nudge

You're quite clearly in this thread looking for arguments and making personal digs, and I'm afraid I don't want any part of it. Enjoy your evening

They were drafted before the war though, and according to Russian law, conscripts can't be sent to active war zones, so they couldn't foresee it. If they went AWOL after conscription, then they would be facing by far more serious charges under Article 337 of the Russian criminal code (going absent without leave) which carries a sentence of up to 5 years imprisonment and Article 338 (desertion) up to 10 years. It's very easy to make appeals to morality when it's not your life on the line.

Up to 2 years in prison or labor camp for draft dodging.

Only if you consider every single Russian soldier personally responsible for every military action resulting in civilian casualties. Personally, I find it pretty easy to sympathise with young kids who get thrown into a war not of their choosing and who just want to be home with their family, but are instead forced to kill and die for no reason at all.

They still do own the actual paper: https://gazeta-pravda.ru/ Журналистская организация АНО «Редакция газеты «Правда», Коммунистическая партия Российской Федерации.

You're thinking of the wrong Pravda The original Russian Pravda is indeed owned by the Communist Party in Russia. The website you linked to is Ukrayinska Pravda though, which has nothing to do with the Russian publication. Quite on the contrary - the Ukrainian Pravda is known for it's criticial and investigative journalism as well as promotion of democracy and freedom of the press. It's original founder was murdered by Ukrainian security service after exposing high-level corruption in the government.

It's important to keep in mind that Russia has mandatory military service though, and a significant part of Russian troops in Ukraine are conscripts who didn't sign up for military service voluntarily.

I mean, Italy is a NATO member, so that would be a bit weird As for your original question: China has actually held back so far. They are saying they understand Russia's security concerns regarding NATO eastward expanse, but at the same time, they also say that they respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, and thus call for diplomatic talks and peaceful solution. I think the only countries that openly expressed support for Russia's invasion are Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Syria.

Wtf, why Italy?

Yes, more chilis for me.

Loads of chili. Gotta start them young.

Happy birthday, Spike!

Theoretically.

Fucking hell.

Not only Vettel...

Phil knows.

Hopefully less fake drama though

Amazon's and MotoGP answer to Drive to Survive...

Yeah, I missed that thanks to all your recent LOTR chatter

Did you re-watch the 84 recently, or are you remembering from when you watched it years ago?

I loved the score too, and thought it was perfect in expanding the "otherworldliness" of Dune. Very unconventional, eery, atmospheric. Brilliantly captured the spirit, imo.

That wasn't Arabic though? As much as I'm aware, David J. Peterson created 4 artificial languages (2 sign languages, 2 spoken ones) and they were used in the movie score, too.

If you're interested in the subject of the restoration of independence in 1990 and Soviet reaction to it, key events to read about are the Singing Revolution, the Baltic Way, the January 1991 events/Bloody Sunday, and the Massacre of Medininkai. The latter two in particular show how willing the Soviets were to allow self-determination.

You should read more if you can find a decent book in English; our history is legit better than Game of Thrones As for Napoleon, no, not really. He spent about 6 months in Lithuania right before marching to Moscow and then a few days on his way back retreating after Borodino and capture of Moscow. His presence initially stirred some hopes of restoring the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but essentially, he only cared about resources for his Grande Armée.