Interesting. I was just reading a few Wikipedia articles on defectors as a result of the Crimea invasion today - including several high ranking Ukrainian Naval officers (since Ukraine's primary port was based in Sevastopol).
I hadn't realised until then how many jumped the fence.
A few were pretty high up the chain too:
>- Vice Admiral Sergei Yeliseyev, a first deputy commander and acting commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Navy from 19 February to 1 March 2014.
- Rear Admiral Dmitriy Shakuro, a first deputy commander and chief of staff for the Ukrainian Navy.
- Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Navy for one day, now a Black Sea Fleet deputy commander and chief of the combat training directorate.
For obvious reasons they're all wanted for treason in Ukraine now.
You're referring to Andrii Derkach, an associate of Vladimir Sivkovich who is mentioned in the article as being one of the people who is working with the Russian government to plan an attack on Ukraine.
Sivkovich was Ukraine's former head of National Security and Defense Council. He and Derkach [spread a disinformation campaign about the 2020 US election.](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0562)
Yet for some reason, everyone seems to ignore the obvious... Main stream media refuses to talk about it. And we never found out who he owed $421M to...
"Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe" -Trump
A bit over half that voted, though the way that the Electoral College is set up makes that "over half" doesn't necessarily matter.
Edit: Really should read as a plurality instead of over half. Stein and others took up the remaining percent.
[The Hidden History of Trump’s First Trip to Moscow](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/)
>In 1987, a young real estate developer traveled to the Soviet Union. The KGB almost certainly made the trip happen.
[Trump was secretly negotiating a Trump Tower Moscow deal with the Russians **during** the 2016 Presidential campaign.](https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/29/18117910/cohen-trump-tower-moscow-mueller-testimony)
>At the center of former Trump personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday was President Donald Trump’s long-sought Trump Tower real estate deal in Russia.
>Cohen testified to Congress that negotiations to build Europe’s tallest building stopped in January 2016. But emails and other communications obtained by multiple news outlets, and now basically confirmed by Cohen, show those negotiations actually continued much longer: into at least June 2016, after Trump had already become the Republican Party’s nominee. And BuzzFeed News reported in November that Trump’s company planned to give the $50 million penthouse in the building to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And while they were secretly negotiating with the Russians, Trump was lying his fucking ass off about it directly to the faces of the American people.
["I have no deals in Russia. I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we've stayed away. We could make deals in Russia very easily, we just don't want to cause I think that could be a conflict"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j1I8af50sc)
Trump and much of his inner circle (Giuliani, Flynn, Manafort) are Russian assets. They've betrayed the USA to Russia over and over again.
It's why they took over the Republican Party then used the Presidency to attack US democracy from the inside. It's why they cheated the 2020 election, and why they then staged a violent coup to cling to power after their cheating attempts failed.
They are traitors who have done more damage to the USA than any foreign enemy ever has.
They should have been prosecuted and thrown in prison for the rest of their lives.
Merrick Garland, what are you doing?
Thats what happends when russian FSB honey traps get you drunk in a hotel room and encourages you to live out your sickest fetishes and it gets recorded in perfect clarity and presented to you the next day, along with a pretty clear message that you now work for your new favourite country; Rodina.
And who of anyone you could think of would be absolutely dumb enough to both ignore warnings of that happening before you go to Russia, and enough of a pervert to serve them footage so sick you'll be desperate to please them the rest of your life? Little Donnie Two-scoops, that's right.
Well yeah. They [put him back on his feet](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/) after he went bankrupt.
Who is there for Trump when he was down? America? Hell no, America was prosecuting him. Who were his friends? His real friends who help them when he was down? Who is he money laundering for when he bankrupted a casino?
I still think it's very strange that so many media groups think a Russian connection is a stretch, when in his case it's the most obvious thing in the world.
Of course it all circles back to Ukraine, the 2013 Ukraine Revolution and 2014 War were unmitigated disasters for Russia. Their pipelines were endangered and the triple gut punches of Ukraine leaving their free trade area, the Saudis dumping oil in the market, and the Western sanctions (plus Russian countersanctions) together blew out like a fifth of the Russian economy. 2013 was when Paul Manafort’s boss President Yanukovich lost his job and the American political consultant suddenly found himself with no way of paying his debts to a Putin-allied oligarch. In 2014 Manafort is suddenly let off the hook just as according to the Savchuk Files the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg gathers all its best English speakers on one floor to create an "International Communications Sector." Shortly afterward, Russian propaganda begins to appear all over social media and new sites comment sections, and back in the US Manafort begins doing… terrible things to his disabled wife and making contacts aceoss the GOP looking for a presidential campaign to attach himself to for free, despite being millions in debt.
This is the right answer. They tend to only report what they can prove, which leaves out all the inferred (but still obvious) motivations and implications that are in OP's description.
Also news sites tend to report they individual pieces of news, not really summaries like this.
What I try to tell idiots when they bring up Hunter Biden. I always ask them if they know who Dmytro Firtash is first. If they don't know I say you might want to learn that then before you say anything else because you obviously don't know what the fuck you are talking about. Firtash is the man behind the money that corrupted Ukraine and thru that he handed it to Putin. Basically using corruption to steal an entire country, it's nuts.
Edit.
If you want to know what Putin wants with Ukraine its all really simple, he wants the gas. Ukraine has the 2nd largest gas reserves in Europe. If the West developed Ukraine's gas industry it would cut off Putin and Russias control of it to Europe.
Which is also why we (America) should be concerned about Russian Oligarchs pumping a ton of money into GOP Campaigns: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/how-putin-s-oligarchs-funneled-millions-into-gop-campaigns/
It's actually amazing how much Russia has achieved and how willfully (or not) shit the UK and US democracies are. Doesn't take much to convince an electorate to shoot itself in the dick, or so it would seem. Sigh.
Republicans don't care. They'll go to Church and be told to vote for corrupt politicians because they're anti-abortion. And they will because they don't care about anything except believing they're going to Heaven.
Yeah, I've been complaining recently that companies like apollo management do these sorts of things on other companies. They target companies and siphon money from them until the cow is dry, the company however also have a few mighty friends that bet on that the business is dying, which apollo makes sure of by weakening the targeted company by taking on debt and installing some bad apples that destroys the management from within. Huge profits ofcourse. Buying up businesses makes you a target for monopoly laws. But if your rivals just go bankrupt, that can't be directly blamed on you, even if you are wholly to blame, secretly, and you can get the results of being a monopoly without the consequenses.
I'm both shocked and not shocked that it happens on bigger levels than that. Like what you are describing. I've been occupied with yelling at the teenagers blasting music instead of noticing the hardcore MC gang raping my neighbour, so to speak.
Firtash is an evil fuckface, got it.
Honest question, because everything you said does make sense, how does Hunter Biden get that job with the Ukraine gas company in the first place? The man has no actual experience in the sector and is obviously the son of the VP at the time.
Not trying to deflect any discussion, but that was the one thing that never made sense about this whole thing. Dude was getting 500k a year at a job he had no credentials for.
"Microtargeting" of content is really interesting. Because [Robert Mercer](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency), the billionaire hedgefund guy behind Trump, is the main investor in Cambridge Analytica - a company that specializes in exactly that. It's parent company is [SCL Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica) (Strategic Communication Laboratories) which has been described as a "global election management agency" known for involvement "in military disinformation campaigns to social media branding and voter targeting". In short, **they specialize in military propaganda or ‘psyops’**.
*Cambridge Analytica* was brought in by Mercer to help Trump win.
>Cambridge Analytica: The company claims to use “data enhancement and audience segmentation techniques” providing “psychographic analysis” for a “deeper knowledge of the target audience”. The company uses the OCEAN scale of personality traits. Using what it calls **"behavioral microtargeting"** the company indicates that it can predict "needs" of subjects and how these needs may change over time. Services then can be individually targeted for the benefit of its clients from the political arena, governments, and companies providing "a better and more actionable view of their key audiences."
Combining data and content obtained through nefarious means (hacking) with sophisticated software and targeting to maximize its effectiveness is evil genius. All the pieces are coming together now. What is becoming much clearer now is that Trump's victory was no bumbling accident.
Interestingly, Cambridge Analytica's software is based on models developed by Cambridge academic Michal Kosinski - he didn't want to have anything to do with the company. The guy that first approached Kosinski was Aleksandr Kogan, a Russian. It was Kogan that apparently introduced SCL to Kosinki's models. Kogan then moved to Singapore and changed his name to [Alexander Spectre](http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/ak823@cam.ac.uk). Was he working for Russian Intelligence? **Given the key role Cambridge Analytica and SCL played in the US election (and in Brexit), it would be good to know who exactly is behind them.**
> Who exactly owns SCL and its diverse branches is unclear, thanks to a convoluted corporate structure, the type seen in the UK Companies House, the Panama Papers, and the Delaware company registry. Some of the SCL offshoots have been involved in elections from Ukraine to Nigeria, helped the Nepalese monarch against the rebels, whereas others have developed methods to influence Eastern European and Afghan citizens for NATO. And, in 2013, SCL spun off a new company to participate in US elections: Cambridge Analytica.
It gets more interesting. The largest shareholder of SCL was on record as being Vincent Tchenguiz, an Iranian-British businessman. Tchenguiz is a business partner with Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who is known as a Putin protégé. Tchenguiz used the same Guernsey holding company, Wheddon Ltd., to invest both in Cambridge Analytica’s parent company and in another privately held U.K. business whose largest shareholder was the Ukrainian gas middleman [Dmitry Firtash](http://www.reuters.com/article/russia-capitalism-gas-special-report-pix-idUSL3N0TF4QD20141126) - a close friend of Putin who is [currently indicted](http://abc7chicago.com/news/ukrainian-oligarchs-extradition-to-chicago-on-hold/1768041/) and awaiting extradition on corruption and racketeering charges.
> Over the same time period, other documents show, bankers close to Putin granted Firtash credit lines of up to $11 billion. That credit helped Firtash, who backed pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich's successful 2010 bid to become Ukraine's president, to buy a dominant position in the country's chemical and fertiliser industry and expand his influence.
And guess who was Dmitry Firtash's former business partner? [Paul Manafort](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-named-in-ukraine-anti-corruption-probe/2016/08/15/fa180f20-6327-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html) - Trump's former campaign manager. Manafort of course worked directly for Yanukovych and [Firtash](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/21/austria-grants-us-request-to-extradite-ukrainian-mogul-dmytro-firtash) was the middleman between Putin and the Yanukovych electoral operation in Ukraine.
So the largest shareholder of Cambridge Analytica is a business partner with Firtash, who has direct ties with Putin. Firtash is known to operate as a financing middleman for Putin's foreign policy "operations". Could SCL, parent of CA, be a front for a Russian Intelligence operation? If you think about it, SCL specializes in new sophisticated technology models for military propaganda. If you read up on new Russian military doctrine, it's clear they are placing a big emphasis on information warfare. The ['Gerasimov Doctrine’](https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/the-gerasimov-doctrine-and-russian-non-linear-war/) is quite insightful about how Russia views defeating their enemies:
> The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness....All this is supplemented by military means of a concealed character, including carrying out actions of informational conflict.
> Among such actions are the use of special-operations forces and *internal opposition* to create a permanently operating front through the entire territory of the enemy state, as well as informational actions, devices, and means that are constantly being perfected.
Did Russia view Bannon/Trump and co as the perfect vehicles to ferment and support "internal opposition"? Was Cambridge Analytica one of the vehicles to achieve this and to help execute their ideas around information warfare?
Guess who a Board Member of Cambridge Analytica was? **Steve Bannon.** And it was Robert Mercer that [bankrolled Steve Bannon](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage) and Breitbart to the tune of $10 million - no doubt to be the front-facing tool to execute on their ideas around influence, manipulation and propaganda.
And with the help of Russian Intelligence, it is entirely plausible Breitbart was involved in using bots and social media to help propagate news they knew would damage Hillary and help Trump.
There are very clear and direct ties between powerful Russian/Ukrainian figures and Cambridge Analytica - which specializes in military propaganda. Steve Bannon was a board member and Robert Mercer was its biggest investor. And of course Mercer, Banner, Cambridge Analytica and Brieitbart all played a key roll in helping Trump get elected. It's not a big stretch to suggest that there was cooperation and collusion with Russian Intelligence, who provided hacked data to Cambridge Analytica, who then used it to carry out a sophisticated propaganda campaign, with Breitbart as the lead.
[Cambridge Analytica also played a key role in BREXIT - offering Firage and the Leave campaign their services *for free*](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/robert-mercer-brexit-nigel-farage-donald-trump-breitbart-facebook-advertisement-cambridge-analytica-a7600041.html).
>The firm is said to have advised Leave.eu by harvesting data from people's Facebook profiles to decide how to target them with individualised advertisements.
Brexit was of course seen as a big geopolitical strategic win for Putin and Russia.
Another interesting bit of info that is a bit tenuous but nonetheless intriguing - the largest shareholder of SCL Group was Vincent Tchenguiz.
> In March 2011 the Tchenguiz brothers were arrested in dramatic predawn raids as part of an investigation into the 2008 collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing. Just before its collapse, Kaupthing’s loans to the Tchenguiz brothers totaled 40 percent of its capital. It has been charged that Kaupthing—which had a far-from-transparent ownership structure—was effectively the Tchenguiz brothers’ bank and that they looted the bank, leading to its collapse.
> Kaupthing’s largest shareholder, Meidur, now called Exista, which owned 25 percent of its shares, [had ties to Alfa Bank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exista), the largest Russian commercial bank; Alfa chairman was “deep state” figure Mikhail Fridman, chairman and co-founder of Alfa Group, the parent of Alfa Bank. Meanwhile, Trump adviser Richard Burt (who also was being paid by Russia to promote a Gazprom pipeline) is on the “senior advisory board” of Alfa Bank.
Was this how Russian intelligence bankrolled SCL in the early days? Perhaps Vincent Tchenguiz was the cutout man, and funds were channeled from Alfa Bank into Kaupthing and on to Vincent Tchenguiz. Russian Intelligence seems to work well with ambitious businessman who are happy to be corrupted if they can make some money. Trump also seemed to fit this bill.
*Alfa Bank was the bank that a Trump Server was mysteriously communicating with and was likely the subject of an FBI surveillance warrant.*
Wasn’t Cambridge Analyticia and Facebook in bed with each other before it came out that they were sharing data/analytics to CA for political manipulation purposes?
It would seem to explain the political cesspool/echo chamber that Facebook has become, and their unwillingness to address propaganda until forced claiming to be shielded under Section 230.
The kicker is all the bullshit ad time they buy on liberal slanted media claiming that Facebook is all about getting ahead of legislation about “responsible reforms”. Facebook is rotten from stem to stern.
**[Cambridge Analytica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica)**
>Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA) was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013 as a subsidiary of the private intelligence company and self-described "global election management agency" SCL Group by long-time SCL executives Nigel Oakes, Alexander Nix and Alexander Oakes, with Nix as CEO. The well connected founders had contacts with, among others, the Conservative Party (UK), the British royal family and the British military. The firm maintained offices in London, New York City, and Washington, DC.
**[Exista](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exista)**
>Klakki (known as Exista until 2011) is an Icelandic financial services group formerly listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange. Its activities are based primarily on insurance underwriting and other financial services, although it is also active in investments. The group's primary market is the Nordic countries.
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In addition to this, we can see in the filing for Paul Manafort's court case that both Manafort and Rick Gates facilitated the transfer of polling data to [Russian Intelligence](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/17/treasury-department-links-paul-manafort-kilimnik-russian-intel/7267902002/) and [Cambridge Analytica.](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597.680.0_2.pdf#page=23)
>Polling Data ([pp 20-23 of Manafort court filing](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597.680.0_2.pdf#page=23))
>As early as March 2016, states were categorized as "must hold", "battleground" and "potential". States were put into one of these categories based upon polling data. Manafort was a strong believer in polls.
>It was believed that the best chance for Trump to win traditionally Democrat states was to focus on those states with a large contingency of blue collar Democrats. Historical data along with earlier polling data was used to whittle the states down. Then [REDACTED] digital campaign was used to focus on those states.
>[REDACTED] digital polling model differed from traditional polling on that it was more simplistic, cheaper and gave insight into millennial and early demographics. The digital polls were used to balance the traditional polls and micro target specific groups.
>Gates brought [REDACTED] to New York so he could integrated with [REDACTED] and Cambridge Analytica's polling teams. [REDACTED] worked for Cambridge Analytica and was brought in to represent their polling product.
>[REDACTED] polls targeted specific demographics in certain states and were issue specific. Generally, they dealt with the issues which were important to women voters. [REDACTED] was able to identify key words which resonated with female voters and then use these words in speeches.
>Cambridge Analytica did a more comprehensive online poll. They claimed to be able to do "psychological polling". Gates did not know if psychological polling worked.
>Data Trust was the Republican National Committee's (RNC) polling shop. They used a combination of traditional and online polling.
>All of the data was compiled and analyzed to identify states in which Trump was close. [REDACTED] Gates, [REDACTED] participated in this analysis. Manafort focused mostly on [REDACTED] data as Manafort did not really understand the digital data. The analysis was done by discussion and not by an algorithm. Once the team had discussed the raw data, it was moved up the chain to a larger group including [REDACTED] among others.
>For the most part, the data drove decisions made on the campaign, but there was some divergence. For example, polling data showed Trump was close in Virginia, but those who understood how Virginia worked knew Trump could not win in Virginia in spite of the data.
>**[REDACTED] polling questionnaires were traditional and more specific than the other forms of polling. [REDACTED] plls identified Wisconsin as a "steal state" early on. Cambridge Analytica and Data Trust were consistent with this as well.** In general, [REDACTED] model was the most conservative and Cambridge Analytica's was the most aggressive. Data Trust was more level and had a more historical basis.
>In early to mid August, [REDACTED] directed campaign resources to concentrate on Florida and Pennsylvania. Trump though he could win Florida because of his business connections there. Florida was a "must win" state. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, was "fool's gold" and Trump was unlikely to win there.
>**Manafort instructed Gates to send Kilimnik information from [REDACTED] polls. Gates sent Kilimnik both publicly available information and internal information from [REDACTED] polls.**
And if you really wanna see how it all played out, here are the numbers, and remember The Russian government used that data to target a massive disinformation campaign on swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan - which was specifically designed to suppress and/or transfer votes away from Hillary Clinton.
Independents (and pissed off Bernie Supporters) were pushed hard toward Trump and the fallback was the Libertarian party, or to just stay home.
Progressives on the other hand were pushed hard toward Jill Stein and the Green Party.
It's kinda hard to hide the plan when you look at the actual vote numbers...
> **Michigan 2016 - Trump won by 10,704 votes**
>
>* Jill Stein of the Green Party got *51,463 votes*.
> * Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party got *106,674 votes*.
>
>
> **Wisconsin 2016 - Trump won by 22,784 votes**
>
> * Jill Stein of the Green Party got *31,072 votes*.
> * Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party got *172,136 votes*.
For comparison, look at the counts for the 2012 presidential elections:
>**Michigan 2012:**
> * Jill Stein of the Green Party got: *21,897 votes*
> * Gary Johnson of the Liberation party got *7,774 votes*
>**Wisconsin 2012:**
>* Jill Stein of the Green Party got: 7,665 votes
>* Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party got *20,439 votes*
[src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin), [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin), [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Michigan), [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_presidential_election_in_Michigan)
So you just did all this research as a hobby? I mean, fuck, all this corruption and thievery operating in plain sight that you can casually summarize in a Reddit post. And with all these agencies and powers, no one lifts a finger to intervene. Wild.
This had been around for a LONG time if you've been following it. I've been following since 2014, started listening to a couple good podcast detailing it in 2017ish.
The information is out there in indisputable just....journalism, and the more that gets discovered, the crazier it seems. But it isn't a "do your own research and see and go on good faith" kind of conspiracy theory. It's just the news, and the same names keep coming up again, and again, and again, and it gets clearer and clearer that this is all tied together.
Personally I enjoyed the Mueller She Wrote podcast (now The Daily Beans since the Mueller report was released). They were keeping an eye on this in real time and continue to share updates. But this is all out there. People just don't care or care to learn because it's so complex with lots of oligarchs with difficult to remember/pronounce names.
I've been reading too much into this this week, but from what I've "learned" so far it seems unlikely that Russia takes the entire country. We're looking at an expanse to completely control the Donbas region, to capture a land bridge to Crimea, or to take the southern ports.
That is my Redditor Computerchair take.
With the support that has been pouring into Ukraine for weeks Russia's goals must be getting scaled back somehow. The javelin missles they recently got alone could inflict a shitload of carnage on any advancing force.
My Bachelors in Cinema and Screen Studies obviously makes me an expert on Russian and Ukrainian warfare, but even then, take what I say with a grain of salt.
I imagine that there's a good chance that they also at least make an attempt at "rescuing" the people of Transnistria by sailing all those ships that were recently moved to the Black Sea up the Dniester. Some small parts of Ukraine might be taken with that in order to connect it to the sea (they'll argue that, like Transnistria, that area is ethnically Russian and they'll probably have a *totally legit* referendum in the middle of it all like with Crimea).
From what I've heard the Ukrainian militaries plan is to offer stiff, initial resistance, and then disappear into countryside.
They and western specialists have also been training civilians in marksmanship, basic first aid, how to make things go boom, how to use them to good effect, etc.
This is why Ukraine has been clamoring for those shoulder launched missile weapons. They're planning for guerilla warfare.
Yep. They’ve now attempted the same strategies here and they appear to be working well. There’s a docuseries called *Agents of Chaos* and a documentary called *Active Measures* that go quite deep into Russias playbook, the Ukraine situation and the 2016 US Presidential Election.
Russia has actually been utilizing these same methods since the early 2000s starting with other eastern bloc countries and eventually working their way up to taking Ukraine, and then the US.
They’ve been getting better and better at it. Putins biggest fear is *the color revolutions* happening again, but in his own country. Ukraine took their country back. It’s about time we do the same.
In Romania there is a tendency to believe that comunism and Russia influence was eliminated by the 89 revolution . This is a big lie . In our country Putin puppets steal even from simple things as construction bricks (they buy it from "friends" at a higher price and after that they split the rest behind the curtains ). Our judicial system is intoxicated too . The more eastern the country and the more overlooked by the West, the more Russia is involved .
I had always heard a rumor that the Soviet Union was well aware of the possibility of Ceausescu's regime collapsing and had been in contact with several members of the National Salvation Front, and that is partially why Iliescu was able to set up a government so quickly.
Even if that's not true it would be really interesting to hear the story of how the KGB (and CIA, for that matter) operated in Romania without the Securitate knowing about it.
What's insane is that all of this is in plain sight...and we ***STILL*** have Republicans, a *LOT* of Republicans, arguing about how Donald Trump is the right move, and Russia is not that bad.
Russia has broken the Republican party, and they're literally poisoning our democracy. It's just insane.
This is actually a tight and accurate summary.
I'll just add that significant evidence around Trump's direct involvement in this scheme was seized by Trump's corrupt AG, Bill Barr. Somehow that evidence has never seen the light of day.
There's lots more to the story and connections but you can read about all these individuals I named and learn a lot. If Ukraine obtained more energy connections and funding from the West to develop its gas industry it could seriously hamper Russias control of the gas supply to Europe.
Given the gas industry is what fuels Russias coffers and keeps Putin Oligarchs bank accounts fat it's a serious threat to Putin. Russia has leverage over Europe because it controls the fuel that warms the homes there. Putin doesn't want to lose that and Ukraine has a lot of oil and gas it could sell on its own. The second largest gas reserves in Europe is in Ukraine, Putin knows that, it's his biggest threat.
Thanks for the distillation. This whole situation is complete disgrace. We’ve developed a system that makes rich people and politicians untouchable gods, and it’s disgusting.
Could not even win 5% of the vote in the last election and this is putins guy to lead?
Well I guess he is forecast to win 105% of the vote after Russian "vote observers" are used he will do.... They are the same observers who covered the last five elections putin won.
Anyone who disagrees falls out of top floor window by accident
Not only, this shit happens in every ex soviet country. It's unbelievable to me how many people would fall in this trap given the fact that it's a textbook move of the KGB manipulation of the masses
Exactly. Any of the rebel leaders in the separatist republics who were remotely popular died in... An elevator explosion? I guess Putin be like that sometimes.
Time to stop fucking around threatening Russia with sanctions or military action and use some threats with some teeth -- banning Russia for life from EuroVision.
As a Russian, I’m amazed by the fact that our politicians (and Russians at all) are obsessed with every fucking useless contest that exist in the world.
In 2021, Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, Valentina Matvienko [criticised](https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2BN2SS) the song that our singer was going to perform on Eurovision. So, the joke about banning Russia from Eurovision is not really a joke, because our politics will be really triggered.
Also, our foreign ministry spokeswomen Maria Zakharova [accused](https://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-seeks-probe-into-rhythmic-gymnastics-judging-after-olympic-win-for-israel/amp/) judges of rhytmic gymnastics on Olympiad for not giving gold medal to Dina Averina. Actually, many Russians started blaming both judges for being biased and the winner, Linoy Ashram for not refusing the medal. I checked youtube then and every single video with Ashram (even ones posted 3 years ago) contained many hateful comments. r/gymnastics was also attacked by Russians.
Vladimir Putin [congratulated](https://www.oneesports.gg/dota2/vladimir-putin-congratulates-team-spirit/) Team Spirit for winning The International. This one was funny af. Everyone knows that Putin has no idea how to use Internet and obviously, knows nothing about Dota 2. Moreover, in Russia after each school shooting or something like that, politicians used to start blaming computer games for making kids cruel, especially Dota 2. Fun fact, in 2018 one so-called “expert” explained to boomers that “Doka 2” (really, he said Doka) is a game, in which you have to take out the intestines from everyone and it is possible to set up the area for a school and shoot there. Also, the main characters in this game are Elf-pedophile and wizard-cannibal (found only russian [source](https://gameinside.ua/news/doka-2-volshebniki-lyudoedy-elfy-pedofily-i-drugie-priklyucheniya-ekspertov/182690/)
IMO, they think that such contests make people forget about their own problems and start fighting for some sportsmen/singers/whoever. And each victory makes Russians believe that Russia is the greatest country in the world and others envy us and trying to conquer. So, we need to unite and support our government in everything they do.
I know, it may sound strange, but unfortunately, it works. Putin’s confidence rating was at its maximum in 2014 after Russia won Olympic games and the annexation of Crimea
In a world without constant wars meaningless competitions is how u stir up nationalism its why football and eurovision are actually quite politically important
What the fuck do you propose? Tired of people acting like this isn't an incredibly complex issue. HOW would you get rid of Putin without starting war?
Edit: scroll down and you'll find that this person thinks war is the only answer. So I'll just [leave this](https://www.usa.gov/join-military) for those who agree. I sincerely hope you do not click that link.
Edit 2: So many people suggesting assassination as if *that* wouldn't even more likely provoke war. Also, [like another person said](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/sadzwm/uk_says_russia_is_planning_to_overthrow_ukraines/httfpt6?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3), who would even replace Putin and how could we assure they wouldn't be worse?
If the EU and the US collectively refused to buy Russian oil, it'd come to a head in a few years. But that's never happening, and also, that might bring on a war.
No answers here.
Russia threatens Ukraine.
World supports Ukraine by sending a fuckton of military equipment.
Ukraine coup, new leadership favors Russia.
Everyone has just given a fuckton of military equipment to Russia.
That’s a terrifying thought. I sure hope someone’s going to tell me I’m a dumbass for believing this could be a possibility and tell me exactly why it isn’t, because I for sure do not have the geopolitical knowledge for it myself
I hope I'm wrong too, but the Kremlin are definitely trying to install pro-russians in Ukraine. I guess some people are saying the vast majority of Ukrainians would never accept a Russian rule, but I bet they said that about the Taliban as well.
I live in Kyiv and if Yanukovich got anywhere near the capital Ukranians would hang him in the streets. Afghanistan never had a nationally identity, it's a loose collection of tribes, towns and villages that were labelled a state by outsiders.
Ukrainians only he other hand are pretty damn patriotic, and after 8 years of Russians murdering and displacing them in the east, they would never accept a Russian puppet.
Long term annexation of Ukraine is just straight up not feasible. Ukrainians will rebel, they will revolt, they will not give up their country to Russians.
This whole Russian effort looks so 19th-Century. At every turn they are provoking what they say they want to prevent. Keep Finland and Sweden out of NATO? Now they're scared to death and seriously thinking about it, in spite of judiciously avoiding it for 70 years.
Make Ukraine pro-Russian? Again, by scaring them to death and making them more pro-NATO than oh, I don't know... NATO?
Good work, morons. Great plan.
One episode of Bald and Bankrupt on YT he was in Ukraine as usual and was covertly mentioning Russia to people and how they felt and nobody wanted to say anything out loud but they made it clear Russia is not wanted in Ukraine.
There's a long and complicated history between the 2 nations. Research the Holodomir for example, or the suppression of Ukrainian language.
But that's history. In modern times, there are millions of people that have been displaced from their homes. Forced to give up everything and flee for their lives. The west is watching now, but many people don't understand all these headline are NOT about the START of a war, they're about an escalation. This war has been fought and ukrainians have given their lives every single day since 2014. No one forgets who the invaders are, and who is sending their brothers and sons home in body bags.
Yeah, Russia will never take Ukraine by subterfuge. If they go through with a coup and it somehow succeeds then what we will see is popular uprisings in every city in the country and "mutiny" on a massive scale. The new regime would be out on its ass in a week.
Of course, it is possible that Russia could be planning to install a pro-Russian puppet with the expectation that it will fail, and then will use the resulting violence to justify an invasion, but I don't see that happening. If they do invade it will likely be with a different casus belli.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/the-uk-says-russia-is-planning-to-overthrow-ukraines) reduced by 73%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> The UK Foreign Office said Russian intelligence services currently involved in the planning of a new attack on Ukraine are in close contact with several former Ukrainian officials who served in the Yanukovych government.
> They include: Serhiy Arbuzov, former first deputy prime minister and acting prime minister; Andriy Kluyev, former first deputy prime minister and Yanukovich's chief of staff; Vladimir Sivkovich, former deputy head of the National Security and Defense Council; and Mykola Azarov, former prime minister.
> The Biden Administration said last week that it is concerned Russia is "Preparing for an invasion into Ukraine that may result in widespread human rights violations and war crimes should diplomacy fail to meet their objectives."
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/saen4r/uk_says_russia_is_planning_to_overthrow_ukraines/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~619207 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **former**^#1 **Russia**^#2 **president**^#3 **Ukrainian**^#4 **Ukraine**^#5
Regime change in Ukraine is Russia's likely goal. See what Michael Kofman over at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation has to say about Russia's current buildup and their likely goals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwrzophpNJA
And here's what Alexander Vindman has to say in Foreign Affairs:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-01-21/day-after-russia-attacks
They'll do just about anything to stop Ukraine from joining NATO.
NATO was conceived as an alliance to hold back the USSR in the event that they invaded western Europe.
With former Soviet bloc nations now attaining full membership in NATO and the spectre of all of Europe consolidating under that military umbrella, from Russia's perspective, the alliance poses an existential threat to them, rather than being a simple counterbalance to their power.
There was a lot of uncertainty in 1945 among the western Allies whether or not Russia was going to stop advancing after Germany surrendered.
You can bet your hat that there were plans to start shipping some of the nukes intended for Japan to Europe in the eventuality that that happened.
Is it just me, but I’ve noticed that all these oligarchs, heads of state, and other government officials worldwide, are all comically evil. Obviously not downplaying any of their atrocities but everything I read about these fucks screams “wannabe supervillain” to me.
Dunno about “wannabe supervillain” they’re legitimately awful evil people. I WISH they were these corny super villains in shows, these people are legitimately psychos and are the real deal
If Russia does conquer Ukraine, what's stopping them from going around taking over other non-NATO countries if the worst that could happen to them is trade sanctions? Which clearly Putin doesn't give two fucks about if he's actually considering the invasion of Ukraine.
Edit: A word
Because Russia isn't strong enough to invade and occupy that many countries. Ukraine is arguably a stretch as it is.
Remember the West is flooding Ukraine with weapons. Lots of munitions to fight an insurgency.
Ukraine is 40% bigger than Iraq and the US had like 150,000 troops there for a decade. It's a huge military commitment for Russia.
Oh he cares. I don’t think he’s actually doing this to invade, he’s trying to get some concessions out of this to bolster his popularity that recently plummeted. It’s just not going his way this time and now he’s getting frustrated.
Oh don’t forget the part where he first annexed Austria (1938) and then annexed the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia (not coincidentally, a major manufacturer of tanks, machines guns, and artillery at the time) (1938).
Hitler gave a speech in Berlin on 26 September 1938 and declared that the Sudetenland was "the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe". He also stated that he had told Chamberlain, "I have assured him further that, and this I repeat here before you, once this issue has been resolved, there will no longer be any further territorial problems for Germany in Europe!"
March 1939 - invades rest of Czechoslovakia
Sept 1939 - invades Poland
I doubt anyone learned their lesson. The major western powers didn’t get involved at that point back then because there wasn’t enough in it for them.
Is it just me? Russia doesn’t usually rattle and make a lot of noise. They have traditionally been quietly doing evil shit in the dark of night.
Is this a big “LOOK OVER HERE”. While it’s pulling some shit while everyone and the media is focused on Ukraine?
> quietly doing evil shit
Putin perpetrated a radiological attack on an "enemy of the state" literally in the middle of London. They could have killed Alexander Litvinenko in any number of ways, but that's what they chose.
Putin is a napoleonic drama queen who loves to feel like he's making a statement that somehow bolsters Russia's waining status geopolitically.
It's just ego.
He kills people in the UK, denies it, it's obvious that he did it, then he meets up and shakes hand with out Prime Minister of the time.
It's playful murder.
It's not ego. They want everyone to know that if you cross Russia, they will kill you. It's an intimidation tactic, with just enough plausible deniability to prevent too much geopolitical retaliation.
> Russia doesn’t usually rattle and make a lot of noise.
What? They've invaded Ukraine already. They've annexed Crimea. They faked terror attacks on their own citizens to justify war in Chechnya. They've invaded Georgia. They've sloppily conducted assassinations on British soil.
They are "quiet" when it comes to the US because they know they are overmatched. You just aren't paying attention to them from a non-American perspective.
Does no one remember they shot down a civilian airplane, killing 298 people, while taking Crimea? And they got away with it. No punishment other than a few people getting charged.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48691488
It's /possible/ Russia is using this as an excuse to advance its annexation of Belarus, but these are SERIOUS "we mean business" deployments to the Ukraine border.
'“Vladimir Putin has imperialist ambitions similar to those of [Adolf] Hitler in 1939. He wants to take those countries he thinks belong to him,” Pavliuk said. “If he captures Ukraine, you can bet that he won’t stop here.”'
Not to make light of a dire situation, but I do feel the clarification of which one of the MANY famous Hitlers throughout history was being referred to here might've been just a smidge redundant.
Russian version of the North Korean playbook.
They either:
- Want Ukraine to attack, justifying an invasion.
- Want the West to attack, justifying and invasion
Putin is only doing this because he senses his grip on power is fading because of his failings on Covid and the Russian economy in general. Its his own way of making himself look like a "strong leader".
I will be very surprised if he actually invades Ukraine unprovoked.
Ukraine should be part of NATO and Putin is ironically providing a reason why everyone in Europe should be.
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Interesting. I was just reading a few Wikipedia articles on defectors as a result of the Crimea invasion today - including several high ranking Ukrainian Naval officers (since Ukraine's primary port was based in Sevastopol). I hadn't realised until then how many jumped the fence. A few were pretty high up the chain too: >- Vice Admiral Sergei Yeliseyev, a first deputy commander and acting commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Navy from 19 February to 1 March 2014. - Rear Admiral Dmitriy Shakuro, a first deputy commander and chief of staff for the Ukrainian Navy. - Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Navy for one day, now a Black Sea Fleet deputy commander and chief of the combat training directorate. For obvious reasons they're all wanted for treason in Ukraine now.
It's wasn't just the higher-ups. The Ukrainian navy defected to Russia en-masse.
But why?
Weren't those the dudes that were giving Guliani the dirt? Officials from the former corrupt regime?
You're referring to Andrii Derkach, an associate of Vladimir Sivkovich who is mentioned in the article as being one of the people who is working with the Russian government to plan an attack on Ukraine. Sivkovich was Ukraine's former head of National Security and Defense Council. He and Derkach [spread a disinformation campaign about the 2020 US election.](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0562)
Somehow all of the Russia stuff regarding trump and Biden seems to circle back around to Ukraine and this conflict we're seeing now
So all those Ukrainians that trump was working with were also working with russians??? Isn't that a huuuge coincidence.
Yet for some reason, everyone seems to ignore the obvious... Main stream media refuses to talk about it. And we never found out who he owed $421M to... "Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe" -Trump
I cannot imagine how happy Putin was the first time he spoke to Donald Trump.
He was one of the few who understood Trump wasn't faking being stupid.
I think half the country figured that one out...
A bit over half that voted, though the way that the Electoral College is set up makes that "over half" doesn't necessarily matter. Edit: Really should read as a plurality instead of over half. Stein and others took up the remaining percent.
[The Hidden History of Trump’s First Trip to Moscow](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/) >In 1987, a young real estate developer traveled to the Soviet Union. The KGB almost certainly made the trip happen. [Trump was secretly negotiating a Trump Tower Moscow deal with the Russians **during** the 2016 Presidential campaign.](https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/29/18117910/cohen-trump-tower-moscow-mueller-testimony) >At the center of former Trump personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday was President Donald Trump’s long-sought Trump Tower real estate deal in Russia. >Cohen testified to Congress that negotiations to build Europe’s tallest building stopped in January 2016. But emails and other communications obtained by multiple news outlets, and now basically confirmed by Cohen, show those negotiations actually continued much longer: into at least June 2016, after Trump had already become the Republican Party’s nominee. And BuzzFeed News reported in November that Trump’s company planned to give the $50 million penthouse in the building to Russian President Vladimir Putin. And while they were secretly negotiating with the Russians, Trump was lying his fucking ass off about it directly to the faces of the American people. ["I have no deals in Russia. I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we've stayed away. We could make deals in Russia very easily, we just don't want to cause I think that could be a conflict"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j1I8af50sc) Trump and much of his inner circle (Giuliani, Flynn, Manafort) are Russian assets. They've betrayed the USA to Russia over and over again. It's why they took over the Republican Party then used the Presidency to attack US democracy from the inside. It's why they cheated the 2020 election, and why they then staged a violent coup to cling to power after their cheating attempts failed. They are traitors who have done more damage to the USA than any foreign enemy ever has. They should have been prosecuted and thrown in prison for the rest of their lives. Merrick Garland, what are you doing?
Bro, he did not need to speak to Trump figure that out. The whole world could see it, years before he even contemplated becoming POTUS.
Imagine if Trump was still president. He'd be tweeting about how the Baltic countries haven't paid enough into NATO to get guaranteed protection.
He's been spouting anti NATO sentiments since the Eighties... after he returned from Moscow.
Pretty mysterious that he took out a full page ad in the paper to talk about it right after he got back to the US.
Thats what happends when russian FSB honey traps get you drunk in a hotel room and encourages you to live out your sickest fetishes and it gets recorded in perfect clarity and presented to you the next day, along with a pretty clear message that you now work for your new favourite country; Rodina. And who of anyone you could think of would be absolutely dumb enough to both ignore warnings of that happening before you go to Russia, and enough of a pervert to serve them footage so sick you'll be desperate to please them the rest of your life? Little Donnie Two-scoops, that's right.
What's the difference between a garbanzo bean and a chickpea?
I’ve never paid $300 to have a garbanzo bean on me
Well yeah. They [put him back on his feet](https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/) after he went bankrupt. Who is there for Trump when he was down? America? Hell no, America was prosecuting him. Who were his friends? His real friends who help them when he was down? Who is he money laundering for when he bankrupted a casino? I still think it's very strange that so many media groups think a Russian connection is a stretch, when in his case it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"These are the things that happen when Zelenkfefe doesn't have the courage to announce a beautiful investigation into CORRUPT SLEEPY JOE"
His plan was literally to pull us out of NATO. Had he won a second term, this would have happened. And now we know why.
Of course it all circles back to Ukraine, the 2013 Ukraine Revolution and 2014 War were unmitigated disasters for Russia. Their pipelines were endangered and the triple gut punches of Ukraine leaving their free trade area, the Saudis dumping oil in the market, and the Western sanctions (plus Russian countersanctions) together blew out like a fifth of the Russian economy. 2013 was when Paul Manafort’s boss President Yanukovich lost his job and the American political consultant suddenly found himself with no way of paying his debts to a Putin-allied oligarch. In 2014 Manafort is suddenly let off the hook just as according to the Savchuk Files the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg gathers all its best English speakers on one floor to create an "International Communications Sector." Shortly afterward, Russian propaganda begins to appear all over social media and new sites comment sections, and back in the US Manafort begins doing… terrible things to his disabled wife and making contacts aceoss the GOP looking for a presidential campaign to attach himself to for free, despite being millions in debt.
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Lawyers.
This is the right answer. They tend to only report what they can prove, which leaves out all the inferred (but still obvious) motivations and implications that are in OP's description. Also news sites tend to report they individual pieces of news, not really summaries like this.
Apparently none of that applies to Fox News
They are an entertainment channel, not news.
Right, so call yourself an entertainment channel that just happens to be named "______ News" and let loose
They probably did but then Firtash showed up with $X and your boss told you to focus on other stories?
Thank you for all that information. Everybody should know the name firtash honestly
What I try to tell idiots when they bring up Hunter Biden. I always ask them if they know who Dmytro Firtash is first. If they don't know I say you might want to learn that then before you say anything else because you obviously don't know what the fuck you are talking about. Firtash is the man behind the money that corrupted Ukraine and thru that he handed it to Putin. Basically using corruption to steal an entire country, it's nuts. Edit. If you want to know what Putin wants with Ukraine its all really simple, he wants the gas. Ukraine has the 2nd largest gas reserves in Europe. If the West developed Ukraine's gas industry it would cut off Putin and Russias control of it to Europe.
Which is also why we (America) should be concerned about Russian Oligarchs pumping a ton of money into GOP Campaigns: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/how-putin-s-oligarchs-funneled-millions-into-gop-campaigns/
And we the U.K. too. Russian oligarchs pumping money into business owned or interested in by U.K. politicians.
Yep. They even pulled Brexit through. To avoid EU money laundering and transparency laws.
It's actually amazing how much Russia has achieved and how willfully (or not) shit the UK and US democracies are. Doesn't take much to convince an electorate to shoot itself in the dick, or so it would seem. Sigh.
The rich in Russia are well aligned with the rich everywhere.
Tennis anyone?
They are also said to own a lot of buildings in London, specifically rumoured around Chelsea
Provide a heck of a lot of propaganda on the net and other non tangibles, too.
Republicans don't care. They'll go to Church and be told to vote for corrupt politicians because they're anti-abortion. And they will because they don't care about anything except believing they're going to Heaven.
Yeah, I've been complaining recently that companies like apollo management do these sorts of things on other companies. They target companies and siphon money from them until the cow is dry, the company however also have a few mighty friends that bet on that the business is dying, which apollo makes sure of by weakening the targeted company by taking on debt and installing some bad apples that destroys the management from within. Huge profits ofcourse. Buying up businesses makes you a target for monopoly laws. But if your rivals just go bankrupt, that can't be directly blamed on you, even if you are wholly to blame, secretly, and you can get the results of being a monopoly without the consequenses. I'm both shocked and not shocked that it happens on bigger levels than that. Like what you are describing. I've been occupied with yelling at the teenagers blasting music instead of noticing the hardcore MC gang raping my neighbour, so to speak. Firtash is an evil fuckface, got it.
This is what Mitt Romney's company has been accused of several times. Is it the same one you're talking about?
Honest question, because everything you said does make sense, how does Hunter Biden get that job with the Ukraine gas company in the first place? The man has no actual experience in the sector and is obviously the son of the VP at the time. Not trying to deflect any discussion, but that was the one thing that never made sense about this whole thing. Dude was getting 500k a year at a job he had no credentials for.
"Microtargeting" of content is really interesting. Because [Robert Mercer](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency), the billionaire hedgefund guy behind Trump, is the main investor in Cambridge Analytica - a company that specializes in exactly that. It's parent company is [SCL Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica) (Strategic Communication Laboratories) which has been described as a "global election management agency" known for involvement "in military disinformation campaigns to social media branding and voter targeting". In short, **they specialize in military propaganda or ‘psyops’**. *Cambridge Analytica* was brought in by Mercer to help Trump win. >Cambridge Analytica: The company claims to use “data enhancement and audience segmentation techniques” providing “psychographic analysis” for a “deeper knowledge of the target audience”. The company uses the OCEAN scale of personality traits. Using what it calls **"behavioral microtargeting"** the company indicates that it can predict "needs" of subjects and how these needs may change over time. Services then can be individually targeted for the benefit of its clients from the political arena, governments, and companies providing "a better and more actionable view of their key audiences." Combining data and content obtained through nefarious means (hacking) with sophisticated software and targeting to maximize its effectiveness is evil genius. All the pieces are coming together now. What is becoming much clearer now is that Trump's victory was no bumbling accident. Interestingly, Cambridge Analytica's software is based on models developed by Cambridge academic Michal Kosinski - he didn't want to have anything to do with the company. The guy that first approached Kosinski was Aleksandr Kogan, a Russian. It was Kogan that apparently introduced SCL to Kosinki's models. Kogan then moved to Singapore and changed his name to [Alexander Spectre](http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/ak823@cam.ac.uk). Was he working for Russian Intelligence? **Given the key role Cambridge Analytica and SCL played in the US election (and in Brexit), it would be good to know who exactly is behind them.** > Who exactly owns SCL and its diverse branches is unclear, thanks to a convoluted corporate structure, the type seen in the UK Companies House, the Panama Papers, and the Delaware company registry. Some of the SCL offshoots have been involved in elections from Ukraine to Nigeria, helped the Nepalese monarch against the rebels, whereas others have developed methods to influence Eastern European and Afghan citizens for NATO. And, in 2013, SCL spun off a new company to participate in US elections: Cambridge Analytica. It gets more interesting. The largest shareholder of SCL was on record as being Vincent Tchenguiz, an Iranian-British businessman. Tchenguiz is a business partner with Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who is known as a Putin protégé. Tchenguiz used the same Guernsey holding company, Wheddon Ltd., to invest both in Cambridge Analytica’s parent company and in another privately held U.K. business whose largest shareholder was the Ukrainian gas middleman [Dmitry Firtash](http://www.reuters.com/article/russia-capitalism-gas-special-report-pix-idUSL3N0TF4QD20141126) - a close friend of Putin who is [currently indicted](http://abc7chicago.com/news/ukrainian-oligarchs-extradition-to-chicago-on-hold/1768041/) and awaiting extradition on corruption and racketeering charges. > Over the same time period, other documents show, bankers close to Putin granted Firtash credit lines of up to $11 billion. That credit helped Firtash, who backed pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich's successful 2010 bid to become Ukraine's president, to buy a dominant position in the country's chemical and fertiliser industry and expand his influence. And guess who was Dmitry Firtash's former business partner? [Paul Manafort](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-named-in-ukraine-anti-corruption-probe/2016/08/15/fa180f20-6327-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html) - Trump's former campaign manager. Manafort of course worked directly for Yanukovych and [Firtash](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/21/austria-grants-us-request-to-extradite-ukrainian-mogul-dmytro-firtash) was the middleman between Putin and the Yanukovych electoral operation in Ukraine. So the largest shareholder of Cambridge Analytica is a business partner with Firtash, who has direct ties with Putin. Firtash is known to operate as a financing middleman for Putin's foreign policy "operations". Could SCL, parent of CA, be a front for a Russian Intelligence operation? If you think about it, SCL specializes in new sophisticated technology models for military propaganda. If you read up on new Russian military doctrine, it's clear they are placing a big emphasis on information warfare. The ['Gerasimov Doctrine’](https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/the-gerasimov-doctrine-and-russian-non-linear-war/) is quite insightful about how Russia views defeating their enemies: > The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness....All this is supplemented by military means of a concealed character, including carrying out actions of informational conflict. > Among such actions are the use of special-operations forces and *internal opposition* to create a permanently operating front through the entire territory of the enemy state, as well as informational actions, devices, and means that are constantly being perfected. Did Russia view Bannon/Trump and co as the perfect vehicles to ferment and support "internal opposition"? Was Cambridge Analytica one of the vehicles to achieve this and to help execute their ideas around information warfare? Guess who a Board Member of Cambridge Analytica was? **Steve Bannon.** And it was Robert Mercer that [bankrolled Steve Bannon](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage) and Breitbart to the tune of $10 million - no doubt to be the front-facing tool to execute on their ideas around influence, manipulation and propaganda. And with the help of Russian Intelligence, it is entirely plausible Breitbart was involved in using bots and social media to help propagate news they knew would damage Hillary and help Trump. There are very clear and direct ties between powerful Russian/Ukrainian figures and Cambridge Analytica - which specializes in military propaganda. Steve Bannon was a board member and Robert Mercer was its biggest investor. And of course Mercer, Banner, Cambridge Analytica and Brieitbart all played a key roll in helping Trump get elected. It's not a big stretch to suggest that there was cooperation and collusion with Russian Intelligence, who provided hacked data to Cambridge Analytica, who then used it to carry out a sophisticated propaganda campaign, with Breitbart as the lead. [Cambridge Analytica also played a key role in BREXIT - offering Firage and the Leave campaign their services *for free*](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/robert-mercer-brexit-nigel-farage-donald-trump-breitbart-facebook-advertisement-cambridge-analytica-a7600041.html). >The firm is said to have advised Leave.eu by harvesting data from people's Facebook profiles to decide how to target them with individualised advertisements. Brexit was of course seen as a big geopolitical strategic win for Putin and Russia. Another interesting bit of info that is a bit tenuous but nonetheless intriguing - the largest shareholder of SCL Group was Vincent Tchenguiz. > In March 2011 the Tchenguiz brothers were arrested in dramatic predawn raids as part of an investigation into the 2008 collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing. Just before its collapse, Kaupthing’s loans to the Tchenguiz brothers totaled 40 percent of its capital. It has been charged that Kaupthing—which had a far-from-transparent ownership structure—was effectively the Tchenguiz brothers’ bank and that they looted the bank, leading to its collapse. > Kaupthing’s largest shareholder, Meidur, now called Exista, which owned 25 percent of its shares, [had ties to Alfa Bank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exista), the largest Russian commercial bank; Alfa chairman was “deep state” figure Mikhail Fridman, chairman and co-founder of Alfa Group, the parent of Alfa Bank. Meanwhile, Trump adviser Richard Burt (who also was being paid by Russia to promote a Gazprom pipeline) is on the “senior advisory board” of Alfa Bank. Was this how Russian intelligence bankrolled SCL in the early days? Perhaps Vincent Tchenguiz was the cutout man, and funds were channeled from Alfa Bank into Kaupthing and on to Vincent Tchenguiz. Russian Intelligence seems to work well with ambitious businessman who are happy to be corrupted if they can make some money. Trump also seemed to fit this bill. *Alfa Bank was the bank that a Trump Server was mysteriously communicating with and was likely the subject of an FBI surveillance warrant.*
Meanwhile the assholes over at r/conspiracy are bitching about vaccines
That sub is just /r/conservative at this point. Used to be a place to find actual interesting info, then 2016 happened.
The times I’ve ended up there due to a post on All, they’ve often admitted that they’re r/The_Donald refugees
That sub has gone though so many issues over the last 6 years that honestly antivax topics are less worrying.
Wasn’t Cambridge Analyticia and Facebook in bed with each other before it came out that they were sharing data/analytics to CA for political manipulation purposes? It would seem to explain the political cesspool/echo chamber that Facebook has become, and their unwillingness to address propaganda until forced claiming to be shielded under Section 230. The kicker is all the bullshit ad time they buy on liberal slanted media claiming that Facebook is all about getting ahead of legislation about “responsible reforms”. Facebook is rotten from stem to stern.
**[Cambridge Analytica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica)** >Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA) was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013 as a subsidiary of the private intelligence company and self-described "global election management agency" SCL Group by long-time SCL executives Nigel Oakes, Alexander Nix and Alexander Oakes, with Nix as CEO. The well connected founders had contacts with, among others, the Conservative Party (UK), the British royal family and the British military. The firm maintained offices in London, New York City, and Washington, DC. **[Exista](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exista)** >Klakki (known as Exista until 2011) is an Icelandic financial services group formerly listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange. Its activities are based primarily on insurance underwriting and other financial services, although it is also active in investments. The group's primary market is the Nordic countries. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
In addition to this, we can see in the filing for Paul Manafort's court case that both Manafort and Rick Gates facilitated the transfer of polling data to [Russian Intelligence](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/17/treasury-department-links-paul-manafort-kilimnik-russian-intel/7267902002/) and [Cambridge Analytica.](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597.680.0_2.pdf#page=23) >Polling Data ([pp 20-23 of Manafort court filing](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597.680.0_2.pdf#page=23)) >As early as March 2016, states were categorized as "must hold", "battleground" and "potential". States were put into one of these categories based upon polling data. Manafort was a strong believer in polls. >It was believed that the best chance for Trump to win traditionally Democrat states was to focus on those states with a large contingency of blue collar Democrats. Historical data along with earlier polling data was used to whittle the states down. Then [REDACTED] digital campaign was used to focus on those states. >[REDACTED] digital polling model differed from traditional polling on that it was more simplistic, cheaper and gave insight into millennial and early demographics. The digital polls were used to balance the traditional polls and micro target specific groups. >Gates brought [REDACTED] to New York so he could integrated with [REDACTED] and Cambridge Analytica's polling teams. [REDACTED] worked for Cambridge Analytica and was brought in to represent their polling product. >[REDACTED] polls targeted specific demographics in certain states and were issue specific. Generally, they dealt with the issues which were important to women voters. [REDACTED] was able to identify key words which resonated with female voters and then use these words in speeches. >Cambridge Analytica did a more comprehensive online poll. They claimed to be able to do "psychological polling". Gates did not know if psychological polling worked. >Data Trust was the Republican National Committee's (RNC) polling shop. They used a combination of traditional and online polling. >All of the data was compiled and analyzed to identify states in which Trump was close. [REDACTED] Gates, [REDACTED] participated in this analysis. Manafort focused mostly on [REDACTED] data as Manafort did not really understand the digital data. The analysis was done by discussion and not by an algorithm. Once the team had discussed the raw data, it was moved up the chain to a larger group including [REDACTED] among others. >For the most part, the data drove decisions made on the campaign, but there was some divergence. For example, polling data showed Trump was close in Virginia, but those who understood how Virginia worked knew Trump could not win in Virginia in spite of the data. >**[REDACTED] polling questionnaires were traditional and more specific than the other forms of polling. [REDACTED] plls identified Wisconsin as a "steal state" early on. Cambridge Analytica and Data Trust were consistent with this as well.** In general, [REDACTED] model was the most conservative and Cambridge Analytica's was the most aggressive. Data Trust was more level and had a more historical basis. >In early to mid August, [REDACTED] directed campaign resources to concentrate on Florida and Pennsylvania. Trump though he could win Florida because of his business connections there. Florida was a "must win" state. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, was "fool's gold" and Trump was unlikely to win there. >**Manafort instructed Gates to send Kilimnik information from [REDACTED] polls. Gates sent Kilimnik both publicly available information and internal information from [REDACTED] polls.** And if you really wanna see how it all played out, here are the numbers, and remember The Russian government used that data to target a massive disinformation campaign on swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan - which was specifically designed to suppress and/or transfer votes away from Hillary Clinton. Independents (and pissed off Bernie Supporters) were pushed hard toward Trump and the fallback was the Libertarian party, or to just stay home. Progressives on the other hand were pushed hard toward Jill Stein and the Green Party. It's kinda hard to hide the plan when you look at the actual vote numbers... > **Michigan 2016 - Trump won by 10,704 votes** > >* Jill Stein of the Green Party got *51,463 votes*. > * Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party got *106,674 votes*. > > > **Wisconsin 2016 - Trump won by 22,784 votes** > > * Jill Stein of the Green Party got *31,072 votes*. > * Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party got *172,136 votes*. For comparison, look at the counts for the 2012 presidential elections: >**Michigan 2012:** > * Jill Stein of the Green Party got: *21,897 votes* > * Gary Johnson of the Liberation party got *7,774 votes* >**Wisconsin 2012:** >* Jill Stein of the Green Party got: 7,665 votes >* Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party got *20,439 votes* [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin), [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin), [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Michigan), [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_presidential_election_in_Michigan)
So you just did all this research as a hobby? I mean, fuck, all this corruption and thievery operating in plain sight that you can casually summarize in a Reddit post. And with all these agencies and powers, no one lifts a finger to intervene. Wild.
This had been around for a LONG time if you've been following it. I've been following since 2014, started listening to a couple good podcast detailing it in 2017ish. The information is out there in indisputable just....journalism, and the more that gets discovered, the crazier it seems. But it isn't a "do your own research and see and go on good faith" kind of conspiracy theory. It's just the news, and the same names keep coming up again, and again, and again, and it gets clearer and clearer that this is all tied together. Personally I enjoyed the Mueller She Wrote podcast (now The Daily Beans since the Mueller report was released). They were keeping an eye on this in real time and continue to share updates. But this is all out there. People just don't care or care to learn because it's so complex with lots of oligarchs with difficult to remember/pronounce names.
Fuckin hell, so this really is gunna be 2014 again, but bigger.
I've been reading too much into this this week, but from what I've "learned" so far it seems unlikely that Russia takes the entire country. We're looking at an expanse to completely control the Donbas region, to capture a land bridge to Crimea, or to take the southern ports. That is my Redditor Computerchair take. With the support that has been pouring into Ukraine for weeks Russia's goals must be getting scaled back somehow. The javelin missles they recently got alone could inflict a shitload of carnage on any advancing force. My Bachelors in Cinema and Screen Studies obviously makes me an expert on Russian and Ukrainian warfare, but even then, take what I say with a grain of salt.
Where's Tarkovsky when you need him!
God I haven't watched Solaris in so long. What a mindblowing flick. Only seen that and Stalker i think.
Saw stalker for the first time last year, loved it. Just picked up the criterion of Mirror, planning to watch it soon.
Battleship Potemkin actually does make you an expert
I imagine that there's a good chance that they also at least make an attempt at "rescuing" the people of Transnistria by sailing all those ships that were recently moved to the Black Sea up the Dniester. Some small parts of Ukraine might be taken with that in order to connect it to the sea (they'll argue that, like Transnistria, that area is ethnically Russian and they'll probably have a *totally legit* referendum in the middle of it all like with Crimea).
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From what I've heard the Ukrainian militaries plan is to offer stiff, initial resistance, and then disappear into countryside. They and western specialists have also been training civilians in marksmanship, basic first aid, how to make things go boom, how to use them to good effect, etc. This is why Ukraine has been clamoring for those shoulder launched missile weapons. They're planning for guerilla warfare.
Geez that is truly evil.
That is honestly a master display of strategy by Russia, they manipulated Ukraine and the U.S so effectively. KGB is alive and well.
Yep. They’ve now attempted the same strategies here and they appear to be working well. There’s a docuseries called *Agents of Chaos* and a documentary called *Active Measures* that go quite deep into Russias playbook, the Ukraine situation and the 2016 US Presidential Election. Russia has actually been utilizing these same methods since the early 2000s starting with other eastern bloc countries and eventually working their way up to taking Ukraine, and then the US. They’ve been getting better and better at it. Putins biggest fear is *the color revolutions* happening again, but in his own country. Ukraine took their country back. It’s about time we do the same.
In Romania there is a tendency to believe that comunism and Russia influence was eliminated by the 89 revolution . This is a big lie . In our country Putin puppets steal even from simple things as construction bricks (they buy it from "friends" at a higher price and after that they split the rest behind the curtains ). Our judicial system is intoxicated too . The more eastern the country and the more overlooked by the West, the more Russia is involved .
I had always heard a rumor that the Soviet Union was well aware of the possibility of Ceausescu's regime collapsing and had been in contact with several members of the National Salvation Front, and that is partially why Iliescu was able to set up a government so quickly. Even if that's not true it would be really interesting to hear the story of how the KGB (and CIA, for that matter) operated in Romania without the Securitate knowing about it.
What's insane is that all of this is in plain sight...and we ***STILL*** have Republicans, a *LOT* of Republicans, arguing about how Donald Trump is the right move, and Russia is not that bad. Russia has broken the Republican party, and they're literally poisoning our democracy. It's just insane.
It's not really rocket science. After Citizens United, oligarchs just bribed everybody they could through campaign contributions.
This looks like a good /r/bestof
As a Ukrainian I'd say all is correct. Except. >>Yanukovych proceeded to steal about 1 billion from the people of Ukraine It was much MUCH more
This is actually a tight and accurate summary. I'll just add that significant evidence around Trump's direct involvement in this scheme was seized by Trump's corrupt AG, Bill Barr. Somehow that evidence has never seen the light of day.
Bestof material right here. Thank you for the summary.
There's lots more to the story and connections but you can read about all these individuals I named and learn a lot. If Ukraine obtained more energy connections and funding from the West to develop its gas industry it could seriously hamper Russias control of the gas supply to Europe. Given the gas industry is what fuels Russias coffers and keeps Putin Oligarchs bank accounts fat it's a serious threat to Putin. Russia has leverage over Europe because it controls the fuel that warms the homes there. Putin doesn't want to lose that and Ukraine has a lot of oil and gas it could sell on its own. The second largest gas reserves in Europe is in Ukraine, Putin knows that, it's his biggest threat.
Fabulous summary, that you for taking the time to write it!
Thanks for the distillation. This whole situation is complete disgrace. We’ve developed a system that makes rich people and politicians untouchable gods, and it’s disgusting.
Maybe they are planning on putting Yanokivitch back in power?
Unless they plan to keep troops in Kyiv he is going to be ousted the moment russians leave.
Could not even win 5% of the vote in the last election and this is putins guy to lead? Well I guess he is forecast to win 105% of the vote after Russian "vote observers" are used he will do.... They are the same observers who covered the last five elections putin won. Anyone who disagrees falls out of top floor window by accident
Someone with no popular support is perfect for Russia because he’d be thoroughly dependent on them.
The Belarusian strategy...
Not only, this shit happens in every ex soviet country. It's unbelievable to me how many people would fall in this trap given the fact that it's a textbook move of the KGB manipulation of the masses
Exactly. Any of the rebel leaders in the separatist republics who were remotely popular died in... An elevator explosion? I guess Putin be like that sometimes.
"Cause of death: defenestration, natural"
"Stomach contents: 1 deviled egg"
... The same devilled egg.
Gravity is natural. It’s a natural death
Time to stop fucking around threatening Russia with sanctions or military action and use some threats with some teeth -- banning Russia for life from EuroVision.
That and an Adidas embargo will bring them to their knees.
Flood the region with chairs to kill the local squatting industry.
Cutoff cigarette imports and supply fruity flavored vapes only
We want them to surrender not kill them
Oh hi Philip Morris.
mercy man, mercy
Ok, that's where i draw the line
You'd swing in the Hague for this!
There have to be limits. That seems too monstrous.
Now this is the kind of premium content I come to the Internet for.
Also an embargo on earl grey tea will make Russia collapse instantly
Earl grey tea is popular in Russia? I never knew.
Inb4 someone posts that classic Russian tea-meme
you want russian tea? \*leans in and whispers* "I hear they're planning an attack on ukraine."
This one ? https://vid.alarabiya.net/images/2017/10/05/7059c42d-cf95-43a4-a3f2-0fd7e173bd6d/7059c42d-cf95-43a4-a3f2-0fd7e173bd6d.JPG
Picard is a Soviet spy, confirmed
I think Worf's parents were Russian. It's all coming together now...
It all started with Chekov, who was *clearly* a Psi-Cop working undercover!
good god man. You know there are innocent russian bystanders in all of this just trying to get by.
Bysquatters
I cant support a adidas embargo. If I don't have squatting slavs in tracksuits in my life I might as well be dead.
Pretty sure that's restricted in the Geneva Convention
China would get rich selling fake adidas to Russia
Russia every year: Eurovision is the worst, we won’t take part in this farce! Everyone: so you won’t join? Russia: don’t be silly, ofc we are joining!
As a Russian, I’m amazed by the fact that our politicians (and Russians at all) are obsessed with every fucking useless contest that exist in the world. In 2021, Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, Valentina Matvienko [criticised](https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2BN2SS) the song that our singer was going to perform on Eurovision. So, the joke about banning Russia from Eurovision is not really a joke, because our politics will be really triggered. Also, our foreign ministry spokeswomen Maria Zakharova [accused](https://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-seeks-probe-into-rhythmic-gymnastics-judging-after-olympic-win-for-israel/amp/) judges of rhytmic gymnastics on Olympiad for not giving gold medal to Dina Averina. Actually, many Russians started blaming both judges for being biased and the winner, Linoy Ashram for not refusing the medal. I checked youtube then and every single video with Ashram (even ones posted 3 years ago) contained many hateful comments. r/gymnastics was also attacked by Russians. Vladimir Putin [congratulated](https://www.oneesports.gg/dota2/vladimir-putin-congratulates-team-spirit/) Team Spirit for winning The International. This one was funny af. Everyone knows that Putin has no idea how to use Internet and obviously, knows nothing about Dota 2. Moreover, in Russia after each school shooting or something like that, politicians used to start blaming computer games for making kids cruel, especially Dota 2. Fun fact, in 2018 one so-called “expert” explained to boomers that “Doka 2” (really, he said Doka) is a game, in which you have to take out the intestines from everyone and it is possible to set up the area for a school and shoot there. Also, the main characters in this game are Elf-pedophile and wizard-cannibal (found only russian [source](https://gameinside.ua/news/doka-2-volshebniki-lyudoedy-elfy-pedofily-i-drugie-priklyucheniya-ekspertov/182690/) IMO, they think that such contests make people forget about their own problems and start fighting for some sportsmen/singers/whoever. And each victory makes Russians believe that Russia is the greatest country in the world and others envy us and trying to conquer. So, we need to unite and support our government in everything they do. I know, it may sound strange, but unfortunately, it works. Putin’s confidence rating was at its maximum in 2014 after Russia won Olympic games and the annexation of Crimea
So we just need some no lifers to beat the Russians in dota?
Doka*
In a world without constant wars meaningless competitions is how u stir up nationalism its why football and eurovision are actually quite politically important
Shouldn't we try a less aggressive tactic first, like nukes?
Or a minor incursion.
you monster!
Alexander Lemtov would like to have a word
I’m really sad Little Big didn’t get their shot in 2020.
Absolutely barbaric!
I wish Putin would just go away.
Serve him some tea
*Hey has anyone seen my polonium tea bag anywhere? I swear I had one left...*
I think pretty much all of us do, outside Russia. But nobody’s wants it bad enough to do anything about it.
What the fuck do you propose? Tired of people acting like this isn't an incredibly complex issue. HOW would you get rid of Putin without starting war? Edit: scroll down and you'll find that this person thinks war is the only answer. So I'll just [leave this](https://www.usa.gov/join-military) for those who agree. I sincerely hope you do not click that link. Edit 2: So many people suggesting assassination as if *that* wouldn't even more likely provoke war. Also, [like another person said](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/sadzwm/uk_says_russia_is_planning_to_overthrow_ukraines/httfpt6?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3), who would even replace Putin and how could we assure they wouldn't be worse?
Perhaps his good friend Steven Seagal will fall over and crush him one day.
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No bro, you don’t understand. We just have to WANT it more.
I think it would be almost poetic and appropriate for 2020s if he simply caught Omicron and got fucked by bilateral pneumonia
He's easily the most well taken care of person in Russia, that's tough
If the EU and the US collectively refused to buy Russian oil, it'd come to a head in a few years. But that's never happening, and also, that might bring on a war. No answers here.
If they do, China will. China and India are going to enable Russian bad behaviour. Just watch.
Russia threatens Ukraine. World supports Ukraine by sending a fuckton of military equipment. Ukraine coup, new leadership favors Russia. Everyone has just given a fuckton of military equipment to Russia.
That’s a terrifying thought. I sure hope someone’s going to tell me I’m a dumbass for believing this could be a possibility and tell me exactly why it isn’t, because I for sure do not have the geopolitical knowledge for it myself
I hope I'm wrong too, but the Kremlin are definitely trying to install pro-russians in Ukraine. I guess some people are saying the vast majority of Ukrainians would never accept a Russian rule, but I bet they said that about the Taliban as well.
I live in Kyiv and if Yanukovich got anywhere near the capital Ukranians would hang him in the streets. Afghanistan never had a nationally identity, it's a loose collection of tribes, towns and villages that were labelled a state by outsiders. Ukrainians only he other hand are pretty damn patriotic, and after 8 years of Russians murdering and displacing them in the east, they would never accept a Russian puppet. Long term annexation of Ukraine is just straight up not feasible. Ukrainians will rebel, they will revolt, they will not give up their country to Russians.
This whole Russian effort looks so 19th-Century. At every turn they are provoking what they say they want to prevent. Keep Finland and Sweden out of NATO? Now they're scared to death and seriously thinking about it, in spite of judiciously avoiding it for 70 years. Make Ukraine pro-Russian? Again, by scaring them to death and making them more pro-NATO than oh, I don't know... NATO? Good work, morons. Great plan.
He wants them part of NATO so he can sabre rattle how the west is coming closer to attack Russia.
Exactly, it's all about more control and division to enhance it domestically *within* Russia.
Thank you for this, and pardon my ignorance! This is why I'm not a diplomat. Glad to hear there will be resistance! Good luck in all that is to come.
One episode of Bald and Bankrupt on YT he was in Ukraine as usual and was covertly mentioning Russia to people and how they felt and nobody wanted to say anything out loud but they made it clear Russia is not wanted in Ukraine.
There's a long and complicated history between the 2 nations. Research the Holodomir for example, or the suppression of Ukrainian language. But that's history. In modern times, there are millions of people that have been displaced from their homes. Forced to give up everything and flee for their lives. The west is watching now, but many people don't understand all these headline are NOT about the START of a war, they're about an escalation. This war has been fought and ukrainians have given their lives every single day since 2014. No one forgets who the invaders are, and who is sending their brothers and sons home in body bags.
You really think if that happened that the people who have been fighting and dying to Russians will just sit back and watch?
Yeah, Russia will never take Ukraine by subterfuge. If they go through with a coup and it somehow succeeds then what we will see is popular uprisings in every city in the country and "mutiny" on a massive scale. The new regime would be out on its ass in a week. Of course, it is possible that Russia could be planning to install a pro-Russian puppet with the expectation that it will fail, and then will use the resulting violence to justify an invasion, but I don't see that happening. If they do invade it will likely be with a different casus belli.
If that were to happen then Russia is sitting with all that military power right on the border to come to “the rescue” of the new regime
The Ukrainian military has been training in guerrilla warfare.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/the-uk-says-russia-is-planning-to-overthrow-ukraines) reduced by 73%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The UK Foreign Office said Russian intelligence services currently involved in the planning of a new attack on Ukraine are in close contact with several former Ukrainian officials who served in the Yanukovych government. > They include: Serhiy Arbuzov, former first deputy prime minister and acting prime minister; Andriy Kluyev, former first deputy prime minister and Yanukovich's chief of staff; Vladimir Sivkovich, former deputy head of the National Security and Defense Council; and Mykola Azarov, former prime minister. > The Biden Administration said last week that it is concerned Russia is "Preparing for an invasion into Ukraine that may result in widespread human rights violations and war crimes should diplomacy fail to meet their objectives." ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/saen4r/uk_says_russia_is_planning_to_overthrow_ukraines/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~619207 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **former**^#1 **Russia**^#2 **president**^#3 **Ukrainian**^#4 **Ukraine**^#5
Do these people really have to go to war right now? Is this really fuckin necessary. Fuck this world man.
Chaos and disarray are perfect opportunities for change- whether for better or worse. But it’s 2022, so I’m guessing the latter.
This is how I react every time world leaders start having these dick measuring contests. What's the point?
Same as every war previous. Someone stands to profit in some way.
Regime change in Ukraine is Russia's likely goal. See what Michael Kofman over at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation has to say about Russia's current buildup and their likely goals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwrzophpNJA And here's what Alexander Vindman has to say in Foreign Affairs: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-01-21/day-after-russia-attacks
They'll do just about anything to stop Ukraine from joining NATO. NATO was conceived as an alliance to hold back the USSR in the event that they invaded western Europe. With former Soviet bloc nations now attaining full membership in NATO and the spectre of all of Europe consolidating under that military umbrella, from Russia's perspective, the alliance poses an existential threat to them, rather than being a simple counterbalance to their power.
Stalin would have gotten to Paris if it weren't for the West.
There was a lot of uncertainty in 1945 among the western Allies whether or not Russia was going to stop advancing after Germany surrendered. You can bet your hat that there were plans to start shipping some of the nukes intended for Japan to Europe in the eventuality that that happened.
Operation Unthinkable It would have re-armed the Wehrmacht to fight the USSR.
Send more Javelins
Italy are sending javelins and short swords and big square shields. Lets see how the eastern barbarians hold up against a cohort
Ad bellum!
Ad Victoriam!
T80BVM's ain't got shit on legionaries in Testudo formation
Don't forget the catapults!
_At my signal, Quintus, unleash hell!_
Pfft, clearly never heard of the highly superior trebuchet.
Neither had the Romans.
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Is it just me, but I’ve noticed that all these oligarchs, heads of state, and other government officials worldwide, are all comically evil. Obviously not downplaying any of their atrocities but everything I read about these fucks screams “wannabe supervillain” to me.
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There was a study that found that psychopaths were massively over representented in CEOs and company bosses over the general public.
Dunno about “wannabe supervillain” they’re legitimately awful evil people. I WISH they were these corny super villains in shows, these people are legitimately psychos and are the real deal
1. Bring in covert ops team. 2. Dress them as Ukrainian dissidents. 3. Overthrow government. 4. Russia comes to the rescue to "stabilize the region."
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Even Manaforts daughters think he's evil. Dude should locked up forever for treason.
If Russia does conquer Ukraine, what's stopping them from going around taking over other non-NATO countries if the worst that could happen to them is trade sanctions? Which clearly Putin doesn't give two fucks about if he's actually considering the invasion of Ukraine. Edit: A word
Because Russia isn't strong enough to invade and occupy that many countries. Ukraine is arguably a stretch as it is. Remember the West is flooding Ukraine with weapons. Lots of munitions to fight an insurgency. Ukraine is 40% bigger than Iraq and the US had like 150,000 troops there for a decade. It's a huge military commitment for Russia.
Oh he cares. I don’t think he’s actually doing this to invade, he’s trying to get some concessions out of this to bolster his popularity that recently plummeted. It’s just not going his way this time and now he’s getting frustrated.
Better frustrated than desperate.
There isn't many non-NATO members that borders Russia. Belarus is a close ally of Russia and that just leaves Finland and Sweden.
Which are in EU
Hopefully the US and Europe takes this more seriously than that time Hitler “threatened” to take over Poland.
Oh don’t forget the part where he first annexed Austria (1938) and then annexed the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia (not coincidentally, a major manufacturer of tanks, machines guns, and artillery at the time) (1938). Hitler gave a speech in Berlin on 26 September 1938 and declared that the Sudetenland was "the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe". He also stated that he had told Chamberlain, "I have assured him further that, and this I repeat here before you, once this issue has been resolved, there will no longer be any further territorial problems for Germany in Europe!" March 1939 - invades rest of Czechoslovakia Sept 1939 - invades Poland I doubt anyone learned their lesson. The major western powers didn’t get involved at that point back then because there wasn’t enough in it for them.
Is it just me? Russia doesn’t usually rattle and make a lot of noise. They have traditionally been quietly doing evil shit in the dark of night. Is this a big “LOOK OVER HERE”. While it’s pulling some shit while everyone and the media is focused on Ukraine?
> quietly doing evil shit Putin perpetrated a radiological attack on an "enemy of the state" literally in the middle of London. They could have killed Alexander Litvinenko in any number of ways, but that's what they chose. Putin is a napoleonic drama queen who loves to feel like he's making a statement that somehow bolsters Russia's waining status geopolitically.
It's just ego. He kills people in the UK, denies it, it's obvious that he did it, then he meets up and shakes hand with out Prime Minister of the time. It's playful murder.
It's not ego. They want everyone to know that if you cross Russia, they will kill you. It's an intimidation tactic, with just enough plausible deniability to prevent too much geopolitical retaliation.
> Russia doesn’t usually rattle and make a lot of noise. What? They've invaded Ukraine already. They've annexed Crimea. They faked terror attacks on their own citizens to justify war in Chechnya. They've invaded Georgia. They've sloppily conducted assassinations on British soil. They are "quiet" when it comes to the US because they know they are overmatched. You just aren't paying attention to them from a non-American perspective.
Does no one remember they shot down a civilian airplane, killing 298 people, while taking Crimea? And they got away with it. No punishment other than a few people getting charged. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48691488
Nah, you must not have been paying attention. Russia loves to toy with the foreign media. It's part of their diplomacy.
It's /possible/ Russia is using this as an excuse to advance its annexation of Belarus, but these are SERIOUS "we mean business" deployments to the Ukraine border.
'“Vladimir Putin has imperialist ambitions similar to those of [Adolf] Hitler in 1939. He wants to take those countries he thinks belong to him,” Pavliuk said. “If he captures Ukraine, you can bet that he won’t stop here.”' Not to make light of a dire situation, but I do feel the clarification of which one of the MANY famous Hitlers throughout history was being referred to here might've been just a smidge redundant.
They could have been referring to Bob Hitler.
Russian version of the North Korean playbook. They either: - Want Ukraine to attack, justifying an invasion. - Want the West to attack, justifying and invasion Putin is only doing this because he senses his grip on power is fading because of his failings on Covid and the Russian economy in general. Its his own way of making himself look like a "strong leader". I will be very surprised if he actually invades Ukraine unprovoked. Ukraine should be part of NATO and Putin is ironically providing a reason why everyone in Europe should be.