Meanwhile In Balkans...

[bojan]

3 hours ago, Markus Becker said:

What in the name of fornication...

State Media is singing the praises of the protesters loudly and the Amb is doing that? 

It is a bit old, IIRC he did it in IIRC February.

[JWB]

No end in sight:

 

[blatob]

Yeah, the fifth night, my arse, pardon my French. In a bit, we will reach an anniversary.

[bojan]

9 months and 16 days of protests, with government violence (via their thugs) starting on day 4 or 5.

[Markus Becker]

What a god awful mess! 

I have been reading the last few pages and holy fucking double standards. If Orban would do a third of this, our MSM would be screaming so loud, you'd still be at the risk of hearing loss in Serbia. 

 

[mandeb48]

On 8/16/2025 at 7:34 AM, blatob said:

. Everything is used -importing voters from other countries who are given citizenship over the night, with fake ids and fake addresses (dozens people on a address that is empty lot covered in gravel),, people having to make a photo of the ballot to show thst they voted for dictator in order to keep job, voters being payed with cooking oil and sugar to vote... 

Despite living on the other side of the world, many of these techniques sound familiar. A local variation was to give voters  sneakers, but only for the right foot, before the election. And to give  the left foot after the election if the desired candidate won. That was before the popularity of cell phones and the ability to film the voting process to receive the  reward.

Good luck to the Serbs in their fight against corruption.

Edited August 18 by mandeb48

[ink]

The FT on how the EU and UK should dump Vučić:

https://www.ft.com/content/c232a3c8-3f0e-495f-8280-dea6fccd292e

The article (typically) downplays how bad the regime is, but it's the first real criticism of it I've seen in Western media.

 

[bojan]

Guess it was paid article, but still, fuck, what an imbecile "journalism":

https://nypost.com/2025/08/24/opinion/the-west-needs-embattled-trump-ally-serbian-president-aleksandar-vucic-to-succeed/

[blatob]

Payed with our own money. Won't be the first time he does that, nor the last. Trump's ally, my arse.

[Roman Alymov]

I wonder how accurate is this analogy with Ukraine and Belorussia events?

https://youtu.be/_cQCrMlQbOI?feature=shared

[ink]

17 hours ago, Roman Alymov said:

I wonder how accurate is this analogy with Ukraine and Belorussia events?

https://youtu.be/_cQCrMlQbOI?feature=shared

I only got three minutes into the video and already I can answer your question: not at all.

Even from the first few sentences it is clear that the commentator is looking at this thought wrong-tinted glasses.

I don't want to speculate as to why that is, but every single thing he said in his opening remarks is wrong. Makes it hard to continue listening really.

[blatob]

I honestly tried to listen to the video. I have no idea who these people are, but it is so full of crap that I cannot think of anything other then:

1. Intentional spreading of misinformation for the benefit of our dictator.

2. These people are delusional and have no connection with reality whatsoever. Maybe 15mg of haloperidol can help.

If you want to watch this, I suggest to have several sturdy plastic bags for your sick and strong masochistic streak. 

Edited August 30 by blatob

[Roman Alymov]

Thank you, it is nice indication of how people at a distance from events fail to understand them (or, may be, fail to convince participants on the ground that they do not see general picture). Most of Western media reports about events in Russia are of the same quality.

[blatob]

"You will always find some Eskimo ready to instruct the Congolese on how to cope with heatwaves."

 

[Stefan Kotsch]

1 hour ago, Roman Alymov said:

Most of Western media reports about events in Russia are of the same quality.

A 'blind man with a crutch' can see that a mafia-like kleptocracy is turning the Russian constitution into a whore at short intervals. With the aim of securing unlimited power for all eternity. The Kremlin's best friends are accordingly Kim-Korea, KPCh-China, Mullah-Iran...
Even Roman is full of criticism of the Russian government and yet is completely powerless.  

As I said, you can't misunderstand that.

[ink]

1 hour ago, Roman Alymov said:

Thank you, it is nice indication of how people at a distance from events fail to understand them (or, may be, fail to convince participants on the ground that they do not see general picture). Most of Western media reports about events in Russia are of the same quality.

Even though I've never lived in Russia, I can sense that from reading them. It's hard explaining one culture to another. I imagine plenty of Russian reporting about the West is also ... sub-par.

[bojan]

33 minutes ago, blatob said:

"You will always find some Eskimo ready to instruct the Congolese on how to cope with heatwaves."

This is more oriented to those foreigners who want to know "eternal questions" about protests, but also expends that clueless video:

One of the things that those people fail to understand is how willing people are to help at grassroots level when it comes to certain things in Serbia.

Financing things? Enough pissed off people with good pays who can afford to donate money. IT community probably donated most - having 90% of that crowd vs you is pretty bad idea, since it is one of the few really well paid jobs in Serbia ATM.

Security on protests? Military veterans volunteered by hundreds to do it.

Food? Local people join together and bring food.

Marketing, social media work etc? People who do it for life volunteer their time.

Videos? Artists, art students, cinematography students etc.

First aid on protests? Students of medicine, nursing, medical professionals etc, etc.

Garbage cleaning (because we are not littering scum like their supporters) - loads of people stay after protests and clean.

Organizing trips to other towns where important things are happening? People self-organize via social networks, those with cars drive, those with spare money donate for gas etc. People who own their own busses also volunteer.

Loads of lawyers volunteered to help those arrested.

For supporters of the ruling party and people from ruling party themselves that is truly unbelievable, because they are typical "self-centrist" personal interests group, and they have to pay (or "pay") their supporters and "supporters" in order for them to do anything, or to try to use treats and force.

[ink]

13 minutes ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

A 'blind man with a crutch' can see that a mafia-like kleptocracy is turning the Russian constitution into a whore at short intervals. With the aim of securing unlimited power for all eternity. The Kremlin's best friends are accordingly Kim-Korea, KPCh-China, Mullah-Iran...
Even Roman is full of criticism of the Russian government and yet is completely powerless.  

As I said, you can't misunderstand that.

Not sure how much weight high-horse lecturing from Europe carries anymore. The way the EU's treating Serbia, for example, is literally no different to the way Russia and China are. And it goes to the very top of how the EU itself is run (tend to your own garden first).

All that European values crap went down the toilet years ago - perhaps you just didn't get the memo.

Edited August 30 by ink

[Stefan Kotsch]

8 minutes ago, ink said:

All that European values crap went down the toilet years ago

Ok, then I don't understand all the fuss about Vucic.

[ink]

14 minutes ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

Ok, then I don't understand all the fuss about Vucic.

Everything you said above about how Russia is run, but put in power and backed by the EU.

Now you know everything you need to 🙂

[Josh]

3 minutes ago, ink said:

Everything you said above about how Russia is run, but put in power and backed by the EU.

Now you know everything you need to 🙂

That is very succinct; thank you for that.

EU backed Russian style kleptocracy is a good short description for people unfamiliar with the situation.

i am again saddened that my country has done nothing to alleviate this situation under any president. We pretend like fighting this kind of thing is our bread and butter, and the hypocrisy is glaring for the 1% of Americans that read international news.

[Stefan Kotsch]

The East Germans swept away their government in 1989. But they are offended when Westerners tell them that the East German government was lousy and corrupt.

😉

[bojan]

4 minutes ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

The East Germans swept away their government in 1989...

Do you understand that higher % of Serbian citizens went to streets in the last 9 months than % of East Germans that did so in 1989?

[ink]

20 minutes ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

The East Germans swept away their government in 1989. But they are offended when Westerners tell them that the East German government was lousy and corrupt.

😉

Not quite sure what you're trying to say here. 

30 minutes ago, Josh said:

 

i am again saddened that my country has done nothing to alleviate this situation under any president. We pretend like fighting this kind of thing is our bread and butter, and the hypocrisy is glaring for the 1% of Americans that read international news.

Thanks Josh, good to hear you say that. Sadly, the US has also had a hand in keeping Vučić in power. 

[Josh]

33 minutes ago, ink said:

Thanks Josh, good to hear you say that. Sadly, the US has also had a hand in keeping Vučić in power. 

We are unfortunately going through something similar but less extreme right now, but clearly support for the corrupt Serbian regime crosses parties and administrations.

If we never called injustice out in another country, it’s obvious no one will call it out when it happens to us.

Edited August 30 by Josh