Russia and the World Cup

[paborn]

Going back to the OP's line of thought... It's actually pretty easy for an authoritarian police state to organise a sports tournament, forcibly prevent - or hide - any forms of dissent or trouble and present a very positive face to the world that convinces many. That, after all, is what happened in the case of the 1936 Berlin Olympics where Germany was prettified for the foreign visitors and any open persecution of Jews was temporarily put on hold.

Let's not forget, either, Russia's long tradition of Potemkin Villages - structures put temporarily in place to create misleadingly favourable impressions. Originally designed to fool Catherine the Great, they later served to fool the "useful idiots" from the West who visited Russia in the 1920s and 1930s and praised the things that they were allowed to see.

Yes, everyone seems to have had a good time at the World Cup - but let's not forget the underlying nature of the Russian state.

Just one litle, tiny quibble: an authoritarian state has nothing to do with the incredible quality of the game playing.....

[arsenal]

A pulsating match and while England didn't play well they still carried themselves like lions and did the nation proud. Congratulations to Croatia, the better team won. Have a great game against France.

[scottish-guy]

How the world reacted to England's defeat tonight:

http://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/...PbNl.mp4?tag=3

[goji]

1 Playing the world cup in a country where the temperatures are not too hot is always likely to produce faster & more entertaining football.
Unfortunately, it's Qatar next time.

2 The Russian government knows how to behave when the world is watching their PR stunt.

3 Ex Russian spy attacked with Russian nerve agent. After all the other suspicious deaths of Kremlin opponents, it'd not rocket science to figure it out. I'm just amazed they have been so clumsy in the execution of this execution.

[scottish-guy]

3 Ex Russian spy attacked with Russian nerve agent. After all the other suspicious deaths of Kremlin opponents, it'd not rocket science to figure it out. I'm just amazed they have been so clumsy in the execution of this execution.

Plenty of people - including the Ex British Ambassador to Uzbekistan - are quite vocal that they do not believe that the Russians are responsible at all. As you say it would be far too clumsy and obvious. Absolutely no proof the nerve agent originated in Russia - as said Ex Ambassador predicted long before the UK Govt had their narrative blown apart by their own research labs..

[frequent]

Plenty of people - including the Ex British Ambassador to Uzbekistan - are quite vocal that they do not believe that the Russians are responsible at all. As you say it would be far too clumsy and obvious. Absolutely no proof the nerve agent originated in Russia - as said Ex Ambassador predicted long before the UK Govt had their narrative blown apart by their own research labs..

"Plenty of people" in the Anglosphere thought male-to-male sex was a perversion worthy of hellfire when I was growing up. Plenty of Germans thought Hitler was the bee's knees in 1938. According to opinion polls plenty of Americans thought George Bush was a great president after 7/11

[Marsilius]

Ex Russian spy attacked with Russian nerve agent. After all the other suspicious deaths of Kremlin opponents, it'd not rocket science to figure it out. I'm just amazed they have been so clumsy in the execution of this execution.

An interesting article by Ben Macintyre in The Sunday Times put forward the theory that the atypical clumsiness of the poisoning operation might indicate that it was not organised by the Russian government itself but by the spy's ex-colleagues in Russian military intelligence. They may have been, it was suggested, operating "privately" against an ex-colleague who had betrayed them. Now retired from active service, they would not have had official resources to back their action but would have had enough old links to sources of novichok etc. to mount a viable independent attack.

It's just a theory and, as Macintyre wrote, the all-knowing Russian government would probably have been aware that something was afoot. But the authorities wouldn't have disapproved of an attack that much and their very indirect level of involvent, if any, offered them a plausible degree of deniability.

[frequent]

It's just a theory and, as Macintyre wrote, the all-knowing Russian government would probably have been aware that something was afoot. But the authorities wouldn't have disapproved of an attack that much and their very indirect level of involvent, if any, offered them a plausible degree of deniability.

Given what we know about the downing of the Malaysian Airlines aircraft, even implausible deniability is a Russian strength

[scottish-guy]

"Plenty of people" in the Anglosphere thought male-to-male sex was a perversion worthy of hellfire when I was growing up. Plenty of Germans thought Hitler was the bee's knees in 1938. According to opinion polls plenty of Americans thought George Bush was a great president after 7/11

Similarly "Plenty of people" (including the UK Govt and others) believe that Russia was responsible for the "Novichok" attacks - despite there being not a shred of hard evidence to support that belief.

I'm merely pointing out that others are sceptical, and providing examples.

[frequent]

... - despite there being not a shred of hard evidence to support that belief.

Heavens, they'd do well as members of the Forum