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How can a country be this stupid. Instead of entering modern world without war and trade instead. They consistently try to destroy everything possible. Last w

How can a country be this stupid. Instead of entering modern world without war and trade instead. They consistently try to destroy everything possible. Last week a major oil spill, radiation leak now. Previous radiation leak was in 2017 and everyone remembers Tsjernobyl, I hope. Killing people abroad ( Germany, London) Invading Ukraine, for saving their naval army Threatening Europe with fly overs Meddling with elections and spreading misinformation. In the mean time, they think they found an ally in China. While Russia is getting pennies on the dollar, losing engineers to China and getting almost zero "promised investments" of China. Lol They already lost to democratic Europe during the USSR. I'm just waiting till history repeats again somehow

liminal 6y ago
My (probably poorly informed) take is that they're compensating for a weak economy by basically waging asymmetric/guerrilla warfare. Using minimal cost techniques to sow the most chaos possible. They may not be able to be strong, but they can make others weaker.
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  They spend a large % of GDP on military, while their neighbour easily outspends them because of a way bigger economy. After all, Russia's GDP is similar to only 3 European countries ( I think France, Belgium and Netherlands together is bigger, you can check it in Wolfram Alpha ). They should just spend it on trade instead. So their population would get wealthier. Edit: over estimated Russia's GDP. It's even smaller then France alone. Also Germany and Italy are easily bigger
  - koalaman 6y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... Last time I checked Russia had a smaller GDP than Italy. Hell of a geopolitical presence for such a small economy.
    - NicoJuicy 6y ago
      You're correct. I could have just mentioned Germany/France/Italy being bigger by themselves than Russia. It's even less then I expected. Weird. Perhaps Wolfram Alpha had different numbers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Edit: checked. No it isn't, perhaps I was checking military expenditure then since that was what I was comparing a while ago. Conclusion that I had was that Europe is outspending Russia easily in military.
  - igammarays 6y ago
    Using GDP to measure Russian significance is like trying to measure American significance by counting the number of hotdogs consumed - it doesn't matter. Results are what matters. For the amount that Russia spends on its military, it is able to project exponentially more force globally - it is #2 in the world, period. Meanwhile the the New York Times described the F-35 as "America's Dysfunctional Trillion-Dollar Fighter-Jet Program". Trillions spent on a jet with questionable fighting capabilities. American military leaders themselves don't trust the plane.
    - pilsetnieks 6y ago
      > it is able to project exponentially more force globally - it is #2 in the world, period Is it, though? NATO has 18 aircraft carriers, of those 12 are American, 2 of them are British, and two are Italian. Russia has 1 that is sitting in dry dock for servicing since 2017 and was even further damaged when the dry dock sank[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admiral_Kuznetsov#Refit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admir...
      - nix23 6y ago
        >NATO has 18 aircraft carriers That's because Russia never had interest in aircraft carriers, it's just not their military motto, you need Carrier's to attack a Country outside of your reach, witch Russia knew would never be successfully happen against NATO-States, that's why even in the Cold war Russia was always focused on defense.
        pilsetnieks 6y ago
        Yea, that doesn't count as global force projection then, which was the argument a few comments upthread.
        nix23 6y ago
        You know how big Russia still is? It would even count 'global' if they just stay inside the borders ;)
bitcharmer 6y ago
All true, however this is not specific to Russia only. It seems most large powers exhibit bullying behaviour. USA is only a little better (making up WMD to go to war with Iraq, meddling with elections and democratic process in other countries, spying on allies, etc). Then we have China which is probably yet another category of international bully. Sadly this is quite expected for global super powers...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- DickingAround 6y ago
  Been thinking about that phrase "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" is perhaps better as "power corrupts, absolute power writes the history books".
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    What about, power corrupts. But in a democracy it's hard to do it in the open ... For long :)
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  Perhaps you're forgetting that Russia is not a super power. They can extract cheap oil and try to sell their military equipment. We'll see how that pans out in the future, while Europe is slowly moving to green energy. It's just nuts that they are throwing away the opportunity to correctly invest oil/gas money, before it's over.
  - sakopov 6y ago
    Certainly not a superpower by these metrics. However, Russia does possess a vast number of WMDs which still puts it superpower category.
    - NicoJuicy 6y ago
      The thing about WMD's is that you only need one. There's no use-case for it in the modern world, except the threat of using it.
capableweb 6y ago
I truly hope you're not an American or any other citizen of a country who is basically doing exactly the same thing. Would be highly ironic to sit and yell about Russia if so.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
igivanov 6y ago
have you read the article? - no you haven't "With relatively few sites reporting the radiation increase, identifying its origins is challenging. The RIVM added media reports that it believes Russia is the source are likely based on mistranslations of its Dutch statement, and that "no specific country of origin can be pointed out at this moment." yet you took the trouble to collect in your post almost every single bad thing you heard about Russia, half of them outright lies, the rest being half-truths, and dump them all here.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
ilstormcloud 6y ago
This is a fantastically naive. The `modern world` you mention is far from innocent. The Iraq war, the ongoing intervention in Syria, Libya, the struggle to contain China, the whole farce with the Iran nuclear deal. It is absurd you mention the 'modern world' as an absolute positive when that modern world lead by the US caused the death of 500K+ lives in the middle east (Iraq civil war plus ISIS). What is happening with Russia, Europe and China is far more complex and intriguing than your black and white, good vs evil assessment. History is not over yet.
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  Nothing is perfect. But my statement that "war is made redundant by global trade", still remains. The problem is that some countries ( eg. China) are not playing by the same rules and limiting exposure to downsides of global trade ( by protectionism) that they still do stupid things ( eg. The problems between China and India currently). Both countries are not already in a war, because they are trading and it would hurt both economies. It's even mentioned in a recent article of the current conflict. I'll give you another POV and that is that the UN is pretty new ( 20 years) and the biggest positive change in the last century. There are problems ofc, but that doesn't undermine my statement. The second biggest change was the fall of the USSR for more democracy. And Russia is still struggling with this after 30 years.
  - nix23 6y ago
    >UN is pretty new ( 20 years) The UN was established in 1945...you know after that 2. World-war. >And Russia is still struggling with this after 30 years Yes, because Russia never had any democracy, its not easy to establish that fast, and 30 Years is a really short time.
    - NicoJuicy 6y ago
      Ow lol, serious mistake here. EU is pretty new ( 20 years) PS. According to current observations. Russia is far from "a democracy". A lot of the countries that seperated from USSR in 1990 ( even Hungary), are doing a much better job.
ThinkBeat 6y ago
You should study contemporary US history and compare :)
nix23 6y ago
Yes but then the US made the first step for a new Atomic Race: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/trump-us-nuclear-arms-treaty-russia https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/trump-us-nucle... A retreat from arms control creates a dangerous nuclear reality: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/ https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
dang 6y ago
You started a nationalistic flamewar and then perpetuated it. That is seriously not cool. It is not what this site is for. Please do not do this on HN again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

liminal 6y ago

My (probably poorly informed) take is that they're compensating for a weak economy by basically waging asymmetric/guerrilla warfare. Using minimal cost techniques to sow the most chaos possible. They may not be able to be strong, but they can make others weaker.

NicoJuicy 6y ago
They spend a large % of GDP on military, while their neighbour easily outspends them because of a way bigger economy. After all, Russia's GDP is similar to only 3 European countries ( I think France, Belgium and Netherlands together is bigger, you can check it in Wolfram Alpha ). They should just spend it on trade instead. So their population would get wealthier. Edit: over estimated Russia's GDP. It's even smaller then France alone. Also Germany and Italy are easily bigger
- koalaman 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... Last time I checked Russia had a smaller GDP than Italy. Hell of a geopolitical presence for such a small economy.
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    You're correct. I could have just mentioned Germany/France/Italy being bigger by themselves than Russia. It's even less then I expected. Weird. Perhaps Wolfram Alpha had different numbers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Edit: checked. No it isn't, perhaps I was checking military expenditure then since that was what I was comparing a while ago. Conclusion that I had was that Europe is outspending Russia easily in military.
- igammarays 6y ago
  Using GDP to measure Russian significance is like trying to measure American significance by counting the number of hotdogs consumed - it doesn't matter. Results are what matters. For the amount that Russia spends on its military, it is able to project exponentially more force globally - it is #2 in the world, period. Meanwhile the the New York Times described the F-35 as "America's Dysfunctional Trillion-Dollar Fighter-Jet Program". Trillions spent on a jet with questionable fighting capabilities. American military leaders themselves don't trust the plane.
  - pilsetnieks 6y ago
    > it is able to project exponentially more force globally - it is #2 in the world, period Is it, though? NATO has 18 aircraft carriers, of those 12 are American, 2 of them are British, and two are Italian. Russia has 1 that is sitting in dry dock for servicing since 2017 and was even further damaged when the dry dock sank[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admiral_Kuznetsov#Refit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admir...
    - nix23 6y ago
      >NATO has 18 aircraft carriers That's because Russia never had interest in aircraft carriers, it's just not their military motto, you need Carrier's to attack a Country outside of your reach, witch Russia knew would never be successfully happen against NATO-States, that's why even in the Cold war Russia was always focused on defense.
      - pilsetnieks 6y ago
        Yea, that doesn't count as global force projection then, which was the argument a few comments upthread.
        nix23 6y ago
        You know how big Russia still is? It would even count 'global' if they just stay inside the borders ;)

bitcharmer 6y ago

All true, however this is not specific to Russia only. It seems most large powers exhibit bullying behaviour. USA is only a little better (making up WMD to go to war with Iraq, meddling with elections and democratic process in other countries, spying on allies, etc). Then we have China which is probably yet another category of international bully. Sadly this is quite expected for global super powers...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
DickingAround 6y ago
Been thinking about that phrase "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" is perhaps better as "power corrupts, absolute power writes the history books".
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  What about, power corrupts. But in a democracy it's hard to do it in the open ... For long :)
NicoJuicy 6y ago
Perhaps you're forgetting that Russia is not a super power. They can extract cheap oil and try to sell their military equipment. We'll see how that pans out in the future, while Europe is slowly moving to green energy. It's just nuts that they are throwing away the opportunity to correctly invest oil/gas money, before it's over.
- sakopov 6y ago
  Certainly not a superpower by these metrics. However, Russia does possess a vast number of WMDs which still puts it superpower category.
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    The thing about WMD's is that you only need one. There's no use-case for it in the modern world, except the threat of using it.

capableweb 6y ago

I truly hope you're not an American or any other citizen of a country who is basically doing exactly the same thing. Would be highly ironic to sit and yell about Russia if so.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

igivanov 6y ago

have you read the article? - no you haven't "With relatively few sites reporting the radiation increase, identifying its origins is challenging. The RIVM added media reports that it believes Russia is the source are likely based on mistranslations of its Dutch statement, and that "no specific country of origin can be pointed out at this moment." yet you took the trouble to collect in your post almost every single bad thing you heard about Russia, half of them outright lies, the rest being half-truths, and dump them all here.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

ilstormcloud 6y ago

This is a fantastically naive. The `modern world` you mention is far from innocent. The Iraq war, the ongoing intervention in Syria, Libya, the struggle to contain China, the whole farce with the Iran nuclear deal. It is absurd you mention the 'modern world' as an absolute positive when that modern world lead by the US caused the death of 500K+ lives in the middle east (Iraq civil war plus ISIS). What is happening with Russia, Europe and China is far more complex and intriguing than your black and white, good vs evil assessment. History is not over yet.

NicoJuicy 6y ago
Nothing is perfect. But my statement that "war is made redundant by global trade", still remains. The problem is that some countries ( eg. China) are not playing by the same rules and limiting exposure to downsides of global trade ( by protectionism) that they still do stupid things ( eg. The problems between China and India currently). Both countries are not already in a war, because they are trading and it would hurt both economies. It's even mentioned in a recent article of the current conflict. I'll give you another POV and that is that the UN is pretty new ( 20 years) and the biggest positive change in the last century. There are problems ofc, but that doesn't undermine my statement. The second biggest change was the fall of the USSR for more democracy. And Russia is still struggling with this after 30 years.
- nix23 6y ago
  >UN is pretty new ( 20 years) The UN was established in 1945...you know after that 2. World-war. >And Russia is still struggling with this after 30 years Yes, because Russia never had any democracy, its not easy to establish that fast, and 30 Years is a really short time.
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    Ow lol, serious mistake here. EU is pretty new ( 20 years) PS. According to current observations. Russia is far from "a democracy". A lot of the countries that seperated from USSR in 1990 ( even Hungary), are doing a much better job.

ThinkBeat 6y ago

You should study contemporary US history and compare :)

nix23 6y ago

Yes but then the US made the first step for a new Atomic Race: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/trump-us-nuclear-arms-treaty-russia https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/trump-us-nucle... A retreat from arms control creates a dangerous nuclear reality: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/ https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/

dang 6y ago

You started a nationalistic flamewar and then perpetuated it. That is seriously not cool. It is not what this site is for. Please do not do this on HN again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html