Play Nice The NM Devils Chessboard thread.

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Right, so Putin is now a noble statesman rather than a foreign affairs pragmatist who kills reporters and political dissidents and makes billions off his own people.

I don't think he's particularly noble.

You don't run a country as large as his for as long by being noble.

But spare us the crocodile tears for reporters and dissidents and oppressed people being exploited, when our brave allies do exactly the same (and we've done the same).
 
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No.

A true gangster would never have risked his own personal safety and prestige entering into a situation as perilous as Syria in 2015.

A true gangster would have said, screw Assad, he's on his own, I ain't sticking my neck out for him.

Instead Putin staked EVERYTHING on a very risky enterprise to bail out an ally because he knew that Russian credibility and prestige depended on it.

Russias naval base in Syria is very important. Saves them having to go thru the Turkish straits.
Their air base nearby is also worth saving.
 
Russias naval base in Syria is very important. Saves them having to go thru the Turkish straits.
Their air base nearby is also worth saving.

The air base is post intervention.

Agreed on the naval access from Tartus.
 
I think you are being far too magnanimous to Vladimir on this one. He didn't intervene for noble reasons. Assad was his long term ally in the region and Putin saw an opportunity to shore up ongoing Russian influence in the Middle East by getting involved, rather than risking the downfall of Assad and the hands of either Isis, Iran or the US. All the powers were balls deep in that one and Vlad didn't' want to be left without a dance partner.

The guys is a gangster with a carefully constructed public political face.

Btw, how did he put his own personal safety on the line? Genuinely curious.
Every politician in a major power is a gangster or working for them.

And Putin is a far right, race baiting piece of s**t who rose to power off the back of false flags against his own people as far as I'm concerned. He has genuine fascist potential and is right on the border of actual fascism himself. But he is a politician more than a gangster. Those reasons you suggest for his intervention in Syria are genuine reasons for a politician. Its in Russia's long term interests. They have a vision for Russia based on Dugin's writings and influence and the intervention in Syria fits perfectly with that vision.
 
Every politician in a major power is a gangster or working for them.

And Putin is a far right, race baiting piece of sh*t who rose to power off the back of false flags against his own people as far as I'm concerned. He has genuine fascist potential and is right on the border of actual fascism himself. But he is a politician more than a gangster. Those reasons you suggest for his intervention in Syria are genuine reasons for a politician. Its in Russia's long term interests. They have a vision for Russia based on Dugin's writings and influence and the intervention in Syria fits perfectly with that vision.

This.

KGB was the least ideological and most nationalist of the key Soviet services.

It was specifically made that way post Stalin and Beria. It was there to defend the state rather than a particular leader, regime or school of thought that might temporarily be ascendant.

In this regard Putins career has been remarkably consistent
 
Right, so Putin is now a noble statesman rather than a foreign affairs pragmatist who kills reporters and political dissidents and makes billions off his own people.
I don't think the word "noble" applies to "statesmen". They are just criminals using diplomacy instead of force.

Putin may be a rock spider. Litvinenko wrote an article claiming as much in the months before his poisoning, as much as a response to Putin kissing a boy (9yrs old) on the belly in a strange public incident. Litvinenko claimed Putin's sexual preferences were what kept him from further promotion in the KGB despite his obvious talent. Then was poisoned with Polonium a few months later.

Putin's vision of Russia's geopolitical role is heavily influenced by Dugin who spent years studying the work of a guy one of the evil Nazis in raiders of the Lost Ark was based on.

interesting....
 
I don't think the word "noble" applies to "statesmen". They are just criminals using diplomacy instead of force.

Putin may be a rock spider. Litvinenko wrote an article claiming as much in the months before his poisoning, as much as a response to Putin kissing a boy (9yrs old) on the belly in a strange public incident. Litvinenko claimed Putin's sexual preferences were what kept him from further promotion in the KGB despite his obvious talent. Then was poisoned with Polonium a few months later.

Putin's vision of Russia's geopolitical role is heavily influenced by Dugin who spent years studying the work of a guy one of the evil Nazis in raiders of the Lost Ark was based on.

interesting....

CIA/MI6 accuse every enemy of sexual perversion. The Putin nonce thing is absolute bullshit.
 
CIA/MI6 accuse every enemy of sexual perversion. The Putin nonce thing is absolute bullshit.
Maybe but it kind of seemed obvious before Litvinenko's article but after the incident.

Its weird. A straight google search shows a heap of articles about it all doing what I just did, citing the Litvinenko article then death, all dated from the same day or two in 2016. That is interesting. WHy all these articles then. It might have been the ten year anniversary of his article... Anyway i didn't bother reading any.

How hard is it to build a properly functioning search engine?

Furthermore what was actually happening on or around 21/22 Jan 2016 in central/eastern europe?
 
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The National Office of Buddhism (NoB) will submit a letter to American clothing brand Supreme to protest against its use of an image of late monk Luang Phor Koon Parisutho in its 2021 Spring/Summer collection.

It has sprung into action following the release of a preview of Supreme's Blessings Ripstop Shirts, which feature the well-known image of the revered monk of Wat Ban Rai in Nakhon Ratchasima's Dan Khun Thod district.

The image, which appears on the back of the shirts, is of the monk squatting and smoking. The shirts also feature several "yant" prints.

Luang Phor Koon died in 2015 and his body was at Khon Kaen University, where he donated it for medical students to study. Thousands of worshippers attended his royally-sponsored cremation in Khon Kaen in January 2019.

1613612004451.png



Meanwhile in Thai markets you can buy these


1613612071535.png
 
Feb 11, 2013
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the navalny thing is interesting

One one hand you have Vladimir Putin, who for all intents and purposes is the modern Russian dictator, who has enriched himself and his cronies for the better part of 30 years from state resources at the expense of his people, who has annexed a part of Ukraine, sowed dissent against the West and driven right wing political ideologies into the mainstream in the west. He also has the nasty habit of murdering reporters who dare to focus a spotlight on him and a penchant for imprisoning political opponents.

On the other hand there is Navalny, seemingly looking for meaningful financial support from a foreign power to put pressure on and hopefully remove this lovable rogue from power.

What is also interesting is where RT got this vision, and why. RT clearly are the foreign voice of the state hierarchy, and in this 'expose' imply that Navalny will give billions to investors. Or is that saving certain influential elites billions from Putin led shakedowns that have happened with regularity over the last 30 years?

Anyways, traitor is an interesting term. There is no greater traitor to the Russian people than Vladimir 'my buddy the cello player is a multi-billionaire for some reason, but yeah sure, its all his money' Putin.

I think most of the Russian people actually like Putin
 
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Maxy gets it..
reminds me of an old article from Glenn discussing the art of deception.
 
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I was listening to a couple of Russian expats talking about him and they were pretty positive about him. They know he’s a dictator but at the same time they think he’s good for Russia. They like the stability.
Same reason some sections of the Spanish community look back at the Franco era as the good times.

people generally only want two things safety for their family and a better life for their kids.
if you take one or both of these things away you are prime for an uprising.
 
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Hojuman

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I was listening to a couple of Russian expats talking about him and they were pretty positive about him. They know he’s a dictator but at the same time they think he’s good for Russia. They like the stability.


All my old lndo mates wanted Suharto back until he cashed in his chips > stabilty. Still a rich dictator though while they scrapped.
 
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