A former PLA soldier hired by Russians gives a reality check on Russia-Ukraine war

You are either oriented on terrain or the enemy.

Russia achieved most of their territorial ambitions and achieved their political goal of blocking NATO ascension by Ukraine.

At this point, Russia is more oriented on the enemy. They want to prevent Ukraine from building up a force that can be used in any counter offensive, BUT they also need to create a cost for us in not ending this. So they will keep the pressure on and Ukraine will get damaged more and more with ZERO chance of any betterment of their situation in continuing the war.

IMHO, the true timeline for this conflict is driven by the US and our national politics. Trying to figure that out, I originally thought we would bring this to a close before the elections. However, seeing that this isn’t really hurting Biden or the Democrats (evil, mentally ill, madman Putin is at fault: silly but essentially what people have been told to think), the end will come after the elections specific to Ukraine.

What is interesting is that at this point, our Euro partners are realizing that this war is part of a grand geo-political strategy: https://youtu.be/gk7D_TliAuE?si=WitBtg2hSSDYGrlS (Austria: and for him to say that, it had to have been approved starting at 14:30 or so).

Also IMHO, by the time this war ends, there is a good chance NATO will be seriously damaged. Between pipelines and an unnecessary war we caused as part of a grand plan the Euros are supposed to help pay for but we solely benefit from, NATO is losing its luster.

We over played our hand and gambled really big.

Bro, there’s a reason Russia, China and other undemocratic governments have border disputes with all or practically all of their neighbors (including each other): they’re based on the rule of conquest, not on the rule of law. They believe that political power comes from the barrel of a gun, to quote Mao Zedung, no from the consent of the government, to quote our Declaration of Independence. Thus undemocractic governments invoke nationalistic and mystic thinkers such as Dugin (as you point out).

We cannot presume any goodness on the part of totalitarian governments. But, we can - since we are enormously more powerful - contain them, and hope that, one day, something happens that they embrace democracy and the rule of law.

Contrary to elite opinion during the Cold War, our strategy was not co-existence or even convergence with communism. It was to wait for the inevitable collapse of communism. Harry Truman and George Marshall understood this at the beginning, and Ronald Reagan at the end.

In a prior post on this thread, I brought up Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger and their approach to China (separating China from Russia). That would be in our interests today. China’s interests are different from Russia’s. China aspires to continued economic growth. China needs us, or else to whom do they sell their cheap manufactured crap or from whom do they steal intellectual property? Russia, on the other hand, is accommodating its people to lives of economic stagnation. So what if it has limited markets for its oil and natural gas? The Russian people, they believe, have an enormous capacity for suffering.

My thinking is rather conventional and in line with what the thinking of our very best geopolitical strategists since WWII (and contrary to elitist thinking through the Cold War and since). If you think there’s a better option, then good luck with it.

Nikolai Patrushev, BTW, is busy preparing Russia’s Arctic strategy - he has plan good and quick, because some nameless Chinese is also preparing the same thing. Russia has the head start in dominating the Arctic, but China is rapidly catching up.

Some of Russia’s heavy nuclear breakers are armed, and I believe they recently towed a nuclear powered floating platform to the Arctic, also armed.

Canada and the US are basically non-players, having no heavy ice breakers to speak of, let alone nuclear powered ones.

No Western breaker is armed.

Hey Red, I’m going to (again) return to my original post. If you can remember, that post was about how much bigger we, in the west, are than you.

We’ve gambled and lost a few times. But, for us, these are mere set backs. Since we are a democracy and a mostly market-oriented country, we react to losses by electing new leaders and we continue to grow economically. Since 1950, we have grown from $3 trillion to $21 trillion in constant dollars.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RGDPNAUSA666NRUG

What about you? A hundred years ago, Imperial Russia lost a war at your western border, with the German and the Austrian empires. After that, poof!, no more Imperial Russia.

Fifty years ago, the Soviet Union lost a war in Afghanistan. After that, poof!, no more Soviet Union.

To use a betting metaphor, you’re at the table with one small stack. If you get what you think is a good hand, you go all in. But, often, you actually don’t have a good hand. Your paratroopers are unable to take and hold the airports at Kyiv or Odessa, you suck at logistics, your intelligence is wrong about Russian-speaking Ukrainians receiving you as liberators, and your Chechen allies are even more stupid than your peasants.

In contrast, we have several tall stacks of chips. Even if you go all-in and win, we still have plenty of chips.

And you know this. Because you know that we are overwhelmingly superior, you keep talking about the Joker in your hand (nuclear weapons).

Using quotes from people that make their living throwing verbal bombs means absolutely nothing.

If I go back and find some Ann Coulter quotes after 9-11, some quotes by US “mouthpieces” when the Germans decided not to back us with Iraq 2002-2004, or even General Milley regards Russians...

Milley (JCS chairman while still in his position): “There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night,”

I can easily do the same thing you’re doing.

In fact, in our flamboyant, sensationalist, factually vapid but fallacy rich media, I can find you far more trash talking than with them.

I got it, “democracy, democracy, democracy.”

Even though we’re not. We’re an oligarchy. We’re a nation where a few very powerful individuals and corporations are disproportionately represented in government.

There are three things which should tell you that your democracy argument is BS:

1). Logic: our political system is one giant “pay to play” scheme. It has been that way for a long time, folks have attempted to address this issue and failed: McCain-Feingold. Those who can pay the party, for the campaigns, the action groups, lobbying, for legal action get their way.

Do you really think Mark Zuckerberg gave 430 million for the 2020 elections out of benevolence? https://nypost.com/2021/10/14/zuckerberg-election-spending-was-orchestrated-to-influence-2020-vote/ (BTW, all the FTC talk about breaking up what is a monopoly has simply faded away, magically!!!)

2). Empirical evidence: there are a few (not many) studies and attempts at seeing how things really work, and NEVER do they suggest we are in a democracy. They all indicate we are in an oligarchy: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B#

3). Physical reality and experience. Trump (whom I’m a supporter of) will likely lose to Biden. The reason is in reality because the same people that can sway the political landscape, also own or influence the MSM. The candidate that wins the national elections is most of the time the candidate that the oligarchs want and which the bureaucracy / establishment supports. Clinton wasn’t the man of the people, nor is Biden or Bush H. or Bush W. You will be told what president you get, and you will like it.

Trump will see most of his grassroots soldiers eliminated (J6 was how they eliminated the leadership of the Oath Takers, Proud Boys and one more group while Biden still has his soldiers), and then they took away his ability to campaign while also smearing him with BS legal attacks because the bureaucracy is on Biden’s team. While all that is happening, the MSM (or roughly 80% of it) is behind one party and pushing Biden 24/7.

If it were a fair playing field, Trump would crush Biden.

Once our “democratically elected” president is secured in his second term, we’ll be told to accept this since you need to respect the Presidency and democratic process. All the people that installed Biden and will see to it that he remains in power will get what they want: unions, big pharma, big tech, those supporting trade with China, financial institutions.

Bottom line: Russia is an oligarchy, we are an oligarchy.

What does that mean: when the interests of the rich or corporations collide with public opinion, the minority view of the rich and corporations usually wins, >60% of the time even if this is to the financial detriment of the majority.

Rewind (example): 1989 the US supported China having most favored trade status, we also supported China be a member of the WTO. That was also when tanks drove over pro-democracy students on Tiananmin square. The majority of Americans did not support any of these actions by our government. In fact, one can argue that the US government was acting AGAINST the best interests of US citizen that was seeing many jobs offshored to China at that time.

Another example:
https://www.wionews.com/opinions-blogs/how-disney-routinely-exerted-influence-on-the-us-copyright-law-to-keep-its-greatest-asset-mickey-mouse-549141. Once you become big enough, you can change the laws, how they are enforced, or impact the elections themselves.

It’s an argument that can be had over who has a little more or less of a democracy, Russia or the US, but neither is a true democracy.

Our elections are heavily manipulated and have been for a long time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering. However, today in the day and age of mail in ballots, digital voting machines, networked systems, lax ID requirements, using the MSM and polls to influence voter turn out (with one party having an obvious advantage), outright voter intimidation and where the government takes no action if it’s for the candidate the bureaucracy wants: http://www.norcalblogs.com/postscripts/files/import/175-BlackPanthers2.jpg (Holder himself ordered everything be dropped).

I’m sure you make fun of the Russian elections! (LOL)

You use the “we’re superior because of democracy” argument. I suppose that’s the modern day acceptable version of a supremacy argument since race, religion, and national origin are off limits.

"My mother was a heavy smoker back in the days, but she stopped when I began to get asthma as a ten-year old. Still, I believe it did her bad, ultimately, as she passed away at 67 of a brain tumor."

I am so sorry. Our mother's each passed at a young age.

My second oldest sister was originally diagnosed with brain aneurysms, and they did surgery to tie-off the inner carotid artery on the right side, which cut the blood flow to three of the aneurysms. They were going to keep an eye on the last one, which was situated in the back of her head by regularly CAT scans. She stopped smoking immediately once they gave her the diagnosis. Five years later they diagnosed her with the lung cancer, so I agree with you that the smoking had already affected her body. I read that despite some people stopping smoking, within certain age limits, they will develop lung cancer within that five year range. I never knew it at the time, so we were pretty shocked when she found out. Like any normal person, we figured hey! she stopped smoking...now she's free of the threat of cancer.

Both my sons were given the oral polio "vaccine" when they were younger...not in a sugar cube that I recall, but from an eyedrop syringe if I remember correctly. Neither had any side effects thankfully. My oldest son got the measles vaccine when they first came out, and a few years later got measles. We discovered that the original vaccine he got was deemed ineffective, at least that's what the pediatrician told us at the time.

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. I look forward to hearing from you in the future. Take care of yourself in the meantime, and let me know how you are doing in the future.

This isn’t 100 years ago.

This isn’t 50 years ago.

We are not the same country as 100 years ago.

Germany, France, Iran, China... And not Russia are who they were 100 or even 50 years ago.

Stop trying to live in your comfort zone.

That said, we have moved substantially to the left, towards greater government participation in the economy both in regulating it but also share of the GDP. Our security apparatus has grown immensely both in size and scope of powers. We are far more centralized with the power sitting in Washington. Socially (((we))) are the ones that have adopted many of the leftist theories and ideology (egalitarianism, social programs, religion, globalization, secularism...). A modern US government recruitment poster may as well be a commie poster from 1950 (instead of race, they pushed the various Soviet ethnic groups and woman).

Gross violations of basic constitutional rights are common, systemic, known to exist by everyone and accepted “for the greater good.” Do you know who used to use that “greater good” as an argument? Do you know who the biggest proponent of globalization is today, and who once talked about “workers of the world unite?” Do you know who is secular and atheist today in policy making, disregarding religious considerations in policy making (covid is just a recent example?

It’s not that Russia has become some shining light of freedom?

It’s that we have considerably moved in the direction of what we ourselves referred to as the “evil empire.”

Today, our policies, prevailing social attitudes, methods and techniques used by law enforcement and Intel services, violations of citizens rights, are reminiscent of what was done in the former East block. Do you know who practices mass censorship today, who mass propagandizes their own people?

Just because we take people to some third party nation to be tortured (Jordan, Poland, Romania) does not make us any better than the Russians that simply do it themselves. Just because we find a legal loophole so we can violate people’s constitutional rights does not make us any better than the soviets that violated their people’s rights (they also had a constitution, and it also wasn’t worth the paper it was written on). Our mass surveillance is morally just as reprehensible and a threat to the Republic as theirs.

Instead of living in the past, you might want to see what’s happening around you right now.

You’re having a hard time understanding this concept.

Just because it’s us, does not make it better or right.

If you are this man: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_al-Masri

Or this man: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz

Or this man: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Omar

Or this man: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar

These are a few, there are many, who were KIDNAPPED by us in a foreign country and taken to a third party country and black-site to be TORTURED. There were cases where people never returned, i.e. probably died.

In his eyes, and in the eyes of many Germans, Italians (they have warrants for arrest for CIA officials involved), Spaniards, Dutch, and Canadians, we are absolutely no better than the Soviets or Russians today that do the same shit.

If you’re a Libyan, it makes absolutely no difference if it’s a warlord sponsored by the US or backed by the Russians. If you’re an Iraqi, it makes absolutely no difference that we call it collateral damage and apologize when we blow up their country under false pretences. If you’re a Venezuelan, it makes absolutely no difference that it’s us that is trying to sponsor a coup, destabilize their economy and government using every means available because we don’t like the folks in power...

The attitude that if we do it, it’s ok, but if anyone else does it it’s wrong, isn’t consistent.

The truth rests in consistency.

50 years ago (likely your formative years), we were nothing like what we have become today.

Yes, in the era of Ronald Reagan it was clear. We were the good guys, they were the bad guys. That wasn’t because of some propaganda, lies and secrets. We operated on a different set of rules and we exported different ideas. Today, we ourselves are just one faint hue better than some of the worst scumbags out there.

Hello Ma‘am,

I would like to thank you, too. It has been an utter pleasure to talk to you and to get to know you and your dear ones 😀

May you and your dear ones be blessed, with good health and happiness, and may we hear from each other in the future. I sure am going to tell you, and please don‘t hesitate to ping me if there is anything you would like to talk about with me 😀

Redmen4ever: "My thinking is rather conventional and in line with what the thinking of our very best geopolitical strategists since WWII (and contrary to elitist thinking through the Cold War and since).
If you think there’s a better option, then good luck with it."

First Island Chain:

Of course, I agree with pretty much everything you posted, but I am less optimistic about driving some kind of wedge between Vlad the Invader and China's Xi-snake, and the reason is, precisely, my moniker for Xi Jinping as the "Xi-snake" -- Xi is focused like a laser on the sea and breaking out of his imprisonment behind our "First Island Chain", of which the lock closing the prison gate is Taiwan.

That's why Xi is building three new navy warships for every one new of ours, he has upgraded his army and marines, his rocket forces are almost beyond counting now -- though, as with everything Chinese, quality can be an issue.
Xi's rocket forces will make what we do today -- fighting off Houthi missiles in the Red Sea -- seem like child's play in a sandbox.

All of Xi's work is in preparation for the day, coming relatively soon, when he will pull a "Crazy Ivan" on us and launch his assaults on Taiwan.
This will force Americans to respond with everything we've got, including sanctions, isolation and even blockades against CCP Chinese shipping.
That in turn will force the Xi-Snake and Vlad the Invader even deeper into each other's arms.

Their current "unlimited partnership" will become a rock-solid alliance as each wages war against "the American hegemon", "Western liberalism", "Western encroachment", "NATO expansion", US Pacific allies, etc., etc.

This is coming, inevitably, if the West is not successful in stopping Vlad the Invader in Ukraine.
But, with Western success in Ukraine comes the possibility of discouraging the Xi-Snake from seeking new adventures in military conquest, and instead rededicating the CCP to the economic and social wellbeing of their billion Chinese citizens.

Then we can be more-or-less friends again.
But failure in Ukraine means inevitable war over Taiwan, imho.

2024 World by Democracy Index:
(shades of blue = democratic. Shades of red/brown = dictatorships)

Please consider this: -- in the year 1900, 90% of the world's population was concentrated in only two dozen major empires, including:

British
Russian
Chinese
American
French
German
Dutch
Austria-Hungarian
Japanese
Italian
Ottoman Turkish
Sokoto Caliphate (Africa)
Spanish
Brazilian
Korean... etc...

In 1900, the remaining 10% lived in just 35 smaller countries.

Today, in 2023, 90% of the world's population is spread among 60 independent countries, with the remaining 10% scattered among 137 others -- for a total of 197 countries listed here.

How we got from 90% of people living under just two dozen authoritarian empires, with the remaining 10% in only 35 smaller countries, to now 90% scattered among 60 independent countries, with 137 more holding the other 10% is the entire history of the 20th Century -- it's what the human race was occupied in doing for the past 100+ years.

It's what the "American Century" and the "American World Order" is all about, and it's precisely what is at stake in Ukraine, Taiwan and every other smaller country now threatened by their aggressive neighbors, especially in the New Axis of Evil Dictators -- Russia, China, Iran & NoKo.

So in the first graphic, are we to assume the Chinese are laying claim to the Bering Sea and Alaska?

I know they have several heavy ice breakers that are due to be launched and arctic bound. And are presumably armed.

The USA has only one heavy ice beaker, held together literally by duct tape and bailing wire currently, and is unarmed.

The new US ones are jack of all trades design - they need to transit from the Arctic to the Antarctic, requiring a hull design compromise to allow them to use the open sea for long duration voyages. They may be armed.

However, the whole US project is mired in indecision, red tape, design changes, etc. They will not be in service for a decade at least.

When they finally get to their duty stations, they will be vastly inferior to both the Chinese and Russian heavy breakers.

511K at current count - UKR casualties are substantially less.

Not sure we disagree about how probable would be an effort to drive a wedge between China and Russia. Possibly we’re talking about one person emphasizing the positive possibilities, and the other emphasizing the negative possibilities.

For all the progress democratic governments and market-oriented economics have made in the past hundred years, we’re not home free. In addition to the geopolitical threats facing us, we have the rise of a radical left within the democratic nations of the world. The declaration of victory by the neo-cons with Francis Fukuyama’s End of History was, at best, premature.

Dream on.

China never liked us. They want to be number 1 (if you don’t get that you don’t know Chinese culture). We have mutually exclusive interests.

We were a means to an end. They were looking for a quick way to industrialize and gain access to some tech. They wanted to train their folks in western management techniques and in the sciences and engineering in western schools.

We were looking for cheap slave labor to build products sold on Amazon and in Walmart.

The era where they need us to achieve their end is over, they know it, we know it. That’s why they gave Blinken the middle finger when he went to China asking for them to lay off supplying Russia with military and dual use equipment. And we’ll do nothing about it and stay nice and quiet too.

https://www.newsweek.com/did-china-humiliate-antony-blinken-1894989. Newsweek of course is pro Democrat and trying to spin it their way.

At this point, China’s growth is largely from their domestic market. They have others they conduct trade with in mass (Europe for example), and our value / leverage is largely gone. We are just as worried of the economic consequences of having a trade disruption as they are, probably even more.

For China a marriage with Russia makes a lot more sense. They have been in military terms more aligned (most Chinese military hardware was Russian origin or design years ago), their geo-political interests do not set them on a collision course (S. China Sea, Taiwan). Russia is for China key when it comes to needed natural resources and energy and with Russia China has the upper hand, meaning the relationship is one where China has the advantage unlike with us who also change course every three years.

Example: https://www.ft.com/content/f7a34e3e-bce9-4db9-ac49-a092f382c526. China is in the position of power over Russia. The deal will happen as the other pipelines have already been built, and China will also get what they want (ridiculously good long term fixed prices).

It’s possible to create an argument for anything, why the earth is flat. But does the evidence which has any weight to it suggest this to be true?

China had their “Charm Offensive” in the 1980s to sucker us in. Even Reagan fell for it.

You’re still using imaginary casualty statistics as the basis for some argument of relative success?

Of course there are real statistics. And of course our government has them. The Ukraine has them. The Russians have them.

Based on past leaks of classified documents, albeit no longer current, the casualties we’re about 1/3-1/5 for the Russians compared to what was being speculated in our media and far higher for the seldom mentioned Ukrainians.

Russia at that time was somewhat disorganized, short of certain critical supplies, on the offense (which is more casualty intense) and the real ratio was somewhere around 1:1.43 in the Ukrainian’s advantage, but that is a far-far different statistic than the 1:5 or more that was being touted in our MSM.

https://www.newsweek.com/2023/05/05/read-leaked-secret-intelligence-documents-ukraine-vladimir-putin-1794656.html

But, if it makes you feel good, it must be true. There are links to UFO articles in the FR as well. You should check them out.

Well put, “charm offensive.”

Yes.

Sure! just listen to some of the Russians talk or post on Telegram, and they say they are losing people at a far higher rate than UKR. Moscow’s official statistic of casualties some months back was over 400,000

GeneralSVR(reserve)
https://t.me/s/generalsvr2

Saturday, March 23, 2024, in the morning report to the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev, irretrievable military operational losses of personnel of the Russian Armed Forces - 434,233 people. Data as of 6:00 Moscow time today.

Casualties are reported in Russia often and they are not made up, but rather understated - as no one wants to tell Putin how bad things are (reported on many Russian telegram channels).

Red6: "Using quotes from people that make their living throwing verbal bombs means absolutely nothing."

Such quotes mean one h*ll of a lot, when they come from the top down and reflect the views of Russia's dictator, Vlad the Invader.
That's why I listed quotes from: Vlad's brain, Vlad's government and Vlad's mouthpieces.
They all mesh together and they all support the basic ideas behind "Russkiy Mir", or, if you prefer -- "strategic depth", "buffer zones" and "grand strategy".

"Russkiy Mir" -- Vlad's excuse to invade

All require Russia to bully, intimidate, threaten and invade its neighbors in the name of whatever propaganda works today -- be that "Communist Revolution" during the Cold War, or "Russkiy Mir" and "Strategic Depth" today.

Red6: "If I go back and find some Ann Coulter quotes after 9-11, some quotes by US “mouthpieces” when the Germans decided not to back us with Iraq 2002-2004, or even General Milley regards Russians..."

For 46 years after 1945, the US and our allies waged a Cold War against the old Soviet Union and CCP China, in which propaganda, revolutions, covert actions and open warfare mixed together to hold expansionist Communist powers in check long enough for their own internal contradictions to eat away and destroy them from within.
During that time the US developed what we called "MADness" -- Mutual Assured Destruction -- in the use of nukes, which kept relative peace all these years.

Now, in expressing "MADness", we can choose clinical neutral sounding diplomatic language, or we can state it bluntly -- "if you f*ck with us, we'll blow you all to h*ll!!".
The words are different, but the policy is the same, regardless of how it's expressed.

Likewise, Russia's policies of "Russkiy Mir" and "Strategic Depth" are the same whether they are expressed by a diplomat like Sergei Lavrov or a propaganda fire-brand like Vladimir Solovyov.
So, when Solovyov says:

One of Vlad's official mouthpieces:

"If you think we'll stop at Ukraine, think it through 300 times.
I'll remind you that Ukraine is just an intermediate step in the establishment of the strategic security of the Russian Federation."

He is simply saying bluntly what the others imply more diplomatically.
Here's how Vlad the Invader himself put it in 2005:

"Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century.
As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama.
Tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory.
Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself."

In February 2022, Putin explained what this means:

"Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us.
It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space."

Red6 quoting: "Milley (JCS chairman while still in his position):
'There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night...'
Your quote was reported in the WaPo, December 6, 2023.
That alone makes it highly suspect.

Gen. Milley's failed counter-offensive plan:

But, legit or not, the problem your Milley quote tries to address is absolutely NATO and US military doctrine -- called "preparing the battle space" -- and it's exactly what Ukrainians are doing today with great effectiveness, using long-range precision weapons: they are striking Russian combat and support units in the rear, long before those are able to assault Ukraine's front lines.

Russians do the same, and worse, in their missile & drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets.

So, whether Ukrainians ever sent guerilla or sabotage units into Russia's rear echelons, we don't know, and we do know that Milley's overall plan for victory in Ukraine, in 2023, was a total bust, stupid beyond words, and quickly recognized as such by Ukrainians who then called off their long-intended offensive.

None of which should, in the least, obscure the fact that war in Ukraine resulted from Vlad the Invader's "Special Military Operation" -- which was motivated by ideas like "Russkiy Mir" and "Strategic Depth", those terms expressed bluntly by propagandists like Solovyov:

"Firstly, it's a war for Russia's survival.
Nobody's planning to give up.
This will be a long war and not just with Ukraine.
Ukraine is just a fragment.
If they manage to push us back further, they won't stop.
We need to prepare for a long, serious and great war."

The list of victims of "Russkiy Mir" and "strategic security" is already very long:

Moldova
Belarus
Kazakstan
Georgia
Ukraine

Others who've been directly threatened by Russia include:

Azerbaijan
Finland
Estonia
Lativa
Lithuania
Poland
Armenia

Red6: "In fact, in our flamboyant, sensationalist, factually vapid but fallacy rich media, I can find you far more trash talking than with them."

Trash-talking by private citizens is one thing, official government policies and propaganda are something entirely different.