Posted on 10/03/2022 6:22:16 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
Referendum participants reported being forced to “vote” at gunpoint by armed “election officials” who could see exactly which boxes were being ticked off on ballots. Human Rights Watch reported that local Ukrainians were fearful that voting against annexation would lead to reprisals, such as having one’s house demolished.
This isn’t the first time Russia has used voter intimidation to fabricate a “correct” referendum result... Polish journalist Pieniazek corroborated international allegations of widespread voter intimidation and fraud, recounting them in detail in his book, Greetings from Novorossiya.
The EU and NATO condemned Russia’s annexation, as have other major powers such as Japan and Turkey, but the United Nations Security Council failed to follow suit as Russia vetoed an anti-annexation resolution. Notably, China and India abstained from voting on that resolution, remaining strategically neutral on the war — though not ideal, ongoing neutrality is an acceptable compromise as Russia will crumble without powerful allies....
[Putin] then accused Kyiv of intimidating millions of referendum participants with violence and death, a claim which there is no evidence for and which doesn’t make sense anyways. Kyiv has little influence in lands occupied by foreign soldiers, and survivors of occupation routinely testify to Russians using wanton harassment and torture to impose near-total control over society.
Putin positioned Russia as an “anti-colonial” leader resisting the hegemony of a “Satanic” and “despotic” west — an ironic claim for a leader who is, at this very moment, colonizing lands where he is overwhelmingly despised....
The day after the speech, Ukraine managed to encircle and capture Lyman, a strategic town in Donetsk, showing that annexation is no shield against the Ukrainian advance. Ukrainian officials claim that Putin delayed evacuating the town in order to avoid an embarrassing snafu just before the annexation announcement — allegedly, this cost Russia 1,500 soldiers....
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
You got that right !
Yep.
How do you do that and still give Ukraine their territory back?
I'm fine with a face saving gesture to obtain peace. But no way should we reward Putin with any land. And Russia should pay reparations too.
And that all the Huffington Post article is being regurgitated now describing how limited nuclear exchange would be good for global warming
I love the name Theophilous Meatyard III.
The article is wrong.
Putin as already been humiliated multiple times this year
In March when his plan to capture Kyiv failed and Russian troops fled the north
In April when the Moskva was sunk
In July when he was snubbed by Erdogan.
In August when he lost areas east of kharkiv.
In September when Erdogan plus the leaders of Kazakhstan etc snubbed him.
He is just adding to his embarrassment
Not all 9f the territories were pro Putin. Definitely not Kherson or Zaporizhzhia
It is not patriotism to fight a war for a dictators ego.
No one is invading Russia.
I wonder what percent of Freepers are Ukrainiacs, and what percent are reading reports based upon reality. Seems like Ukrainiacs are in the majority. Whatever happened to FR of days of old?
Pretty much no-one likes Putin. Only 6% in the US say they have confidence in Putin.
Those few sometimes act like there is a lot of them online.
Who is we?
Search for the 'Show of hands' thread and you will see that the 7% is an extreme loud mouth minority. Watch the uke threads and you will notice the same 10-12 posters ranting and raving. The vast majority of their postings are 100% propaganda. It should come as no surprise that a certain percentage of US are complete nutjobs. They are neocons. They are relics. They are democrats.
Thanks for the explanation - it rings true. It’s not that there should be groupthink here, but that we at the minimum reject mainstream narrative.
Zaporizhzhia Oblast, which is incredibly important to Russia’s long term strategic aims, was NOT mostly Russian sympathetic prior to Pooty blasting its cities to rubble and millions fleeing. Check the last census the Soviets took, if you don’t believe the later Ukie census(pl.).
Without Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Kherson is not tenable either.
Nor is there any guarantee that a real hardliner would not take over from Putin. In fact, if Pooty had died from natural causes in 2021, it’s fairly certain Russia invades Ukraine anyway. The signals from the USA were far more a “go now” factor than Russian leaderships’ goals in general. They merely bided their time for an opportunity (as PDJT correctly analyzed, but described such that the MSM could pounce on him.)
Then later, how do you retake the lands from leadership who can still cite their “victory” to gain popular support, and who are probably just as willing to use the (now proved successful) “nukes to defend “our” land” blackmail as Putin is?
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