‘Information war’ is the essence and practice of Putinism. It’s an approach to communication that treats people as fools- not citizens. It’s deeply cynical, and implies all words are weapons, that talk of ‘values’ and ‘rights’ are just manipulation…
Collaborative communication is when you engage people, treat them as equals. Sure the Ukrainian army do all sort of psy-ops to survive. But Ze is treating people as equals, trying to engage and inspire them - that’s not ‘information war’. It’s the opposite.
I wonder if russian generals were telling Putin what he wanted to hear. We’re ready to go, of course we can still invade in march, of course X, y or z resource is top notch grade one.
The reposts on the failings of the Russian army are heartening. But I’d worry and expect it’s just going to push Putin to using bigger and bigger arms. I hope not nuclear.
Shapiro came out with an extraordinary one yesterday. He contrasted the indiscriminate bombing by the russians to the way civilised countries bomb- by way of illustration he pointed out that while russians took out entire buildings the americans fired rockets through particular windows in order to take out their target. He also said that the Israelis dropped “knock” bombs on top of buildings- these are polite warmings designed to give inhabitants time to evacuate before the main bomb arrives. Presumably their target is gentlemanly enough to stay behind.
Agreed, except maybe for the parts that want to be occupied. Even if putin wins some kind of war theres no way he can subdue that size of a country, and its only a matter of time before Ukrainian factions start to target moscow
A point made on this, we all know that Putin is talking through his hole that he is liberating the Ukrainians from their western appointed government, but if this was indeed the case, then surely the people fleeing would be going to Russia. The fact these people are fleeing to the EU and the west proves that the Ukrainian people are happy with their democratic elected government and happy to veer west rather than east
Im sure its more complicated than russia respecting the sovereignty of ukraine but putin didn’t push for the result to be formalised. Maybe he saw the value in having a destabilising force in Ukrainian politics but its also possible that if he couldn’t have a neutral Ukraine he could at least have a russianish buffer between the two countries.
Looks that way. You’d hope there’s some degree of pragmatism in his plans though. If he’s just a genocidal linatic motivated by hatred then we’re all screwed.