News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


What will these Serbian vets fight with? The venerable M-84, which performed so well in Kuwait and Bosnia? Are you able to procure spare parts, seeing as the 100+ primary contractors, and more than 1000 subcontractors are now spread over multiple countries, most of which are not exactly fans of Serbia?

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


Ho-ho-ho... You have supplied a good laugh here Crow!

I regret to inform you, that the days of Winged Hussars, Janisseries, and Sich Cossacks has long since passed.

During the most recent Strong Europe Tank Challenge, Poland and Ukraine came last and second-to-last respectively (1st place Austria, Germany 2nd, US 3rd, and France 4th). Serbia did not participate unfortunately, but something makes me think they would join their Slavic brothers at the bottom of the list. Interestingly, Poland was bested by Ukraine despite Poland using the very non-Kosher Leopard 2s (albeit old ones), while the Ukrainians were using T-64 Bulats.

stripes.com/news/austria-blasts-its-way-to-first-place-at-tank-challenge-1.468111

If only the competition was in rakia, horilka, or wodka consumption - there, truly, this Slavic trio would be ahead of the entire planet...

Today these armies are only good as soil fertilizer in the cauldrons of Donbass (Ilovaisk), or as NATO bombing practice.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

Are you referring to history? In that case you are wrong.

Among other things he is excellent at, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is also one of the world's greatest archaeologists.

Evidence this picture:

• 
  Putin retrieved these two Ancient Greek amphorae from the bottom of the Black Sea, just after his first dive!
  

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

Seems they were a sleepy bunch. wikiquote - "Theodoric the Great failed to rouse Crimean Goths to support his war in Italy." Guys missed the road-trip of a lifetime)

Correction: not lifetime, but millenium

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


:)))

In my defense, look at what the Wikipedia article about the Crimean Goths says: "They were the least-powerful, least-known, and almost paradoxically, the longest-lasting of the Gothic communities."

Least-powerful, least-known - can I be forgiven for missing this in history class? :)

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

You know what - I didn't know that! It blows my mind that a Germanic dialect was spoken in Crimea so recently. Wow!

I imagined some Latin/Medieval Italian might have survived because of the very long Genoese control of the peninsula in the heyday of the trading republics, but Gothic... that's interesting.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

Well...

A very large part continued to live under Ottoman rule for a few more centuries after Mr. Sobieski.

Its after the Crimean War in the 1850s when the final parts began to break free. So yes, Turkish influence lasted for almost 400 years in some places.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

Thanks Lyzko.

Wikipedia, as always, to the rescue:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_influence_on_Romanian

Seems extensive. But also, it seems that Romanian influenced many Slavic languages in the vicinity as well.

Edit: I thought these were interesting:

slavă - "glory"
bogat - "rich"
boier - "nobleman", cf. BG bolyarin
topor - "axe"
dragoste - "love", cf. SC "draga" ("beloved")

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


That's very interesting! I wasn't aware.

Do you think you could provide some examples?

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

Magyars are not Slavs.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


Lol, I thought you were joking about this....

But here it is:



On the left is the leader of Ukraine's Svoboda party, Oleh Tyahnybok, who is basically a modern-day Nazi.

EDIT: ehhh, looking more closely at this photo it looks very much photoshopped....

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


Russia has been building a "Union State" with Belarus since 1996:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_State

This is above and beyond the framework of the CIS or Eurasian Union. Of course, when Lukashenko inevitably leaves all bets are off, but I would think that the Union State project will survive both Lukashenko and Putin.

Armenia is perhaps Russia's most loyal satrap, depending as they do, on the Russian military to defend them from the Azerbaijanis (Russia, incidentally, supplies weapons systems to both, and AZ is the one that can actually pay hard cash - go figure...).

Literally half of Moldova's working age male population works in Russia. In addition to that, Russia is the largest market for Moldovan exports, which nobody wants in Europe (Moldovan wine anyone?).

Good luck getting Serbia and Croatia together into anything! When they meet each other abroad they are friendly enough with each other, but on a state level there is so much bad blood between the two that it will be decades before one can talk of any union.

So it seems that out of the old Warsaw Pact only Ukraine is a good candidate for alliance building.

edit: Warsaw Pact countries not already in the EU or Nato

News / Kaczyński debunks opposition lies alleging PiS plans for Polexit [37]

What I meant to say by the above chart is that this is a hollow threat and everybody understands that. It would simply humiliate Poland even further.

News / Kaczyński debunks opposition lies alleging PiS plans for Polexit [37]

@Ironside

Poland is no UK

Look at that chart? Who do you think Polexit would harm but the Poles themselves?

• 
  eu250miillion.png
  

News / Kaczyński debunks opposition lies alleging PiS plans for Polexit [37]

In it's own, schizophrenic kind of way, it does makes sense... I guess. I refuse to accept the logic of it though.

Remember this is JK we are talking about. The guy who said he could stomach a couple percentage point hit on Polish GDP growth if it meant the country was set "on the right idealogical course". In his grand vision of Poland, where it is an equal partner of the big boys, is the country that speaks for all of Eastern Europe at the negotiating table in Brussels, is an Eastern European economic tiger (and not a bloated welfare child) and so on and so on - a two-track Europe does mean a reduced influence over events, and a Poland that is once again on the periphery. This would open the door to all sorts of terrors, like for example, France, Germany and Italy working energy deals with Russia without asking Poland's opinion. Now the fact that he fully has the option of avoiding that, but refuses to take it, and does everything instead to hasten it, is what can be chalked up to that aforementioned schizophrenia. You either take the good with the bad, or you shut up and sit down. JK is trying to have his cake, and eat it too.

Sorry if I'm not being very articulate here. It's been a long day, and I'm on my third beer now.

News / Kaczyński debunks opposition lies alleging PiS plans for Polexit [37]

I'm very curious to hear the answer to this as well

History / Why Poland achieved nothing at all? [69]

@nothanks

Lol! I'm as much a fan of Lewy as the next guy, but do you really believe this qualifies as a Polish contribution to the world? :)

History / Why Poland achieved nothing at all? [69]

WTF people - what about Copernicus?

His father was a merchant from Krakow.

edit: after a little research I see it's not so clear when it comes to Copernicus. Looks like Germans have as much a claim on him as Poles. In any case, modern notions of nationality would have been totally alien in Copernicus' time...

News / Kaczyński debunks opposition lies alleging PiS plans for Polexit [37]

If Germany and France see Poland turning into a non-cooperative actor (as Waszczykowski threatened to do today), it won't matter what the PiSlamists official position on exiting the EU is - for or against - because then those two countries will definitely proceed with deeper integration among themselves without waiting for others to make up their mind. It's grotesque, really, how PiS's doom-mongering about the EU and their parallel actions have this self-fulfilling effect to them.

link to article with Waszczykowski's statements: theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/13/poland-fumes-at-cheating-eu-for-keeping-donald-tusk-in-top-post

News / Kaczyński debunks opposition lies alleging PiS plans for Polexit [37]

A multi-speed Europe is the only way the project has any hope of staying relevant deeper into the 21st century. It is also an entirely democratic approach to the issues the Union is confronted with (to all those who whine about the Brussels diktat). Polish/Eastern European insistence on the status quo is what will lead to the EU breaking up within just the next decade.

History / Why Poland achieved nothing at all? [69]

I can see it now... The Proto-Pole, or as Crow would surely tell us - a Sarmatian - sitting under the shade of a birch in the Białowieża Forest, crafting the first boomerang. What is more Polish than a weapon that is equally dangerous to you as it is to the enemy?

History / Why Poland achieved nothing at all? [69]

Wikipedia lists the boomerang as a Polish invention.

Proof: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Polish_inventions

Add that to the list.

History / Why Poland achieved nothing at all? [69]

The Warner brothers were Jewish, though they do seem to have come from the Masovian Voivodeship. By this criteria Russia is the greatest contributor to science in the world. However, I think that Russian Jews excelled in academia despite the efforts of the Russian state, not because of it. It's surely a troll post, but I think he meant Poles.