OOF. That sounds horrifyingly similar to the French of dealing with minor languages: just call it a dialect and try to erase it.
France called any language spoken in france that was not french “patois”: that included well stablished languages like norman, occitan, catalan, corsican and wallon, putting in the same sack as the french dialects like “orleanais” or “champenois”. This practice erased those languages from official media for centuries, relegating them to basically oral tradition only.
“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy to back it up.” - Max Weinreich
As usual, Putin is trying to stir up shit based on historical animosity. Surprisingly, this has not won him many admirers in Japan.
He used a video interview with independent Russian media outlets to signal his willingness to discuss the idea of Ukraine adopting a “neutral status”, and also make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region, in order to secure a peace agreement with Russia. But he said he was not willing to discuss demilitarisation, and said Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.
Hmm…
Yeah. Those fuckers are shitting it that their dodgy money flow is going to make partygate look like stopping in a no-loading zone to pick your kid up from the cinema in comparison. They’d love a ‘mission accomplished, nothing to see here, folks!’ reset alright.
Ukraine condemns Russia’s alleged “deportation” of many civilians from devastated Mariupol.
Not that it should be any surprise to anyone but the Russian state is now basically nothing but an organised crime gang.
Looting, kidnapping, extortion and violence.
Now? It has been since Yeltsin fired the starting gun on the looting.
Oh yes. Too right. But they made some occasional pretence that it was somehow legit, back then. Now it’s just completely overt, with a middle finger to tell us they don’t give a fuck who knows. Maybe it’s been like that for a while but mass kidnapping and blatant theft are a bit ‘new’ even for them.
Probably?
Huh.
Please 
consider watching this PBS segment with Russian-born American independent journalist Julia Ioffe. Her perceptive, experienced, frankly chilling analysis of Putin in this 9 March interview (it’s now 28 March) was absolutely accurate about Putin grinding Ukrainian cities to a “fine fine ash”–just look at Mariupol and elsewhere in Ukraine:
(apologies for repeat posting)
The full Frontline production with Ioffe, Masha Gessen (no slouch at Russian political analysis) and Susan Glasser, co-author of Kremlin Rising among many others, all fully credentialed and qualified Putin-watching reporters:
Densely packed with what we all know now is fact, but weeks ago was the basis of what was to come, in Ukraine. Just a few Ioffe pullquotes to give a sense of her perspective:
JULIA IOFFE:
I think back to that security council meeting and I realize how scared they must all be of him [Putin]. It just felt like they were dancing bears performing for their master who is impossible to please.
…
DONALD TRUMP:
My people came to me. Dan Coates came to me and some others. They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.
JULIA IOFFE, Founding partner, Puck Media:
That is such a win for Putin. It is such a—you know, it’s like watching your enemy shoot himself in both feet, both hands.
DONALD TRUMP:
I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today, and what he did—
JULIA IOFFE:
It’s your enemy admitting that you are better. I mean, it’s everything he’s ever wanted. It’s for the U.S. to admit that the U.S. is stupid and weak and bad and that Russia is good and strong and powerful.
…
JULIA IOFFE:
He’s [Putin’s] a master bureaucrat. Russia has always been a bureaucratic autocracy. This is how, for example, Stalin became the general secretary. He was an amazing bureaucrat. He out-bureaucrated all the other bureaucrats. And Putin does, too. He is very good at the bureaucracy of all of it.
…
JULIA IOFFE:
He [Putin] correctly sees America as a nation so divided that it’s paralyzed. That it is a nation at each others’ throats that can’t agree on anything. Then Afghanistan happens. The message that sends to Putin is that America has no more appetite for war.
She’s spot-on and you can see how tired she is. Like us, she’s tired of the relentless misery and deaths, her friends and family in danger or worse.
And she’s tired of being right. AFAICT.
ETA:
Added the link for the full Frontline (final production) video.
Yes, I do mean Kinzinger. The Republican party as it exists needs to be put down; a country this large must have some sort of conservative party as an option, because people do differ on their political beliefs; watching politicians like Kinzinger and Cheney start to stand up to their own party is heartening to me because the transformation needs to come from within. Not saying I’d vote for either of them, but our country is safer if politicians like them represent conservative Americans rather than the literal clowns and criminals we have currently.
A couple of weeks into the war I started thinking about how books were going to be written about everything that went on behind the scenes, and how increasingly what everyone thought was Russian incompetence was looking more and more like Ukrainian intelligence and guile. Case in point:
I do not see this on Bellingcat’s website as yet, but if true it offers several possibilities, like they took FSB money and skipped out of Ukraine before the war, or even better Zelenskyy knew of the plot but allowed it to continue and used it to Ukraine’s advantage (with several more tantalizing possibilities there.).
