The oligarchs have been hit right where it hurts the most–their wallets.
Cracks in the wall.
Two Russian oligarchs call for an end to Putin’s war
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/28/business/oligarchs-russia-ukr…
3 Likes
I think Ukraine and the EU should offer amnesty and permanent visa’s (and a new identity if necessary) to any Russian soldier that offers surrender - with monetary bonuses to any officers that surrender their entire unit. Drop leaflets on the Russian troops so they know the truth.
Well that did not take long.
https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-meet-russia-belarusian-border…
Ukraine official: 5 million rubles and full amnesty for Russian soldiers who stop fighting
Ukraine is offering Russian soldiers cash to stop fighting in a Kremlin-ordered invasion of the country.
“We offer Russian soldiers a choice: to die in an unjust war or a full amnesty and 5 million rubles in compensation. If they lay down their arms and surrender voluntarily,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a statement posted to the department’s Twitter account.
$5mm rubles is (was?) about $50k.
3 Likes
$5mm rubles is (was?) about $50k.
Hawkwin,
Based on the current exchange rate, 5 million Rubles equals a bit more than $47,000.
That is more than most soldiers would make per year in salary working in Russia.
But since I don’t have the vaguest notion of how power is actually won or lost in Russia I can’t say whether that is likely, impossible, or somewhere in between. But a boy can dream, can’t he?
I sticking with my 3-prong dictatorship theory; Money (oligarchs), power (military), and controlling the masses (FSB).
The oligarchs are clearly unhappy. The Ukraine war is cutting down on their profit margins. Bigly.
The military appears unhappy based on a tepid approach to the Ukraine war.
The FSB? Who knows? Bad Vlad is ex-KGB. But it’s easy to control a crowd, not so much a mob. Protests against the war in Russia? Inconceivable.
Keep dreaming, bro.
AW
Drop leaflets on the Russian troops so they know the truth.
The problem is that (reportedly) Russia has control of the air.
So what is needed is a small drone that can carry the leaflets and drop them at a designated location or release them if any attempt is made to knock it out of the sky.
Mike
1 Like
That is more than most soldiers would make per year in salary working in Russia.
I wonder if the education of those Russian soldiers included one tidbit.
During WWII, the Brits rolled up a lot of Russian solders that the Germans had been using as slave labor. After the war, the Brits started shipping them back to Russia.
When a lot of them arrived back in Russia, Stalin had them executed, for working for the Germans.
Steve
<When a lot of them arrived back in Russia, Stalin had them executed, for working for the Germans.>
One of the greatest songs of all time, “Roads to Moscow,” by Al Stewart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iIG_Zwd4wk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roads_to_Moscow
**They crossed over the border, the hour before dawn**
**Moving in lines through the day**
**Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground where they lay**
**Waiting for orders we held in the wood**
**Word from the front never came**
**By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away**
**Ah, softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees**
**Crossing their lines in the mists in the fields on our hands and on our knees**
**And all that I ever**
**Was able to see**
**The fire in the air glowing red**
**Silhouetting the smoke on the breeze**
**All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine**
**Smolensk and Viasma soon fell**
**By autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel**
**Closer and closer to Moscow they come**
**Riding the wind like a bell**
**General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill**
**Winter brought with her the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads**
**Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground while the sky filled with snow**
**And all that I ever**
**Was able to see**
**The fire in the air glowing red**
**Silhouetting the snow on the breeze**
**In the footsteps of Napoleon the shadow figures stagger through the winter**
**Falling back before the gates of Moscow, standing in the wings like an avenger**
**And far away behind their lines the partisans are stirring in the forest**
**Coming unexpectedly upon their outposts, growing like a promise**
**You'll never know, you'll never know which way to turn, which way to look you'll never see us**
**As we're stealing through the blackness of the night**
**You'll never know, you'll never hear us**
**And the evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming**
**The morning roads lead to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming**
**Two broken Tigers on fire in the night**
**Flicker their souls to the wind**
**We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin**
**It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun**
**At home it will almost be spring**
**The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin**
**Ah, quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground**
**The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down**
**And all that I ever**
**Was able to see**
**The eyes of the city are opening**
**Now it's the end of the dream**
**I'm coming home, I'm coming home, now you can taste it in the wind, the war is over**
**And I listen to the clicking of the train-wheels as we roll across the border**
**And now they ask me of the time that I was caught behind their lines and taken prisoner**
**"They only held me for a day, a lucky break, " I say they turn and listen closer**
**I'll never know, I'll never know why I was taken from the line and all the others**
**To board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia**
**And it's cold and damp in the transit camp, and the air is still and sullen**
**And the pale sun of October whispers the snow will soon be coming**
**And I wonder when I'll be home again and the morning answers "Never"**
**And the evening sighs, and the steely Russian skies go on forever**
**Source: LyricFind**
**Songwriters: Alistair Ian Stewart**
**Roads to Moscow lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group**
The Russian people have suffered beyond imagination from their own rulers since the beginning of time. They have been invaded by Mongols, Napoleon and Hitler. They have deliberately beaten, starved, imprisoned and killed their own people mercilessly. The Russian army has traditionally treated recruits like disposable cannon fodder, starving, beating and refusing to provide them with weapons and pay. With friends like that, who needs enemies? But the rulers threw the recruits at the enemy with no regard for loss of life.
Don’t expect Putin or any Russian general to have mercy on the Ukrainians. Will the Russian army refuse to follow orders? I doubt it, considering their indoctrination and the punishment for failure.
Many Ukrainians will die. Many, many. President Zelenskyy will probably be among them. Unless he is captured, in which case Putin will have him tried as a terrorist.
Wendy
11 Likes
One of the greatest songs of all time, “Roads to Moscow,” by Al Stewart.
I have that record. Several of his actually.
Several years ago, there was a cracking good mystery series on PBS: “Foyle’s War”. Each episode is dated, because the story is built around something that was going on in England at the time.
This one starts out with Russian POWs being sent back to Russia, and, mysteriously, the idea of going home terrifies them.
Foyle’s War S07E01 - The Russian House (Subtitles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbCgXWYb60
Steve
2 Likes
I’ve heard this morning that the convoy is stalled because they have failed to take over the airport.
There have also been a few reports of Russian soldiers selling diesel fuel on the black market … that may be part of it.
Ukraine: “1944” by Jamala - Winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2016 - BBC
There was something prophetic about this song and very disturbing.