all 61 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 28 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Russia's basically already on two fronts and just lost a huge proportion of its strategic bombers.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 111 points 1 year ago (22 children)

    Watching the divide in republican circles on Iran has been a great way to see who is under Kremlin control. Most are who we already knew: Tulsi Gabbard, Tucker Carlson, Rand Paul, etc.

  • source
  • hideshow 22 child comments
  • [–] 52 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Yeah the entire US intelligence arm, really any public intelligence period, etc.

    I vehemently disagree with those folks you mentioned but gotta say, not wanting to get involved in another war in the Middle East built on outright lies doesn’t make them Kremlin controlled. It’s other things.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 76 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    I'm just saying that it's amusing the only anti-war Republicans in the administration and Congress are ones who've long looked, acted, and quacked like Kremlin assets:

    • You've got Tulsi Gabbard literally echoing Kremlin propaganda verbatim on Western imperialism (yet not making a peep about Russia's invasion of Ukraine)
    • You've got Tucker Carlson flying to Moscow, simping for Putin, trying to show how great Russia is in contrast to the USA.
    • You've got Rand Paul flying to Moscow hand-delivering letters on behalf of Trump.

    There may be an intersection of my desire to not want to escalate for completely different reasons, and Kremlin operatives not wanting their ally and arms supplier to be crippled, but that is all.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] -5 points 1 year ago

    All of those things you mentioned? Exactly what I was referencing earlier.

    Definitely a fair point with one of Russia’s key military suppliers potentially being crippled, I agree. There have been other republican detractors in congress who don’t fall into the same boat and, again, I’m not sure I can really fault Gabbard (in this very specific context mind you) for just reiterating what the US’ own intelligence is saying.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    This is just "the anti Vietnam War protestors are secretly working for the soviets" for the modern era. There were just as many conspiracies that left liberals were secretly agents of Moscow in the 60s.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    I’m going to respond to a later comment of yours here for the sake of visibility.

    Tucker Carlson flew to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin last year. That trip was financed by Tenant Media - the same group that was revealed to have been financed by Russia for the sake of spreading Russian talking points. Justin Trudeau gave testimony under oath that Tucker was shilling for Russia.

    It is more challenging, generally, to show that politicians are illegally taking money from foreign interests because the pathways by which money is publicly disclosed are more well-known. So the pathways through which money may be hidden can also be followed to disguise the source of income. Unless one gets caught.

    As did an aid of Rand Paul’s, who helped funnel Russian money into the RNC during the 2016 election, and whom was later pardoned by Trump, at Rand Paul’s urging.

    As far as Gabbard is concerned - no money trails, but even her own staff think she’s compromised.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Some right wing influencers have already been shown to take Kremlin money

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Yeah, and there were plenty of left journalists on the payroll of Moscow in the 60s. They tended to cover the civil rights movement and anti-war movement very positively, does that mean the leaders of those movements were also secretly agents of the communists?

    Has there been any proof that the people OP mentioned have any connection to putin? Don't get me wrong there all horrible people, but it's not because there "Russian assets" and if they're gonna go against this God awful war then good on them.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I mean, many of those leaders were communists... But not agents of the Soviets, which was a convenient accusation tho

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Maybe "communist" by the 60s definition as in anyone to the left of keynes then yeah I guess so, but MLK wasn't a communist in any real political sense.

    The analogy still holds though, many of the leaders OP is pointing out are regressive right wing nationalist who would naturally align with putin without being agents of the Kremlin.

    Both these accusations tend to put the blame of these movements on foreigners meddling with our democracy instead of real strains of thought coming from that democracy that need to be addressed.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [+] -7 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Anti-war people being consistent in their anti-war stance somehow means they're Putin's puppets.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Oh, so Tulsi Gabbard definitely 100% publicly denounced Russia's unprecedented act of aggression and imperial invasion of Ukraine, right...?

    ... Right... ?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [+] -7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Do not conflate being against the war with Iran as being a Putin puppet.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    To the contrary, I am conflating the fact that the alleged "anti-war" person (your words) suddenly wasn't "anti-war" when Russia invaded Ukraine as being a Putin puppet; that, and the fact that US intelligence reports found that Russia was promoting Tulsi as the Democratic primaries candidate in 2020, among other things.

    Bystanders take note how this individual is trying really hard to separate Tulsi Gabbard from the Kremlin. Like, really hard. Deflections and all.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I don't give a fuck about those people. What I give a fuck about is this:

    Watching the divide in republican circles on Iran has been a great way to see who is under Kremlin control.

    Is conflating being against the war with Iran with being Putin's puppet and is drumming support for the war. Stop supporting Trump's war.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Never once did I say that solely being against war with Iran meant someone was Putin's puppet. Never. Either work on your reading comprehension or get your eyes checked.

    What I did say is that those specific Republican members who are known Kremlin parrots conveniently oppose the war for ulterior motives. This much is clear.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    known Kremlin parrots conveniently oppose the war for ulterior motives

    What "ulterior motives" if not for being Putin's puppets? It can't be because they aren't Israel's puppets like Cruz or Trump. It can't be because war with Iran is fucking stupid.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    “Very negatively” as opposed to what? Mild negativity?

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 37 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    What are they going to do? Record 3 hour video of p*tin narrating imaginary history?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    You have to think at this point the White House is just like two armed camps. The people that work for Putin and the people who work for Netanyahu. Few years ago I'd say they were sharing an uneasy truce, maybe even a burgeoning friendship, but now? God I hope they tear themselves apart.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [+] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    trump really forgot the only reason he has a razor thin congressional majority, is Russia blackmailing Congress members into supporting him

    Putin can make them all stop supporting trump just as easily.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    translation from Russian: they will keep bombing schools and hospitals in Ukraine, but now it's going to be a "reaction" just because they were provoked

  • source
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I hate war.

    But if daddy Vladdy is mad…

    I still hate war.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    Oh no are they going to lose another million soldiers about it and crash their economy even harder?

  • source
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    Killing Khamenei would be a bad move. That's how martyrs are made, and they are already dialed up to 11 in Iran, so there is no reason to pour even more oil in the fire.

  • source
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    Khamenei is weak. Maybe he wasn’t in the beginning, but he has been for the past decade or so. Killing him is risky for US and Israel as that may potentially give Iran another stronger leader. Russia doesn’t want change either as Khamenei is known and manageable.

  • source
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Oh no. Anyways I still hope he gets the Gaddafi treatment and still don't want America to go to war with Iran.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    America just did go to war with Iran.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Eh, they're still doing the announced tit for tat. Like after soleimani got schwacked, they lobbed missiles at a US airbase and that was the end of it. It's saving face by doing something in response, but also not actually escalating by not inflicting any significant damages.

    So, despite how ridiculous it looks calling for peace after an exchange of missiles, that's probably what will happen. The only confounding factor is Israel and that may be the catalyst to sparking more conflict.

    The fact that Trump is under the thumb of Israel, who want to obliterate Iran, and putin, who doesn't, is entertaining to say the least. It's a complete crap shoot how this ends up overall.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Creating "terrorists" a couple of planeloads of bombs at a time. This is not geopolitics. It's war. Only the western world could be so crass. It's only a couple of bombs on sovereign soil....meh. I say this as a Canadian. If the US lobbed bombs at us today I'd be on the warpath. I imagine there are some Iranians with those thoughts as well. It won't be a one and done even if it's not all out traditional war.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Meh. I don't see much steering room for their course. It isn't Russia by the way, it's Putin and his regime.

  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    As long as they control the government, military, police and other stuff putin and his regime are russia. If russians don't like that they can make their own Maidan.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    That abstraction layer is correct, I think.

    The thing with abstraction layers is: they are made to simplify a context. This makes it easier to understand and to see correlations and processes. It also hides details of the picture.

    As far as I know there are people in Russia who work for their own goals. Those bridges don't collapse themselves and it takes someone to derail a train or sabotage a helicopter or provide intelligence about movements.

    Yes. Most people just eat the propaganda or at least don't act up to evade repression (if they would care enough to do so otherwise). That's normal human behavior, it's no Russian specialty. Can you think of a current critical situation which would need immediate wide-spread attention, but people tend to ignore it?

  • source
  • parent
  • [+] -1 points 1 year ago (5 children)
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    You won't find ANY ruskie who will be against Russia-Ukraine war, Putin AND the annexation of Crimea.

    We exist. But it's right to asume one is a bastard or an indifferent enabler until proven otherwise. That's a given.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Should Crimea belong to Ukraine?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Who are you to me again? Are you thick in the head?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
    [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    "Russia is very afraid", Peskov said. "We cannot afford to lose an already weakened partner in a region where Russia is losing more and more influence" he proceeded.

  • source
  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    ++reasonsToDoIt

    They have an army of donkeys lined up at the border. etc

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment