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This is excellent. If you look elsewhere on the Internet you will find that most of the Russian tank crews and troops were told that they were doing an exercise

by hughrr 5y ago

This is excellent. If you look elsewhere on the Internet you will find that most of the Russian tank crews and troops were told that they were doing an exercise and kept completely isolated "on mission" for a couple of months. Then they get orders to proceed into Ukraine, probably spun without any collateral information or lies. At this point under DDoS their usual news sources are GONE. That means no propaganda available from the Russian government. The only sources available to them, if they get access to them, are saying that they're the bad guys and that is soul crushingly demotivating when you don't know why you are where you are.

tablespoon 5y ago
> If you look elsewhere on the Internet you will find that most of the Russian tank crews and troops were told that they were doing an exercise and kept completely isolated "on mission" for a couple of months....At this point under DDoS their usual news sources are GONE. Really? I though RT was part of Russia's foreign propaganda effort, so I wouldn't expect it to have much effect on domestic news consumption. IIRC, actually Russians get their news from domestic outlets like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-1 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_Russia. This is good news, but mainly because it interferes with Russia's foreign propaganda operations around this attack.
- kergonath 5y ago
  I don’t think the OP the as saying that the Russian soldiers were lost because RT was taken down. Rather that they were lost, on top of everything else that is happening currently. It is clear that RT is propaganda for foreign consumption, not domestic.
poisonarena 5y ago
No, Russians use telegram groups for this kind of thing, and if they are not savvy they will use VK
yarpen_z 5y ago
Soldiers do not go into action with their phones. That's OPSEC 101. That's why we see so many smartphone recordings made by civilians, but not by the military.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Russian soldiers staging for the attacks were posting to TikTok, and on the night of the invasion, traffic jams started showing up at 3am near the border. https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgd7dd/google-maps-live-traffic-showed-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgd7dd/google-maps-live-traf... Seems clear the policy and the reality are not identical here.
  - blacksmith_tb 5y ago
    The linked article says "many commenters ... assume the Russian soldiers left their phones on ... but Lewis said that almost certainly was not the case, and the traffic data Google was showing was ordinary people who couldn’t get on the road because of Russian military movement." Which doesn't rule it out, but clearly doesn't require it to be true.
    - ceejayoz 5y ago
      At 3am? "The traffic jam slowly extended to the border, where it then disappeared."
      - blacksmith_tb 5y ago
        That still seems possible, if civilians have been fleeing in their cars? It sounded like drives that would have taken a day under normal conditions were taking several days in the current chaos. Which of course still doesn't mean Russian soldiers might have their phones on.
NikolaNovak 5y ago
I am assuming the only information a solider will receive is from their commanding officer and their comrades. If they haven't seen alternate explanations by now, I have no particular reason to believe they suddenly will.
chrischen 5y ago
The secrecy could be explained that they didn’t want the invasion plans leaked by low level operations. Apple does the same thing with new products, with different teams working in isolation on a need to know basis. Clearly the army now knows exactly what they are doing and where they are, and they’re still doing it.
vmception 5y ago
Now lets put you in their shoes. All your usual news sources are gone and you get the perspective from foreign news that the entity you represent is the aggressor, would that be convincing to you?
- hughrr 5y ago
  Well the first thing I do is probably google something then so ...
  - vmception 5y ago
    Google is going to show you something that confirms your existing beliefs like a mirror, or you are going to see ad-ridden geocities-looking websites saying things that dont match your existing beliefs, from bloggers or news sources in governments you weren't indoctrinated to respect How effective do you think this would really be for most?
ed_balls 5y ago
> tank crews and troops were told that they were doing an exercise and kept completely isolated Most likely they are lying to look more sympathetic - there is a video of a Ukrainian soldier asking questions to a captured tank crew member. He said "We were told we are doing exercises". Ukrainian solder responded "I've hearing the same shit since 2014"

by hughrr 5y ago

tablespoon 5y ago

> If you look elsewhere on the Internet you will find that most of the Russian tank crews and troops were told that they were doing an exercise and kept completely isolated "on mission" for a couple of months....At this point under DDoS their usual news sources are GONE. Really? I though RT was part of Russia's foreign propaganda effort, so I wouldn't expect it to have much effect on domestic news consumption. IIRC, actually Russians get their news from domestic outlets like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-1 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_Russia. This is good news, but mainly because it interferes with Russia's foreign propaganda operations around this attack.

kergonath 5y ago
I don’t think the OP the as saying that the Russian soldiers were lost because RT was taken down. Rather that they were lost, on top of everything else that is happening currently. It is clear that RT is propaganda for foreign consumption, not domestic.

poisonarena 5y ago

No, Russians use telegram groups for this kind of thing, and if they are not savvy they will use VK

yarpen_z 5y ago

Soldiers do not go into action with their phones. That's OPSEC 101. That's why we see so many smartphone recordings made by civilians, but not by the military.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ceejayoz 5y ago
Russian soldiers staging for the attacks were posting to TikTok, and on the night of the invasion, traffic jams started showing up at 3am near the border. https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgd7dd/google-maps-live-traffic-showed-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgd7dd/google-maps-live-traf... Seems clear the policy and the reality are not identical here.
- blacksmith_tb 5y ago
  The linked article says "many commenters ... assume the Russian soldiers left their phones on ... but Lewis said that almost certainly was not the case, and the traffic data Google was showing was ordinary people who couldn’t get on the road because of Russian military movement." Which doesn't rule it out, but clearly doesn't require it to be true.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    At 3am? "The traffic jam slowly extended to the border, where it then disappeared."
    - blacksmith_tb 5y ago
      That still seems possible, if civilians have been fleeing in their cars? It sounded like drives that would have taken a day under normal conditions were taking several days in the current chaos. Which of course still doesn't mean Russian soldiers might have their phones on.

NikolaNovak 5y ago

I am assuming the only information a solider will receive is from their commanding officer and their comrades. If they haven't seen alternate explanations by now, I have no particular reason to believe they suddenly will.

chrischen 5y ago

The secrecy could be explained that they didn’t want the invasion plans leaked by low level operations. Apple does the same thing with new products, with different teams working in isolation on a need to know basis. Clearly the army now knows exactly what they are doing and where they are, and they’re still doing it.

vmception 5y ago

Now lets put you in their shoes. All your usual news sources are gone and you get the perspective from foreign news that the entity you represent is the aggressor, would that be convincing to you?

hughrr 5y ago
Well the first thing I do is probably google something then so ...
- vmception 5y ago
  Google is going to show you something that confirms your existing beliefs like a mirror, or you are going to see ad-ridden geocities-looking websites saying things that dont match your existing beliefs, from bloggers or news sources in governments you weren't indoctrinated to respect How effective do you think this would really be for most?

ed_balls 5y ago

> tank crews and troops were told that they were doing an exercise and kept completely isolated Most likely they are lying to look more sympathetic - there is a video of a Ukrainian soldier asking questions to a captured tank crew member. He said "We were told we are doing exercises". Ukrainian solder responded "I've hearing the same shit since 2014"