angelburst29
The Living Force
voyageur said:Funny how you mixed those two articles together (and they fit), angelburst29. Was reading about what you posted re the Ukraine financial woes. above (my god what they have done to the people via their economy) and their attempt at staying the debt via the High Court (a failure as to be expected), and than the article about "tank" competition. Ultimately, taken both together, the whole Ukrainian economy in in the tank, has tanked. So yeah, coming in last place in the tank competition matches their economy, and others countries are not far behind.
What a mess the West helped to create.
The Ukraine financial crises has deepen even further, as you pointed out Voyageur and it seems Poroshenko is Hell-bent of bringing the economy down on it's knees? All this money Ukraine has been receiving from IMF, in the form of installments is just going into the bank accounts of the elite? To make matters worse, Poroshenko just enacted harsh sanctions on the Internet. Maybe, he's hoping the restrictions will lead to large protests AND an excuse to use force - in militarily entering Donetsk and Lugansk? If McCain shows up in Ukraine again, that might be an indicator of trouble ahead?
The popular Russian social networks VK (VKontakte), Odnoklassniki and the Mail.ru internet service are on the list of entities sanctioned by Kiev, expended on Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian president's press service.
Russian Social Networks Among Entities Sanctioned by Ukraine
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201705161053655760-ukraine-sanctions-russia-networks/
Approved by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), the targeted sanctions on the social networks and the internet service will be in force for three years.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko enacted the decision of the NSDC to expand the list of sanctioned Russian individuals and legal entities and to extend the duration of these sanctions.
The appendices to the NSDC decision indicate that the expanded anti-Russia sanctions list imposed by Ukraine includes 1,228 individuals and 468 legal entities, including Russian IT-companies Yandex, Kaspersky Lab and others.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s website is being showered with demands not to block access to popular Russian social networking sites VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and IT companies, including the giant search engine Yandex.
Ukrainians See Red Over Poroshenko's Ban on Russian Social Media
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201705171053700324-ukraine-networks-ban/
The first petition, aptly called “Unblock Odnoklassniki, VKontakte and Mail.ru,” has already collected 417 votes out of the 25,000 needed for it to be considered by the head of state.
The blocking of Yandex, Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki is a violation of my rights and freedoms. To many in Ukraine they are more than just websites, they are part of their life. Please consider this petition and unblock them,” one such petition says.
The authors warn about the negative impact the decision to block Russian networking sites could have on Ukrainians.
Because the ban came so suddenly, the petitions have failed to collect enough votes. However, the organizers plan a series of large street protests this weekend.
Ukrainian sanctions imposed on Russian media outlets do not correspond to European values, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday.
Kiev Sanctions Against Russian Media Disagree With EU Values – German Gov't
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201705171053698213-ukraine-russia-media-sanctions/
Ukrainian sanctions imposed on Russian media outlets do not correspond to European values, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday.
"No, they do not," Seibert told reporters answering a question on whether Ukraine's sanctions correspond to EU values which EU membership candidates should share.
"This is a wrong wording of the question, it [Ukraine] is not a candidate for [EU] membership," the spokesman added, stressing that "media freedom in Europe is one of the most important values."
Fort Russ and its team of independent translators and analysts have been hit by yet another round of social media censorship.
Fort Russ Under Attack: Flores and Popov Blocked, Censorship Ongoing
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/05/fort-russ-under-attack-flores-and-popov.html
On May 16th, Fort Russ Editor-in-Chief Joaquin Flores was slapped with an indefinite block on Facebook. Just six days ago, Fort Russ' Russian guest analyst, Dr. Eduard Popov, was also hit with another lengthy Facebook ban for sharing "extremist" material...from November 2015! Fort Russ' team members have also reported increasing problems with posting and sharing our articles on Facebook.
NSA and CIA collaborator Mark Zuckerberg shows no signs of letting up the war on independent media.
These are not the first such incidents, and definitely won't be the last. Ever since the "Fake News" hysteria began in the US in late 2016 and Fort Russ was featured on the PropOrNot list spread by The Washington Post, Fort Russ has faced a skyrocketing number of obstacles. Censorship and "Fake News" filters on social media and search engines have cut down our page views and strangled our outreach to global audiences.
Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg - elite financed Gatekeeper
Around 10 days ago, I opened Facebook only to find out that I couldn’t log in. A message from Facebook’s administration appeared which informed me that I’ve been blocked for a month for publishing “inadmissible” materials of an “extremist” bent. What “extremist” materials? What did I write that was so condemnable and “extremist”?
Does Big Brother speak Ukrainian?: Popov speaks out on Facebook block
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/05/does-big-brother-speak-ukrainian-popov.html
My surprise knew no bounds when I learned the reason that drew Facebook’s wrath. The “problem” was a comment which I wrote…in November 2015. I’ll quote it from memory: “In Russian nationalist circles and among participants of the Russian March, shouts of ‘Glory to Ukraine’ were heard. Obviously, the numerous Ukrainian migrants in Russia are looking for ways to influence Russian movements and bring them over to pro-Ukrainian positions. This provocation can’t be allowed to succeed, and Ukrainians can’t be given the opportunity to organize a Maidan in Moscow via the hands of Russian nationalists.”
That’s it. I see nothing “extremist” here. And I especially see no grounds for some gentlemen (or Ukrainian gentlemen) from Facebook to punish users for “incorrect” publications. I have a PhD, I’ve authored and co-authored several monographs, hundreds of scholarly articles, and thousands of expert and freelance articles, including on the problem of modern Ukrainian neo-Nazism. Some ignorant Facebook administrators have no right to teach me what’s right and what’s wrong.
But that’s not all. This is the second “punishment” handed down to me by Facebook’s editors in a year! In late December, I was blocked for two months. The reason? I wrote a hard-hitting post about the guru of Ukrainian “national self-consciousness,” Taras Shevchenko, whom I do not consider to be a “poet” or a moral person as he is purported to be. Thus, I was blocked for criticizing “Kobzar” (how his Ukrainian disciples christen him). No matter that his followers murdered the Ukrainian writer and journalist Oles Buzina. Maybe they killed him for his book, The Vampire Taras Shevchenko.
My friends familiar with the rules of social media have since explained to me that Facebook’s Russian edition is controlled by Ukrainians. This is quite in the spirit of the Ukrainian “national idea” of crying copious tears over the tragedy of Ukrainian culture oppressed by the Empire while setting on fire anything and everything non-Ukrainian whenever Ukrainians have their own little “empire.”
Yesterday I was present at a meeting of the Czech Right in Prague at which I listened to a detailed report by a representative of France’s National Front on mechanisms of manipulating public opinion that were used to help Macron win. Unfortunately, I do not speak French or Czech, so I caught only fragments of this interesting report. But I did understand that shortly after Hillary Clinton’s defeat, the young genius Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was summoned by his unnamed boss and ordered to more closely follow his social network’s content. Zuckerberg dutifully promised to carefully monitor posts and cut out “incorrect” publications. Perhaps Fort Russ’ readers might already know this, but I heard this for the first time. And this is in a country in which there is supposedly no strict hierarchy, and instead a maximum tolerance and rule of law.
Yet the prodigy Mark Zuckerberg is only a servant of Big Brother, and the Ukrainians from the Russian version of Facebook are obedient servants as well. Of course, besides Zuckerberg’s orders, they are pursuing their own goals in line with their tradition of Ukrainian subservience. Maybe Zuckerberg, an American Jew, has not heard that the illiterate drunk Shevchenko was a virulent anti-Semite?
Alas, what is to be done? Wait for new “punishments” or slam the door on Facebook? I believe that neither the first nor the second variant are a correct way out of the situation. I have 5,000 friends on Facebook and I work with numerous interesting and useful contacts on Facebook, including the editorial board of Fort Russ.
Perhaps the solution would be to create our own, alternative social network uncontrolled by Big Brother? But switching over an abandoning totalitarian Facebook would have to be a collective, not an individual move.
I’ve expressed my opinion without being an expert on the technical issues of social networks. Perhaps collective discussion will yield a more realistic and knowledgeable decision. What do you say, fellow Fort Russ readers?
Kiev is not considering the option of using force to regain control over the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said Wednesday.
Kiev Not Set for Using Force to Regain Control Over Donbass - Defense Minister
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201705171053685598-ukraine-donbass-control-kiev/
"We are not considering the issue of resolving the issue of seizing the territories of Lugansk and Donetsk by force," Poltorak told the Deutsche Welle broadcaster.
Ukraine's parliamentary faction "Opposition Bloc" introduced a bill seeking to cancel punishment for making or wearing Saint George ribbons, a symbol of World War II victory popular in the former Soviet countries, according to the parliament's website.
Ukraine Opposition Introduces Bill Decriminalizing St. George Ribbon
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201705171053700586-ukraine-opposition-bill-ribbon/
The bill proposes an amendment to the law approved by the parliament on Tuesday, which, if signed by President Petro Poroshenko, would introduce fines or arrest for making or wearing of the ribbon in Ukraine, with an exception made for war veterans whose medals or orders incorporate elements of the ribbon.
During the latest celebrations of the anniversary of World War II victory in Ukraine, several people were reportedly taken into police custody for wearing communism-related symbols forbidden in Ukraine. The Saint George ribbon was not forbidden at the time.
The symbol first became associated with the Victory Day celebrations in Russia in 2005.
The decision by the Ukrainian parliament to ban Russia's St. George's ribbon in the country will legitimize the actions of neo-Nazis on desecrating history and means the official "fascization" of the country, Deputy Speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament Irina Yarovaya said Tuesday.
Kiev Ban on St. George Ribbons to Legitimize Actions of Neo-Nazis
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201705161053675071-ban-ribbons-kiev-nazis/
"The prohibition of the St. George ribbon at the state level means official fascization since the main goal pursued… by the Ukrainian government in such immoral ways is to legitimize the actions of neo-Nazis and nationalists in desecrating historical memory and denying the outcomes of the Second World War, confirmed by the Nuremberg trials," Yarovaya stressed.
According to the lawmaker, Europe's calm regarding Ukraine's "lawlessness increasingly devalued European security."
I simply can't stand drunkenness in the army.
Ukrainian soldiers, disgusted with officers' drunken ways, pillory them with strapping tape (Photos)
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/05/ukrainian-soldiers-disgusted-with.html
After seeing a write-up in DONiPRESS, and in Politnavigator, we went to their source, the fb post of Yuri Misyagin, and translated...
Everyone has already seen these photos showing the major and the captain of the 54th brigade strapped to a post with strapping tape: they have been all over the internet for a week.
Now, at the 54th encampment, the commission of inquiry has returned. They are turning the 54th brigade inside out, looking for those who tied, who untied.
So you tell me, to what level should the respect for the officers fall, and what should the officer "do" to merit getting tied to a pole at the training ground ??
And I'll answer you ...
What uniform, and what honor are we talking about, if "the honor of the uniform" was plunging to a loss of heart rate and getting drunk in a ditch ?!
There, the major had more than .400 BAC after the blowdown. Yes, you did not misread, MORE than 4. It seems that after such a result a person is no longer among the living.***
The captain had a lower BAC than the major, but it still was off the scale. I remember him earlier on the Svetlodar arc. He is a new man in the brigade, but he managed to drink well.
Let the commission ask any of the fighters about these "officers," all will have one answer - avatars.
But no, the commission will "sit" on the site a week or two, turn everyone inside out and look for extreme ones.
May you be men. Go out and say: "Yes there is such a problem."
And throw them the fuck out of the army.
But then there are the journalists who covered the subject on the encampment, even some of the more distinguished :))
They presented these two as heroes of battles on the Svetlodarskaya arc.
Yes, heroes, with a BAC over 4.
________________
***
BAC over 4 sometimes fatal: Blood Alcohol scale.