Did anyone else hear stories of neo-nazi's in Crimea just before Russia went into Crimea?
Some of the people I talked with, both men and women who live there, said that the un-marked soldiers (the one's Putin was saying weren't his), were actually from para-military neo-Nazi groups. Heard it from different people in different cities..
Mindwire dont believe most of the rubbish thats coming out of there,, specially anything that has the word Nazi in it.
shows how stupid these people are in their thought patterns just to find a hate or a reason.
theres been anti style Communist groups in Ukraine for a long time now,,, they just get labeled by others to be something else or escape "goats" for others.
Russians and Ukrainians are excellent pupils in bullshit propaganda of the stupidity kind.
these are the same people that call dark people niggers.
to the anti antisemitism against Jews of late.
the word Nazi is the ultimate insult or scare tactic in most Slavic regions is all.
ohh yeah behind that the next biggest insult i think is been called an "old goat" ??
i just dont get that one.
When you refer to "the un-marked soldiers," who in recent weeks are often called the "green men":
1. They are not paramilitary, they are professional soldiers.
2. At multiple times and places, the "green men" were observed to be using military vehicles of the Russian Federation.
3. The Kremlin story is that Kyiv (along with the entire western part of Ukraine) is "under the control" of "neo-Nazi" elements, who are also fanatical Ukrainian nationalists. The "green men" did everything possible to help Russia seize Crimea, working alongside pro-Russian paramilitaries and Crimea's self-declared new government. If they had been neo-Nazi Ukrainian ultra-nationalists, surely they would have resisted the Russian invasion, not helped to bring it about. No?
If people living in Crimea believe that the "green men" are extremists from Kyiv, this shows how utterly confused and hysterical their thinking is. They might as well run around shouting, "hot is cold! Hot is cold!"
I'm not disputing your anecdotes, Mindwire -- there is plenty of evidence that the "pro-Russian" elements in Ukraine ARE confused and hysterical. Anybody who sat down and thought things through calmly, would see that what these pro-Russian groups are claiming to be true is practically impossible.
This massive irrationality is consistent with my longstanding impressions of people in the former Soviet Union: they tend to be credulous, easily manipulated, magical-thinking, and reflexively passive. I think these traits are found everywhere, and certainly in my country (USA), but in the lands of Orthodox Slavs these weaknesses seem to be very widespread.
It is truly amazing to me, that (apparently) the majority of older Russians* -- who remember well the Soviet days when their newspapers and TVs were full of Kremlin lies -- now fall hook, line and sinker for the latest edition of Kremlin lies! They show a horrible lack of skepticism, discernment, and critical thinking. Seriously, how can they be so stupid?
It reminds me of Talleyrand's quip about France's Bourbon monarchs after the revolution: "Ils n’ont rien appris, ni rien oublié." [They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.]
*Note: I don't mean to tar everybody with my brush. Millions of Russians know who Putin really is, and that his policy toward Ukraine is madness. But I fear that even a lot of them have been partly taken in by the barrage of Kremlin lies. I don't hate Russians, but I am disgusted by their cowardly acquiescence to a tyrant, in stark contrast to Ukrainians who are willing to die resisting corrupt leadership.