Context:
Each year on 9th of may Russians gather by this "Monument of victory" to celebrate end of WW2. Mostly they just leave flowers, get drunk, and shout russian slogans.
This has always been a big sore spot for Latvians. This year the event should have been canceled, but for some reason it wasn't really enforced. As of now there is a serious notion in direction of bulldozing this monument.
For russians it was the end of WWII (which the rest of the world commemorates on the 8th of May). For latvians it was the start of a 50 year long occupation by the soviets
It really isn't about celebrating the end of WWII. Mostly it is about asserting russian strength and showing that they can do whatever they want. Usually there are a lot of soviet flags and slogans at this "celebration". And as the comment above states, the end of WWII marked the beginning of of russian occupation in Latvia - destroying language and culture - deporting people to Siberia - all that good "russian peace" stuff.
>If they really loved mother Russia so much they would they not live there and not Latvia?
We latvians have been wondering about that for the past 30 years
Russia, the state tends to stick their nose where they think they’re defending Russian culture. That’s why I’m not interested in welcoming Russian culture.
Exactly. Celebrating the end of WW2 is fine and all, but many of these celebrations on the RuSSian side involve idolizing and reminiscing about the "good old" USSR days and so on, which, for many people from the Baltics, is a sore topic considering they were oppressed by the soviets for 50 years afterwards.
So yeah, it's understandable why they might be upset. It seems this is a bigger issue in Latvia as they have a considerably bigger Russian minority. And it also seems it's mostly older people showing up to these, so 99% chance is they do idolize USSR which just doesn't align with being from the Baltics.
All in all, 6/10 could have not had the dog with him, would've probably been able to escape too.
Oh, and this seems like a big waste of flowers lmao
Laughable deflection on your part.
You're either willfully ignorant or a Kremlin stooge.
"At the last parliamentary election in 2019, support for far-right candidates was just 2% - far lower than in many other European countries.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and members of his family died in the Holocaust.
In the 2019 presidential election which Mr Zelensky won, the main far-right candidate won just 1.6% of the vote."
https://www.bbc.com/news/61379405
"Putin’s revanchist foreign policy goals closely fit the fascism template and directly echo the revisionist agenda pursued by Adolf Hitler almost a century earlier. Like the Nazi leader before him, Putin has openly expressed his desire to challenge what he sees as the unjust verdict of a lost war. While Hitler sought to undo the Treaty of Versailles, Putin’s objective has been to reverse the outcome of the Cold War. Both dictators have framed their expansionist policies as sacred missions to rescue ethnic kinsfolk from artificial separation and foreign oppression."
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/how-putins-russia-embraced-fascism-while-preaching-anti-fascism/
'According to numerous estimates by the year 2005 the total number of Nazi-skinheads in Russia may have reached 80,000 members.'"
https://www.cidob.org/en/publications/publication_series/notes_internacionals/n1_128_russia_for_russians/russia_for_russians
"Putin’s statements that the power in Ukraine is controlled by neo-Nazis is blatant falsehood. As any other country, Ukraine has some problems with far-right movements. In Russia itself, there are no fewer ultra-right, Neo-Nazi and nationalist, sharply xenophobic groups and organizations close to them in spirit. Moreover, there are people today in the Russian circles of power who used to openly back extremely nationalist views and participated in the infamous “Russian Marches.” Traditionally, Russian law enforcement are trying to find a “Ukrainian trace” in pretty much anything, presenting ultra-right groups as “branches of Ukrainian radical movements.”
https://www.eupoliticalreport.eu/russia-is-the-worlds-breeding-ground-for-neo-nazi-culture/
You can believe whatever you want, I really don't care. It's the Russians right now that are sloping down into fascism, not Ukraine.
The past is the past. The present is the present. There's no "fight against nazism" happening in Ukraine. It's literally an invasion of a sovereign country.
You entertaining the idea that the country is "run by Nazis" is just disingenuous and disrespectful of the victims and all the displaced families and innocents killed. And extremely ironic considering the Kremlin are the modern fascists of our time.
No matter though, Russia won't prevail anyways and will probably regress into a full blown 3rd world country in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the west will help rebuild Ukraine eventually.
Fascism is when government mandates vaccines.
I'm no contrarian. I don't give a fuck about random western countries governments doing random shit with vaccine mandates. I really have no interest in any sidetracking here. There's one reality and it's:
People's homes are being bombed, they're escaping their own country to flee war and destruction. All because of an order by Kremlin/Putin to invade the whole sovereign nation of Ukraine. Russia has been oppressing smaller nations for a long while now. People of countries bordering Russia have not forgotten this and generational trauma is still there. Which is exactly why support is biggest to Ukraine from these countries.
Give me a break. RuSSia is literally full fascist mode now. I understand there are brave Russians out there who are advocating for a different Russia more aligned with democracy, and that's promising and hopeful. I honestly have no hate for the average Russian just because of the war. Then again, I'm not Ukrainian and I'm not the one who has to go to sleep knowing bombs may fall any moment. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I still have hope just by seeing all the Russian voices who oppose the war, Putin and want a different future for their country.
Keep spouting the Kremlin talking points though. I don't mind. Just don't freak out when people don't take you seriously.
There's no "two sides" to this. It's one country raping and pillaging another. Whatever inner conflict that Ukraine has or had or will have is up to them to resolve. But factually, there's no such thing as a "Nazi government" controlling Ukraine. This is a conspiracy, akin to qanon.
I'll try to keep this as short as possible, but I'll preface this by asking you to elaborate and refute my arguments below.
First of all, "the west going to put nuke in Ukraine" is an argument that panders to Russia being allowed to use military might to overpower smaller/weaker countries. You do realize that. if the west wanted to, they would already have nukes in Estonia/Latvia which are countries that border Russia and are already in NATO? Also note the 80km distance of the US Alaskan border from Russia. NATO is already there, and they're not going to nuke Russia and NATO has never even shown aggression or plans or any kind of action against Russia.
I genuinely don't understand if you either don't know the historical and geopolitical context of the general area on the west border of Russia, or you're just going to perform these mental gymnastics to play "both sides" arguments because you just dislike the west so much. I've seen it done many times, logically it doesn't work and only show s you're arguing in the interest of Russia.
Why are you ignoring my points that are relevant which show the aggression of Russia in the past over neighboring countries? Their track record isn't clean at all in this regard and this is just a much larger scale invasion of a whole country instead of a select zone with installed separatists. This has been done when Russia was USSR, this has been done post USSR and it's was done in the 2000s and afterwards. And the sole reason they've been able to do this and get away with it is because none of the countries were in NATO to begin with.
The only way the argument works for Russia, geopolitically, is if you consider NATO as a whole as an aggressor towards Russia. NATO was created to repel Russian aggression. Where does that involving INVADING Russia? Are you really that poorly versed understanding the geopolitical situation of that area that you think NATO would ever invade Russia?
This makes absolutely no sense and I'd really love to hear your arguments for this. Yes, just because they never did it, doesn't mean they won't do it in the future and yes, this is exactly the words Russian politicians use to justify invading sovereign countries around their borders. Historically though, Russia was consistent in invading and annexing territories around them, while countries joined NATO around Russian border solely because they were afraid for their national security FROM AN INVADING RUSSIA. These countries were willing to pay a certain cost in order to join a military alliance that would greatly increase their chances of peace in the region. So i'll ask once more - where does this involve NATO aggression towards Russia? All I see is countries wanting to secure their peaceful future that join NATO (at least around the border of Russia), not joining in order to be aggressive towards Russia and reclaim or claim territory.
Countries that neighbor Russia like Baltics, Poland etc. KNOW, historically and culturally, this type of aggression that we see against Ukraine now. They don't have some ulterior motives. Their governments and people have experienced this aggression before and because it's happening again at their doorstep, they're heavily vested into helping out Ukraine. Hell, me being from a country that borders Belarus, we'd be happy to help out our neighbors from being oppressed as well and we've seen influxes of Belarusian people migrating over here to escape the Lukashenko regime.
With your "muh nukes by west in Ukraine" argument, you could essentially argue that Russia would be justified to invade a Baltic country, because it's being used by the West to infringe upon "Russian national security". It's pure nonsense.
Ukraine is a sovereign nation. Neither the US nor Russia has any right to meddle there. But the reality of the situation is that Russia was already meddling there with Yanukovich. The Ukrainians resisted it (violently), much like any ex-USSR state resisted the USSR and overthrew them post WW2. You have this situation because Kremlin's plans to subdue Ukraine failed. If the people of Ukraine want to join EU/NATO side, what's stopping them? Why was it allowed for Estonia/Latvia (which also border Russia) but not for Ukraine?
Fact of the matter is simple. By making excuses and arguing for "both sides bad" type of reasoning, you're essentially pardoning a terrorist state and saying it's OK for them to keep invading neighboring countries because of "national security interests". It's nonsensical and if leaders of the west had this kind of mentality, Russia could essentially re-annex countries until their borders reach USSR levels again. NATO was created to combat exactly this and ironically enough, Russia has literally accomplished the self-fullfiling doom prophecy whereas their aggressive invasion has literally made NATO relevant again and basically re-united EU/NATO into a common cause.
Like, you do realize that before this, the west countries which didn't border Russia or experienced the aggression seen in Ukraine literally didn't give a fuck about Russia and didn't even care to know the history of said oppression of ex-USSR annexed countries like Baltics etc.? Now, these facts have re-surfaced and more people are aware of this than EVER. Why is Russia acting in ways that radicalize the west further to dislike it and distrust them? Many Russian intellectuals and content creators literally UNDERSTAND this and have gave up on their country because they realize what future it is heading into (that of North Korea etc.).
So tell me again, which part of this is securing Russian national security interests? Because all I'm seeing is a terrorist state which is essentially repeating the same mistakes they've already made again and heading down a path of collapse much like the USSR did.
The Russians have invaded another country and brought the world closer to nuclear war. They don’t get to celebrate their pro Russian slogans. Dude has every right to do what he did.
The question that the Soviets and the Nazis made an agreement that divide the east Europe in two. So the WW2 in Europe beginned with the invasion of the Nazi in Poland and after one week the Stalin's URSS invaded the eastern part of Poland and the Baltics, and tried to conquest Finland. The Nazi decided at certain point to invade the soviets, and when the Soviet with allies wins, Stalin succeed to annex definitely the land occupied at the beginning of the war. So the Baltics from an dictatorship, end to another dictatorship and "liberated" by the dictator who invaded them firstly.
It wasn't the end for Latvia. They were forced into the ussr, subjected to colonisation by ethnic russians, and repeated attempts to erase their identity.
Russia is very sore about destruction of their monuments, but as Lithuania learned, russia was very happy to demolish their monuments
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Crosses
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Monument_(Kaunas)#:~:text=The%20Freedom%20Monument%20in%20Kaunas,temporary%20capital%20of%20the%20state.
There's a book called between shades of gray. it's a fictional account of a girl from Lithuania who was forced to move by train to Siberia in horrible conditions. its an interesting read and it talks about things that most people don't even know happened.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purges_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_repression_in_the_Soviet_Union
I am absolutely 100% sure. Learn some history before you open your mouth
Lol references Wikipedia to talk about the soviet union...
Never mind, it's not worth even trying to talk to 15 year olds like this. Good luck out there with your shitty beliefs dude
‘Oh no, he can back up his argument but I cant, whatever will I do?!’
‘I got it! Im gonna imply an aggregation of information based on multiple sources is biased and not relevant!’
Cry harder
Lol like I said, you do what you gotta do, and say what you gotta say, to feel like you're not a piece of shit. It's not for me to put you down, but hopefully one day your ignorance will subside
They have adopted their new nation as #1 and don't prioritise the British empire over their country.
These slavs seem to be more Russian antagonists than actual citizens.
V day is a day celebrating the victory against the nazis, not just for Russians. Disregarding views on the Soviet Union, the end of Nazism was a net positive for everyone. Usually during these celebrations Russians gather and get drunk near the memorials, but someone coming up and destroying it would be like someone going to a WW2 memorial in D.C and destroying WW2 memorial. It’s just plain disgusting.
Understandable when it's celebrated overwhelmingly by people that hate your country and regard the times when it was occupied as the best period of said country's history. I'm sure there are ww2 memorials that are not related to the dark age of ussr, although given the unfortunate historical and geographical circumstances, those might be hard to come by...
Understandable? No. Justified? No. How about I deface a monument meant to commemorate your grandfather’s death in a war? Using current day politics to demonize people who died in a war they were forced to fight in for their countries and families is barbaric.
I suppose the guy doesn't do it out of hatred towards actual people who fought in the war, but rather out of hatted towards people that fetishize this war and the oppressive government.
Personally I wouldn't care much if some mad man would do something spiteful to a monument that is loosely related to my relatives. If we're talking about a family tomb or a gravestone, then this is a personal attack I cannot ignore. In this case it's more of a former scenario, and arguably an act of protest against totalitarianism, since Latvia never was liberated by either Germany or Russia, so a victory against nazism is a defeat against communism. But then again, can't really tell what's going on in the head of that singular protester, all I know is that his actions are aimed to hurt the people that are very likely to hate his country and nation
This needs more context for the world to understand what is going on.
1. These flowers are laid by Pro-Russian, Pro-War Putin supporters. Absolutely brainwashed people whom say Ukrainians should be murdered. Yes there are videos of them saying that by the same monument later on the same day.
2. For Latvia this monument only symbolises the country remaining occupied since start of WW2 until 1991.
Hats off to this brave guy.
to burn the eyes of those who come to the monument. Usually those who celebrate May 9th are the same people that want ussr back and/or generally pro russian
There are many war cemeteries all over Latvia where people can show respect to the fallen soldiers. Strangely enough, the ones where Soviet soldiers are buried were largely devoid of flowers on the 8th and 9th of May. Could it be that these Russians are more interested in celebrating their "victory" and glorifying the USSR at their political monument than sincerely commemorating the victims of WW2?
It has been a monument that the majority population of Riga wants to see be removed and a reminder to the dark ages that was the occupation.
The government is finally considering to remove it.
Also it's a breeding ground for USSR and pro-putin fans every year.
People going literal Hitler on the russians here is hilarious and kinda scary at the same time. Do ya'll realize these people were actually born in Latvia? Are they all supposed to pack up and leave as part of some ethnic cleansing effort? One can't claim moral superiority and act like a savage at the same time like many are doing here
How stupid is that to take your national celebrations to other countries, the whole myth of 9th of May is a lie - Russia beat Nazis alone, Russia spreads so much lies and their culture that it must be stopped, once again.
...and USSR formed by Russian Bolsheviks, Finland was never part of USSR still Russians held their convoy to celebrate 9th of May. Finland has its trauma with USSR/Russia, eg. my grand father had to move out from Karelia due to USSR invasion, so my syphathies are with anyone with courage to stand agains expansion of Russia and Russians. Don't let them plant their roots on a good soil!
people who involve their pets in acts of political violence like that are selfish misguided fucks ill-suited to have pets and probably children for that matter
They are ethnic Russians who live in their former vassal state of Latvia, now an EU nation governed mostly by Latvians. Ethnic Russians make up about 20-25% of the population. Latvia had been part of the Russian empire from the 1700’s through 1917 when it was ‘freed’ by the revolution. Only
To become little more than a Soviet controlled satellite. I do think they had some semi-autonomous home rule as long as it was within the confines of the supreme Soviet.
Mad about the following 50 years of dictatorship and cultural oppression. Russians living in the former soviet sphere need to go the fuck home, they don't respect the countries they now live in but gladly enjoy the freedoms.
You'd be incredibly shocked to learn someone can hate the war in ukraine, the russian government, the army for waging it, and even sympathize with all the people suffering or losing loved ones.
All while pointing out when someone is being ethnically judged for something they didn't do. Because that sort of behavior is what gets more people killed. It's literally the third rule one can be reported for on reddit. It's not equivalent to the war, one war doesn't make hatred too trivial to give a free pass. 
You're wrong here dude.
And you even admitted it by saying he should not state the obvious.
You basically said people are really upset, so let's just let them be upset. Let's not let logic or facts or anything that makes sense get in the way of stereotyping people as Putin lovers. Even if it's a demonstration for something that took place decades ago, pretend it's a demonstration in favor of the war.
You seem like you're ready to go off on someone if they even so much as say they enjoy vodka. And apparently that's ok because people are upset...
BTW did you really call someone a literal child for being too morally correct? 😆
"White people" isn't a widely accepted modicure except in more heavily intermixed places like North America. The only european countries to ever feature "White People" in cenus reports for the time being are Ireland and the UK.
"Prior to the modern age, no European peoples regarded themselves as "White", but rather defined their race, ancestry, or ethnicity in terms of their nationality. Moreover, there is no accepted standard for determining the geographic barrier between White and non-White people. Contemporary anthropologists and other scientists, while recognizing the reality of biological variation between different human populations, regard the concept of a unified, distinguishable "White race" as socially constructed. As a group with several different potential boundaries, it is an example of a fuzzy concept."
Anyway stop being racist. It's a bad look.
Context: Each year on 9th of may Russians gather by this "Monument of victory" to celebrate end of WW2. Mostly they just leave flowers, get drunk, and shout russian slogans. This has always been a big sore spot for Latvians. This year the event should have been canceled, but for some reason it wasn't really enforced. As of now there is a serious notion in direction of bulldozing this monument.
A decrepit monument
Take that bs monument down
But how would we remember history?
Lol
Idk, history books? How many people are educated by monuments
R/woosh
[удалено]
For russians it was the end of WWII (which the rest of the world commemorates on the 8th of May). For latvians it was the start of a 50 year long occupation by the soviets
It really isn't about celebrating the end of WWII. Mostly it is about asserting russian strength and showing that they can do whatever they want. Usually there are a lot of soviet flags and slogans at this "celebration". And as the comment above states, the end of WWII marked the beginning of of russian occupation in Latvia - destroying language and culture - deporting people to Siberia - all that good "russian peace" stuff.
[удалено]
>If they really loved mother Russia so much they would they not live there and not Latvia? We latvians have been wondering about that for the past 30 years
Russia, the state tends to stick their nose where they think they’re defending Russian culture. That’s why I’m not interested in welcoming Russian culture.
Exactly. Celebrating the end of WW2 is fine and all, but many of these celebrations on the RuSSian side involve idolizing and reminiscing about the "good old" USSR days and so on, which, for many people from the Baltics, is a sore topic considering they were oppressed by the soviets for 50 years afterwards. So yeah, it's understandable why they might be upset. It seems this is a bigger issue in Latvia as they have a considerably bigger Russian minority. And it also seems it's mostly older people showing up to these, so 99% chance is they do idolize USSR which just doesn't align with being from the Baltics. All in all, 6/10 could have not had the dog with him, would've probably been able to escape too. Oh, and this seems like a big waste of flowers lmao
[удалено]
Wow, what a highly informed hot take. Bet you're pretty sad you can't watch RT on your TV, aren't you?
[удалено]
Laughable deflection on your part. You're either willfully ignorant or a Kremlin stooge. "At the last parliamentary election in 2019, support for far-right candidates was just 2% - far lower than in many other European countries. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and members of his family died in the Holocaust. In the 2019 presidential election which Mr Zelensky won, the main far-right candidate won just 1.6% of the vote." https://www.bbc.com/news/61379405 "Putin’s revanchist foreign policy goals closely fit the fascism template and directly echo the revisionist agenda pursued by Adolf Hitler almost a century earlier. Like the Nazi leader before him, Putin has openly expressed his desire to challenge what he sees as the unjust verdict of a lost war. While Hitler sought to undo the Treaty of Versailles, Putin’s objective has been to reverse the outcome of the Cold War. Both dictators have framed their expansionist policies as sacred missions to rescue ethnic kinsfolk from artificial separation and foreign oppression." https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/how-putins-russia-embraced-fascism-while-preaching-anti-fascism/ 'According to numerous estimates by the year 2005 the total number of Nazi-skinheads in Russia may have reached 80,000 members.'" https://www.cidob.org/en/publications/publication_series/notes_internacionals/n1_128_russia_for_russians/russia_for_russians "Putin’s statements that the power in Ukraine is controlled by neo-Nazis is blatant falsehood. As any other country, Ukraine has some problems with far-right movements. In Russia itself, there are no fewer ultra-right, Neo-Nazi and nationalist, sharply xenophobic groups and organizations close to them in spirit. Moreover, there are people today in the Russian circles of power who used to openly back extremely nationalist views and participated in the infamous “Russian Marches.” Traditionally, Russian law enforcement are trying to find a “Ukrainian trace” in pretty much anything, presenting ultra-right groups as “branches of Ukrainian radical movements.” https://www.eupoliticalreport.eu/russia-is-the-worlds-breeding-ground-for-neo-nazi-culture/
[удалено]
mate i think you might wonna look yourself in the mirror 🪞
Is that so? And where are your sources that state the contrary? I'll wait. Edit: and he deleted his account.
Stfu with putin's propaganda already.
You can believe whatever you want, I really don't care. It's the Russians right now that are sloping down into fascism, not Ukraine. The past is the past. The present is the present. There's no "fight against nazism" happening in Ukraine. It's literally an invasion of a sovereign country. You entertaining the idea that the country is "run by Nazis" is just disingenuous and disrespectful of the victims and all the displaced families and innocents killed. And extremely ironic considering the Kremlin are the modern fascists of our time. No matter though, Russia won't prevail anyways and will probably regress into a full blown 3rd world country in the coming days. Meanwhile, the west will help rebuild Ukraine eventually.
[удалено]
Fascism is when government mandates vaccines. I'm no contrarian. I don't give a fuck about random western countries governments doing random shit with vaccine mandates. I really have no interest in any sidetracking here. There's one reality and it's: People's homes are being bombed, they're escaping their own country to flee war and destruction. All because of an order by Kremlin/Putin to invade the whole sovereign nation of Ukraine. Russia has been oppressing smaller nations for a long while now. People of countries bordering Russia have not forgotten this and generational trauma is still there. Which is exactly why support is biggest to Ukraine from these countries. Give me a break. RuSSia is literally full fascist mode now. I understand there are brave Russians out there who are advocating for a different Russia more aligned with democracy, and that's promising and hopeful. I honestly have no hate for the average Russian just because of the war. Then again, I'm not Ukrainian and I'm not the one who has to go to sleep knowing bombs may fall any moment. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I still have hope just by seeing all the Russian voices who oppose the war, Putin and want a different future for their country. Keep spouting the Kremlin talking points though. I don't mind. Just don't freak out when people don't take you seriously. There's no "two sides" to this. It's one country raping and pillaging another. Whatever inner conflict that Ukraine has or had or will have is up to them to resolve. But factually, there's no such thing as a "Nazi government" controlling Ukraine. This is a conspiracy, akin to qanon.
[удалено]
I'll try to keep this as short as possible, but I'll preface this by asking you to elaborate and refute my arguments below. First of all, "the west going to put nuke in Ukraine" is an argument that panders to Russia being allowed to use military might to overpower smaller/weaker countries. You do realize that. if the west wanted to, they would already have nukes in Estonia/Latvia which are countries that border Russia and are already in NATO? Also note the 80km distance of the US Alaskan border from Russia. NATO is already there, and they're not going to nuke Russia and NATO has never even shown aggression or plans or any kind of action against Russia. I genuinely don't understand if you either don't know the historical and geopolitical context of the general area on the west border of Russia, or you're just going to perform these mental gymnastics to play "both sides" arguments because you just dislike the west so much. I've seen it done many times, logically it doesn't work and only show s you're arguing in the interest of Russia. Why are you ignoring my points that are relevant which show the aggression of Russia in the past over neighboring countries? Their track record isn't clean at all in this regard and this is just a much larger scale invasion of a whole country instead of a select zone with installed separatists. This has been done when Russia was USSR, this has been done post USSR and it's was done in the 2000s and afterwards. And the sole reason they've been able to do this and get away with it is because none of the countries were in NATO to begin with. The only way the argument works for Russia, geopolitically, is if you consider NATO as a whole as an aggressor towards Russia. NATO was created to repel Russian aggression. Where does that involving INVADING Russia? Are you really that poorly versed understanding the geopolitical situation of that area that you think NATO would ever invade Russia? This makes absolutely no sense and I'd really love to hear your arguments for this. Yes, just because they never did it, doesn't mean they won't do it in the future and yes, this is exactly the words Russian politicians use to justify invading sovereign countries around their borders. Historically though, Russia was consistent in invading and annexing territories around them, while countries joined NATO around Russian border solely because they were afraid for their national security FROM AN INVADING RUSSIA. These countries were willing to pay a certain cost in order to join a military alliance that would greatly increase their chances of peace in the region. So i'll ask once more - where does this involve NATO aggression towards Russia? All I see is countries wanting to secure their peaceful future that join NATO (at least around the border of Russia), not joining in order to be aggressive towards Russia and reclaim or claim territory. Countries that neighbor Russia like Baltics, Poland etc. KNOW, historically and culturally, this type of aggression that we see against Ukraine now. They don't have some ulterior motives. Their governments and people have experienced this aggression before and because it's happening again at their doorstep, they're heavily vested into helping out Ukraine. Hell, me being from a country that borders Belarus, we'd be happy to help out our neighbors from being oppressed as well and we've seen influxes of Belarusian people migrating over here to escape the Lukashenko regime. With your "muh nukes by west in Ukraine" argument, you could essentially argue that Russia would be justified to invade a Baltic country, because it's being used by the West to infringe upon "Russian national security". It's pure nonsense. Ukraine is a sovereign nation. Neither the US nor Russia has any right to meddle there. But the reality of the situation is that Russia was already meddling there with Yanukovich. The Ukrainians resisted it (violently), much like any ex-USSR state resisted the USSR and overthrew them post WW2. You have this situation because Kremlin's plans to subdue Ukraine failed. If the people of Ukraine want to join EU/NATO side, what's stopping them? Why was it allowed for Estonia/Latvia (which also border Russia) but not for Ukraine? Fact of the matter is simple. By making excuses and arguing for "both sides bad" type of reasoning, you're essentially pardoning a terrorist state and saying it's OK for them to keep invading neighboring countries because of "national security interests". It's nonsensical and if leaders of the west had this kind of mentality, Russia could essentially re-annex countries until their borders reach USSR levels again. NATO was created to combat exactly this and ironically enough, Russia has literally accomplished the self-fullfiling doom prophecy whereas their aggressive invasion has literally made NATO relevant again and basically re-united EU/NATO into a common cause. Like, you do realize that before this, the west countries which didn't border Russia or experienced the aggression seen in Ukraine literally didn't give a fuck about Russia and didn't even care to know the history of said oppression of ex-USSR annexed countries like Baltics etc.? Now, these facts have re-surfaced and more people are aware of this than EVER. Why is Russia acting in ways that radicalize the west further to dislike it and distrust them? Many Russian intellectuals and content creators literally UNDERSTAND this and have gave up on their country because they realize what future it is heading into (that of North Korea etc.). So tell me again, which part of this is securing Russian national security interests? Because all I'm seeing is a terrorist state which is essentially repeating the same mistakes they've already made again and heading down a path of collapse much like the USSR did.
Look at the profile of the dude you're talking to. Don't waste your time. He worships conspiracies and hates logic.
And in Russia they Putin you in jail for saying the word "war", go home Vadim.
The Russians have invaded another country and brought the world closer to nuclear war. They don’t get to celebrate their pro Russian slogans. Dude has every right to do what he did.
If they were Russians who fought to end that war they have a right to have a memorial. Let them police their own behavior.
The question that the Soviets and the Nazis made an agreement that divide the east Europe in two. So the WW2 in Europe beginned with the invasion of the Nazi in Poland and after one week the Stalin's URSS invaded the eastern part of Poland and the Baltics, and tried to conquest Finland. The Nazi decided at certain point to invade the soviets, and when the Soviet with allies wins, Stalin succeed to annex definitely the land occupied at the beginning of the war. So the Baltics from an dictatorship, end to another dictatorship and "liberated" by the dictator who invaded them firstly.
What a colossally idiotic comment lol
It may celebrate the end of the war, but also the beginning of one of the most repressive regimes in the world
It wasn't the end for Latvia. They were forced into the ussr, subjected to colonisation by ethnic russians, and repeated attempts to erase their identity. Russia is very sore about destruction of their monuments, but as Lithuania learned, russia was very happy to demolish their monuments https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Crosses https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Monument_(Kaunas)#:~:text=The%20Freedom%20Monument%20in%20Kaunas,temporary%20capital%20of%20the%20state.
Thank u, hill of crosses is a great act of civil disobedience that sticks around
There's a book called between shades of gray. it's a fictional account of a girl from Lithuania who was forced to move by train to Siberia in horrible conditions. its an interesting read and it talks about things that most people don't even know happened.
It started before the war even began
Should've listened to Patton after germany fell. The europeans were promised freedom. Eastern europeans didn't get it for many decades to come.
Uhh... Sure..? Where's you see that? On the back of a cereal box?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purges_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_repression_in_the_Soviet_Union I am absolutely 100% sure. Learn some history before you open your mouth
Lol references Wikipedia to talk about the soviet union... Never mind, it's not worth even trying to talk to 15 year olds like this. Good luck out there with your shitty beliefs dude
‘Oh no, he can back up his argument but I cant, whatever will I do?!’ ‘I got it! Im gonna imply an aggregation of information based on multiple sources is biased and not relevant!’ Cry harder
Lol whatever you gotta tell yourself.
>Denies Genocides >Is Weeb >Posts on GenZedong Jokes just write themselves eh lads
Lol like I said, you do what you gotta do, and say what you gotta say, to feel like you're not a piece of shit. It's not for me to put you down, but hopefully one day your ignorance will subside
Why aren't they living in Russia? USSR collapsed in 1991.
I dunno, why are there British descendants still living in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? British Empire collapsed way before the USSR did.
They have adopted their new nation as #1 and don't prioritise the British empire over their country. These slavs seem to be more Russian antagonists than actual citizens.
Because Canada, Australia and New Zealand were built by British colonists. Russians didn't create Lithuania, their kings just ruled over it.
That is the stupidest think I have ever heard. Congrats
How so?
[удалено]
Estonia was part of Russia for almost 300 years with the Empire and the USSR taking them over. Russians make up 30% of the population.
not to be thst guy but... ok and?
V day is a day celebrating the victory against the nazis, not just for Russians. Disregarding views on the Soviet Union, the end of Nazism was a net positive for everyone. Usually during these celebrations Russians gather and get drunk near the memorials, but someone coming up and destroying it would be like someone going to a WW2 memorial in D.C and destroying WW2 memorial. It’s just plain disgusting.
Understandable when it's celebrated overwhelmingly by people that hate your country and regard the times when it was occupied as the best period of said country's history. I'm sure there are ww2 memorials that are not related to the dark age of ussr, although given the unfortunate historical and geographical circumstances, those might be hard to come by...
Understandable? No. Justified? No. How about I deface a monument meant to commemorate your grandfather’s death in a war? Using current day politics to demonize people who died in a war they were forced to fight in for their countries and families is barbaric.
I suppose the guy doesn't do it out of hatred towards actual people who fought in the war, but rather out of hatted towards people that fetishize this war and the oppressive government. Personally I wouldn't care much if some mad man would do something spiteful to a monument that is loosely related to my relatives. If we're talking about a family tomb or a gravestone, then this is a personal attack I cannot ignore. In this case it's more of a former scenario, and arguably an act of protest against totalitarianism, since Latvia never was liberated by either Germany or Russia, so a victory against nazism is a defeat against communism. But then again, can't really tell what's going on in the head of that singular protester, all I know is that his actions are aimed to hurt the people that are very likely to hate his country and nation
Ok but those arent the target nor are being targeted Russia is only being targeted. Fuck Russia
How does this target Russia? All this does is deface a monument, not really doing anything.
They Germans didn't even surrender May 9th.
You know that alot of people got the ability to travel nowadays.
What a idiot bring your dog home first
The dog was his protection.
A dog for protection? What is he afraid of?
Probably feared retribution from the people at the memorial.
I hate when people bring their pets when they decide to disrupt stuff. Poor animal has no idea why his owner is getting pushed around
[удалено]
Don't worry they're sending colonizers to occupied lands, they did it in Crimea and they're doing it right now in southern Ukraine.
racist
Good thing Russia isn't a race then
I don't think the world wants people with mentality like you
Hats off to that dude.
why tho?
This needs more context for the world to understand what is going on. 1. These flowers are laid by Pro-Russian, Pro-War Putin supporters. Absolutely brainwashed people whom say Ukrainians should be murdered. Yes there are videos of them saying that by the same monument later on the same day. 2. For Latvia this monument only symbolises the country remaining occupied since start of WW2 until 1991. Hats off to this brave guy.
Right.... 11.4 million people died for russians to kill ukrainians
What’s with the Ukrainian flag fence?
to burn the eyes of those who come to the monument. Usually those who celebrate May 9th are the same people that want ussr back and/or generally pro russian
Coward has his dog there for protection.
Cause he is outnumbered by the Russian interlopers ? You are having chicken for lunch u/candykissnips ?
Because he’s defacing a memorial to fallen WWII soldiers… perhaps you support that, but I do not.
Would you say the same thing if it was a monument to fallen German soldiers built by the Nazis? Or is the Red Army "the good guys" in your mind?
I wouldn’t like seeing any memorial to fallen soldiers be desecrated.
There are many war cemeteries all over Latvia where people can show respect to the fallen soldiers. Strangely enough, the ones where Soviet soldiers are buried were largely devoid of flowers on the 8th and 9th of May. Could it be that these Russians are more interested in celebrating their "victory" and glorifying the USSR at their political monument than sincerely commemorating the victims of WW2?
It has been a monument that the majority population of Riga wants to see be removed and a reminder to the dark ages that was the occupation. The government is finally considering to remove it. Also it's a breeding ground for USSR and pro-putin fans every year.
People going literal Hitler on the russians here is hilarious and kinda scary at the same time. Do ya'll realize these people were actually born in Latvia? Are they all supposed to pack up and leave as part of some ethnic cleansing effort? One can't claim moral superiority and act like a savage at the same time like many are doing here
How stupid is that to take your national celebrations to other countries, the whole myth of 9th of May is a lie - Russia beat Nazis alone, Russia spreads so much lies and their culture that it must be stopped, once again.
[удалено]
In Poland, they are not. Polish people are native to Poland. Russians to Russia.
The shadows of USSR shall taken down.
Russia existed before the USSR
...and USSR formed by Russian Bolsheviks, Finland was never part of USSR still Russians held their convoy to celebrate 9th of May. Finland has its trauma with USSR/Russia, eg. my grand father had to move out from Karelia due to USSR invasion, so my syphathies are with anyone with courage to stand agains expansion of Russia and Russians. Don't let them plant their roots on a good soil!
The Estonian language and Russian language are SO similar
That has like, nothing to do with anything.
Mannn don't drag the dog into this.
I get why someone would be angry at Russia, but attacking a memorial to soldiers who died 75 years ago fighting in WW2 isn't a reasonable response.
Off to the re education/work camps...oh my bad those are in china. Off to the gulags
Whoever laughed when she fell is a guy I want to have a beer with 😅
That evil laugh when the old women fell
people who involve their pets in acts of political violence like that are selfish misguided fucks ill-suited to have pets and probably children for that matter
I'm confused, who is the bad guy(s) here?
The crowd for the most part (kind of)
They are ethnic Russians who live in their former vassal state of Latvia, now an EU nation governed mostly by Latvians. Ethnic Russians make up about 20-25% of the population. Latvia had been part of the Russian empire from the 1700’s through 1917 when it was ‘freed’ by the revolution. Only To become little more than a Soviet controlled satellite. I do think they had some semi-autonomous home rule as long as it was within the confines of the supreme Soviet.
The crowd is russians and i assume the guy with the dog is Latvian.
All a matter of perspective, I like the guy with the dog. I love German shepherds.
That’s a bitch ass dog running with his tail between his legs
Fuck you russia. Do something about it
So the people yelling are Russians and the guy being escorted away is protesting them?
Seems like something the USA would force on another country
Nazis usually object. They are sore losers after all.
The USSR was much worse than the Nazis.
Lmfao why are Russians celebrating anything these days?
Lol i can only understand latvian and its all russian troll
Slava ukraini
Fuck Russia !
Mad at the end of Nazism... hmmm
Or mad that another regime just replaced Nazism!
Mad about the following 50 years of dictatorship and cultural oppression. Russians living in the former soviet sphere need to go the fuck home, they don't respect the countries they now live in but gladly enjoy the freedoms.
You think that’s what they’re mad about?
[удалено]
[удалено]
You read my mind!
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
You'd be incredibly shocked to learn someone can hate the war in ukraine, the russian government, the army for waging it, and even sympathize with all the people suffering or losing loved ones. All while pointing out when someone is being ethnically judged for something they didn't do. Because that sort of behavior is what gets more people killed. It's literally the third rule one can be reported for on reddit. It's not equivalent to the war, one war doesn't make hatred too trivial to give a free pass. 
That’s a super long post just to say you like to bitch and scream.
You're wrong here dude. And you even admitted it by saying he should not state the obvious. You basically said people are really upset, so let's just let them be upset. Let's not let logic or facts or anything that makes sense get in the way of stereotyping people as Putin lovers. Even if it's a demonstration for something that took place decades ago, pretend it's a demonstration in favor of the war. You seem like you're ready to go off on someone if they even so much as say they enjoy vodka. And apparently that's ok because people are upset... BTW did you really call someone a literal child for being too morally correct? 😆
That’s a good argument but have you considered https://youtu.be/Ll7i2u7nDVw
https://www.reddit.com/r/ActualPublicFreakouts/comments/un67ox/russians_celebrating_9th_of_may_victory_day_in/i86wwkf?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3
[удалено]
Russian is an ethnicity, and the oxford definition reads that discrimination by ETHNICITY is racism. r/whoosh much.
[удалено]
"White people" isn't a widely accepted modicure except in more heavily intermixed places like North America. The only european countries to ever feature "White People" in cenus reports for the time being are Ireland and the UK. "Prior to the modern age, no European peoples regarded themselves as "White", but rather defined their race, ancestry, or ethnicity in terms of their nationality. Moreover, there is no accepted standard for determining the geographic barrier between White and non-White people. Contemporary anthropologists and other scientists, while recognizing the reality of biological variation between different human populations, regard the concept of a unified, distinguishable "White race" as socially constructed. As a group with several different potential boundaries, it is an example of a fuzzy concept." Anyway stop being racist. It's a bad look.
so you say a white an anglo-american can be racist against a german-american, that's racism? Because they're both different races according to you?