• no banana @lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Yeah that feels more like Putin showing himself in Kaliningrad in preparation for the Russian “elections”.

    • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      Indeed. Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO has made Kaliningrad obsolete, it’s now a complete waste of Russia’s resources trying to keep it fortified. I’m hoping that visits like this one are Putin signalling “don’t worry, I’m going to keep on wasting those resources here!”

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I honestly don’t get it. Russia is having a hella time trying to beat up their baby brother. The fuck Putin thinks will happen when the full force of western Europe and the United States is brought to bear?!

    If he wants to get froggy, I wish he would. I’m no war monger, but I hate Russians and it’s high time the West stomps that country flat. Lived under Russian threat most of my life, except for the 90s when the Russian people showed their ability to self-rule by turning into fucking gangsters.

    The Cold War isn’t a history book thing for me. We casually lived our lives, knowing that the Soviet Union could flip the fuck out at any moment and destroy the entire planet. At what point does the world say “Enough!”.

    • NoIWontPickaName@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      We don’t live within nuclear striking distance of Kaliningrad.

      I think that might be a key difference.

      I was just watching a thing on YouTube about this Kaliningrad thing. Apparently there’s like 70,000 people out of 500,000 who signed a referendum to leave Russia and join Europe.

      With their real names!

      Imagine how many there are total, I don’t think we’ll have to wait too much longer to see what’s going to happen with Kaliningrad now

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The article said he flew into Kaliningrad. Anyone know the flight path? Did he fly over an unfriendly NATO country or did he take the really long and winding route over the Baltic Sea?

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I don’t think he has any other options except to fly over the Baltic sea. Flying over NATO airspace would get him intercepted, forced to land and arrested.

    • Rose@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      He flew out of Moscow after Prigozhin announced his march to it, so it’s clear he still tremendously values his life. The recent arrest and sentencing of one of his previously trusted henchmen heavily involved in the annexation of Crimea is also seen as Putin ensuring that nobody attempts to overthrow him again.

      • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        When Putin finally dies and if he doesn’t decide to take the entire world with him (which I wouldn’t exactly bet on), Russians are going to be so fucked when it comes time to transition power. Putin doesn’t see any distinction between himself and Russia anymore, and he’s systematically gotten rid of anyone and anything who could replace him, so when he keels over the power vacuum is going to be pretty enormous, and knowing Russians it’ll probably get very messy and they’ll somehow manage to replace Putin with someone who’s even worse.

  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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    5 months ago

    If he’s planning on taking Gotland for use as a base for besieging the Baltic States, he’s going to have to hurry, as it’s almost in NATO.