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Come Back with a Washing Machine
Polish Anti-War Activists staged a protest outside the Russian Embassy in Warsaw. Russian soldiers have been looting household appliances in Ukraine. They are doing more than that. Rape appears to be in the Russian arsenal as well as execution-style killings of civilians, and targeting hospitals, residences, and schools. Photo from Radio Free Europe:
Published in Culture
An illustrated placard with the words “Come back with a washing machine,” humorously alluding to alleged looting by Russian troops in Ukraine.
Not exactly the Sparta women’s admonishment to their men: “come back with your shield-or on it” but probably closer to the truth in Russia.
The latest video from the 1420 channel has a question posed to Russian men on the streets of Moscow: “Would you rape [a] Ukrainian woman?”
Nobody said yes, but there was a variety of responses to the question. It does give clues as to what kind of information is getting through to Russia. Another question was asked at the end about a story in a British newspaper about British men offering their beds to Ukrainian woman refugees.
One thing that was a little different about this particular 1420 video was the number of respondents who weren’t afraid to use the word “war” in their response, instead of “special military operation.” There is always somebody who calls it a war, even though he/she can get in trouble for using that word. But this time that word was used a lot. (It could of course be a matter of sampling bias. Best not to draw premature conclusions.)
“Come back with a washing machine or in it” just doesn’t have quite the same catchy ring to it, although I’m sure one could work “Molon labe” into this.
There’s no way we can know what is the truth over there. Both the Ukraine and the Russians are fully engaged in heavy propaganda and that includes a lot of lying.
It’s too bad j-urinalists aren’t asking that question of Russian soldiers in the Ukraine.
Considering many of the Russians soldiers would probably lie too, what would be the value in asking them?
Its nice confession by projection.
Apparently Ukrainians think Russians are so poor that they would use their precious military logistics to haul away appliances back home. Cause they dont have any. Russia is a major world power, they dont need to go to Ukraine and steal their cheap electronics and washing machines.
Its pretty much a joke, to anyone who knows anything about whats really going on in this conflict.
I think its pretty sad that people on Ricochet are so ignorant to think this is true. So blinded by sheer ignorant bigotry that they are willing to believe any nonsense that they are told about the enemy.
Reminds me of all those who bought the covid fearmongering.
Here is a link to an ex Navy Seal who is currently in Mariupul. He is bringing back footage and interviews from the people in the city. I can guarantee that he would never be allowed on Radio Free Europe though.
If you got any guts to watch and listen to these people and their stories. Watch it.
https://youtu.be/zlokJAUKhFE
We still don’t know what is true. How do you even know this guy is a SEAL?
You won’t know if you don’t try. Everybody lies and uses propaganda in every war. That doesn’t mean we can’t find out enough of the truth to know what to do.
Just saying, “everbody is lying” is a copout. It’s like saying, “the sky is blue, so I don’t know what to believe.” Sure, you do. Maybe not about every last item, but you know enough.
Not in the poor rural areas, no. Russia produces washing machines under license from other companies, but they’re sold to Eastern European markets and the urban centers. The vatniki who signed up to get out of Mudgrad probably don’t have a nice new LG in the house. Hence, perhaps, the pictures of bombed-out Russian transports with charred remains of washing machines. Which, of course, could be totally photoshopped.
They’re a world power because they have nukes and gas; this does not translate to general consumer prosperity.
Well, in the interest of full-spectrum discourse, it’s good that the Russian soldiers have someone to plead their case.
I detect widespread Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect on this thread. “The corporate press lies about subjects concerning which I think I have some esoteric knowledge but is totally reliable otherwise, especially if it reinforces my prejudices.” There’s also a fair amount of Cold War nostalgia, topped with a dollop of ignorance about the region’s history.
”We had to destroy Ukraine to save it.”
It’s not a cop out. I’m saying that we can’t trust the media. We can’t trust the Russians. We can’t trust the Ukrainians. Until there is a resolution to this, I won’t even say we know that the Ukraine has even been invaded, though it does seem likely and my wife has Ukrainian friends who seem to indicate at least that much is true. We are lied to constantly nowadays by the press. The truth is that the Ukraine has no significance to our lives unless this purported war expands. Until it does, it’s mostly just interesting and not too important.
This.
With that last action, the credibility of the Ukrainian claim goes way up.
Never would happen-umpossible:
The Red Army comprehensively looted East Germany in 1945, including taking train loads of basic consumer goods like furniture and wristwatches back to the Soviet Union. License to loot and rape is basically the generous benefits package offered to Russia’s common soldiery to make up for the abysmally low salaries and poor service conditions.
And it was encouraged at the highest levels- supposedly Stalin pointed at Silesia on a map in 1945 and said “gold” b/c of all the valuable industry that could be carted off- as “reparations” altho it was then made part of Poland after Stalin had it looted- so he was looting an Allie.
Poland was a Soviet ally in name only, but really just another Soviet colony to be plundered.
I must admit that I was a bit surprised to see that a washing machine was worth carrying back to Russia. Russia does have a pretty high level of consumer prosperity, or did before the sanctions. It’s not like in the Soviet days. Of course, my view of prosperity comes from movies, advertising of consumer goods on Russian TV, cruising the streets of Russian cities in Google Streetview, looking at the store fronts and the advertising billboards, and from all of the Russian video bloggers who go shopping in Russian stores.
Of course, once you get out of the largest urban centers nobody would mistake the country for the U.S. or western Europe. My wife and I have watched some of the bloggers in Ukraine and Russia raise their personal standards of living significantly off of a few years of YouTube and Patreon revenue, which tells you something in itself, because video bloggers in the U.S. with similar followings can barely get by if they try to live off of that revenue.
The general run of Russian soldiers might not represent Russia as a whole, though. It seems that draft evasion is high among the types of people we watch on YouTube. They are from a different socio-economic class. And the villages definitely don’t have as high a standard of living. Most of the villages don’t have people of child-bearing (soldier-making) age, but there are other ways and places to be poor in russia.
So in summary, I don’t think a washing machine would be quite the prize for most Russians as it was for a few of the young men in the army, but after reflection I am also not too surprised that it’s worth looting for some of those people.
All the better, more portable stuff gets looted first. Someone else got the TV sets.
Yeah, we should know that from all the antifa looting.
If Ukraine has Nike stores they’re REALLY in trouble!
Gell-Mann Amnesia and reinforces my prejudices are actually opposed effects. If you say the reporting is bad, most likely you are saying it because it disagrees with your preferences and experience. For example, I know the corporate media does not know anything about most scientific topics, but there is usually something behind the story if you do any digging. If there is a report that Russian gas producers were funding Green movements in the EU, do I believe it because I actually think it is valid or because of my view that Greens are corrupt watermelons? Should I refuse to believe it based on the source even it is normally believable?
It’s not like your sources are necessarily better.
One of my friends who visited Russia described the poverty away from the cities as pretty severe. Imagine if we conscripted people from Appalachia or urban ghettos, gave them some less than effective training (I heard this before it was a media issue), and sent them into a combat zone.
Probably not great, although I suspect most people in Appalachia (and/or urban ghettos, for that matter) already have some experience with guns.
I visited Russia, it’s been a while but I would be very surprised if the rural areas have made great strides in improving their living standards.
Just guessing that some of those journalists are adverse to having a bayonet up their a&&.
Seems like the Baghdad Bureau of CNN had the same kind of problem…