My Russian/American business partner just sent over something sent to him... written in Russian, which he translated for me...

March is a great month:

• Nickolas I passed away on March 2nd
  
• Stalin died on March 5th
• Chernenko died on March 10th
• Alexander II was killed on March 13
• Nickolas II removed from power on March 15th
• Ivan the Terrible died March 18th
• Pavel I was killed with an ashtray on March 24th

March, Don't let us down!

From the Washington Post this morning:

"Russia has effectively legalized patent theft from anyone affiliated with countries 'unfriendly' to it, declaring that unauthorized use will not be compensated.

"The decree, issued this week, illustrates the economic war waged around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as the West levies sanctions and pulls away from Russia’s huge oil and gas industry. Russian officials have also raised the possibility of lifting restrictions on some trademarks, according to state media, which could allow continued use of brands such as McDonald’s that are withdrawing from Russia in droves.

"The effect of losing patent protections will vary by company, experts say, depending on whether they have a valuable patent in Russia. The U.S. government has long warned of intellectual property rights violations in the country; last year Russia was among nine nations on a 'priority watch list' for alleged failures to protect intellectual property. Now Russian entities could not be sued for damages if they use certain patents without permission."

According to the story, "The Kremlin has not issued any decree lifting protections on trademarks. But Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development said last week that authorities are considering 'removing restrictions on the use of intellectual property contained in certain goods whose supply to Russia is restricted,' according to Russian state news outlet Tass, and that potential measures could affect inventions, computer programs and trademarks."

 VV wrote:

Interesting quote I just saw:

Plato's cave analogy. Prisoners were deceived that the shadows on the wall were reality while they were created by their captors using puppets between the fire and the wall. Those who ventured outside the cave and returned to reveal the reality of the world were believed to have been struck blind by their exposure to the light when their eyes did not immediately adjust to the gloom and their testimony was dismissed.

 miamizsun wrote:

Clever clogs!

I don't think he meant it the way it got translated...

 Animal-Farm wrote:
Funny that you also got caught up in the simplistic cliché trap as well.

Russia’s ‘warning’ of Ukraine’s biological weapons sounds just like Syria

 R_P wrote:

This is what has happened to the vaccine discussion:

 what typically occurs is a narrowing of vision, a rapid descent into Manichaean modes of thought, the marginalization or suppression of dissenting voices, the abandonment of nuance, and a stubborn focus on victory at all costs. This process seems to be well underway inside Putin’s Russia, but a milder form is apparent in the West too. All told, this is a recipe for making a terrible situation worse.

Just because someone does not want to buy Elon Musk's new car does not make them anti-Elon 

An International Relations Theory Guide to the War in Ukraine - Stephen M. Walt/FP
A consideration of which theories have been vindicated—and which have fallen flat.

Warfare also has its own logic, and it unleashes political forces that tend to drown out alternative voices, even in societies where freedom of speech and open debate remain intact. Because the stakes are high, wartime is when public officials, the media, and the citizenry should work hardest to resist stereotypes, think coolly and carefully, avoid hyperbole and simplistic clichés, and above all remain open to the possibility that they might be wrong and that a different course of action is required. Once the bullets start flying, however, what typically occurs is a narrowing of vision, a rapid descent into Manichaean modes of thought, the marginalization or suppression of dissenting voices, the abandonment of nuance, and a stubborn focus on victory at all costs. This process seems to be well underway inside Putin’s Russia, but a milder form is apparent in the West too. All told, this is a recipe for making a terrible situation worse.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
MRGA!

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 

 R_P wrote: 
That all makes a lot of sense. So, it basically means all this massive bloodshed and personal suffering is basically to shore up dying dreams of empire and glory. Great.

 Ivanhoe wrote:
Plenty of history to go around. Anniversary is coming up—are you preparing to celebrate?


Sure: kick your neighbor's door in, shoot up the house, hold a gun to his head and start negotiating about how much of the house he gets to keep. Sounds fair.


Do you have any inkling why this move has motivated Russia's neighbors to join NATO? Why Ukraine was motivated in the first place?


You do realize the article about Zelensky offering to negotiate neutrality is from two weeks ago, right? That's before the invasion. Which makes the idea of neutrality pretty much moot, doesn't it?


Poland has asked, but NATO has made no such promise. Maybe consider this: given Poland's history and what it stands to lose at the hands of Russia, why would it be motivated to do this?

Russia's neighbors live in fear of it because Russia is trying to repeat the brutal history the rest of the world wants to put behind it.


Something I saw from a Ukrainian recently: "If Russia stops fighting there is no more war. If Ukraine stops fighting there is no more Ukraine."

 Ivanhoe wrote: 

ok, so the shit has hit the fan and we have a war on our hands.

 what happens next?

Either Russia takes over Ukraine but will be forced to install a very repressive regime not only in Ukraine (with most likely sustained guerrilla warfare going on) but also domestically as the true scale of the war on his "own people" (presuming the Russians buy into the Ukrainians are us argument, which is highly likely) becomes known.

Maybe with the sanctions in place he can keep spinning the us vs. them narrative for a while to justify this oppression, but I can't see him being able to maintain this too long.

or the Ukrainians manage to push back or contain the Russian advance.  I don't know what happens then. It could be a negotiated ceasefire, it could be an internal putsch removes Putin, or it could be that Putin goes nuclear out of desperation. 

I have no idea.

To say any of these outcomes lies in the hands of the Americans would be to overstate their influence. I wouldn't put it past the Ukrainians to push back the Russian army even without western assistance. They are fighting for their land and Putin has just done them the massive favour of uniting them against a common foe. 

At the very beginning I phrased this whole drama as the dying throes of a political dinosaur. I still think that is the case, regardless of various machinations by the US or the west. The basic historical trend is the demise of Soviet one-party rule. All the other satellite states have done it already. Russia is just taking a bit longer.

 Ivanhoe wrote: 
What on earth are you referring to? The growing tensions between the three blocks? (I referred to this in my synopsis of the video). 

All the guy says is that the military invasion of Ukraine is a bit awkward for China as it so has pursued a doctrine of recognizing territorial integrity to date (and military intervention contravenes that). But he says the current war (and sanctions) will automatically force Russia to get into bed with China (as I have also stated many times here already).

Basically this means that Russia, with an economy smaller than South Korea but sitting on vast natural resources, will be totally beholden to China. Supremely stupid from a geopolitical viewpoint if you ask me. 

So basically, there are no longer three major blocs. There are currently just two and no doubt this will change in the near future due to shifting demographics and relative wealth.

 R_P wrote:
About 30 years too late....The Lisbon Protocol

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
A bit late for that. And not very real-istic.