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BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 5:29 am
How would you feel if you got kicked off the security council? You'd probably wanna start a war too.
Well they're off the Human Rights Council not the Security Council. They're just not allowed to supervise war crimes and social justice anymore.
But Russia has already threatened everything and everyone here.
African support on Ukraine shows Kremlin's soft power
African leaders, opposition figures and social influencers are stepping up their support for the Kremlin even as Russia's image elsewhere is being shredded by the war in Ukraine.
Some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most vocal defenders are pan-Africanists -- advocates of the doctrine of African unity and anti-imperialism that flowered at the height of the Cold War.
Putin "wants to get his country back," Kemi Seba, a Franco-Beninese pan-Africanist, declared in early March.
"He doesn't have the blood of slavery and colonisation on his hands," Seba argued.
"Putin is not my Messiah but I prefer him to all the western presidents and all the damned African presidents who are under the thumb of western oligarchy."
In Uganda, the powerful son of veteran leader Yoweri Museveni, Lieutenant-General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is another fervent Putin supporter.
"The majority of mankind (that are non-white) support Russia's stand in Ukraine," he tweeted in late February. "Putin is absolutely right!"
- Historical ties -
Many African countries showed their support for Russia, or at least their diplomatic ambivalence, at an early stage in the crisis.
On March 2, members of the UN General Assembly voted massively to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.
But out of the 35 countries that abstained, nearly half -- 16 -- were in Africa. Added to that is Eritrea, which voted against the resolution, while another eight African countries did not cast their vote.
"Generally, the countries which abstained were either authoritarian regimes or countries which have had historical ties with Russia, often military ones, since the Soviet era," said Mahama Tawat, a researcher at the University of Malmo in Sweden.
Sympathy for Russia in Africa has roots dating back to the 1950s and 60s, when the Kremlin backed anti-imperialist and anti-colonial movements and helped the fight against apartheid.
At a rally on March 21 -- the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre at the height of white-minority rule -- South African radical leader Julius Malema declared: "We are here to say to NATO, we are here to say to America, 'we are not with you, we are with Russia'.
"Today we want to say to Russia, 'thank you for being there when it was not fashionable to be there, and do not doubt our support, Russia. Teach them a lesson, we need a new world order -- we are tired of being dictated to by America'."
There have also been pro-Russian rallies in the Sahel, where Moscow is pushing its influence at the expense of France, the region's former colonial power and traditional ally.
Mali's junta, as well as the beleaguered government in Central African Republic (CAR), have turned to hundreds of Russian paramilitaries to provide support.
The Malian armed forces last week received two Russian combat helicopters and radars to help its fight against a decade-old jihadist insurgency.
- Soft power -
The Kremlin's soft power is being amplified by social media and other outlets.
"There's a proliferation of YouTube channels which disseminate destabilising messages. They create a rift between the West and African regimes and thus help Russia's interests," said Tawat.
In Cameroon, the pan-Africanist TV channel Afrique Media frequently hosts pro-Kremlin commentators, including Seba.
The discussion section on its Facebook page has subjects such as "Plans for assassinating Vladimir Putin -- where will the West draw the line?"
Fake news on social media typically plays up the claimed legitimacy of the invasion of Ukraine and extols Russia's military might.
The French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), in a report last April, said Russia took a two-pronged approach on its attempt to sway opinion.
"Anti-Muslim, anti-migrant and xenophobic narratives are aimed at a European audience, while calls for decolonisation and the end of Western imperialism target sub-Saharan Africa and the Muslim world," it said.
The more this goes on, the more I am inclined to believe the conspiracy theory that Putin is dying. It would explain so much about how this ex KGB/FSB agent and career politician is so blase regarding consequences. It also REALLY does look as if he has moon face from the recent pictures i've seen of him (the characteristic puffiness of the face that comes from heavy steroid use).
I know i've said this already on here, but I am continuously flabbergasted at this shit show. This has to be in the running for one of the biggest failures in modern military history, easily up there with Hitler's invasion of Russia (the irony). 15,000 estimated dead on the Russian side.
And check this out:
Captured Russian soldiers and officers who don’t want to kill Ukrainians on behalf of Putin and his oligarchs are forming Freedom Legion under the new Russian flag (white, blue and white stripes) and encourage Russian men to join it. This is how revolutions start.
BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 2:59 pm
Well if you got kicked off the Human Rights Council wouldn't you want to start a war?
It seems like a weird place to draw the lines versus sanctions and supplying my enemies with weapons.
And the fact is that unless Russia nukes their enemies in a suicide pact, they will lose.
They can't beat Ukraine.
Apparently the Human Rights Council is more of a special interest group by resemblance than a cohesive intergovernmental diplomacy. America in particular waffles about it depending on which party has the executive office.
clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 6:45 pm
The more this goes on, the more I am inclined to believe the conspiracy theory that Putin is dying. It would explain so much about how this ex KGB/FSB agent and career politician is so blase regarding consequences. It also REALLY does look as if he has moon face from the recent pictures i've seen of him (the characteristic puffiness of the face that comes from heavy steroid use).
I know i've said this already on here, but I am continuously flabbergasted at this shit show. This has to be in the running for one of the biggest failures in modern military history, easily up there with Hitler's invasion of Russia (the irony). 15,000 estimated dead on the Russian side.
And check this out:
Captured Russian soldiers and officers who don’t want to kill Ukrainians on behalf of Putin and his oligarchs are forming Freedom Legion under the new Russian flag (white, blue and white stripes) and encourage Russian men to join it. This is how revolutions start.
Civil War? Interesting.
I started to think about Russia on her history and whenever there was a war where Russia struggled not to make it a shit show. I am at a loss.
McAvoy wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 8:16 pm
I started to think about Russia on her history and whenever there was a war where Russia struggled not to make it a shit show. I am at a loss.
There was the time they annexed Crimea from the Ottoman Empire, then again that was about the time the 13 colonies kicked out the British and became the United States, so it was a long time ago.
