Why is Russia such a cesspool?

[thaibeachlovers]

54 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

Ukraine is an economically underdeveloped country striving to develop through honest, hard work, due to lack of natural resources.

due to lack of natural resources.

 

Are you for real? I don't know why you claim such untrue things given the reality is so easily found.

 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Resources-and-power

Ukraine has extremely rich and complementary mineral resources in high concentrations and close proximity to each other.

 

Not forgetting the wheat they grow in huge amounts.

 

IMO it's far more likely that the thing holding Ukraine back is it's world famous corruption.

[thaibeachlovers]

46 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

I agree. But American scientific development went beyond military uses, and newly developed technologies, even when originally commissioned by the military, found their way to civil applications.

This in Russia never happened. The only goal of scientific and technological research in Russia was (and is) to produce weapons of mass destruction. Nothing else counts.

Irrelevant to the point you made in the OP.

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

42 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

Pitty that Russian literature and music did not contribute to raise the mental state of millions upon millions of Russians, in Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia and nowadays Putin's Russia. 

Russians to whom is impeded to participate to the wellbeing share by the rest of humanity by their own rulers.

You are deflecting.

 

Your question was "Can you name a single Russian innovation that is contributing to the well-being of humanity as a whole?" 

 

It was not "Can you name a single Russian innovation that is contributing to the well-being of Russians?"

[KhunLA]

German isn't the spoken language of the EU, there's that to be grateful for.

[gargamon]

Autocracies seldom come up with anything. These days even China only steals and copies tech from other capitalistic democracies.

 

America's future if Trump gets elected.

[AndreasHG]

32 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

You are deflecting.

Simply put, I am not.

 

In the West it is customary to differentiate between innovation and intellectual work.

Works of authorship (music, literature, cinema - e.g. Sergei Eisenstein - painting - e.g. Wassily Kandinsky - etc.) are protected by copyrights.

Innovations are protected by patents, trademarks and trade secrets.

 

According to the US Copyright Office: "Copyright protects original works of authorship, while a patent protects inventions or discoveries. Ideas and discoveries are not protected by the copyright law, although the way in which they are expressed may be".

Therefore, music and literature do not qualify as innovations.

 

[kwonitoy]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That goes both ways.

Can you inform us of the great inventions or discoveries, which radically changed the humankind way of living, in the 19th, 20th and 21st century, which originated in Ukraine?

 

https://mind.ua/en/publications/20256112-well-and-little-known-inventions-by-ukrainians

 

https://www.welcometoukraine.info/15-ukrainian-inventions-that-changed-the-world/

[AndreasHG]

28 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

German isn't the spoken language of the EU, there's that to be grateful for.

 

In my post, I paid tribute to the cannon fodder Russia supplied in great quantities, which was key to the defeat of Napoleon and of the duo Hitler/Mussolini.

 

[AndreasHG]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

due to lack of natural resources.

 

Are you for real? I don't know why you claim such untrue things given the reality is so easily found.

 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Resources-and-power

Ukraine has extremely rich and complementary mineral resources in high concentrations and close proximity to each other.

 

Not forgetting the wheat they grow in huge amounts.

 

IMO it's far more likely that the thing holding Ukraine back is it's world famous corruption.

 

Let me ask you the same question: are you for real?

 

It is evident that Ukraine lacks natural resources in comparison to Russia. What else? 

 

With regards to corruption, there is evidence that the Russian corruption is much, much worse than the Ukranian one. 

The Russian army poor performance is proof that the Russian military budget has been ransacked and syphoned.

Misappropriated by Putin and his acolytes, the Russian military budget has been massively converted into the luxury items, the shining boats moored in Cyprus, and the prestigious properties in the most elegant areas of London, for which Russian oligarchs and siloviki (Rus: силовики) are worldwide famous.

The Ukrainian army, despite a much smaller budget, but allocated much more effectively and efficiently, has been able to hold its ground.

 

[Lacessit]

9 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

 

Let me ask you the same question: are you for real?

 

It is evident that Ukraine lacks natural resources in comparison to Russia. What else? 

 

With regards to corruption, there is evidence that the Russian corruption is much, much worse than the Ukranian one. 

The Russian army poor performance is proof that the Russian military budget has been ransacked and syphoned.

Misappropriated by Putin and his acolytes, the Russian military budget has been massively converted into the luxury items, the shining boats moored in Cyprus, and the prestigious properties in the most elegant areas of London, for which Russian oligarchs and siloviki (Rus: силовики) are worldwide famous.

The Ukrainian army, despite a much smaller budget, but allocated much more effectively and efficiently, has been able to hold its ground.

 

Ukraine hosts one quarter of the world's chernozems, the black earth that is more productive of any crop than any other soil on the planet.

 

It's estimated Shoigu has siphoned off one-third of the Russian military budget all by himself.

 

When an army has officers selling tanks, it's got problems.

[thaibeachlovers]

23 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

 

Let me ask you the same question: are you for real?

 

It is evident that Ukraine lacks natural resources in comparison to Russia. What else? 

 

With regards to corruption, there is evidence that the Russian corruption is much, much worse than the Ukranian one. 

The Russian army poor performance is proof that the Russian military budget has been ransacked and syphoned.

Misappropriated by Putin and his acolytes, the Russian military budget has been massively converted into the luxury items, the shining boats moored in Cyprus, and the prestigious properties in the most elegant areas of London, for which Russian oligarchs and siloviki (Rus: силовики) are worldwide famous.

The Ukrainian army, despite a much smaller budget, but allocated much more effectively and efficiently, has been able to hold its ground.

 

Soooooo, you are no longer claiming that Ukraine lacks natural resources, just less than Russia, and you admit that Ukraine has corruption.

 

Thank you.

[beautifulthailand99]

9 hours ago, AndreasHG said:

I assume you grew up reading the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (GSE; Russian: Больша́я сове́тская энциклопе́дия). Unfortunately, like anything published in Soviet (and nowadays) Russia, it's full of disinformation (Russian: дезинформация).

Yours is a long list leading to nothing worth noticing, really:

1. Sikorsky did not invent the helicopter (see Wikipedia for more info). And to manufacture his first helicopter he had to move to the USA.

2. Popov invented the radio only in according to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. In the real world (see Wikipedia for more info).

3. Rocketry: Russians did not invented rocketry. They took advantage of German progresses in the field and progressed starting from there. Arms of mass destruction is where Russia excels. 

4. Tanks were not invented in Russia (see Wikipedia for more info).

5. Periodic table of the elements: discussed in a previous comment (see above).

6. Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov discovered the C vitamin only according to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia and nothing else (see Wikipedia for more info).

7. Stem Cells were not discovered nor isolated for the first time by Russians (see Wikipedia for more info).

8. Albeit the machine gun was not invented in Russia, the AK-47 is indeed a widely used assault rifle designed by the Russian Mikhail Kalashnikov. Weaponry of mass destruction is the only technological field in which Russia has ever produced anything worth noticing.

10. Tsar Bomba: another example of Russian weaponry of mass destruction.

9. Matryoshka Dolls: finally, a genuine example of Russian ingenuity and inventiveness. The only one on your list.

 

That was Google Gemini AI I suggest you take it up with them !

[beautifulthailand99]

This thread is sort of pointless - you have an agenda for sure but attempting to discredit a whole country for the whole of their history isn't really on. Last time I looked Thailand had only invented Som Tam but I assume you live there. You would be better off helping the Ukarainian supporters on the war threads and attacking Putin not the country.Also if we accept that catastrophic climate change is coming down the tracks at a rate of knots the most technologically advanced share the majority of the blame - so backwards Russia is  less to blame that good old Uncle Sam who uses about  25% of the world's resources with 5% of the world's population.

 

[AndreasHG]

1 hour ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

This thread is sort of pointless - you have an agenda for sure but attempting to discredit a whole country for the whole of their history isn't really on. Last time I looked Thailand had only invented Som Tam but I assume you live there. You would be better off helping the Ukarainian supporters on the war threads and attacking Putin not the country.Also if we accept that catastrophic climate change is coming down the tracks at a rate of knots the most technologically advanced share the majority of the blame - so backwards Russia is  less to blame that good old Uncle Sam who uses about  25% of the world's resources with 5% of the world's population.

 

I have no agenda. But there are two points I want to make:

 

1. Throughout its whole history as an independent country, Russia has been trying to punch well above its real weight. 

This attitude, Russia's willingness to act as a great power (and Russian people's widespread support of it) while not having the means to support this role, caused and it is still causing terrible sufferings to millions of people, starting from the Russians themselves.

 

2. Russia does not value human life as it should. Russians mesure their greatness only by the size of the land and the quantity of natural resources they control. This attitude is typical of backward societies, which economies are based on extraction, farming or nomadic herding (not on industrial production or services).

The idea that, at present, the wealth of a nation relies upon the inventiveness and entrepreneurship of its citizens, and on an environment that fosters investments and promotes the rule of law is alien to Russians.

This is evident by Russia substantial lack of innovations, large corporations (besides those involved in mining, energy, oil and related areas) and of any meaningful export beyond weaponry, commodities, raw materials and natural resources.

Russian true innovators or entrepreneurs either emigrate or, sooner or later, close shop.

 

This attitude has very tangible consequences on the Russian society and on its neighbors. We could see this state of mind in action during the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.

Slovenia and to some extent Croatia, the most advanced regions in the north, separated from Belgrade in a relatively bloodless way (especially Slovenia). Their industrial and service-oriented economies made interethnic fights counterproductive for all ethnic groups living side by side.

The opposite was true in the central and southern regions of Yugoslavia, which economies were mostly based on farming. In those regions ethnic cleansing and genocide were much more appealing. Once a specific ethnic group was exterminated, its land could immediately become available to the members of the surviving ethnic groups. And indeed they indulged in ethnic cleansing and genocide!

 

What we saw, with the Dissolution of Yugoslavia, is possibly the last Medieval war aimed at land grabbing. Before Russia started its criminal war against Ukraine, of course.

 

 

[save the frogs]

Russia is rolling out a new "anti-woke" visa for westerners who want to escape woke culture.

Shared Values Visa

 

 

 

[AlexRich]

Services to the prostitution industry?

[teacherofwoe]

21 hours ago, AndreasHG said:

 

Rockets. Indeed: Russia sent the first dog in space, and the first man. But they perfected German V1s and V2s with the help of German scientists after WWII. But the rockets were not invented in Russia.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Operation+Paperclip&gs_ivs=1#tts=0

https://www.nasa.gov/people/wernher-von-braun/#:~:text=For 15 years after World,installed at Fort Bliss%2C Texas.

Quote: By late 1944, it was obvious to von Braun that Germany would be defeated and occupied, and he began planning for the postwar era. Before the Allied capture of the V–2 rocket complex, von Braun was sent south, eventually to Bavaria. He surrendered to the Americans in the Austrian Alps, along with other key team leaders. For 15 years after World War II, Von Braun worked with the U.S. Army in the development of guided missiles. As part of a military operation called Project Paperclip, he and an initial group of about 125 were sent to America where they were installed at Fort Bliss, Texas. There they worked on rockets for the U.S. Army and assisted in V-2 launches at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico.

[Lacessit]

22 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

Russia is rolling out a new "anti-woke" visa for westerners who want to escape woke culture.

Shared Values Visa

 

 

 

Does that include a tour of duty in Ukraine?

[Lacessit]

12 hours ago, save the frogs said:

I dated a Russian girl once. One of the biggest mistakes of my life. 

Not fair to leave us hanging, what went wrong? Was her blinchiki too big?

[save the frogs]

5 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Not fair to leave us hanging, what went wrong? Was her blinchiki too big?

Russia might be the best place to move if you're tired of paying for sex

 

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/08/14/why-the-former-ussr-has-far-fewer-men-than-women/

 

The gender ratio in Russia is currently 86.8 men per 100 women

and the global ratio is 101.8 men per 100 women

 

[retarius]

And Ukraine's history is replete with scientific innovation. When looking for the midden heap, simply follow your nose and go to Ukraine. You might be lucky and meet some nazis from the Above battalion.

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, retarius said:

And Ukraine's history is replete with scientific innovation. When looking for the midden heap, simply follow your nose and go to Ukraine. You might be lucky and meet some nazis from the Above battalion.

The Ukrainians seem to be remarkably inventive when it comes to aerial and naval drones.

 

A country with no navy forcing the Black Sea fleet to retreat from Sevastapol, that's not innovation?

[Zenyu kanari]

On 8/27/2024 at 5:45 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

Not forgetting the wheat they grow in huge amounts.

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading the quoted text in your post. 

For reference they grow so much wheat that they caused major crisis in the west agriculture when they were selling wheat dirt cheap

[mark131v]

On 8/28/2024 at 11:49 AM, save the frogs said:

Russia might be the best place to move if you're tired of paying for sex

 

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/08/14/why-the-former-ussr-has-far-fewer-men-than-women/

 

The gender ratio in Russia is currently 86.8 men per 100 women

and the global ratio is 101.8 men per 100 women

 

 

I reckon that male to female gap will have widened considerably since Putler started his Ukrainian adventure!

[3NUMBAS]

Crazy drunken bums with no reality in their heads ,all suicidal ,the birth rate has collapsed to an all time low

[3NUMBAS]

Tv progs showing dash cams  show the roads are a deathtrap of drunken crazy drivers , the worst ever

[3NUMBAS]

Ukraine was always the home of romance scams when guys were enticed to Odessa and bumped off by their prospective wives

[Danderman123]

On 8/27/2024 at 8:19 AM, AndreasHG said:

There is one thing that always puzzled me about Russia and its millenary history. I cannot identify a single contribution to wellbeing, prosperity or welfare, the invention or conception of which humankind shall be grateful to Russia.

 

To the best of my knowledge, Russia did not contribute to a single one of the great inventions or discoveries, which radically changed the humankind way of living, in the 19th, 20th and 21st century.

 

This is particularly puzzling, because Russia pretends to be a great power. At par with the USA, China, Japan, the UK, Germany, France, etc.

 

I look around in my home, and every single appliance I see, from the airconditioner to the washing machine, from the microwave hoven to the TV set, from the refrigerator to the dish-washing machine, from the printer to the vacuum cleaner, not a single thing was invented or conceived in Russia.

I check my car and, again, nothing of it came out of Russia. Not the electronic ignition nor the injection, not the ABS nor the ASR. Not the radial tires, the stratified windscreen, the airbags and the safety belts, not the electric starter and the generator.

If I look into my iPhone or my computer, the outcome is the same. No feature, technology, device incorporated into my mobile phone or laptop is the result of an original idea which came out of Russia.

 

I know you are likely going to blame Communism (which too, by the way, was not conceived by Russians, as we will see later).

 

However, I just read an interesting book written by Orlando Figues, "The Story of Russia". Apparently, Russia was already a miserable country under the Tzars.

Despite the opulence displayed by the Russian Imperial Court and the boyards surrounding it, the comparison with Europe shows how miserable the average population living conditions in Russia were. In the early 19th century Western visitors noticed that Russians peasants were still working their land barefooted, and technically were still serfs (it is estimated that approximately 70% of the Russian population was made up of serfs when serfdom was abolished in 1861, only 4 years before slavery was abolished in the USA).

 

And, actually, the misery of Russia started even before the Tzars. It started under the Mongols, who ruled Russia for over 200 years till the 15th century. Mongols brought Moscow to prominence, and Mongols abolished the private property of the land in Russia, introducing a form of Communism in Russia, 400 years before Karl Marx reinvented it.

 

I acknowledge that asserting that nothing ever came out of Russia is rather inaccurate. Russia donated much of the cannon fodder that contributed to the defeat of Napoleon and of the Hitler-Mussolini duo. The AK47, a.k.a. Kalaschnikow, has been a real god-gift for self-proclaimed liberation armies and terrorists around the world, even making its way onto a national flag (the one of Mozambique). There are even rumors that Russia is the real inventor of the extermination camps, Hitler, Pol Pot, and other terrible dictators popularized. Stalin's Gulags were the model to which they took inspiration.

 

But as of yet, besides weapons of mass destruction, serfdom, death, mourning and misery, nothing really seems to ever come out of Russia.

 

And that might be the exact reason why all its neighboring countries prefer to look to the West for inspiration. Everyone shall be allowed to strife for a better life for their own children.

 

What is your opinion? Can you name a single Russian innovation that is contributing to the well-being of humanity as a whole? May such a country legitimately pretend to be a great power at par, let's say, of the United States of America?

 

Tetris.

[Danderman123]

On 8/28/2024 at 5:49 AM, save the frogs said:

Russia might be the best place to move if you're tired of paying for sex

 

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/08/14/why-the-former-ussr-has-far-fewer-men-than-women/

 

The gender ratio in Russia is currently 86.8 men per 100 women

and the global ratio is 101.8 men per 100 women

 

The problem is that a Russian woman would do without a man if he's not Russian.

[NoDisplayName]

On 8/27/2024 at 8:19 PM, AndreasHG said:

I cannot identify a single contribution to wellbeing, prosperity or welfare, the invention or conception of which humankind shall be grateful to Russia.

 

They defeated the Nazis in 1945, and are well on their way to defeating the Nazis in 2024.