15 years ago Russia was too weak, just emerging as a state from the shadow of Soviet Union, torn by internal strife, trying to get a solid footing in the international playing field, where US quickly took initiative. If Russia intervened, it could have faced an invasion or economic penalties, that it wouldn't have been able to shrug off as easily as it does now.

I've seen quite a few comments on other Serbian Youtube videos, where Russians ask for forgiveness from the Serbian people for not being able to come to their aid back then.

Russia is much stronger now, so just being there, without using its military power, it will hopefully be enough to prevent NATO from conducting any more invasions a la Yugoslavia.

Talk about biting a hand that feeds you.  

http://rt.com/news/crimea-russia-tragedy-yanukovich-877/


It was touching watching it. Yes, Serbs and Russians are brothers.

From the tone of it, sounds like razorfishsl is doing a bit of harassing...
My personal trade experience with klintay was positive, and the 19-porter that I got from him is still happily hosting 15 Ants, 3 BEs and 1 fan, 24/7.

klintay, might I suggest you start a reputation thread here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=129.0


There is another trick, that I outlined here, which is safer (does not involve messing with the registry):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=300638.0

As one of those, who donated, I am curious as to how Andreas will proceed from here. On one hand I understand the need for privacy, after all that's what the donation was all about, on the other hand it needs to be documented for the benefit of the community, which is very weary of scams.

I hope to at least see some activity on Reddit (last activity there 24 days ago), and some publicly verifiable transaction details, showing who becomes the recipient of the money (it might be a charity, if Dorian refuses to accept).

Video or media publicity stunts are definitely not called for.

That's what I was arguing for as well, but got downvoted.


Not entirely. Those people that were in charge of the Soviet Union, are now in charge of Russia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithauen, Estonia, Georgia, Armenia, well, you get the picture.

RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, for those who don't know), had least to say in its own governing, compared to the other republics in the Soviet Union. Even its name, Russia, was stripped and obscured into this abbreviation of RSFSR. Leaders of the USSR were in many cases not even Russian. I think Gorbachev was the first real leader of USSR who was Russian as well. Russia was for the most part the donor, while the other republics, the recipients (with the possible exception of the Baltic republics, which were always better off than the rest*), and I am not just talking about money flow. Crimea is one of the more publicised donorships done by USSR without Russian consent (and against the Constitution of the Soviet Union).
So when talking of the period between 1917 and 1992, when you say "Soviets" or "USSR", you are covering the whole union, and by using "Russians" or "Russia" or "RSFSR", you are talking about a federation (which in turn consist of multiple coexisting nationalities), which almost ceased to exist during the USSR reign.

* A small digression: In USSR, travelling to the Baltic republics was like travelling to the West. I remember visiting some friends in Tallin, coming from Moscow myself and being amazed by high life standards and the general atmosphere of prosperity there. The Baltic countries now, under EU, are not even a shadow of their former self, and when I visited now "from the other side", I was again "amazed" in the sense of "appalled". If they were so opposed to the notion of unions, they should have taken the Norwegian route and said no to EU (Norway said no to EU twice, and is much happier for that).


We are entering the area of legal semantics. By the way, in Norway it's a criminal offence to partake beer in the street. If a patron of a restaurant takes his glass of wine outside, that restaurant will have its license revoked by the police on the spot. And smoking in public undesignated areas will result in a hefty fine.

In Russia, no one would put you to jail for kissing, gay or heterosexual. However, organising a gay parade will not be tolerated as it is perceived as a forceful social propaganda.
If you really want to see a country where gay people are criminalised, travel to India, where you can be put in jail for it, or travel just 60 years back in time to Great Britain, where you could get "treated" (hint: Alan Turing a computer science genius, persecuted by the British authorities for being gay and coincidentally committed suicide the same year Crimea was separated from Russia. He was first pardoned by the Queen in 2013, a few months before Crimea reunited with Russia - coincidence again). The laws as they were formulated in Russia, then in Soviet Union and now in Russia again never went to these extremes. Russian Empire was actually one of the most liberal with this regard, and, guess what, was ridiculed by Europe for that.


---
PS: Reminding all that it's the 1st of April. Any news in any outlet should be taken with extreme caution. Not that the whole Ukrainian farce hadn't been one huge April Fool's joke.

Crimea is to become special economic zone:
http://rt.com/business/crimea-zone-tax-break-345/

Also, the salaries and pensions will be increased to the average level of RF.

Funnily, Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a Twitter note of protest against Medvedev visiting the Crimea, which is a federal Republic within Russian Federation.

http://www.forbes.ru/news/253379-mid-ukrainy-vyrazil-protest-iz-za-priezda-medvedeva-v-krym
https://twitter.com/MFA_Ukraine

The comments, people post to that news can be described as amused.
http://news.rambler.ru/24365503/comments/

One not so amused comment here, which I will translate below, and which answers why Crimea, after 60 years, still wanted to reunite with Russia.

Or you can rename Barack into Skyscraper 

As trustworthy as any news outlet. You always have to filter out the propaganda, indiscriminately if you hear it on the Western on Eastern news channels.


Break it up? Last I checked Russia accepted Crimea back into its fold, but otherwise advocated strongly for the unity of Ukraine, despite strong separatist movement in the South-Eastern regions.


For it to be a constitutional republic, there first needs to be a constitution that is not constantly rewritten with regards to presidency election procedures and citizen rights.


I would very much like people started to differentiate between Russia and Soviet Union.
Besides, fake propaganda works both ways.
May I, for example, recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Incident-Sakhalin-True-Mission-Flight/dp/1568580541/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396253280&sr=1-1&keywords=Incident+at+Sakhalin%3A+The+True+Mission+of+KAL+Flight+007


The European fixation on gay laws after fake propaganda, perverting the facts around the said laws, which, despite what EU was touting, do not limit or criminalise gay persons. It limits exposure of gay morals to children in much the same way as alcohol and tobacco commercials are prohibited in many European countries.
This is one of those "truths" that happen to be the exact opposite.

RT simply relayed the interview with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lavrov. It all boils down to who's word one prepares to take, and the time will tell. It always does. It's quite revealing watching some of the interviews with retired CIA officers, shedding some light about, for example, the defamatory information war that US was waging, while USSR had its troops in Afghanistan.

Any significant state would try to sway less powerful states, and Russia is no exception. The action itself can be called many things. Persuasion, diplomacy, threat, trade agreements, military bases, bribery. Take your pick. The one who is more successful at it and uses it the most will get the most votes.  

PS: Hmmm:
http://rt.com/news/ukraine-nationalists-attack-cars-137/

What I find special with the picture, is that there's a guy with the Ukrainian flag, and everything is rather peaceful.


In the meantime, the horses for the Ukrainian race are selected:

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-presidential-candidates-bids-197/

From the comments:

The video might be a montage of a rally supporting Radovan Karadžić (look at 1:27 - banner Радован Караџић), with Russian anthem overlayed (if so, Doppler shift when the car passes is done well, or it might be that they indeed played Russian anthem during that demonstration).

In any case, the comments speak volumes. Russian Slavs can count on Slavs from Serbia, just as they can count on Slavs in Ukraine and Bulgaria, Slovakia and Slovenia, Belorussia and Macedonia. And I am not thinking about the governments and official structures, but about the ordinary people in these countries.

As I said in my earlier response to that quote, it's nothing but fearmongering.

Russia has its forces station along most of its border in approximately the same density.

Interestingly, US also has its forces stationed along Russian borders:


 

Hmm... I don't find it funny actually.
Whatever one's position is, one should not stoop down to burning/defacing another state's symbols.

As to answer the title of the thread, here's what's next:
http://rt.com/news/lavrov-interview-ukraine-russia-065/
However, no invasion is on the agenda, just as it never was.

Unless NATO throws a tantrum and decides to bomb everything in Ukraine to smithereens.

I think this is the map Lavrov mentions at the end of his interview (or, at least, something similar):



 

A very informative, large and comprehensive analytical interview with Foreign Minister Lavrov:

http://rt.com/news/lavrov-interview-ukraine-russia-065/

It's a must read, if one wants to know the Russian position from the source, and not as it is re-told by the Western outlets.

That would be so very much like the US likes doing its "democracy".

My guess for the future is that Alaska is going to be the least of its concerns.



I think you need to petition for it in the government of the country called Moldova.

You are simply trolling...

He's probably one of the better candidates for Ukrainian presidency.

Apropos: Just read an ingenious term: "evrolution"

Who needs a good laugh?

Turchinov's comments today, that Right wing radicals fascists who installed him in power, and now threaten to dislodge him after liquidation of one of their thugs, are agents of Russia.
http://www.interfax.ru/world/367965

Also read this:
http://rt.com/news/right-sector-muzychko-ban-761/

And something more serious:

31400 and still counting. Vote increase seems to have almost the same delta velocity as before, albeit slightly diminishing.

@PrintMule: Sorry, my mistake.


That's nothing but fearmongering.
Russia has troops stationed along the perimeter of its border. Plus you may excuse Russia for taking protective measures when NATO pulls war units to Poland and Baltic countries.
Besides, NATO's observers were only recently inspecting Russian forces in the border regions both from air and on ground and found nothing untoward.
I just hope that these observations will not be used the same way as NATO's "observations" in Yugoslavia, when they collected target data for their air strikes.

And on topic of fearmongering:

Ukraine announced mobilisation of all males younger than 55 years:
http://www.bfm.ru/news/252355?doctype=news

Kiev's bomb shelters are to be made ready for use:
http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2014/03/28/n_6044169.shtml

Well, might be a wise move, if note decides to follow up on Timoshenko's suggestion of killing all Russians in Ukraine with nukes.  

Like this one: