even close to being authoritarian."

what would you call Trumpism then, if not a failed attempt at autocracy...
the forces behind Trump will lick their wounds and look for a better idol for the masses to worship
and they'll be back for a repeat

Russia is IMPLODING while Ukraine is EXPLODING
so there ain't gonna be no Union of Republix, hence no CCCP

Pootin has lopped off the heads of the siloviki
my initial impression was that it was a RAGE reaction to the complete and total failure in Ukraine
however, because Russians have influenced my thinking
I now embrace their form of paranoia, and think that maybe Pootin thinks
the siloviki DELIBERATELY enginnered the fail in Ukraine as a stepping stone to replace Pootin

an alternative to this theory, would be that Pootin is going to fundamentally change the kleptocratic nature of Russia
and make it more state-run
by purging the oligarchs who transferred their stolen wealth offshore by seizing their Russian assets after the west seizes their offshore assets
we'll see




trump pic is self explanatory
map is the "gerrymandered" voting district for Houson, Texas
it takes this form to ensure a republican majority
this is how a democratic candidate can get the MOST total votes, but still LOSE a so-called election
remember, it's NOT WHO votes that counts, but WHO COUNTS the votes...

Brillant, I concur with what you wrote, The President of the Russian Federation thought that was a Siloviki sabotage.

[krimster2]

brilliant?
always a fine line between genuis and madness
i'm never sure which side I'm on...
maybe it takes one madman to understand another

say you're one of them French speaking persons
what's the deal with Paris?
I noticed that Macron support has about the same districts in Paris as the communards of 1871
the perimeter of the north and east
while the center and west more for Le Pen
were the communard regions working class or something like that, and still are after all this time?
I've only been to Paris a couple of times and don't know its regions all that well
and after I saw Versailles I couldn't process anything after that

Regardless of motive, the loss of so many senior people will hamper the functioning of the administration of “intelligence” within Ukraine

new people need to catch up to the level of the old ones, because everyone works in a “compartment” and informatze is not shared

and I’m sure it’ll be a very unpleasant and uncooperative  atmosphere to work in

just another manic Monday in Moscva…

this is all the more reason for Pootin to substitute brute force over any form of subtlety

the rude beast slouching towards Bethlehem
his hour come at last

[JohnDearGreen]

If anyone interested in viewpoint of the occupiers, the "INSIDE RUSSIA" video channel provides one guy's streams, as to what info government is feeding them,  economic situation, etc.   Constantine lived in US for several years, went back to Moscow for a high paying job.  His company is imploding due to most projects on hold now, so he is temporarily in Uz trying to generate new business.
The videos ramble and are way too long, but have some interesting comments.

Try this one from 11 minute to 30 minute mark.



The whole series of his videos.  You can sense a change over the last weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/c/LETTERSTOKING/videos

[Steven1971]

New BBC 10 part podcast on Putin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015nfd

An interesting contrast to the numerous (and recommended) 2017 PBS Frontline interviews about Putin available on YouTube "The Putin Files"

[Nightwish]

well
Mariupol Ilyich plant area.

[JohnDearGreen]

Sanction tsunami begins?

If anyone interested in viewpoint of the occupiers, the "INSIDE RUSSIA" video channel provides one guy's streams, as to what info government is feeding them,  economic situation, etc.   Constantine lived in US for several years, went back to Moscow for a high paying job.  His company is imploding due to most projects on hold now, so he is temporarily in Uz trying to generate new business.
The videos ramble and are way too long, but have some interesting comments.

The whole series of his videos.  You can sense a change over the last weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/c/LETTERSTOKING/videos

[JohnDearGreen]

http://www.moscowtimes.eu/2022/05/26/v-rossii-v-obschestvennih-mestah-ustanovyat-sistemi-skritogo-dosmotra-a20690

[2tallbill]

what would you call Trumpism then, if not a failed attempt at autocracy...

There were countless attacks on Trump by the US media. 85% of coverage was negative.
It's illegal in Russia or China to write negative articles about the government.  Putin would
have thrown all of those reporters in jail (or killed them). There were thousands of protests
against Trump. Nobody was jailed for protesting unless they also got caught burning a baby
alive while trafficking under aged girls.

The left has the ability of making ridiculous overarching proclamations without thinking.
Trump was no autocrat especially compared to Putin/Xi Jinping.

[Boethius]

I will ask an opposite question. Is Russia going to lose territory?

http://inews.co.uk/news/world/putin-using-ukraine-war-russia-independence-moscow-1698699

[Grumpy]

 Putin himself demonstrates no intention to step down but looks increasingly relegated to the past. The elites and potential successors are watching his every military move, but they can already see that he has no place in their postwar vision of the future. His sole remaining function in their perception of the new era of peace will be to nominate a successor and leave the stage.

The war has, therefore, set in motion a public race of the successors. In recent years, political maneuvering in Russia was kept in the shadows, but in this new era, loud proclamations and high-visibility political gesturing are again the norm. It is as though an active election campaign is already under way, with bureaucrats and functionaries within the ruling party doing their best to get into the limelight and even attacking one another. Until recently, such behavior was almost unthinkable: the presidential administration worked in silence, while high-status functionaries at the ruling United Russia party restricted themselves to making promises on social policies.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/08/09/war-in-ukraine-has-sparked-a-new-race-to-succeed-putin-a78530

[Trenchcoat]

I think if we hadn't backed Ukraine it would fall. Then there would be a domino effect of Putin going after one ex-Soviet state after another. That would create a much bigger beast back around or near that if the Soviet Union. The NATO nations I don't think he would invade as let's face it his army just isn't up to it, too weak, too backwards, etc. Putin is looking for easy gains and hoped he would find the first in Ukraine then move onto other easy gains, basically poor ex-Soviet states with not a great military, smaller than Russia's and clapped out.

Putin is an ex-KGB guy so he adopts the Terrie and repression tactics of the KGB like the worst element of the Soviet Union. He goes with what he knows what works and sees no reason to try anything new. I'm not so sure he is bothered about the Communist element of the USSR. It seems he is more after an enlarged Russian Federation more in an imperial outlook. That we've so far helped to stop him in his tracks from doing that is a body blow to his ambitions for an enlarged Russian Federation. Now that his army has been smashed and the Russian economy failing it has largely destroyed his hopes of an enlarged Russian Federation.

It looks like to me that we've managed to stop Russia from trying it on with an increasingly outdated army from becoming a big threat again. Hopefully the opposite will happen and there will be a second break up of Russia. Once Russia is even smaller and weaker it won't dare try to bully it's neighbours into submission as they will be as weak or stronger than Russia is. That's good news in my book for everyone.

[Trenchcoat]

after I saw Versailles I couldn't process anything after that

I've been to Versailles also about seven years ago now. The Palace is nice and the grounds around it as is the immediate vicinity. The hall of Mirrors was interesting but I kind of expected more. Definitely a good visit but I thought not unlike many a Georgian style Palace, kind of like you've seen one you've seen them all type of thing. Not to diss it in saying that it's a magnificent building but other similar stuff about I think.

[BC]

Regarding this topic, a comparison of former USSR propaganda and Putin's propaganda.  It is a bit long with subtitles in English but quite interesting.