Links and Stuff
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict and, unlike most western analysts, has some degree of understanding on how war works. He is a reactionary, however.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Yesterday's discussion post.
Just a curious (and mostly pointless) personal observation about the economic-psychological warfare waged not only against Russia but also Belarus (where I currently reside).
So as you know, many big brand companies had begun "exiting" these markets: some for real, other just stopping their operations (while still paying their employees' salaries) till things blow over, others rebranding, others selling off. Russia has been affected by this much much more, but Belarus too to a certain extent.
The observation. About two months ago I was taking a stroll through Minsk's biggest downtown mall, and on the 3rd floor there was a pretty substantial H&M store, which was closed. There was a sign saying "Due to the bla bla bla we made the decision etc etc etc". Pretty vague but also everyone gets it ok.
Now, this week I went back there, and the H&M store, still closed, is suddenly on the 1st floor, with the same sign on display. The space the store is occupying now is smaller on the one hand, but on the other it's very close to the entrance so more traffic. I don't know how these things are priced and which of the two spaces is more expensive to rent, but I basically see two equally plausible explanations. 1) Since H&M is closed and is losing money on that particular space, they just moved to a cheaper one. 2) Or if it's not cheaper someone had a brilliant idea to move it closer to where more foot traffic is to show off their "we're closed because we're morally superior" sign.
Either way it's their spot and they obviously keep paying for it, planning to return.
I figure there's some spots in their supply chain that makes them deal to some extent with Russia, which carries a heavy penalty. which makes business a net loss. They're closing up shop while they either figure out how to open up shop again without being sanctioned, or maybe they think sanctions will be lifted just enough to make a profit again, perhaps hoping the GOP will go soft on Russia?
Isn't there also a rumour that this is the German strategy? Because Nordstream II or w/e its called, the big pipeline that would allow for huge amounts of natural gas from Russia, hasn't really been demolished as much as the project has been put on administrative hold indefinitely. Which would mean that a potential future administration could just active the project and have it running within a couple weeks / months, if the political will is found.
I don't know! But it certainly sounds plausible.