10 ms·
Kremlin arrests FSB chiefs in fallout from Ukraine chaos
- bitcharmer 5y agoAh yes, the return of the good old Soviet methods. The positive side of this is that it's a strong indicator of the ruling dictator slipping into distrust fueled paranoia. One of the first steps towards the downfall.
- walrus01 5y agoOne of the first steps towards what could be an eventual civil war and Putin ending up like Ceaucescu or Mussolini, if things go very badly for them in Ukraine and economically.
- claaams 5y agoThe way things seem, their stock market isn't going to be reopening anytime soon. So I'd say economically things are going very badly already.
- Bombthecat 5y agoOr they go full dictatorship. I would say, this looks like the likely path..
- bergie 5y agoDidn’t that happen in the early 2000s?
- hprotagonist 5y agothe negative side is that's two fewer people who can easily do a coup right this instant.
- rad_gruchalski 5y agoIt could also be a sign to others that there’s not much time left.
- hprotagonist 5y agoright; it also kind of screams desperation and paranoia. If you have to tell people how strong you are by show of force, maybe they're going to see through your ruse ...
- drdaeman 5y agoThis downfall is cyclic. Let me translate you some old but still delicious Russian copypasta: "As soon as Lenin died, it turned out that the second person in the Party, comrade Trotsky, was a traitor. Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and Stalin overthrew Trotsky and banished him from the USSR. After a couple of years it turned out that Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were also enemies and traitors. Valorous comrade Heinrich Yagoda shot them. A little later Yezhov shot Yagoda as an enemy agent. But after a couple of years it turned out that Yezhov was not a comrade, but simply a traitor and enemy agent. And Yezhov shot Beria. After Stalin's death, everyone realized that Beria was also a traitor. So Zhukov overthrew and shot Beria. Soon, Khrushchev learned that Zhukov was an enemy and a conspirator. And exiled Zhukov to the Urals. A little later, it was revealed that Stalin was an enemy, a saboteur and a traitor. And with him, and most of the Politburo. Then Stalin was taken out of the Mausoleum, and the Politburo with Shepilov, who joined them, were disbanded by honest party members led by Khrushchev. Several years passed and it turned out that Khrushchev was a voluntarist, a rogue, an venturer and a traitor. Brezhnev made Khrushchev retire. Soon Brezhnev died, and it turned out that he was a senile, a saboteur and caused the Stagnation. Then there were two more seniles which no one remembered because they died like flies. Young, energetic Gorbachev came to power. And it turned out that the whole Party was a party of saboteurs and enemies, but he would fix everything now. This is where the USSR collapsed. And Gorbachev turned out to be an enemy and a traitor."
- sorokod 5y agoWhat happened to no blame culture?
- sonicggg 5y agoWhy is it that Russia have a perpetual tendency to be ruled by autocratic governments?
- iszomer 5y agoProbably Russian Stoicism? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0NbACjnAlo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0NbACjnAlo
- sto_hristo 5y ago
- MrRiddle 5y agoYou’re pretty hateful.
- sto_hristo 5y agoAlright. Let me make myself pink and lovable: Russians are peace-loving democratic modern people that have a well developed civilization based on equal rights, laws, accountability, and intertwined checks and balances. They know no such thing as corruption and their leaders are justly elected representatives of the thriving Russian population, who contribute to peace and stability in the world. It's so great to be their neighbor and, generally speaking, in their sphere of influence as that alone guarantees you prosperity and safety from purges, famines, slavery in cold and remote concentration camps, war, death and destruction. Fixed. How do you like it now? <3
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- platinumrad 5y agoIf this level of racism doesn't warrant an immediate ban then this site is a joke.
- 5y ago
- neonate 5y agohttps://archive.ph/j85zg https://archive.ph/j85zg
- drcongo 5y agoThe parallels right now between Hitler as he attempted the invasion of the USSR and Putin's current isolated derangement just keep on growing. The latest series of Rise of the Nazis on the BBC is incredibly interesting to watch with the current situation in mind - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09jgldz/rise-of-the-nazis-dictators-at-war-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09jgldz/rise-of-the-n...
- mushbino 5y agoI've been seeing a pretty big wave of Nazi apologists on the left lately. It feels like now that everyone knows we've been arming Nazis in Ukraine they moved from denying it to saying Nazis weren't all that bad. Imo, Putin is more analogous to GW Bush with the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Can you make a claim for how Putin is worse than even Bush in this regard?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- xdennis 5y agoUkraine has one battalion with about 10-20% nazi associations. That's it. They have zero seats in parliament and no political influence. No one is saying nazis aren't bad. But so long as they're killing invaders, it's an acceptable evil.
- mushbino 5y agoThis is what I'm saying. People saying Nazis are okay as long as they're killing people I'm told to hate. I've spent lots of time in Ukraine and Ukrainian is my 3rd language. I have many friends there, but unfortunately I couldn't take my ex there to visit because she's black and it would be an issue. Their former president Yushchenko declared a famous Nazi as a national hero. It's most certainly an issue there.
- mushbino 5y agohttps://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-azov-regiment-has-not-depoliticized/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-azov-... This is not to mention C14 or the свобода (Svoboda) political party aside from the Azov battalion. They have an outsized influence in Ukrainian politics. This is one of the main reasons why they won't concede on NATO membership to end the war, US interests aside.
- rdtsc 5y ago> accusation of the embezzlement of funds earmarked for subversive activities in Ukraine Everyone is embezzling all the time there. It's useful to keep an eye one everyone and then selectively punish them if they do something you don't like it. > If claims of arrest are correct, this would indicate that Putin is seriously concerned about the FSB’s role in the military campaign Well Putin is FSB (ex-KGB) so he likely relied on his FSB buddies to set up a number of false flag operations in order to provide a cover for the invasion. Those are have been exposed and failed. Now Putin is looking more "naked" than he planned when invading and ruthlessly bombing civilians. Some trucks headed to Kiev had riot police gear in them. FSB likely thought people in Kiev would meet them with flowers, salt and bread, and it would be only some rowdy trouble-makers which the riot police would take care of. In other words it was supposed to be a 3 day blitzkrieg followed by police work later. They were wrong.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Well Putin is FSB (ex-KGB) To expand this a bit, Putin is both ex-KGB (left in 1991 to go into politics) and ex-FSB (he was the head of FSB before he was appointed Prime Minister.)
- rdtsc 5y agoOf course and he had also surrounded himself with ex-FSB/KGB associates as well: Patrushev, Bortnikov, Naryshkin. His body guards are all FSB too, I think. In his eyes, both FSB and the Army could do no wrong. And I think he may be realizing the "yes" men he surrounded himself from both of those agencies have been lying to him for years about the state of readiness, capabilities, and ability of those agencies. Now will some of them try to sprinkle some Polonium-210 in his tea? At first I thought it was plausible, but now I don't know. They've been there for so long kissing each others asses killing Putin would be the end of them as well. But, somehow, I see the GRU doing it. They've been more of a wildcard in the past. At some point their children won't be able to get the diabetes or other medicine and they might start thinking thoughts like that.
- deleted 5y ago
- PrefixKitten 5y agoIf I understood 孙子's book correctly I'd take this news to mean Putin has already lost lmao
- labrador 5y agoThey're looking for the FSB officer who wrote this: https://pastebin.com/2agMRGmd https://pastebin.com/2agMRGmd See also: This war will be a total failure, FSB whistleblower says https://archive.ph/oUU2v https://archive.ph/oUU2v
- ratg13 5y agoThe first link you posted was written two weeks ago. You're going to have to post something to back up your assertion, otherwise you should not claim guesswork as fact.
- labrador 5y agoIt is difficult to know what is true in this propaganda war. I posted a document and a link to an article that is one of many claiming it is true. We post things on HN for your consideration, not to control your thoughts. Hacker News is still part of a free country. Make up your own mind.
- throwoutway 5y agoYou said they’re looking for that officer but I don’t see anything in the article that backs up that assertion. Related maybe, but why do you think that is true?
- labrador 5y agoThis and similar stories: The arrests were further corroborated by Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled Russian human rights activist who also added that the FSB officers had carried out searches at over 20 addresses in Moscow of colleagues suspected to be speaking with journalists https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-spy-chiefs-under-house-163301889.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-spy-chiefs-under-hous... It's my assumption that they are looking for leakers
- wooque 5y ago>To be honest, the Pandora's box is open - a real global horror will begin by the summer - global famine is inevitable (Russia and Ukraine were the main suppliers of grain in the world, this year's harvest will be smaller, and logistical problems will bring the catastrophe to a peak point). they supply like 15% of wheat, 17% of barley, 17% of rye, etc, they are big but not main, and it's not like production will go to zero, and other countries could increase production to supplement them, sounds like larp
- trasz 5y agoIt’s time for some patriot to shoot Putin in the head. ASAP.
- robbedpeter 5y agoHe's one of the richest people on the planet, well trained, and paranoid as hell. He's logistically one of the hardest people to kill, and he also has (rumored but probable) crazy layers of leverage, along with punitive killings arranged in the event of his murder or suspicious death.
- trasz 5y agoThat’s why I’ve said “patriot”. Someone who would do this knowing the (probably deadly) consequences.
- 00N8 5y agoIt would be nice to see someone get rid of Putin for high-minded ideals like peace, justice, democracy, or the welfare of Russians & Ukrainians. But I'm not too optimistic on it happening that way. I worry that anyone w/ the will & the means to assassinate Putin would likely be a power hungry would-be dictator making an aggressive play to replace him. Things could shake out better in the chaos, but they could just as likely go worse
- trasz 5y agoThat’s possible too, but in the short timescale it would make the crisis within Russia worse, which is enough of an objective in itself: we are not trying to turn Russia into a proper country, we are trying to 1. Force it to stop murdering Ukrainians, and 2. Prevent it from building more weapons in the future.
- xdennis 5y agoAs with Hitler (and Stauffenberg's briefcase), the only one who has a real chance is someone close to him.
- zamalek 5y ago> You will hang if you insult me by not saying what I want to hear. Also, > You will hang because you failed to tell me what I needed to hear.
- belter 5y ago"Putin Reportedly Placed Two FSB Heads Under House Arrest" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30646047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30646047