The Russian Language

[Love365]

Seriously. How is this relevant?

The war isn't between the US and Russia or France and Russia or the UK and Ukraine.

There is no linguistic barrier between Russia and Ukraine. It has no bearing on the start of this war, nor its continuation.

Why is this so hard for you to understand?

Russia is afraid of NATO.

NATO is afraid of Russia.

 

[prodromos]

гав-гав

That sounds Greek! Γαβ γαβ.

 

[prodromos]

Russia is afraid of NATO.

And rightly so. NATO lied through their teeth about their intentions after the Cold War ended. Russia has every reason not to trust NATO.

NATO is afraid of Russia.

As they should be.

 

[prodromos]

Are you afraid to teach the Russian language in western schools?

Are you afraid of the Russian alphabet because It’s different?

The Russian alphabet was created by the Christian missionaries Cyril and Methodius for the purpose of evangelising. You ask some strange questions.

 

[Hans Blaster]

That sounds Greek! Γαβ γαβ.

Russian I can handle, but Greek always looks like it is missing an equal sign.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Russia is afraid of NATO.

NATO is afraid of Russia.

How does that answer my question?

 

[Love365]

How does that answer my question?

Ukraine doesn’t really have what Russia wants.

NATO needs to make a deal with Russia.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Ukraine doesn’t really have what Russia wants.

It doesn't. Then why did they invade? Does Putin just hate the idea of Ukraine so badly he will risk anything to destroy it? Or does Ukraine actually have what Russia wants: land, economic capacity, people, and the hope of a lost empire?

NATO needs to make a deal with Russia.

NATO wasn't invaded and is not at war.

 

[Love365]

It doesn't. Then why did they invade? Does Putin just hate the idea of Ukraine so badly he will risk anything to destroy it? Or does Ukraine actually have what Russia wants: land, economic capacity, people, and the hope of a lost empire?

NATO wasn't invaded and is not at war.

Russia wants NATO to stop expanding along their border.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Russia wants NATO to stop expanding along their border.

There was no imminent NATO expansion into Ukraine in 2014 or 2022, though thanks to Putin's war of aggression, it seem likely when this war is over.

 

[Malleeboy]

Russia wants NATO to stop expanding along their border.

I can appreciate that no country, especially one that has had the heft of Russia, appreciates having foreign forces at its borders. Russia feels that it has a right to a sphere of influence, but that sphere isn't too keen on Russia being the regional hegemon. From my perspective, an Anglo-celtic Australian one, Poland for example particularly has some claims for refuge from foreign over lordship (the geopolitical inability to ensure a free Poland after WW2 is a somewhat of a regret.). I also see can see claims for protection from Russia by the Baltic nations. The Western expansion of NATO was driven by the real fears of the nations of Eastern Europe, nobody liked beg Stalin's play toy.

The Australian colonies choose to federate in part due to fears of Tsarist Russian invasion (following on from the Crimean war), there are still historic coastal gun emplacements in the south of Victoria designed specifically to ward of the Russian navy. Although we then went on to be on the same side in both world wars.

NATO enlargement was driven by the fears of your neighbors, (IMHO well justified historically), not by hostility to Russia itself. Most people in the west have admiration for a lot of Russia culture,

 

[Love365]

If we continue this endless war,
not even trying for peace talks,

we could end up with a President who will just pull the plug.
No more money. No more tanks.

President Trump
President Kennedy
President Gabbard
President Paul

Or maybe
President Greene

 

[Hans Blaster]

If we continue this endless war,
not even trying for peace talks,

we could end up with a President who will just pull the plug.
No more money. No more tanks.

President Trump

It seems like you would like that. It would end the war fairly quickly in the fashion you seem to prefer -- Russian domination of Ukraine.

President Kennedy

Not going to win. Not even close.

President Gabbard
President Paul

These loons aren't even running.

Or maybe
President Greene

Marje makes Trump look like a all-star of governance.

Congratulations. This might be your most ridiculous post yet. You can retire now as a champion.

 

[Love365]

Every year more members of Congress are ready
to pull the plug and cut Ukraine funding.

Peace talks need to start.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Every year more members of Congress are ready
to pull the plug and cut Ukraine funding.

Putinists and far-right members.

Peace talks need to start.

There is some sort of conference scheduled for Switzerland soon. It's been in the works for a while.

 

[Love365]

There is some sort of conference scheduled for Switzerland soon. It's been in the works for a while.

Is Russia going to be there?

Is any country friendly with Russia going to be there?

 

[Gene2memE]

Every year more members of Congress are ready
to pull the plug and cut Ukraine funding.

Peace talks need to start.

US vote on Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan foreign aid package from March ($60.8 billion for Ukraine):

Senate vote - 79 for, 18 against
House vote - 311 for, 112 against, 1 abstention

EU vote on funding commitment from February (voluntary commitment to 0.25% of EU GDP per annum, roughly $45.5 billion)

EU parliament - 451 for, 46 against, 49 abstentions.

Is Russia going to be there?

Nope. They weren't invited to this one.

It may have something to do with Russia knocking back the invitation to the first peace summit, and then declaring that they weren't going to attend any they intend to work against other countries from attending. Also Russia's refusal to attend three other neutral international meetings on the Russia-Ukraine war.

It might also have something to do with a commitment from attendees for the "prosecution of crimes under international law, such as war crimes or the crime of aggression".

Is any country friendly with Russia going to be there?

There are some Russian friendly African and Latin American states. Curiously not many Russian friendly European states.

 

[Love365]

Do you think the Russians would go to peace talks in
Singapore, India, China, Australia, or New Zealand ?

 

[Bob Crowley]

Are you afraid to teach the Russian language in western schools?

Are you afraid of the Russian alphabet because It’s different?

I'm in Australia and there's not much use for Russian language speakers. We're too far away.

Languages with Latin based alphabets like English are obviously easier to learn but even then it's difficult to learn new languages, especially if the student hasn't got much use for it. I wonder how many older people remember their French or German language lessons when they were in school?

I used to wonder why Russian letters seemed similar to Greek. It was a long time before I heard of the influence of Cyril and Methodius in applying Greek text to Slavic languages.

But there are considerable differences between Russian and Greek languages even if they share a fair amount of a Greek based alphabet.

Fire and Ice: similarities and differences between Greek and Russian

It’s some time since I last did a post in my little Fire and Ice series looking at the links between Greek and Russian cultures. This time I would like to have a look at the similarities and …

wordscene.wordpress.com

 

[Bob Crowley]

Do you think the Russians would go to peace talks in
Singapore, India, China, Australia, or New Zealand ?

I don't think Putin would be very interested in Australia for peace talks. He departed early from G20 summit talks in Brisbane in 2014.

Vladimir Putin leaves G20 after leaders line up to browbeat him over Ukraine

Russian president says he’s leaving early to get some sleep after long meetings in which he refused to give ground

www.theguardian.com

Even back then the bone of contention was Ukraine.

I still remember the G20 from a driver's viewpoint. The security was so tight the inner city of Brisbane was like a ghost town. I thought it was over the top and it cost a fortune not just in security costs but business losses.

The G20 legislation suspended important civil liberties, including the absolute right to arrest without warrant, in addition to the Police Powers Act 2000, to detain people without charge, to predispose the courts into not giving arrested individuals bail, extensive searches of the person without warrant,.[35] Officers had the backing of increased penalties when lawful directions are not followed. The Peaceful Assembly Act of 1992 was suspended during the G20 meeting dates. Size of placards were strictly regulated, as was permission to protest, and the location of protests. Legal observers were in force to observe the use of police power during this time.[36] Heavy fines were enforceable due to the legislation. Most offences carried between 50 and 100 penalty units worth of fines. A penalty unit in 2014 was $110.[3