Ukraine question

States under Putin is the most #based answer here, but this will require careful thought and intelligent debate!

The USkrainian crisis.

the states under biden, but as an undercover FSB operative getting a huge salary to do stuff like taking covert photos of horrible cheese in a Walmart

lol yeah feel like I should point out I meant that literally - I think I, poster daniel_rf, would have an easier time of it in the US under Biden than in Russia under Putin. No claims to universality!

a thoughtful poster, a good poster, have always said it

be good if the world was like lecarre and you could only live in a country while nefariously serving another

cough

oof

That makes two of us.

Needs ranked preference voting, imo.

have lobbied for it for years

ofc in the background i was also sabotaging any possibility of same

voted Putin gets a DUI and has to coach us as part of his court ordered community service

now wondering if Putin’s work would be better or worse if he was US President, would he go full Instagram face or what

I'm just trying to imagine what US Putin's favourite music of the year spotify playlist would be like

lol re-imagining Putin as a US hipster lib is quite amusing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV4IjHz2yIo

I like living in the US and I dislike Putin more than I dislike Biden.

If Putin dates one of our single moms, he'll put that bottle down.

Russia under Biden is a fun exercise too - my hunch is he wouldn't survive five minutes, but others prob have better informed takes.

Brezhnev to be fair gives major Biden vibes and managed to hold on to the Soviet Union for a long time but modern Russia's a different game.

you could get away with being an unhealthy chainsmoking pisshead General Secretary in the SU days. I think that tradition finished with Yeltsin

Putin in the US runs into the same problem as all other US presidents - institutional inertia. His ability to get anything done would be enormously limited.

Biden in Russia is the worst of the scenarios. Their prior experience of being led by a confused old man who doesn’t know where he is was a disaster.

Was going to say, you could probably get away with being asleep at the wheel/drunk and circling the literal airport in pretty much any country as long as you were giving away public assets to the ruling class at knockdown prices.

its a proven approach

i lived in russia for a spell 10ish years ago and the one thing i miss about it is the near-universal acceptance of public intoxication

there are plenty of other countries who etc

They won't cut you off at the Universal City Bubba Gump. You paid $40 just to park there.

For reasons having to do with personal convenience, one being my not speaking Russian, another being all my family living near me, I would prefer to live where I do, which happens to be in the USA.

As for the choice given between Biden and Putin as head of state, it's hard to decipher. Temperamentally, Putin is not well suited to the job of POTUS so much as the job of all-powerful dictator and he'd certainly do all he could to convert the office into that. I can't say how much better he'd be at that than Trump, but a better Trump than Trump isn't quite what I want, so... Biden it is.

I'm voting Russia under Biden, tbh. Love the cold, love vodka, would rather not be arrested for being queer.

^ this is imo the spirit in which id like pll to answer ty

If I had the opportunity to travel abroad I'd much rather do a Russian tour. Mainly for the Soviet and Tsarist architecture, the booze, the climate and the culture. I just find it a far more deeply fascinating place than the US.

ok what the fuck is happening in the ukraine thread?

xp have been to Kyiv, Odessa, Moscow and St Petersburg and would visit them all again plus Kazan - strongly recommend. Ukraine is easier to visit cos you don’t need a visa (or didn’t, idk if they reinstated that cos of covid), but Russia well worth the hassle. Can’t comment on America…yet.

lol at everyone that's cited Russia's weather as a pro, where do y'all live, Saudi Arabia?

lol. my first visit to st petersburg was in february and it was great bc everybody assumed i was local because nobody could imagine that anyone would visit in february on purpose. (i have lake erie ice in my veins so i didnt mind.)

The first time I was in St Petersburg, it was -8c and I got the side of my leg freeze-burned (idk? I’m from Ireland, we don’t do weather), and I’m pretty sure it gave me permanent nerve damage because it still tingles on that part whenever it’s cold. Would I go again? I did, you could go a million times and not see everything in the Hermitage.

Or you could just watch "Russian Ark" twice.

Sadly the US has no cinematic portrayals of note.

Or museums, for that matter.

Along the canals in St. Petersburg in February is cold like no other place I’ve been. Marvellous city, though.

Moscow is something else entirely, a giant tank of a city. But quite impressive, beautiful in parts, and I’ve always wanted to go back.

Odessa is amazing. Such a rich place.

Part of me really wants to see bare-chested Putin wowing MILFs in Cedar Rapids but part of me wants to not be poisoned for being a reporter. (Tho tbf being poisoned by state intelligence services is a rad way to go, bonus martyr points.)

Odessa is great, and a lot milder in winter than any of the other places I mentioned.

xpost What if you were only disfigured?

(briefly - thank goodness - misread that as "Putin plowing MILFs in Cedar Rapids.")

shoot, i mentioned this on the what the hek is going on in ukraine thread, where it seemed most appropriate, but i will also state for the record here that my preference is putin where putin lives, so putin in russia. he rides a shirt with no horse and is a strong secret agent

https://i.redd.it/ml17cuu6q4631.jpg

now listen this was not strictly speaking a US vs Russis t/s thread

but it is still better than the "if russia invades ukraine what would that mean for my amazon prime delivery timelines" thread

oh shit is Putin invading the Amazon, too?!

Bezos invaded the Netherlands

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Tucker: It may be worth asking yourself… why do I hate Putin.. Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? pic.twitter.com/0jlXfS0PYy

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 23, 2022

proud to be one of the two putin/russia votes here, along with my good friend tucker carlson who is just asking questions here

I realize Tucker's entire shtick is saying incredibly dumb shit but that really did make my jaw hit the floor