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  1. #451
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    . . . and China.
    I can heartily recommend reading "A Gentleman in Moscow." I don't imagine much of it will be news to you - mass arrests of the intelligentsia, censorship, gulags; just another day in paradise - but it's very well written and hard to put down.

  2. #452
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    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    I can heartily recommend reading "A Gentleman in Moscow."
    Thank you, I will try to find it. (Still haven't worked our the Kindle when it comes to non-Kindle downloaded books)




    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    I don't imagine much of it will be news to you - mass arrests of the intelligentsia, censorship, gulags; just another day in paradise - but it's very well written and hard to put down.
    Though I was in Moscow with my parents a few times they actually worked at the embassy in Prague, which was a different kettle of fish, not nearly as brutal but still oppressive to the locals

  3. #453
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    It must have been a fascinating experience. The 80s?

  4. #454
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    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    It must have been a fascinating experience. The 80s?
    70s and I only visited them during school holidays, boarding school in Germany usually.

    Yes, lots and lots of stories - not nearly all of them bad . . . one day over a few beers

    (The value of a packet of western cigarettes . . . the second currency)

  5. #455
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    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    brainwashed tens of millions of young people.
    You (and your friends) are the representative sample how the brainwashing works (and with the age doesn't go away...)

  6. #456
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Though I was in Moscow with my parents a few times they actually worked at the embassy in Prague, which was a different kettle of fish, not nearly as brutal but still oppressive to the locals
    Actually, from the window of the embassy - and from the embassy car browsing thru the city - one gets surely quite realistic view how the local people (not the diplomats) live, whether they enjoy the life or not, doesn't he?

    (BTW, do also the embassy janitors enjoy the diplomatic privileges?)

  7. #457
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    You (and your friends) are the representative sample how the brainwashing works (and with the age doesn't go away...)
    You long past the point of being taken even semi-seriously as someone worthy of debate.

    Now get back to daydreaming about the halcyon days of informing on your neighbours and having them sent to the Gulag, you silly old Commie fool.

  8. #458
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Yes, lots and lots of stories - not nearly all of them bad . . . one day over a few beers
    Indeed. Although life was clearly difficult for the average Joe, I've always found it amusing to see the way - particularly in the US - that propaganda had many believing that its people were sub-human brutes who ate western schoolchildren for breakfast.

    The truth is that folk the world over are generally good and want few things more than a peaceful life and a bit of fun. You make the best of what you have.

  9. #459
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    Actually
    You have zero clue.



    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    (BTW, do also the embassy janitors enjoy the diplomatic privileges?)
    Officially?

    You're embarrassing yourself even more now







    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    particularly in the US - that propaganda had many believing that its people were sub-human brutes who ate western schoolchildren for breakfast.
    Oh, absolutely . . . the whole cold war 'Reds under the beds' nonsense in the US, Hoover with his cross-dressing virulent anti-Communism etc... actors being blackballed if they were or ere thought to be communists - how was that any better?


    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    The truth is that folk the world over are generally good and want few things more than a peaceful life and a bit of fun. You make the best of what you have.
    Sure. Many had their antennas pointed towards the west to catch West German TV or radio, loved western goods, clothes etc... One actually felt sorry for them in a way, wanting something but not being able to get it other than through the black market or from the odd tourist from Yugoslavia.

    The agent meant to be shadowing my mother ended up helping her carry the shopping home, she had the butcher give him better cuts of meat, having races with our shadows when 'borrowing' my father's Mustang (yea, I know - sigh, he kept the other cars' keys when he went away) with their Škoda outside the city and so on . . . bugs in our walls, greeting the listeners every morning. My friend, the Bolivian Ambo's son buying a 'detector' in Germany and digging out the listening devices from their walls only to have people evacuate them the next day due to gas leaks . . . they returned to freshly painted walls. We did that often.

    We never feared them or did we have reason to . . . it was just a job for them

  10. #460
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    Indeed. Although life was clearly difficult for the average Joe, I've always found it amusing to see the way - particularly in the US - that propaganda had many believing that its people were sub-human brutes who ate western schoolchildren for breakfast.

    The truth is that folk the world over are generally good and want few things more than a peaceful life and a bit of fun. You make the best of what you have.
    I don't think propaganda did anything of the kind. It had them being scared of the massive security apparatus that watched their every move, being locked in an information vacuum where they though Elvis Presley was still topping the charts in the '80's, and queuing up for three hours to buy a potato.

    Which wasn't far from the fucking truth.

  11. #461
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    ‘Western brand’: more than 20 nations possess over 140 ‘Novichok’-type substances, Russian Foreign Ministry says

    10 Oct, 2020 22:13 / Updated 1 day ago

    "The notorious ‘Novichok’ nerve agent described as Russia’s lethal weapon has been first presented to the world by Americans and has since been replicated by 20 of their allies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

    The structure of a substance that has since been known to the world as ‘Novichok’ has been first unveiled by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology back in 1998 on the basis of the data provided by the Pentagon, the Russian Ministry said on Saturday, replying to yet another damning statement by the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

    Over the years, the formula was used by Americans and more than 20 other western nations to produce a cluster of as many as 140 variations of the toxin that can be attributed to the ‘Novichok’ group, the ministry said, adding that the whole lot of them are not covered by the Chemical Weapons Convention.

    “‘Novichok’ is a western brand,” the ministry’s statement said. “We do not have it.”
    Moscow reminded that all the chemical weapons in its possession were destroyed back in 2017 under “rigorous international control” overseen by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

    The statement came in response to a speech Maas delivered in the German parliament earlier this week. The German minister once again accused Russia of failing to provide clear answers on the case of Alexey Navalny, a Russian opposition figure supposedly poisoned by the notorious nerve agent and subsequently treated in a Berlin clinic. Maas also threatened Moscow with sanctions over the incident.

    Russia, in turn, argued that it cannot launch a probe into the case without any evidence that the alleged poisoning did take place. The ministry reminded that neither Russian doctors, who saved Navalny's life in the first crucial hours, nor German doctors, who treated him further, found any traces of a nerve agent poisoning. Those were only allegedly found almost a week later by the German military, Moscow added.

    Still, Berlin has not so far provided any material evidence substantiating the poisoning narrative to Russia.

    Maas stated earlier that traces of ‘Novichok’ were found in Navalny’s blood in urine by a German military lab as well as by facilities in France and Sweden. Yet, none of these findings were ever shared with Moscow despite at least four formal cooperation requests the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office filed with the German authorities. Berlin is also reluctant to share any other information related to this case with Moscow as well, the ministry noted.

    “The German side has something to explain despite its tenacious unwillingness to do so. Its earlier excuses are unacceptable. They are unconvincing,” the ministry said.

    “The only thing we want is to get legal, technical and organizational assistance within the bilateral German-Russian [framework] as well as with the OPCW frameworks to conduct a comprehensive and unbiased investigation of Navalny’s case.”

    Yet, instead of cooperation, Russia faces “aggressive rhetoric” and a “propagandist attack” orchestrated from Germany, the ministry noted.

    Navalny was in coma between August 20 and September 7 after falling ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was first hospitalized in the Russian city of Omsk, where the medics managed to stabilize him but did not find any traces of any particular poison in his body. Later, he was transferred to the Berlin's Charité clinic on family's request.

    The German authorities then claimed he was targeted in a poisoning attack and demanded Moscow provide some “answers” to this case, threatening Moscow with a swift response in the form of sanctions. Germany’s western allies, including the UK, France and the US also rushed to link the incident to Russia while Navalny himself was quick to blame Kremlin for the ordeal, without providing any evidence.

    Lately, the OPCW confirmed its specialists found some substances in Navalny’s blood and urine that have “structural characteristics” similar to those of the ‘Novichok’ group. Moscow now expects to receive some information on the case from the international chemical weapons watchdog. "

    ‘Western brand’: more than 20 nations possess over 140 ‘Novichok’-type substances, Russian Foreign Ministry says — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  12. #462
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    HAHAHAHAHAHA Good one.

  13. #463
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    Actually, the Novichok was mistaken. Heard that somebody cried: "Now We Choke"...

  14. #464
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    ‘Western brand’: more than 20 nations possess over 140 ‘Novichok’-type substances, Russian Foreign Ministry says
    News just in. TASS, Pravda and RT report:

    Stalin appears to Putin in a dream and says: “I have two bits of advice for you: kill off all your opponents and paint the Kremlin blue.”
    Putin asks, “Why blue?”
    Stalin: "I knew you would not object to the first one."


    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    Actually, the Novichok was mistaken. Heard that somebody cried: "Now We Choke"...
    True, Russians are that primitive

  15. #465
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    TASS, Pravda and RT report:
    The messenger or the facts?

    As you chose the messenger to comment on, I will presume your silence on the articles facts, as an agreement with the facts.

    Unless of course you have an alternate fact based report you wish to post.

  16. #466
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    News just in. TASS, Pravda and RT report:
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    The messenger or the facts?
    The two are incompatible with the aforementioned 'media'

  17. #467
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    The two are incompatible with the aforementioned 'media'
    Only hoohoo and his little puppy think Russian state controlled media and fact have anything in common.


  18. #468
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    ‘Western brand’: more than 20 nations possess over 140 ‘Novichok’-type substances, Russian Foreign Ministry says
    Fortunately, there are so many chemical and biological weapon laboratories around the world to protect the world.

    Many of them are also in the former small Soviet republics, however, no longer supported by the Soviet Big Brother, luckily by others.

    In some of those countries with recently furnished laboratories are the current problems with the "orange revolutions", as e.g. in Kyrgyzstan.

    Hopefully, they will not let the genie out of the bottle...

  19. #469
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    And here's the little puppy right on cue.

  20. #470
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    News just in. TASS, Pravda and RT report:
    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    ‘Western brand’: more than 20 nations possess over 140 ‘Novichok’-type substances, Russian Foreign Ministry says
    . . . and
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Only hoohoo and his little puppy think Russian state controlled media and fact have anything in common.

  21. #471
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    I don't think propaganda did anything of the kind. It had them being scared of the massive security apparatus that watched their every move, being locked in an information vacuum where they though Elvis Presley was still topping the charts in the '80's, and queuing up for three hours to buy a potato.

    Which wasn't far from the fucking truth.
    I think you've misunderstood me there, Harry. I was referring to Western propaganda during the Cold War - in particular the US - and the effects it had on American citizens. In fact, you still see lasting remnants of it today with the "we will never be a Socialist country" rhetoric of the Trumptards.

  22. #472
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    Quote Originally Posted by hallelujah View Post
    I think you've misunderstood me there, Harry. I was referring to Western propaganda during the Cold War - in particular the US - and the effects it had on American citizens. In fact, you still see lasting remnants of it today with the "we will never be a Socialist country" rhetoric of the Trumptards.
    Like I said, I don't think it was propaganda. Just calling it how it was.

    The Russians lived a miserable, entrapped life. Most of them still do.

  23. #473
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    I doubt they could be as perpetually miserable as you 'arry.

  24. #474
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    Has anyone pointed out yet that the "lady" this nobody was travelling with was not only his mistress that he was caught with for the first time on this trip to the anger or his wife, but also that that woman is linked nice and tight to SIS?

    Doubt it.

    Bash the rooskies - they are the enemy

    Carry on



  25. #475
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    Bellingcat say Russian FSB hit squad behind the poisoning (and had been trying to give him one of Vlad's special cuppas since July):

    Russian FSB hit squad poisoned Alexei Navalny, report says | Alexei Navalny | The Guardian

    The men accused of poisoning Alexei Navalny | Alexei Navalny | The Guardian

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