Originally published at: Watch: Crowd in Warsaw surrounds Russian ambassador, pelts him with red paint, calls him a facist | Boing Boing
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On the one hand, I’d hate to be one of the diplomats who had to represent Russia to the international community right now. On the other hand, Ambassador Andreyev chose this gig and continues to support the policies of a genocidal monster so he can go straight to hell in a fresh coat of paint.
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Not quite the tribute to the red army he was expecting. Still, glorious to those who truly celebrate victory over fascists (the ambassador’s boss being the most prominent current example of one).
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Oh dear, how terrible. Maybe next time don’t take it out of the tin first.
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Is it wrong if I am hoping that the paint thrown on him is food-safe?
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It does seem odd for Russia to celebrating victory day in Poland.
'Cuz like, didn’t they divide it up with the Nazis in the first place?
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War makes for strange bedfellows. Duda’s willingness to flout the Polish constitution, not to mention the persecution of LGBTQ peoples that has occurred under his watch is worrisome. He’s shown many fascist tendencies of his own, but clearly has more to fear from Russia than Europe.
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Justice was served.
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Dividing up Poland is the least of what they’d done, honestly. The Katyn massacre is among the most terrible war crimes of WWII, and that’s saying something. And then there was the Soviet occupation of Poland after the war for almost the rest of the century…
But, well, technically May 9 is celebrating Soviet victory over the Nazis, and technically that happened, so there’s that.
Well, there’s ample historical reason for anti-Russian sentiments in Poland, see above for just few, but it pretty much goes back for centuries. So while the Polish government’s fascist tendencies and its support of Hungary’s own fascist authoritarian shithead were a huge thorn in the EU’s side in the past years, that changed immediately with the war… to the point where the Polish government even gave up its support of Orbán, who has been fairly openly pushing Russian interests in the EU since ~2012, and continues to do so to this day, despite the war (fuck him to hell and back and then back to hell again - I’m honestly terrified every time he opens that thing on his face and starts making noises with it, at this point he could announce withdrawing from the EU and/or the NATO and none of us could do anything about it).
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For irony overload, Russia should do so in the Katyn Forest. Or on the outskirts of Warsaw.
It’s sad (yet predictable?) that, with time, rather than distance themselves from the USSR and Stalin, all Russia and Putin can do is embrace the USSR/Stalin more and more tightly.
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It makes sense from his point of view. After the collapse of the USSR there were some really really bad times in Russia - in the entire former Eastern Bloc, really, but especially in Russia. And like in many other countries in the region (mine included) a lot of people thought “hell, the Soviet times were far better than this, sure things were crap but there was peace and stability and fewer mafia gang murder sprees”. And as time passed the more rose-colored the memories became, and people passed them on to younger generations who weren’t around to experience how shitty the Soviet times actually were, and only knew that “those were the times when we were one of the two most powerful countries in the world and everyone respected us”. Putin rose to power with the promise of getting the country back in order and basically Making Russia Great Again, and rode this sentiment to where he is now.
(What he’s trying to do now, though, is going beyond the USSR, and into recreating the Russian Empire, with openly claiming back the USSR’s spheres of interest.)
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To be fair, the Kremlin also denies that it’s a war.
Has anyone asked them if they’re responsible for Special Military Operation crimes?
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Putin, GFY.
Also:
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Per The Grauniad:
… Poland, which has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees, cancelled all official commemorations of the anniversary. …
Also:
… The Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, tweeted: “The gathering of opponents of Russian aggression against Ukraine, where genocide takes place every day, was legal. The emotions of Ukrainian women participating in the demonstration, whose husbands courageously fight for the defence of the Motherland, are understandable.
“The Polish authorities did not recommend the Russian ambassador to lay flowers on 9 May in Warsaw. The police allowed the ambassador to safely leave the scene.” …
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“I heard that Putin shot himself in his bunker.”
“Oh, I heard that he shot himself in his head.”
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Indeed - Poland and Ukraine have been ground zero for many power struggles over the past centuries.
From a western perspective, it is hard to stomach watching our leaders embrace Duda (and to a lesser extent Orbán) because Poland is a necessary bulwark against Russian aggression for the rest of Europe, and because the bulk of Ukranian refugees have moved that way.
Like most of Putin’s lies and disinformation, they break through to people because there are a couple of facts caught up in the process. Putin gets away with saying they are fighting Nazis because they can point to examples of extreme right wing behaviour in Ukraine and other locations in eastern Europe. Never mind that the same kind of racist and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has been embraced in Russia.
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Or the fact that it’s well-documented that Putin’s Russia has been supporting and financing far-right extremist groups in Europe, large and small - from small militia type groups like a bunch in my country (if we don’t count the entire government and our Dear Leader himself) to the likes of Marine Le Pen. So all that “but but but de-nazification!!!” BS is just that, BS, that westerners who don’t know any better believe because well, Nazis are bad.
Not to mention that in Russia the racist and anti-LGBTQ stance goes far beyond rhetoric at this point. All that harrassment, torture, beatings, etc. that the world was horrified to learn LGBTQ people in Russia have to face, as well as the openly oppressive laws? Yeah, all that didn’t stop, the world just moved on and stopped being interested in it.
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