https://www.yahoo.com/gma/russian-telev ... ories.html


With diplomatic relations between Moscow and Washington at their lowest point since the Cold War, one could be forgiven for being alarmed by recent Russian news broadcasts. For the past month, Russian media outlets have been punctuated with reports asking people whether they are ready for nuclear war.

“If it should one day happen, every one of you should know where the nearest bomb shelter is. It’s best to find out now,” according to one particularly fevered report on the Russian state-owned channel, NTV.

Russia’s main current affairs show, hosted by a presenter known by critics as the country’s propagandist-in-chief, recently spent two hours warning that Russia would defend itself with nuclear arms.

“We’ve had it with American scolding over Syria,” the show’s host, Evgeny Kiselyov, told his audience. "Impudent behavior,” from the U.S. he said, can take on “nuclear dimensions."

Anti-Americanism is not rare on Russian state news, nor is an inclination for the apocalyptic. More notable than the intensity of the warnings has been how Russian government ministries have joined in the alarms in recent weeks. Since September, Russia has conducted a nationwide civil defense drill, purportedly involving 40 million people, preparing them for catastrophes, among them nuclear fallout. Russia’s military announced who would run the country in the event of war and ran an exercise simulating that in the south. The governor of St. Petersburg clarified what bread rations people could expect should Russia come under attack (300 grams for 20 days).

Even more bluntly, Russia announced this week it was moving nuclear-capable ballistic missiles into its Northern European exclave, Kaliningrad, putting them within striking distance of Western capitals.

Such moves have further raised the temperature with the West, already exceptionally high with the U.S. accusing Moscow of trying to interfere in its presidential elections and Russia accusing the U.S. of supporting terrorists in Syria. Relations were already at a low since the Ukraine crisis broke out in 2014, and the renewed clash over Moscow's military campaign in Syria has sent them to fresh depths.

The blood-curdling statements and military posturing, however, do not herald imminent war, analysts said.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Aleksander Baunov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. “It’s not preparation for war.”

He said the civil defense drills and the heated programming on television were directed more at the U.S., to deter it from interfering with Russia’s military campaign in Syria or responding too strongly to suspected Russian efforts to interfere with the U.S. elections.

“They want to touch bottom and then to try to go up,” he said, adding that he feels Moscow is trying to set the tone for the incoming U.S. president. “Any responsible politician … if you are responsible and experienced, it cannot start with further downgrading already bad relations if they are already at bottom.”

The chances of a real military confrontation between Russia and the U.S. have risen dramatically since Washington indicated it was considering launching airstrikes against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after a cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington was abandoned and Assad and Russian aircraft unleashed a devastating bombardment on the city of Aleppo. Russia’s Defense Ministry has bluntly warned the U.S. not to intervene, threatening to shoot down any aircraft targeting Assad’s forces.

But few analysts expect such an intervention from the U.S.

“The good news is no one really wants a war,” said Pavel Felgengauer, a military analyst in Moscow. “But it’s going to be a good show.”

Many ordinary Russians, though describing themselves as outraged by U.S. behavior in Syria, appear largely inured to the warnings of imminent nuclear doom. Photos appeared on social media from a suburban apartment block where pranksters or enterprising fraudsters had pinned fliers to a stairwell asking residents to begin donating cash for the construction of a local bomb shelter.

“Hurry, places are limited,” the fliers read.

“In reality, nothing has changed,” Baunov said. “There is no peak in anti-American mood here among people.”

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

The Frontline special was great but they left out one critical detail. That Obama did park parts of a carrier task force off of Syria almost 3 years ago when Assad crossed his "red line" - problem is, he blinked. Everyone blinked. Could not build a coalition in order for the US to do all the work, anyhow. Those are the tough, unpopular decisions that Presidents get paid $400k a year to make. Even after Iraq.I like Obama's presidency overall, as for the majority of the time he has been a centrist, as I tend to be, but he's is god-fucking-awful when it comes to geopolitical strategy. The world does not work the way he thinks he can make it. Sad reality.

And Putin getting involved in Syria did draw the lines of proxy that have spilled into other countries. Up until then, the US was largely the referee of the region and it largely worked in keeping countries with massive differences, from adressing them, militarily.

Fortunately for us, Putin never truly diversified his country's economy, or worked on Russia's horrible demographics issues. Unfortunately for us, we are part of humanity that will hope beyond hope that we can survive the next inevitable Russian financial/political collapse. Best case scenario is post-Putin Russia proves itself to be just like everyone else in that he leaves office and ultimately blames the collapse on his successor, just as many of his tangible successes were started by Yeltsin (Putin's one true accomplishment was tax reform and Yeltsin began that). And then they ask the world to bail them out. Which we will. Or Europe mostly will. And then they will be even closer to the edge, themselves.


So we might not all be dead, but this global financial system is a cluster fuck waiting to pop.

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"Mattress technology has come a long way"

- Dan Bernstein, 2016

The world is not going to subject itself to nuclear hellfire over fucking Syria. I dont remember living through any of the Cold War, but my understanding is the level of tension currently between the USA and Russia woud've been considered fantastic relations between the USA and the USSR in the Cold War years.

Also there's the fact that the USA is currently the most dominating military force in the history of the world and Russia (and China) exist soley because we allow them to.