“Whether you like it, or not, history is on our side. We will bury you,” he said quoting former USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev.

Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday Russia could have a right to go to war with NATO.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I wonder… does medvedev have enough wits left to understand that if Russia has that right… then everyone … has that right?

    They’re finding Ukraine difficult enough. Sure we’re sharing some toys (a lot of toys)… but they don’t have carriers or attack subs or missile destroyers…

    Threatening nato is not a sane decision to make. We might just take them at their word.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      The toys we’re sharing are our older toys from the 80s and 90s even. Its not even the more deadly stuff we have…and they’re fighting against a force that’s getting a few weeks training on these toys and sent out into the field. If russia truly wants a 72 hour war…all it would need to do is attack NATO.

      • Ertebolle@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, Ukraine is excited about maybe getting some F-16s and how much that could help with the air war and meanwhile a couple of F-22s could take down a whole squadron of them.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s not the war, it’s the keeping.

          In any case, we’d probably bog down around the same time China and everyone else on that side got involved. I don’t think it would be as clean or as quick. But, yeah. We could definitely screw them pretty harshly without ever landing troops

          • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            China and Russia have no military alliance, Xi is just taking advantage of the fantastic business opportunity that opened up for him for cheap Russian imports. If Chinese troops became militarily involved in Russian territory, it would probably be to acquire their claims over eastern Siberia, dating back to the Qing Dynasty. Otherwise he’s just be supporting a state that competes with him for the dominant regional position.

            The Tsar took that land from them, back in the day though. If you look at their current claimed territories, they never forgot. Maybe if Russia agreed to become a subject state of China, then they’d help militarily, but they’re certainly not friends or allies.

            Russia does have actual allies, but not many. And China isn’t one of them.

            • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 year ago

              So what you’re saying is we could Jalta Russia at the Urals with the Chinese and set up Cold War 2 on a really big scale?

          • snooggums@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            We don’t need to occupy Russia to stop them from continuing a war that they start. We can just destroy their equipment and manufacturing locations so their armed forces surrender.

          • bluGill@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            There isn’t anyone really on that side . China and NATO have differences, but China doesn’t have anything to gain from helping Russia, and nthey lose a lot is NATO loses. They will sit out. Similar with India, they will stay out . Iran or a few other small counties might consider joining, but I doubt it as most are smart enough to know that is suicide.

            • Hank@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Idk, China might see the spread of resources as a good opportunity to try an invasion of Taiwan.

              • bluGill@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Maybe, Xi seems just sane enough not to try, but who knows. China and Russia can’t really win against NATO though they make things harder. India likely hates China enough to join NATO as well.

                Of course we are talking nuclear armed countries so everyone loses is possible.

              • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Putin made his move because Xi sounded like he was going to go at the same time.

                Xi was closing on HK and planned to switch immediately to Taiwan, even started the domestic pivot, then his navy told him they needed at least 5 years (honestly its more like 15, they are just starting carrier flight ops on the Liaoning and their newer ones aren’t shaken down yet).

                Putin had made his preparations, Xi hinted he might go anyway once the west was distracted.

                If daddy z hadn’t stayed in kyiv history would look really bad right now.

      • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        There’s also the option that it’s going to be a 30-ish minute war. 50-ish if the other side manages to get their counter value force airborne.

      • T156@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Or the big guns. If they start attacking the nuclear powers, things are going to get very spicy very quickly.

    • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      America is not giving Ukraine the most advanced weapons and that is stopping Russia.

      Imagine if America used their pre advanced weapons.

      It’s posturing. Russia wants to look tough. They’re a paper tiger.

      • uphillbothways@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Total posturing. A few hundred of these would end the war overnight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-158_JASSM

        These aren’t even classified. Poland and Finland have them, today.

        Ukraine is keeping Russia in check with cardboard launched grenades. It’s pretty amazing, honestly; both how innovative Ukraine has been under duress with almost nothing, and how bad Russia has performed in this mess they’ve dumped themselves in.

        A few too many toes over NATO lines would decapitate the Kremlin, probably before anything could be done in response.

        • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I have been highly impressed with the Ukrainian spirit and ingenuity.

          I have also been surprised at what a cluster fuck Russia has been on the battlefield. I expected them to perform better than they did. It shows how much they have declined from being a super power.

          The only issue I have is Russia has nukes and Putin is dumb enough to use them.

        • Omniraptor@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          I just don’t understand why the americans can’t decide their stance while sitting on these wonderful advanced weapons. Either give Ukraine enough equipment to win or tell them to get lost and give up territory in exchange for peace. One risks escalation with Russia or if things go too well collapse of russia, the other risks discrediting the rules based international order (lmao).

          But the status quo with delayed/half assed aid shipments is costing thousands of Ukrainian (and Russian, but who cares lol) soldiers’ lives for pretty dam questionable outcomes.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        And at full scale. This is definitely typical Russian posturing, ie total bullshit that everyone knows is bullshit but they say it anyway.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Russia is the irritating kid down the street who just broke his nerf gun so he’s threatening to throw the darts at you instead and tell his mom you’re not invited to his birthday party…

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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    Maxim Katz has explained that these kinds of deranged declarations are not directed at us. They are a kind of symbolic self-humiliation of Medvedev to prove to Putin that he is still loyal. It’s “look I am willing to appear so wretched and ridiculous to the foreigners, I could not possibly be a threat to you, I am not some kind of alternative that could replace you, I am such a silly man, please don’t throw me out of a window”.

    • Epilektoi_Hoplitai@lemmy.ca
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      Speculation runs that Dimi has been told by the Tsar that if he acts like the tough guy he isn’t with enough bravado, he’ll be allowed to sit in the big boys’ chair and pretend to be president again.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Whether you like it, or not, history is on our side. We will bury you

    Because we all know the Soviet Union and Russia are exactly the same thing and the Russian military is definitely as powerful and as capable as the Soviet Union, no doubt. Please pay no attention to the complete lack of victory in Ukraine.

    • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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      When has either the Soviet Union or Russia “won” anything in the last 150 years?

      Their “win” in WWII was throwing as many bodies as possible and starving their own cities to delay the Germans long enough for winter to set in.

      Soviet casualties were 4.5x higher than Axis casualties in operation Barbarossa. They lost 21k aircraft to 2800 for the Germans. 20k tanks destroyed vs 2700 for the Germans. And 4.5 million casualties compared to 1 million for the Germans.

      I wouldn’t call that “burying” anyone. The biggest effect it had was weakening the Germans enough for the Allies to finish the job on the Western Front and bail the Soviets out.

      The Soviets lost in Afghanistan in the 80s because of the US funding the Mujahideen.

      Their biggest victory in the last century was taking Crimea because nobody else stepped up to help Ukraine like we are now.

      Russia has nukes. That’s it. Beyond that they’re worthless militarily.

    • Nepenthe@kbin.social
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      Hey, now. If not the capabilities of the soviets, at least they’re still using the same tech.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      Russia doesn’t need a victory, it needs a long running war. Because this war is bringing Russia shitloads of money.

      • ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works
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        Ah yes it’s making Russia so much money which is why their economy is in perfect condition and the ruble is worth more than ever!

        • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world
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          I think they’re at least partially right, Russia’s strategy appears to be throw as many men at the problem to keep the front line stalemate going in the hopes the Western donations eventually dry up, then throw even more men at Ukraine until they can win. An obvious pyrrhic victory to most, but when did hundreds of thousands of deaths and a decimated economy ever trump expansionism for Putin and his cronies?

        • Aux@lemmy.world
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          Ruble worth is irrelevant, especially since they don’t neeed to buy stuff from EU and US anymore. But Russian economy is in a healthy state.

            • Aux@lemmy.world
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              IMF says Russian economy will grow by 1.5% in 2023 - https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/RUS

              For comparison, their projection for UK is 0.4%, US 1.8%, and Germany should drop by 0.3%. Yeah, sorry, Russia is doing fine.

              Is it a good enough source for you? Do you need more sources? I can give more.

              • dynamojoe@lemmy.world
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                US GDP: $76339 per capita. x1.8% = 1374.102
                UK GDP $45850 per capita x 0.4% = 183.4
                RUS GDP $15607 per capita x 1.5% = 234.11

                RU can expect growth, but their GDP is still shit. 1.5% growth puts the UK economy at just under 3x the Russian one. I know which currency I’d trust more and where (all other things being equal, which they’re not) I’d invest.

                • Aux@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  It’s not about your investment. The reality is that the war doesn’t have any negative impact on Russia at the moment. And if the oil war will continue to progress the way it goes right now, the Russian economy will only get better.

                  We need to think about other measures if we want to help Ukraine, because sanctions don’t do shit.

              • Cabrio@lemmy.world
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                1.5% of zero is still zero. It’s like you practice being this stupid.

        • Aux@lemmy.world
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          No, they just talk bullshit to score points with Russian sheeple. But that doesn’t mean Putin’s regime needs a victory.

  • carlosfm@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The second greatest army in Ukraine wants to mess with Nato? LOL

  • blue_zephyr@lemmy.world
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    War has fuck-all to do with rights. If you’re going to attack a NATO country we will beat your ass back into the stone age without mercy, your nukes won’t save you if you dare cross that line.

    • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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      No but they’ll sure kill a lot of us, whichever ones still fire and hit their marks at least. Who’s to say if they’ve maintained their stock over the decades.

      And the citizens will be told the whole time about how it’s some plot to destroy them as people, to stoke the flames.

      An actual war with Russia wouldn’t end well for anyone short of having an internal coup with an actual plan for government afterwards instead of this slow handoff of power from one authoritarian dictator to the next.

      • jcit878@lemmy.world
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        an actual war with russia wont end well for russia, thats about it. even russia isnt dumb enough to try nuclear war

        • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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          Don’t confuse the requirement of lack of intelligence with the willingness of a person willing to drag the world to hell as they’re being taken down.

  • Chariotwheel@kbin.social
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    So has Denmark.

    Though it would be funny ig Russia didn’t. Imagine Putin declaring war on Poland and Poland just saying “no, it’s against the law.”

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
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    I mean… he’s not wrong? They could have a war with NATO any time they wanted it. Russia could have war with NATO whenever they want it. They’ve been very careful to not actually DO that, of course. Last thing they need is to start losing another one with someone who won’t have any difficulty in bringing the full conflict right to them.

  • HamSwagwich@showeq.com
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    They can’t even fight a small country like Ukraine and they want to test the might of a fully armed and optional Battlestaion NATO alliance? Do they believe that anyone really believes them?

    • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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      Ukraine is no small country, either in terms of area or population.

      • HamSwagwich@showeq.com
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        Lol what?

        Ukraine is tiny. It’s roughly the same size as Texas and has roughly the same population as California. Alaska is larger than Ukraine.

        Its the functional equivalent of Russia trying to invade Texas and failing. It’s a massive embarrassment for a former super power that likely can’t ever be recovered from.

        I’m going to guess you are European, as I’ve found most Europeans don’t understand the size of countries outside of Europe.

        • kartonrealista@lemmy.world
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          Most countries around the world have a population smaller than California. The US is just really big. Even then, California alone has about 12% of the entire population of the US, the third most populated country.

        • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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          Ukraine is tiny. It’s roughly the same size as Texas.

          TIL that Texas is tiny.

          Listen buddy, you seem to think that if we say that Ukraine is not a small country, that somehow gives Russia glory or something. That’s silly.

          PS. I’m Canadian, if that means anything in this context.

          • HamSwagwich@showeq.com
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            Texas IS tiny when you compare it against the size of a country that isn’t in Europe.

            As to the rest of your message… I have no idea what you are even trying to say

  • Pringles@lemm.ee
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    Nobody is stopping them from exercising that right against any NATO country. What about Poland? They have been a historical nuisance, Dimi. Just shoot a rocket at a farm somewhere, but make it intentional this time.