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Finland's Spy Service Warns of Russian Interference, Attacks:
Finland must brace for Russian interference and hybrid attacks as it weighs whether to join the NATO military alliance, the security services warned on Tuesday.
The Nordic nation shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia and has remained militarily non-aligned since the end of World War II to avoid provoking its eastern neighbour.
[...] "The whole of Finnish society must be vigilant towards Russian attempts to influence Finnish decision-making regarding the NATO question," Antti Pelttari, head of the Finnish security services Supo, said.
Releasing its updated terrorism threat report, Supo on Tuesday highlighted the danger of "widespread Russian interference and illegal surveillance," but kept the national terror threat at level two, or "elevated", on a scale of four.
[...] Finland has previously been subject to so-called hybrid tactics from Moscow, such as repeated airspace incursions, or the release in 2016 of 1,700 migrants across the Finnish border.
Earlier this month the transport authority Traficom said it had received "numerous" reports from aircraft of GPS interference in eastern Finland, but was unable to identify the source of the interference.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @12:33AM (22 children)
This point of view is just dumb. The USSR had 25 years to reverse that decision - after Khrushchev had been removed from power. Then they signed a treaty acknowledging those boundaries in the mid 1990s. 20 years later Putin annexes the Crimea after his puppet gets booted and there's blowback. If the Ukraine was still a Russian puppet, you can bet good money that there wouldn't be anyone contesting Ukrainian ownership of the Crimea.
I keep reading that the UN Monitoring Mission in the Ukraine has repeatedly said that it is Russia's responsibility to provide water for the Crimea - not Ukraine's, and that the Crimea has adequate water resources for the people living there.
This makes sense. Where in the laws of war is it the obligation of a defender to provide resources for an occupying army, especially when that army can do it themselves?
I see the points of view and the ever multiplying sides of the story alright. I just don't give them the time of day. This is just like the viewpoint of a criminal caught in the act. They generate all kinds of rationalizations, changing their story frequently, and such when they get in trouble. You quickly realize that sides of the story are irrelevant, even in the rare cases where they are genuine, because a lot of people have similar stories, but don't engage in similar harmful activities.
What really matters is consequences. That we can provide or choose not to. My take is that Russia's actions are so dire, that we need to provide as much negative consequences as we can, short of nuclear war. This is not the actions of a superpower addressing provocations, but the regrowing of an empire by conquest.
I suppose my view is that we have a golden opportunity to make the world an astoundingly wonderful place, for a century or more. But that depends on harm from a variety of sources being neutralized, managed, or contained. Russia threatens that future because it's a corrupt kleptocracy that's now trying to grow its way militarily out of the problems Russia caused for itself. Enough of that and I can shelve that future.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @01:15AM (11 children)
Not while the US is electing presidents and congress critters who profit from the Military Industrial Complex. All wars are good, if you're making money from them.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @03:35AM (10 children)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @04:18AM (9 children)
You're probably correct. The world can't afford us.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @12:52PM (8 children)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @01:49PM (7 children)
If you were a Columbian, you might understand my point.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @02:00PM (6 children)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @02:32PM (5 children)
Ahhh, but - I do understand Ukraine's point of view. It would do nobody any good for me to argue Ukraine's point of view here, would it? The membership is almost unanimous in understanding and arguing for Ukraine's point of view. I would rather spend my time trying to make some of you understand that the popular point of view is not the only one.
So, Russia is an Indian-giver. Hmmmm - I'm thinking here. Where did that term come from? Probably has nothing to do with the fact that the US gave to the Indians again and again, and always took back everything they gave. It's almost like Russia and the US are kindred spirits, huh?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @03:34PM (4 children)
So I don't respect the Putin viewpoint or expect it to stick around for long.
And let's face it. This isn't about viewpoints, it's about making excuses long enough for Russia to get what it wants. This has been the playbook for Russia/USSR since the end of the Second World War.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @06:06PM (3 children)
And, that's the reason for the invasion. No one respects Russia.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @07:16PM
Why does no one respect Russia?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2022, @08:34PM
Russia, we respect. Putin - not so much.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @11:12PM
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday April 01 2022, @02:44AM (9 children)
Let's not forget that during referendum about being in the USSR Ukrainians rejected separation by 70-80% margin. The whole Ukraine is a separate country thing is illegal.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday April 01 2022, @03:29AM (6 children)
So this was a referendum during the days of the USSR? Sounds like a waste of time to consider.
Also consider how much fight is in the Ukraine today, sounds like it's not a 70-80% margin any more, even if we were to optimistically assume that this alleged referendum reflected actual voter will.
Russia signed a treaty acknowledging the sovereignty of Ukraine. So we're out of laws that would be relevant to your claim.
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday April 02 2022, @02:58AM (1 child)
This referendum was run by Yeltsin. He "considered" it and dissolved the USSR anyway against the will of the People.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Saturday April 02 2022, @03:22PM
The question might be missing something in translation, but the USSR never was this. Voters would have been voting on continuing/renewing a USSR that never existed in the first place! And given how much trouble Russia has had since with those rights and freedom of individuals, I think continuing the USSR would have been a dire mistake and contrary to the wish displayed in that referendum. Yeltsin made the right call.
After all, this displays a big problem of the USSR, the political dominance of Russia which had a firm majority of the population of the USSR (my bet is that this was by design back in the day to insure that the USSR couldn't be swayed by a non-Russian faction). It reminds me of the Wiemar Republic which had a similar instability in the Free State of Prussia (which IIRC had two thirds of the population of the Wiemar Republic). Failings of the single large state become failings of the entire country.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2022, @02:38AM (3 children)
I hate to say it, but you are falling for a standard troll tactic. They provide a kernel of truth to obfuscate the lie. If you want to know what Ukraine thought about being part of the USSR, then you should really look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Ukrainian_independence_referendum [wikipedia.org] But that obviously paints a completely different picture of what the Ukrainian people wanted.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday April 03 2022, @07:18PM (2 children)
This article is 100% fake. You can easily see it as there are no links to the official results of the vote.
This one does have such a link. Feel free to research it yourself
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_Union_referendum [wikipedia.org]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 04 2022, @02:58AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @05:23AM
100% fake. LOL. The citations there are as official as any you'd find in your blessed wikipedia article.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 01 2022, @04:29AM
Times do change. One or more of my great . . . greats would have called it treason to rebel against the English crown. And, one or more of my great . . . greats would have also considered it treason to rebel against the French crown. Ditto the Austro-Hungarian empire. Need I go on? Today's reality can't be expected to conform to any of our forebear's wishes. And, there's no telling what our own descendants are going to do with the world 150 years from now.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 03 2022, @02:45PM
For those counting, it's less than 8% "rejecting" separation. An order of magnitude error is quite significant, wouldn't you say?