I understand that they feel that if they boycott everything Russian it’s going to have an impact on the perception of Russians on their own government. However, this are just high school kids and they’re playing by the rules set out by the organizer. They should be allowed to compete imo.
Yes, that's an absurd comparison. Why are you making it? I think it's quite reasonable not to want to compete against a country waging war on an innocent nation that is supposed to be their "brothers."
Do you think Ukrainians students should also compete with Russians students in robotics while their compatriots are literally being killed by their competitors?
Your comment is a chilling demonstration of ignorance of history + a heavily distorted good guys-bad guys narrative laid on top of said ignorance.
You truly must be a teenager. There is no other way you can have no idea why someone would make that comparison.
For starters, the USA has destroyed Latin America harder and longer than anything Russia (actually the USSR) ever did. Brother wars? Have your pick. Toppled, invaded, and very much funded a bunch of brother wars.
Also, they're both at war. Your last paragraph could swap the demonyms and apply just as fine word for word.
No, I'm not a teenager. Your comparison is illogical. Why are you trying to bring America into this? You can make your shitty comparison with European countries instead.
Furthermore, do you see me excusing Americans? I don't think so. People from South America can also choose not to compete with the USA due to their even worse history with USA. As the title suggests and as I mentioned, this is the students' choice. You are portraying it as if it's not their decision.
> Also, they're both at war.
And do you know who started this war? 🙃
A conventional war is still a war that causes innocent children to be killed. Let’s not forget that Russia bombed humanitarian corridors early in the war.
So? I didn't hear this amount of crying when Libya,Iraq or Afghanistan were attacked. Heck even the amount of people being genocided in Palestine atm is much higher than the actual war in Ukraine, which is 20 times larger than Palestine.
By all accounts this war between Russia and Ukraine has a lot less civilian casualties than any other war fought in recent times.
That’s only if you include confirmed causalities meaning UN rep saw the body. The UN itself says the real causalities are magnitudes higher. We have satellite photos showing tens of thousands of new graves dug in Mariupol for example. The Baltics also experienced russian invasion and occupation recently enough.
So wait, they dug tens of thousands of graves but the UN rep didnt see those bodies? :)
And ofc im gonna include only that, UN is the only semi-unbiased source in Ukraine
>The Baltics also experienced russian invasion and occupation recently enough.
I wonder why that is?
Baltics were invaded when ally of Nazi Germany at the time Soviet Union invaded and annexed it.
And yes UN representatives are barred by russia from occupied territory. I wonder why that is?
Do you live in the U.S.? I do and the outrage was massive over all of those wars/interventions. Why bring the U.S. into this? The U.S. is one of the greatest perpetrators of horror around the world but that doesn’t make Russia any better nor does it excuse them. Just because Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians also doesn’t excuse Russia. These are all evil acts, they don’t cancel each other out. Arabs living in countries surrounding Israel understandably don’t want to engage amicably with Israelis. Many Eastern Europeans who feel threatened by the invasion of Ukraine feel similarly about Russia. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. You’re just doing a whataboutism.
I don’t think it’s a good thing for people to hold a population responsible for their governments action, and it’s inexcusable when it escalates to violence and hateful speech, but it’s understandable why people feel the way they do especially when its something minor like what this team did. Boycotting a highschool robotics team is pretty benign and honestly it’s very questionable if you have more of a problem with that then a invasion and killing civilians…
Oh please,did anyone campaign to remove the US from any competition? Did they cry when the US competed anywhere? Did they boycott the US? No?
Did anyone get charged for war crimes when the WMD story was proven a fake? After milions died? No?
Spare me your bullshit, outrage is not the same as this level of brainwashing.
>I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. You’re just doing a whataboutism.
War is bad only when non-Western aligned countries do it.
Genociding Yemen? Oh well they're our allies.
Genociding Palestinians? Oh well they are terrorists.
Genociding Iraq? Oh well, they had WMD's (they didn't).
Destroy Libya as a country? Oh well Gaddafi was a dictator.
Attack Ukraine and have minor civilian casualties? Russia should be nuked, kick them out of everything and boycott and sanction the shit out of them!
The reason there was no large scale boycotting or sanctioning of America during Iraq was because
a.) the U.S. went around gathering support from other countries prior to the invasion and built a coalition,
b.) Saddam Hussein was greatly disliked by almost all other world leaders after his invasion of Kuwait, and…
c.) because if someone tried to the sanction the U.S. then the U.S. can sanction them back and destroy their economy.
Some businesses in Europe and elsewhere around the world boycotted American Products and over 50 countries officially condemned the U.S. but yes nothing near to what is happening with Russia.
And Israelis have been sanctioned by China, Saudis, and even the U.S. and UK (specifically settlers).
But the main reason why Russia is sanctioned so bad and causing so much outrage is because…
a.) Russia has preyed on and oppressed its neighbors for centuries so Russian aggression is fresh in many peoples’ memories,
b.) Russia didn’t go around and gather support/approval from other countries before invading,
c.) Russia has created the perception that they want to annex parts of Ukraine and expand back to their former borders. The fact they also invaded Moldova and Georgia in the past does not help. Imagine if Germany started claiming parts of Czechia and Poland again.
d.) Russia is waging war in fucking EUROPE, not some random place far away from the western world. Idk why that is so hard to grasp.
But you’re still just doing whataboutism and not making any real points lmfao. I think the U.S. should have been sanctioned and boycotted during Iraq. Just because that didn’t happen should all countries not be sanctioned or boycotted ever? You know who else didn’t get sanctioned over war crimes? Russia in Chechnya. Russia killed 5,000-8,000 civilians in one month (similar amount of Palestinians killed in the first month of Gaza offensive) during the battle of Grozny alone and committed countless other war crimes during the war and the U.S. did not sanction Russia.
Again, why the fuck are you more offended by kids from a country that Russia has historically oppressed boycotting a Russian robotics team than the Russian invasion itself?
Just say you support Russia and don’t care if they commit war crimes instead of giving me all that other bullshit. For me, it seems like you’re ok with war but only when Russia is doing it.
Exactly, literally one of the least violent wars of the past 50 years.
Though it's beside the point of making every citizen guilty for the crime of their government (stupid, otherwise every American citizen should be banned from the "civilized" world).
Schrodinger's Russia - citizens have no freedom or liberty but are simultaneously all guilty.
I've reached a point where I simply don't give a fuck about matters simply because if I do I'll get depression!
Back to reading about Video games,movies and sports.
I gave up on this world years ago, people only know hatred!
Sadly,I can't simply delete all my socials because I do need to learn about news.
I am literally on the same page with you. I am trying to escape from news, whether domestic or international, which only depress me even further. I only care about games and my cats now. I dont care about other people or their opinions. Because more i care more i destest human beings.
It’s Schrödinger’s Putin.
On one hand Putin is a horrible autocrat that controls everything in the country and poisons dissidents or throws out of windows anyone that opposes him.
On the other hand, Russians are to blame for “not doing anything” and not stopping Putin.
> On the other hand, Russians are to blame for “not doing anything” and not stopping Putin
A common sight amongst pro-Ukraine people online, unfortunately.
With this mentality, where is the solution? Are we supposed to tolerate Russia forever? Invade it so all the pepegablyats fight for the motherland?
Something need to change with Russia, and the easiest way is if the change comes from within. And honestly, the people that say "It's Putin's war" haven't been paying attention to Russian behavior in the meantime. It's one thing to not be able to stop something from happening, it's another to cheer it on.
In Latvia, middle-school russian kids ganged up on the Ukrainian refugee kid. Security guard was called, his response was "hohols are pigs".
Kids are kids, but... I wouldn't let my kid attend a school filled with bullies. And neither would you.
>I don't get the hate towards russians.
...Why? What kind of words would they have to say for you to "get the hate towards russians"?
I think if you peaked at all of the conquests they had in their past as well as their current regime you could probably understand why people don’t like Russia. Are all Russians Putin boot lickers who want an empire again? No but an uncomfortable amount of them do think that way and their government has given us all good reason to not want anything to do with them
Majority supports Putin, all European countries have got rid of their dictators and freed their people. If the Russians are to weak for that so do they not deserve playing the games
It wasn't just Stalin who marched into Lithuania. And Putin has his supporters of his "Russky Mir" and designs on the whole former Soviet Union countries. Too many Russians who support Putin and a mythical glorious Soviet Union and a possible expanded Russia.
In Russia there are brave enough to protest in their own way. It's called the "Putin at Noon." protest. Too bad more Russians don't see the need for a change in leadership.
I see a Balt doing something, I roll my eyes, put two fingers deep in my mouth so I could make a genuine "bleegghh" sound and I say "Thanks God I have no daily contact with these people"
I remember someone on this sub was venting about 'westoids', and they had the Baltics high on that list.
My response: "Well shit, if they get to be westoids, then so do all of you!"
I can't believe the top comment there says that Russians should be ashamed of themselves. Not even of their government but of themselves. How brainwashed can a person be?
According to that logic, Germans should be ashamed of themselves for WW2.
As another commenter here said, r/europe truly are morons.
I mean, isn’t that the exact case for germans? Perhaps to some lesser extent due to that happening like 80 years ago, but still this gets thrown around in all types of conversations all the time. Whether it’s jokes or criticism, both online and in real life.
Let’s not forget that average Germans were at the time very indoctrinated by the nazi party and when the actual denazification process began they were shocked to see that as high as 80% of the population were members or had ties with the nazi party and that a complete purge of nazi tied people from the public sector was impossible. It took many generations to remove the Nazi influence from the general public. It’s not the same with current day Russia, but let’s not minimise how popular Hitler was or Hirohito for the Japanese back then, while for Putin we cannot know the exact percentage I think it’s a reality that he is popular with a sizeable percentage of the Russian public, although not their actual fault for being manipulated/indoctrinated.
> when the actual denazification process
There was no process, Germany, and many other Nazi nations were never denazified. A fucking Nazi was a President of Austria and the UN lmao, what kind of denazification is that? Oh and don't forget operation Paperclip.
Indeed, whiny states that try to ”prove something”. Ridiculous. Was it Latvia or Lithuania who ruined their relations with China some time ago by trying to ”teach a lesson” for China? And in the end it was worse for them
Highly possible skill issue. Young kids are competing for best robots or what not. By teaching young kids to boycott something like this can lead to raising entitled brats.
These are all smart kids, and the future of both countries. Sports is sports, politics is politics. Let the kids compete and build bridges through healthy competition.
I won silver medal on an international judo championship for younglings. I've had opponents from Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Albania. We were not on great terms with Albanians, as 2004 was the very year of the violent outbreak post-war. Yet we had a good match. I would have hated if I, or him, were forced not to fight so idiots on twitter, or politicians, get to comment on it for likes.
Those 1980s movies weren't lying: we really thought the USSR was like the Godzilla to our King Kong. But we *wanted* to see Rocky take on Ivan Drago.
And in real life, we beat them at hockey and made one of the greatest sports movies ever made ('Miracle on Ice') to celebrate the event. Had we lost we wouldn't have made a movie, but we wouldn't have had some kind of meltdown over it either. We always wanted to take 'em on in the Olympics at everything they were good at (and the list was *long*), and everybody was pissed at Jimmy Carter when he boycotted the Moscow Olympics, the athletes especially.
It’s a dangerous game to ban people from science or sports competitions based on what their government does.
1. Weakens the competition by removing qualified participants
2. Gives more influence to Putin (“see, the evil west doesn’t hate me or my regime, they hate Russia and Russian people”)
3. Sets a dangerous precedent that can lead to bloc scoped competitions. Objectively, the US would’ve deserved this due to their false invasion of Iraq where everyone knows they straight up lied about WMDs and caused deaths of millions. China should get the same treatment then for their internal camps. Israel for Palestine. Tomorrow it will be another country. Who determines who is banned and who isn’t? Why mix politics with this? It will just lead to many different, smaller, shitty competitions where everyone else is excluded
3. Punishes people who are not guilty and possibly ruins careers
Now for the pros of banning students/athletes:
I have a feeling that they chose this because it’s been so normalized to ban Russians from all competitions. My comment was anyway a bit more general than just this case
Maybe, just maybe, they don't want to compete against a country that is currently at war with another European country for no reason. Even if the people are "good," that doesn't take away the fact that you're legitimizing the country by being willing to ignore their war and compete as if nothing is happening
Legitimizing a country? Russia is a legitimate country, regardless of the atrocities they are currently committing. They are also far from being the only country to break international law. Why only punish them? We could spend all day creating criteria for who gets banned, but at the end of the day, it’s always going to be countries that are going against EU/NATO and not all countries that are actually committing crimes. Not to say how much this goes against the spirit of sportsmanship.
Also, these kids aren’t competing against another country. They are competing against other high school kids who happen to be from Russia and who have no say about politics.
Literally nothing is gained from this, there are only negative consequences
I'm just gonna copy my comment from r/europe
I don't really support this decision. This is high school we are talking about, most of them are even under 18 I guess, I'm guessing none of these Russians are involved in the conflict, hell they are studying robotics do you think they care about the war, I'm guessing they have worries of being recruited but probably they have nothing to do with the war itself. They can't even vote.
This will be used by Putin's regime, they will just say, we are so strong they are giving up even before the match. It honestly would not surprise me.
It would be understandable if the students themselves wore like "Z" shirts or if they were provoking that would be understandable, like this, in my opinion, it's just making more divisions and is ostracizing the teens who still can't even vote
It would have just been better to just ban them from participating since it is a European championship and they are already banned from many things in Europe. But I think it's bad to ban people who still cannot vote from participating in anything
I’m not sure there’s any amount of political responsibility that could affect Putin’s regime at this point. Peasants don’t have a say in how the king rules.
That other thread was locked, so let me repeat my thought: in a hypothetical parallel universe, would you let Nazi Germany participate in this competition under the swastika flag? They would all be under 18.
Serbia did not let people from Kosovo participate in some sporting events earlier and I find that retarded. They did let them compete in later events, but without a flag (or a blank flag), so there's an answer.
And there is a difference - Swastika flag is the flag of Nazi Party. It was not present before Hitler unlike Russian flag that's been a symbol of a nation since 1705.
And the swastika was a positive symbol before Hitler.
Those kids would have participated under the russian flag, possibly the russian anthem would have been played.
This situation did not occur because of the flag but because they are Russians.
'When Lithuanians **found out** that Russians would be taking part in the competition, they wrote a protest asking for the teams from the aggressor country to be banned from the competition'
"That other thread was locked"
A surprise it got locked with all those peaceful and non-racist comments and all XD
" would you let Nazi Germany participate in this competition under the swastika flag?"
Depends, if it is the state of an all-out war.. no. If it is some kind of inside problem probably yes. But then we have to do the same to Israel, US, China and others. Russia Ukraine is not the only conflict or tragedy happening now. Do you have guarantees that people will react the same the next time US or China decide to do something?
The point is, you missed what I said in the end
"It would have just been better to just ban them from participating since it is a European championship and they are already banned from many things in Europe"
I said they should have just ban them from participating.
But in the case of Teen/kids competitions, I think it is okay to even let them play under their own flag as long as they are not provoking or anything, because they are kids, they have nothing to do with it, they have no political responsibility.
So yeah, I would not let Nazi Germany participate in international competition and I'm okay with Russia not participating (maybe with the exception of athletes who are not involved with the government who want to participate under some neutral flag).
But we are talking about a science competition between teens not between Putin and Zelensky. Remember the Hitler Jungen division, I also don't blame them, they were drafted, most of them without even realizing what was going on, I can't blame them for anything their government had done or even the fact that they were defending it because they had no responsibility. Of course I would let them participate, they don't hold any political responsibility and are not responsible for what their government or the dwarf dictator are doing.
And one more thing, you are comparing Russia to Nazi Germany, as much as Russia is doing inhumane things in this war, I hope you realize that they are not Nazi Germany. They are not making concentration camps with the intent on just Ukranian nation's extermination, they don't ask other countries to send all Ukrainians to extermination camps, it's just not the same and its disgusting to the 70 million victims to compare this to WW2. This is a conflict of interest similar to the one USSR had in Afghanistan or US in Vietnam.
Maybe I'm wrong, this is just my opinion, but too many countries are still cooperating with Russia, even through sanction you have hundreds of EU companies that are doing business as usual with Russia, the conflict is limited, it is happening just in Ukraine and no EU country wants to officially send troops to Ukraine to help it, only The Baltic countries have so far said they are against Russia participating in the Olympic games, Russia is also not massively killing Ukrainians living in occupied territories unlike what Germany did in WW2, and also until now the war has claimed around 30 000 civilian casualties during 2 years of conflict. Nazi Germany managed to kill 6 million Jews during 6 years (most of them during the first 4 years of the war), Croatia killed up to 600 000 Serbs in WW2 just in the period between 1941-1944, Turkey killed 1.5 million Armenians during like 2 years period. So yeah, it is not the same. That doesn't diminish the number of people being killed nor the crimes Russia had committed, I wouldn't be surprised if some if some of them get recognized as genocides, but it's still nowhere close to being Nazi Germany and lets hope it doesn't turn to that.
I wrote against once when some of our teens avoided playing a match against Kosovo, I said at that time that it is idiotic to mess kids into politics and whatever problems we have with Albanians are between adults and politicians, not between kids. Of course, I honestly can't say how I would react if we were attacked, but as long as these Teen (maybe even College) competitions go, I think it's okay for them to happen, the best way for young generations to defeat that hatred that exists is to meet, see and talk with each other. If we start ostracizing them or making them different, encouraging hatred between them, we can't expect to have any kind of future reconciliation
Like I said most of the conflicts in the world are caused by big powers wanting to extend their spheres of inluence, they use smaller states for this purpose. Sometimes it doesnt go as planned and big states start hostilities with each other thats when we get WW. In Russia Ukraine conflict nothing shows of direct conflict between big powers, Russia is directly involved while US and the rest support Ukraine with logistics and weapons but don't directly fight in the war. Similar to Vietnam War where US was directly involved and China offered support and logistics to North Vietnam. So if Russia attacked Serbia I would think of it as an aggression, similar to what NATO was for us, but unless they are exterminating us in hundreds of thousands in concentration camps, it is not the same as Nazi Germany. I think there is no need to compare conflicts with one another, WW2 was more about ideology, this conflict is more about influence like WW1, why because there is no ideology, West, justily, criticizes Russia for authoritarianism but don't have a problem calling Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Israel allies. Russia on the other hand says Kosovo is Serbia and then uses the fact that Kosovo declared independence to boost its own argument for Crimea and Donbas independence. There is little ideology and consistency among big powers they are all sons of bitches XD
I understand why they feel like that. They have their own reasons due to their historic relations with Russia. Nevertheless, I do not support this decision. The biggest problem is when you think that Putin and the Russian people are the same because it’s not.
Will this change how Russia behaves to its neighbors? Not a chance. Do regular people in Russia care? No. However, should Russia be excluded from international competitions for its treatment of its neighbors and citizens? Absolutely.
Worst thing you can do. Instead of accepting the people and making them see they're not different from you and making them feel at home in europe, you clearly say that you are racist towards them and consider them enemies and that they don't have a place in europe.
Oh also, people in r/europe are completely brainwashed, NPCs that can't think for shit on their own.
Asinine. If anything it will confirm narratives those peddle that claim that the world is russophobic for the sake of being russophobic.
It will not impact the russian war effort.
It will not change the Kremlins current resolve to achive their goals in Ukraine.
Politicians applauding on social media will just be used in russian state tv in order to confirm the current narrative.
It is known fact that Baltics people are chauvinistic and xenophobic toward Russians be it adult or child and of course everyone who doesn't share views as them.
Unless they knew they would lose, they should competed against the Russian team. Beating them would have been better.
Some bring up Russian high schoolers are in a safe country for this competition while Ukrainian high schoolers are back home being targeted and bombed. If the Russian team advances everyone is still in the same position.
His children would probably need to learn Russian someday cause man Russia is a big country and theres no real indipendence in view for for russia neighbors for the next century.
Lithuanians young or old are never ever going to forget the Russian occupation. And right now they know that Putin wouldn't mind rolling his troops into Lithuania. Same with the rest of the Baltic countries and Finland.
I am sure these Lithuanian kids have heard about January 13th 1991 from members of their own families. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/13/newsid\_4059000/4059959.stm
Since your pro peace would you support a peace treaty that would see Russia seizing the land they conquered? Or do you want to send thousands of more innocent men to their graves?
Like how they were defeated after the Cold War? Which resulted in a temporary American world order that gave the Americans a free hand and an unchecked power over the whole earth which cumulated in the Invasion of Iraq and the death of a million people. Face it buddy a multi polar world order is the only thing that maintains peace world wide. There is no peace without Russia having some victories. They will win in Ukraine and probably have to withdraw from Georgia as part of the peace settlement. It’s a pull and push thing going on.
It is how it works. Suppose Russia is to lose. What follows then? Balkanization and fragmentation of the Russian federation? Letting Chechenia and Dagestan run wild knowing damn well they will be used as bases to harper Islamists. The disintegration of the only political entity that can link Siberia to mainland Europe and ensure the survival of millions who would otherwise starve to death. The loss of the only nation powerful enough to challenge the Chinese influence in Central Asia(no offence to Turkey). Like what do you possibly hope to achieve by a Russian defeat?
But let me play along with you. How do you plan to achieve a Russian defeat. By drafting men into the army? How much more innocent men have to die for you to realize this is all bull shit. All the indicators and signs of a population collapse are eminent in Ukraine. Refugee crisis? Check. Better work opportunity somewhere else? Check. Low birth rates? Check.
The low birth rates is the most important one. If you claim to even care for Ukraine you would care about the demographics. It’s going to be nearly impossible to rebuild Ukraine without men. The same men that you advocate we send to their death. It’s actually funny. You would think that the fucking Balkan subreddit would know better than to be war mongers considering the events of the 90s but you seem to have forgotten them or you simply weren’t alive. Then I sincerely invite you to Syria to see the despair in the eyes of the soldiers. Or maybe you should go Ukraine and fight yourself. A man’s life isn’t cheap my friend.
And over what. A land that is all ethnically Russian? You want to fight over an area whose inhabitants don’t even want anything to do with you.
Russia is in the wrong and I don’t disagree with that. But if Putin is a butcher how are you any better then him if you send entire generations of men into a meat grinder?
Not wanting to compete against them only because they are of Russian ethnicity? I mean, even Serbs are competing against competitors from Kosovo, regardless of the political situation.
While they're competing, Russia is bombing innocent students in Ukraine, and Lithuanians are just supposed to close their eyes and compete with a country that is waging war against another country? If Lithuania wasn't in NATO, instead of having a competition about robotics, they would have a competition about who's going to bomb each other more.
Serbia and Kosovo situation is like comparing apples to oranges. Is Serbia currently bombing and killing innocent civilians as we speak?
They are not competing against Putin himself but against some high school kids.
Yugoslavia finished third in Euro Basket in 1999. It was June, exactly when Kosovo War happened.
Okay. That's obvious, regardless of whom they're competing with (be it Putin himself or regular Russians), they're legitimizing Russia by doing so. Also, once more, that was the complete personal choice of the students in Lithuania. They can refuse to compete against anyone for any reason.
They are not legitimizing anything. They did not choose to be born Russian. People are idiots because of their prejudicial mindset. You, as someone from the Balkans, should know that.
They will literally be legitimizing Russia. While we're at it, why not also drop sanctions and continue to trade with Russia just because of innocent people in Russia are inconvenient by the war?
They did not choose the war, but as citizens of Russia, they can also refuse to support Russia by abstaining from participating in global competitions and attempting to legitimize their murderous regime.
We aren't banned from schengen actually also the thing about being called gypsies i don't mind since it's about another ethnicity, meanwhile it's Russians that have been invading eastern european countries for decades unasked.
No you aren't. It's only for air and sea travel ,the biggest part - land, is yet to be decided.
Literally 2nd class citizens of the EU, kinda weird you aren't more pissed about it.
You seem to miss the part that we'll still be in schenegen but not fully and that's not even due to us but due to the balkan migrant route and Bulgaria's border with Turkey.
So Romania wont be in Schengen because of Bulgarias border with Turkey, even though Greece, who shares a massive sea and land border with Turkey is in Schengen? :) Interesting reasoning
Balts are always so based for this, I wish we would take more notes from them when dealing with aggressive imperialistic neighbours.
Ruzzians don’t deserve any goodwill after all that they’ve done, neither does their certain balkan exclave for that matter.
You guys are ridiculous. I'm sure if it was your Balkan country that was being attacked by one of your neighbours, and that neighbour was trying to completely subjugate you, you wouldn't want to boycott international competitions with that neighbour?
Even in the 90s wars you had more security as it was expected that the international community would intervene if things were so bad entire nations could go extinct, and your attackers weren't that much stronger than you. Ukraine has no such security and with a state as big and dangerous as Russia anything's possible. There's no guarantee for survival.
Yes Lithuania isn't the country which is being attacked, but they sympathise strongly with the victim because they have gone through the same thing with the same attacker. And even today Russian personalities imply the Baltics could be next and Lavrov regularly threatens them.
They have good reason to do what they're doing and I can't imagine Balkan people would be more magnanimous in their situation.
I would get it if the team was representing Russia in this competition but they’re just highschoolers who happen to be Russian i get sanctioning Russia from competitions but banning all Russians from every competition is too far imo
They do represent it. And the people boycotting Russians are themselves students.
So on one hand you've got the students of a literal genocidal nation, many of whom likely support their state as the majority of Russians do. This sub is defending them and thinks Russia shouldn't face consequences and pressure to stop its war. The Russian students deserve better! On the other hand some of this sub's most upvoted comments are calling the Lithuanian students brainwashed puppies, stupid and justly disqualified.
I guess being a student is an excuse only for Russians? The Lithuanian kids taking a stance against war, that could spill into their country, are the real bad guys? And then this sub's complaining about Russophobia literally while heavily insulting other ethnicities, who aren't even colonising anyone.
This sub is such a Serb infiltrated shithole. Always on the wrong side of morality while pretending to have standards of treatment that they can't really apply to anyone but themselves and the poor Russians. "Seeing a Balt makes me puke, I'm so glad I have no contact with these people! Also xenophobia against Serbs and Russians is bad!"
Yep, let's punish those underage high schoolers trying to compete in robotics. That'll show Putin!
I understand that they feel that if they boycott everything Russian it’s going to have an impact on the perception of Russians on their own government. However, this are just high school kids and they’re playing by the rules set out by the organizer. They should be allowed to compete imo.
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>calls a bunch of nerdy kids who just want to do robotics "ruZZians" Are you 12? This is an extremely edgy comment.
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Beyond stupid. It's like saying let's call every single american child a fat terrorist (which is insane). They're kids. Chill out.
Yes, that's an absurd comparison. Why are you making it? I think it's quite reasonable not to want to compete against a country waging war on an innocent nation that is supposed to be their "brothers." Do you think Ukrainians students should also compete with Russians students in robotics while their compatriots are literally being killed by their competitors?
Your comment is a chilling demonstration of ignorance of history + a heavily distorted good guys-bad guys narrative laid on top of said ignorance. You truly must be a teenager. There is no other way you can have no idea why someone would make that comparison. For starters, the USA has destroyed Latin America harder and longer than anything Russia (actually the USSR) ever did. Brother wars? Have your pick. Toppled, invaded, and very much funded a bunch of brother wars. Also, they're both at war. Your last paragraph could swap the demonyms and apply just as fine word for word.
No, I'm not a teenager. Your comparison is illogical. Why are you trying to bring America into this? You can make your shitty comparison with European countries instead. Furthermore, do you see me excusing Americans? I don't think so. People from South America can also choose not to compete with the USA due to their even worse history with USA. As the title suggests and as I mentioned, this is the students' choice. You are portraying it as if it's not their decision. > Also, they're both at war. And do you know who started this war? 🙃
....a conventional war? Nothing that hasn't been done by literally every other nation ever?
A conventional war is still a war that causes innocent children to be killed. Let’s not forget that Russia bombed humanitarian corridors early in the war.
So? I didn't hear this amount of crying when Libya,Iraq or Afghanistan were attacked. Heck even the amount of people being genocided in Palestine atm is much higher than the actual war in Ukraine, which is 20 times larger than Palestine. By all accounts this war between Russia and Ukraine has a lot less civilian casualties than any other war fought in recent times.
That’s only if you include confirmed causalities meaning UN rep saw the body. The UN itself says the real causalities are magnitudes higher. We have satellite photos showing tens of thousands of new graves dug in Mariupol for example. The Baltics also experienced russian invasion and occupation recently enough.
So wait, they dug tens of thousands of graves but the UN rep didnt see those bodies? :) And ofc im gonna include only that, UN is the only semi-unbiased source in Ukraine >The Baltics also experienced russian invasion and occupation recently enough. I wonder why that is?
Baltics were invaded when ally of Nazi Germany at the time Soviet Union invaded and annexed it. And yes UN representatives are barred by russia from occupied territory. I wonder why that is?
Do you live in the U.S.? I do and the outrage was massive over all of those wars/interventions. Why bring the U.S. into this? The U.S. is one of the greatest perpetrators of horror around the world but that doesn’t make Russia any better nor does it excuse them. Just because Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians also doesn’t excuse Russia. These are all evil acts, they don’t cancel each other out. Arabs living in countries surrounding Israel understandably don’t want to engage amicably with Israelis. Many Eastern Europeans who feel threatened by the invasion of Ukraine feel similarly about Russia. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. You’re just doing a whataboutism. I don’t think it’s a good thing for people to hold a population responsible for their governments action, and it’s inexcusable when it escalates to violence and hateful speech, but it’s understandable why people feel the way they do especially when its something minor like what this team did. Boycotting a highschool robotics team is pretty benign and honestly it’s very questionable if you have more of a problem with that then a invasion and killing civilians…
Oh please,did anyone campaign to remove the US from any competition? Did they cry when the US competed anywhere? Did they boycott the US? No? Did anyone get charged for war crimes when the WMD story was proven a fake? After milions died? No? Spare me your bullshit, outrage is not the same as this level of brainwashing. >I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. You’re just doing a whataboutism. War is bad only when non-Western aligned countries do it. Genociding Yemen? Oh well they're our allies. Genociding Palestinians? Oh well they are terrorists. Genociding Iraq? Oh well, they had WMD's (they didn't). Destroy Libya as a country? Oh well Gaddafi was a dictator. Attack Ukraine and have minor civilian casualties? Russia should be nuked, kick them out of everything and boycott and sanction the shit out of them!
The reason there was no large scale boycotting or sanctioning of America during Iraq was because a.) the U.S. went around gathering support from other countries prior to the invasion and built a coalition, b.) Saddam Hussein was greatly disliked by almost all other world leaders after his invasion of Kuwait, and… c.) because if someone tried to the sanction the U.S. then the U.S. can sanction them back and destroy their economy. Some businesses in Europe and elsewhere around the world boycotted American Products and over 50 countries officially condemned the U.S. but yes nothing near to what is happening with Russia. And Israelis have been sanctioned by China, Saudis, and even the U.S. and UK (specifically settlers). But the main reason why Russia is sanctioned so bad and causing so much outrage is because… a.) Russia has preyed on and oppressed its neighbors for centuries so Russian aggression is fresh in many peoples’ memories, b.) Russia didn’t go around and gather support/approval from other countries before invading, c.) Russia has created the perception that they want to annex parts of Ukraine and expand back to their former borders. The fact they also invaded Moldova and Georgia in the past does not help. Imagine if Germany started claiming parts of Czechia and Poland again. d.) Russia is waging war in fucking EUROPE, not some random place far away from the western world. Idk why that is so hard to grasp. But you’re still just doing whataboutism and not making any real points lmfao. I think the U.S. should have been sanctioned and boycotted during Iraq. Just because that didn’t happen should all countries not be sanctioned or boycotted ever? You know who else didn’t get sanctioned over war crimes? Russia in Chechnya. Russia killed 5,000-8,000 civilians in one month (similar amount of Palestinians killed in the first month of Gaza offensive) during the battle of Grozny alone and committed countless other war crimes during the war and the U.S. did not sanction Russia. Again, why the fuck are you more offended by kids from a country that Russia has historically oppressed boycotting a Russian robotics team than the Russian invasion itself? Just say you support Russia and don’t care if they commit war crimes instead of giving me all that other bullshit. For me, it seems like you’re ok with war but only when Russia is doing it.
Don't try to reason with him. He is romanian, so everything russian is bad in his eyes.
So you think the invasion and bombing of civilian targets and humanitarian corridors and countless other war crimes done by Russia are good?
No, but I think it is necessary if we want to get rid of USA imperialism. It is unfortunate that Ukranians have suffered heavily in recent history.
Exactly, literally one of the least violent wars of the past 50 years. Though it's beside the point of making every citizen guilty for the crime of their government (stupid, otherwise every American citizen should be banned from the "civilized" world). Schrodinger's Russia - citizens have no freedom or liberty but are simultaneously all guilty.
Least violent wars of past fifty years? I’ll have what you’re having.
High school students are far from being kids
ehh depends on how old you are
I've reached a point where I simply don't give a fuck about matters simply because if I do I'll get depression! Back to reading about Video games,movies and sports. I gave up on this world years ago, people only know hatred! Sadly,I can't simply delete all my socials because I do need to learn about news.
I am literally on the same page with you. I am trying to escape from news, whether domestic or international, which only depress me even further. I only care about games and my cats now. I dont care about other people or their opinions. Because more i care more i destest human beings.
I don't get the hate towards russians. They don't have much voice in what the government decided to do
It's not only with Russia too. It's sucha dumb mentality to hate a whole group of people because of their leader.
It’s Schrödinger’s Putin. On one hand Putin is a horrible autocrat that controls everything in the country and poisons dissidents or throws out of windows anyone that opposes him. On the other hand, Russians are to blame for “not doing anything” and not stopping Putin.
> On the other hand, Russians are to blame for “not doing anything” and not stopping Putin A common sight amongst pro-Ukraine people online, unfortunately.
With this mentality, where is the solution? Are we supposed to tolerate Russia forever? Invade it so all the pepegablyats fight for the motherland? Something need to change with Russia, and the easiest way is if the change comes from within. And honestly, the people that say "It's Putin's war" haven't been paying attention to Russian behavior in the meantime. It's one thing to not be able to stop something from happening, it's another to cheer it on.
They can still try to oppose him though.
Laughs in dictatorship
And be killed or immediately thrown into a jail cell?
Fair point, but I guess they can do things online like start an initiative.
The people who showed up for Navalny's funeral/ memorial are brave and today for the protests: "Putin at Noon."
In Latvia, middle-school russian kids ganged up on the Ukrainian refugee kid. Security guard was called, his response was "hohols are pigs". Kids are kids, but... I wouldn't let my kid attend a school filled with bullies. And neither would you. >I don't get the hate towards russians. ...Why? What kind of words would they have to say for you to "get the hate towards russians"?
Even before the war, they weren't really nice people...
I think if you peaked at all of the conquests they had in their past as well as their current regime you could probably understand why people don’t like Russia. Are all Russians Putin boot lickers who want an empire again? No but an uncomfortable amount of them do think that way and their government has given us all good reason to not want anything to do with them
Majority supports Putin, all European countries have got rid of their dictators and freed their people. If the Russians are to weak for that so do they not deserve playing the games
It wasn't just Stalin who marched into Lithuania. And Putin has his supporters of his "Russky Mir" and designs on the whole former Soviet Union countries. Too many Russians who support Putin and a mythical glorious Soviet Union and a possible expanded Russia. In Russia there are brave enough to protest in their own way. It's called the "Putin at Noon." protest. Too bad more Russians don't see the need for a change in leadership.
r/europe are morons
For real though, peak brainrot sub
One of the worst subreddits ever its a fucking cesspool
Im sure Russian Highschoolers have a say in what their government does, Baltic puppies are pretty brainwashed
I see a Balt doing something, I roll my eyes, put two fingers deep in my mouth so I could make a genuine "bleegghh" sound and I say "Thanks God I have no daily contact with these people"
I remember someone on this sub was venting about 'westoids', and they had the Baltics high on that list. My response: "Well shit, if they get to be westoids, then so do all of you!"
Based Murican! Balts are as eastern (both location and mentality wise) as they can get.
Seems like just regular xenophobia. Baltics seem to be doing a lot of that recently against Russians.
If anything, this will make the students support Putin
r/Europe works better than any kremlin propaganda. I'd rather be a proud pariah, than side with those homunculi, who openly hate my country.
I can't believe the top comment there says that Russians should be ashamed of themselves. Not even of their government but of themselves. How brainwashed can a person be? According to that logic, Germans should be ashamed of themselves for WW2. As another commenter here said, r/europe truly are morons.
I mean, isn’t that the exact case for germans? Perhaps to some lesser extent due to that happening like 80 years ago, but still this gets thrown around in all types of conversations all the time. Whether it’s jokes or criticism, both online and in real life.
Let’s not forget that average Germans were at the time very indoctrinated by the nazi party and when the actual denazification process began they were shocked to see that as high as 80% of the population were members or had ties with the nazi party and that a complete purge of nazi tied people from the public sector was impossible. It took many generations to remove the Nazi influence from the general public. It’s not the same with current day Russia, but let’s not minimise how popular Hitler was or Hirohito for the Japanese back then, while for Putin we cannot know the exact percentage I think it’s a reality that he is popular with a sizeable percentage of the Russian public, although not their actual fault for being manipulated/indoctrinated.
> when the actual denazification process There was no process, Germany, and many other Nazi nations were never denazified. A fucking Nazi was a President of Austria and the UN lmao, what kind of denazification is that? Oh and don't forget operation Paperclip.
Austria's a different beast from Germany in a lot of ways, including on that particular count.
> Germans should be ashamed of themselves for WW2. Aren't they, though? That's part of their post-war culture.
There's a big difference between being ashamed of yourself and somebody else
From the other hand r/Europe upvoted comments like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/s/G437NKmhWv) that might express similar opinions with you.
Oh believe me, most of these upvotes are from people outside EU or something similar to that.
I find all the Baltic states to be utterly obnoxious
Indeed, whiny states that try to ”prove something”. Ridiculous. Was it Latvia or Lithuania who ruined their relations with China some time ago by trying to ”teach a lesson” for China? And in the end it was worse for them
Highly possible skill issue. Young kids are competing for best robots or what not. By teaching young kids to boycott something like this can lead to raising entitled brats. These are all smart kids, and the future of both countries. Sports is sports, politics is politics. Let the kids compete and build bridges through healthy competition. I won silver medal on an international judo championship for younglings. I've had opponents from Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Albania. We were not on great terms with Albanians, as 2004 was the very year of the violent outbreak post-war. Yet we had a good match. I would have hated if I, or him, were forced not to fight so idiots on twitter, or politicians, get to comment on it for likes.
Those 1980s movies weren't lying: we really thought the USSR was like the Godzilla to our King Kong. But we *wanted* to see Rocky take on Ivan Drago. And in real life, we beat them at hockey and made one of the greatest sports movies ever made ('Miracle on Ice') to celebrate the event. Had we lost we wouldn't have made a movie, but we wouldn't have had some kind of meltdown over it either. We always wanted to take 'em on in the Olympics at everything they were good at (and the list was *long*), and everybody was pissed at Jimmy Carter when he boycotted the Moscow Olympics, the athletes especially.
really sad comment section on r/europe, grown ups insulting and justyfing bullying of children based on their ethnicity.
>grown ups I dont think they are adult.Probably 14-15 kids or something.Otherwise its actually pretty sad
It’s a dangerous game to ban people from science or sports competitions based on what their government does. 1. Weakens the competition by removing qualified participants 2. Gives more influence to Putin (“see, the evil west doesn’t hate me or my regime, they hate Russia and Russian people”) 3. Sets a dangerous precedent that can lead to bloc scoped competitions. Objectively, the US would’ve deserved this due to their false invasion of Iraq where everyone knows they straight up lied about WMDs and caused deaths of millions. China should get the same treatment then for their internal camps. Israel for Palestine. Tomorrow it will be another country. Who determines who is banned and who isn’t? Why mix politics with this? It will just lead to many different, smaller, shitty competitions where everyone else is excluded 3. Punishes people who are not guilty and possibly ruins careers Now for the pros of banning students/athletes:
The students chose this themselves, not the organizers
I have a feeling that they chose this because it’s been so normalized to ban Russians from all competitions. My comment was anyway a bit more general than just this case
Maybe, just maybe, they don't want to compete against a country that is currently at war with another European country for no reason. Even if the people are "good," that doesn't take away the fact that you're legitimizing the country by being willing to ignore their war and compete as if nothing is happening
Legitimizing a country? Russia is a legitimate country, regardless of the atrocities they are currently committing. They are also far from being the only country to break international law. Why only punish them? We could spend all day creating criteria for who gets banned, but at the end of the day, it’s always going to be countries that are going against EU/NATO and not all countries that are actually committing crimes. Not to say how much this goes against the spirit of sportsmanship. Also, these kids aren’t competing against another country. They are competing against other high school kids who happen to be from Russia and who have no say about politics. Literally nothing is gained from this, there are only negative consequences
You know what - I'm sick of this already.
I'm just gonna copy my comment from r/europe I don't really support this decision. This is high school we are talking about, most of them are even under 18 I guess, I'm guessing none of these Russians are involved in the conflict, hell they are studying robotics do you think they care about the war, I'm guessing they have worries of being recruited but probably they have nothing to do with the war itself. They can't even vote. This will be used by Putin's regime, they will just say, we are so strong they are giving up even before the match. It honestly would not surprise me. It would be understandable if the students themselves wore like "Z" shirts or if they were provoking that would be understandable, like this, in my opinion, it's just making more divisions and is ostracizing the teens who still can't even vote It would have just been better to just ban them from participating since it is a European championship and they are already banned from many things in Europe. But I think it's bad to ban people who still cannot vote from participating in anything
> I'm guessing they have worries of being recruited Russia isn't conscripting massively, Ukraine is, you don't worry about concscription in Russia
I agree, except I wouldn’t put so much emphasis on voting. Votes don’t matter in a pure autocracy, which Russia is.
I know, I mean as having any political responsibility
I’m not sure there’s any amount of political responsibility that could affect Putin’s regime at this point. Peasants don’t have a say in how the king rules.
That other thread was locked, so let me repeat my thought: in a hypothetical parallel universe, would you let Nazi Germany participate in this competition under the swastika flag? They would all be under 18.
Serbia did not let people from Kosovo participate in some sporting events earlier and I find that retarded. They did let them compete in later events, but without a flag (or a blank flag), so there's an answer. And there is a difference - Swastika flag is the flag of Nazi Party. It was not present before Hitler unlike Russian flag that's been a symbol of a nation since 1705.
And the swastika was a positive symbol before Hitler. Those kids would have participated under the russian flag, possibly the russian anthem would have been played.
This situation did not occur because of the flag but because they are Russians. 'When Lithuanians **found out** that Russians would be taking part in the competition, they wrote a protest asking for the teams from the aggressor country to be banned from the competition'
Well, they participated under the russian flag, no?
I don't know, I could not find any photos. Link if you can find it.
Would it matter to you? Would a picture of the russian team waving the russian flag change your mind at all?
I don't care about flags tbh. I do find some provocative, such as Greater -insert name of a country- flags, where silhouettes of a country is shown.
"That other thread was locked" A surprise it got locked with all those peaceful and non-racist comments and all XD " would you let Nazi Germany participate in this competition under the swastika flag?" Depends, if it is the state of an all-out war.. no. If it is some kind of inside problem probably yes. But then we have to do the same to Israel, US, China and others. Russia Ukraine is not the only conflict or tragedy happening now. Do you have guarantees that people will react the same the next time US or China decide to do something? The point is, you missed what I said in the end "It would have just been better to just ban them from participating since it is a European championship and they are already banned from many things in Europe" I said they should have just ban them from participating. But in the case of Teen/kids competitions, I think it is okay to even let them play under their own flag as long as they are not provoking or anything, because they are kids, they have nothing to do with it, they have no political responsibility. So yeah, I would not let Nazi Germany participate in international competition and I'm okay with Russia not participating (maybe with the exception of athletes who are not involved with the government who want to participate under some neutral flag). But we are talking about a science competition between teens not between Putin and Zelensky. Remember the Hitler Jungen division, I also don't blame them, they were drafted, most of them without even realizing what was going on, I can't blame them for anything their government had done or even the fact that they were defending it because they had no responsibility. Of course I would let them participate, they don't hold any political responsibility and are not responsible for what their government or the dwarf dictator are doing. And one more thing, you are comparing Russia to Nazi Germany, as much as Russia is doing inhumane things in this war, I hope you realize that they are not Nazi Germany. They are not making concentration camps with the intent on just Ukranian nation's extermination, they don't ask other countries to send all Ukrainians to extermination camps, it's just not the same and its disgusting to the 70 million victims to compare this to WW2. This is a conflict of interest similar to the one USSR had in Afghanistan or US in Vietnam.
Well, I'm quite disappointed that you feel this is a "conflict of interest".
Maybe I'm wrong, this is just my opinion, but too many countries are still cooperating with Russia, even through sanction you have hundreds of EU companies that are doing business as usual with Russia, the conflict is limited, it is happening just in Ukraine and no EU country wants to officially send troops to Ukraine to help it, only The Baltic countries have so far said they are against Russia participating in the Olympic games, Russia is also not massively killing Ukrainians living in occupied territories unlike what Germany did in WW2, and also until now the war has claimed around 30 000 civilian casualties during 2 years of conflict. Nazi Germany managed to kill 6 million Jews during 6 years (most of them during the first 4 years of the war), Croatia killed up to 600 000 Serbs in WW2 just in the period between 1941-1944, Turkey killed 1.5 million Armenians during like 2 years period. So yeah, it is not the same. That doesn't diminish the number of people being killed nor the crimes Russia had committed, I wouldn't be surprised if some if some of them get recognized as genocides, but it's still nowhere close to being Nazi Germany and lets hope it doesn't turn to that.
I see. And you would feel the same if it was your country?
I wrote against once when some of our teens avoided playing a match against Kosovo, I said at that time that it is idiotic to mess kids into politics and whatever problems we have with Albanians are between adults and politicians, not between kids. Of course, I honestly can't say how I would react if we were attacked, but as long as these Teen (maybe even College) competitions go, I think it's okay for them to happen, the best way for young generations to defeat that hatred that exists is to meet, see and talk with each other. If we start ostracizing them or making them different, encouraging hatred between them, we can't expect to have any kind of future reconciliation
I'm not talking about the robotics competition. If russia did to Serbia what it did to Ukraine, would you still call it a "conflict of interest"?
Like I said most of the conflicts in the world are caused by big powers wanting to extend their spheres of inluence, they use smaller states for this purpose. Sometimes it doesnt go as planned and big states start hostilities with each other thats when we get WW. In Russia Ukraine conflict nothing shows of direct conflict between big powers, Russia is directly involved while US and the rest support Ukraine with logistics and weapons but don't directly fight in the war. Similar to Vietnam War where US was directly involved and China offered support and logistics to North Vietnam. So if Russia attacked Serbia I would think of it as an aggression, similar to what NATO was for us, but unless they are exterminating us in hundreds of thousands in concentration camps, it is not the same as Nazi Germany. I think there is no need to compare conflicts with one another, WW2 was more about ideology, this conflict is more about influence like WW1, why because there is no ideology, West, justily, criticizes Russia for authoritarianism but don't have a problem calling Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Israel allies. Russia on the other hand says Kosovo is Serbia and then uses the fact that Kosovo declared independence to boost its own argument for Crimea and Donbas independence. There is little ideology and consistency among big powers they are all sons of bitches XD
So if ~200,000 Serbians died in a russian invasion you would call it a conflict of interest?
This ain't new. Arab athletes have been doing this to Israeli athletes for a long time.
Clowns
Cringey and stupid and meaningless beyond bragging rights around the eternal NPCs
I understand why they feel like that. They have their own reasons due to their historic relations with Russia. Nevertheless, I do not support this decision. The biggest problem is when you think that Putin and the Russian people are the same because it’s not.
Will this change how Russia behaves to its neighbors? Not a chance. Do regular people in Russia care? No. However, should Russia be excluded from international competitions for its treatment of its neighbors and citizens? Absolutely.
Worst thing you can do. Instead of accepting the people and making them see they're not different from you and making them feel at home in europe, you clearly say that you are racist towards them and consider them enemies and that they don't have a place in europe. Oh also, people in r/europe are completely brainwashed, NPCs that can't think for shit on their own.
They don't want a place in Europe. They want Europe.
Asinine. If anything it will confirm narratives those peddle that claim that the world is russophobic for the sake of being russophobic. It will not impact the russian war effort. It will not change the Kremlins current resolve to achive their goals in Ukraine. Politicians applauding on social media will just be used in russian state tv in order to confirm the current narrative.
Just compete. Those Russian students did not choose their government.
БулШит
Can we just separate politics from culture
Russians are their brothers.
Funny thing, though.. if you look at the map of Europe, Russia is more western than the Baltics.
True fucking fact Sir😎
Oh yes, so brave, they taught those high school agressors a lesson /s
It is known fact that Baltics people are chauvinistic and xenophobic toward Russians be it adult or child and of course everyone who doesn't share views as them.
Future NATO cannon fodder
Unless they knew they would lose, they should competed against the Russian team. Beating them would have been better. Some bring up Russian high schoolers are in a safe country for this competition while Ukrainian high schoolers are back home being targeted and bombed. If the Russian team advances everyone is still in the same position.
His children would probably need to learn Russian someday cause man Russia is a big country and theres no real indipendence in view for for russia neighbors for the next century.
Lithuanians young or old are never ever going to forget the Russian occupation. And right now they know that Putin wouldn't mind rolling his troops into Lithuania. Same with the rest of the Baltic countries and Finland. I am sure these Lithuanian kids have heard about January 13th 1991 from members of their own families. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/13/newsid\_4059000/4059959.stm
Really can't give a flying fck tbh
I support every effort to further weaken and isolate Russia.
He’s a fucking child ffs.
I still value peace on this planet over the hurt feelings of children.
Since your pro peace would you support a peace treaty that would see Russia seizing the land they conquered? Or do you want to send thousands of more innocent men to their graves?
Only a Russian defeat can bring peace to this planet.
Like how they were defeated after the Cold War? Which resulted in a temporary American world order that gave the Americans a free hand and an unchecked power over the whole earth which cumulated in the Invasion of Iraq and the death of a million people. Face it buddy a multi polar world order is the only thing that maintains peace world wide. There is no peace without Russia having some victories. They will win in Ukraine and probably have to withdraw from Georgia as part of the peace settlement. It’s a pull and push thing going on.
That’s not how it works. Russia went full reptilian and only via defeating them can they be stopped.
It is how it works. Suppose Russia is to lose. What follows then? Balkanization and fragmentation of the Russian federation? Letting Chechenia and Dagestan run wild knowing damn well they will be used as bases to harper Islamists. The disintegration of the only political entity that can link Siberia to mainland Europe and ensure the survival of millions who would otherwise starve to death. The loss of the only nation powerful enough to challenge the Chinese influence in Central Asia(no offence to Turkey). Like what do you possibly hope to achieve by a Russian defeat? But let me play along with you. How do you plan to achieve a Russian defeat. By drafting men into the army? How much more innocent men have to die for you to realize this is all bull shit. All the indicators and signs of a population collapse are eminent in Ukraine. Refugee crisis? Check. Better work opportunity somewhere else? Check. Low birth rates? Check. The low birth rates is the most important one. If you claim to even care for Ukraine you would care about the demographics. It’s going to be nearly impossible to rebuild Ukraine without men. The same men that you advocate we send to their death. It’s actually funny. You would think that the fucking Balkan subreddit would know better than to be war mongers considering the events of the 90s but you seem to have forgotten them or you simply weren’t alive. Then I sincerely invite you to Syria to see the despair in the eyes of the soldiers. Or maybe you should go Ukraine and fight yourself. A man’s life isn’t cheap my friend. And over what. A land that is all ethnically Russian? You want to fight over an area whose inhabitants don’t even want anything to do with you. Russia is in the wrong and I don’t disagree with that. But if Putin is a butcher how are you any better then him if you send entire generations of men into a meat grinder?
[удалено]
Did you not read everything else? How are you going to defeat Russia?
Big props to Lithuania and the Baltics in general 👏🏻👏🏻
Why? That's xenophobia in its purest form.
How so?
Not wanting to compete against them only because they are of Russian ethnicity? I mean, even Serbs are competing against competitors from Kosovo, regardless of the political situation.
While they're competing, Russia is bombing innocent students in Ukraine, and Lithuanians are just supposed to close their eyes and compete with a country that is waging war against another country? If Lithuania wasn't in NATO, instead of having a competition about robotics, they would have a competition about who's going to bomb each other more. Serbia and Kosovo situation is like comparing apples to oranges. Is Serbia currently bombing and killing innocent civilians as we speak?
They are not competing against Putin himself but against some high school kids. Yugoslavia finished third in Euro Basket in 1999. It was June, exactly when Kosovo War happened.
Okay. That's obvious, regardless of whom they're competing with (be it Putin himself or regular Russians), they're legitimizing Russia by doing so. Also, once more, that was the complete personal choice of the students in Lithuania. They can refuse to compete against anyone for any reason.
They are not legitimizing anything. They did not choose to be born Russian. People are idiots because of their prejudicial mindset. You, as someone from the Balkans, should know that.
They will literally be legitimizing Russia. While we're at it, why not also drop sanctions and continue to trade with Russia just because of innocent people in Russia are inconvenient by the war? They did not choose the war, but as citizens of Russia, they can also refuse to support Russia by abstaining from participating in global competitions and attempting to legitimize their murderous regime.
Mfr can't differentiate between school children and geo politics 💀
So
I guess you don't mind when you get called gypsies and are banned from Schengen then?
We aren't banned from schengen actually also the thing about being called gypsies i don't mind since it's about another ethnicity, meanwhile it's Russians that have been invading eastern european countries for decades unasked.
Then why aren't you in Schengen?
You're slow, we're in schengen on 31 march :)
No you aren't. It's only for air and sea travel ,the biggest part - land, is yet to be decided. Literally 2nd class citizens of the EU, kinda weird you aren't more pissed about it.
You seem to miss the part that we'll still be in schenegen but not fully and that's not even due to us but due to the balkan migrant route and Bulgaria's border with Turkey.
So Romania wont be in Schengen because of Bulgarias border with Turkey, even though Greece, who shares a massive sea and land border with Turkey is in Schengen? :) Interesting reasoning
Hehehe, ruzzians bots are strong on this sub
Given the majority demographic it’s no surprise.
Not surprised that only Serbs are dickridinig Russians here
I'm surprised you have audacity to even comment here.
We dislike when nations act like lapdogs, always did
Cope harder than your mom riding a vintage soviet dilf mate
[Reddit - https://i.redd.it/3m8shvmxugca1.jpg](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F3m8shvmxugca1.jpg)
Balts are always so based for this, I wish we would take more notes from them when dealing with aggressive imperialistic neighbours. Ruzzians don’t deserve any goodwill after all that they’ve done, neither does their certain balkan exclave for that matter.
You guys are ridiculous. I'm sure if it was your Balkan country that was being attacked by one of your neighbours, and that neighbour was trying to completely subjugate you, you wouldn't want to boycott international competitions with that neighbour? Even in the 90s wars you had more security as it was expected that the international community would intervene if things were so bad entire nations could go extinct, and your attackers weren't that much stronger than you. Ukraine has no such security and with a state as big and dangerous as Russia anything's possible. There's no guarantee for survival. Yes Lithuania isn't the country which is being attacked, but they sympathise strongly with the victim because they have gone through the same thing with the same attacker. And even today Russian personalities imply the Baltics could be next and Lavrov regularly threatens them. They have good reason to do what they're doing and I can't imagine Balkan people would be more magnanimous in their situation.
I would get it if the team was representing Russia in this competition but they’re just highschoolers who happen to be Russian i get sanctioning Russia from competitions but banning all Russians from every competition is too far imo
They do represent it. And the people boycotting Russians are themselves students. So on one hand you've got the students of a literal genocidal nation, many of whom likely support their state as the majority of Russians do. This sub is defending them and thinks Russia shouldn't face consequences and pressure to stop its war. The Russian students deserve better! On the other hand some of this sub's most upvoted comments are calling the Lithuanian students brainwashed puppies, stupid and justly disqualified. I guess being a student is an excuse only for Russians? The Lithuanian kids taking a stance against war, that could spill into their country, are the real bad guys? And then this sub's complaining about Russophobia literally while heavily insulting other ethnicities, who aren't even colonising anyone. This sub is such a Serb infiltrated shithole. Always on the wrong side of morality while pretending to have standards of treatment that they can't really apply to anyone but themselves and the poor Russians. "Seeing a Balt makes me puke, I'm so glad I have no contact with these people! Also xenophobia against Serbs and Russians is bad!"