ETA, the trip (for those not in UK) was completely wiped off the news here by the unfolding scandals of an ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer having paid penalties for wrongful tax returns to HMRC, and the Chair of the BBC being appointed slightly after having helped Boris to an £800k loan facility.
Apparently he is fuming about this as the visit was supposed to be part of his relaunch/public rehabilitation campaign but nobody noticed.
I do think this minor bit of schadenfreude justifies the evergreen…(all cued up as usual, press play and sing it loud…)
Now, back to Russia. I bet the Germans are heartbroken that Russian-German relations may not be normalised for a while. /s
Russia still fighting the last war as well as their new one, of course.
Russia warns Germany’s ‘extremely dangerous’ tank decision takes conflict ‘to a new level’
The Russian embassy in Germany has accused Berlin of abandoning its “historical responsibility” to Moscow and of taking the conflict in Ukraine “to a new level of confrontation”.
Ambassador Sergei Nechayev said in a statement:
This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation and contradicts the statements of German politicians about the unwillingness of the Federal Republic of Germany to be drawn into it.
He added:
It destroys the remnants of mutual trust, causes irreparable damage to the already deplorable state of Russian-German relations, and casts doubt on the possibility of their normalisation in the foreseeable future.
The decision to approve the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine means the “final refusal” of the German government “to recognise its historical responsibility to our people for the terrible, timeless crimes of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War, and the consigning to oblivion of the difficult path of post-war reconciliation between Russians and Germans”, he continued.
He said:
With the approval of the leadership of Germany, battle tanks with German crosses will again be sent to the ‘eastern front’, which will inevitably lead to the deaths of not only Russian soldiers, but also the civilian population.
IIRC one airline (SAS?) allowed their crews to wear beards, but had to figure out squaring that with possibly needing an oxygen mask.
At least with an airline you just need air for long enough to descend to 10,000 feet, so you can get by with a poorly-sealed overpressure system
Sure. But even so, plenty of cultures still pressure or even require their men to wear beards, as a sign of manhood. Gillette be damned.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group admitted to recruiting Nyirenda from a Russian jail, saying he chose to fight to “repay (Africa’s) debts” to Russia and “died a hero.”
The foreign ministry in Moscow also accused Ukraine of submitting a poor application dossier and claimed the vote had been taken “under pressure from the West” while “disregarding the rules of procedure”.
“It was prepared hastily, without respecting the current high standards of Unesco,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.
I wonder why the “poor” dossier was “prepared hastily”.
/s
While firing missiles at Odesa.
I couldn’t immediately dig up the balance of Prigozhin’s statement; but I can only suspect that it wouldn’t take a hardened postcolonial studies enthusiast to describe his understanding of ‘Africa’s debts to Russia’ as “several shades of problematic”…
Notorious anti-vaxxer’s father with supporters of Putin
[helmets on]
Those were the exact reasons I was told while in the Canadian army in the '80s. As far as I know, only two exceptions:
“Pioneers”, aka “sappers” aka “combat engineers” were allowed beards. The reason being they were the first into an area in order to make roads and bridges and other sapper stuff that involved lots of explosives. They also had the coolest ceremonial weapon: a chromed double-ended axe.
Submariners. No reason ever given. I’m not even sure we had a sub at the time.
I’m not sure of how things are now, given the loosening of dress & deportment regs this past summer.
[helmets off]
