I don't know about anyone else. but I nor our business, is any longer buying anything remotely Russian.
This is not so much choosing to take a side, but merely not wanting to be seen as condoning recent events.
'Hands off Ukraine!' Russian protesters, celebrities risk arrest to denounce Putin's war (yahoo.com)
I am appalled and concerned by the underlying threat of either chemical or nuclear attacks by Putin's military.
We want to avoid global conflict; we also want to prevent a country from being bombarbed as Ukraine is being bombarbed. Has there ever been a time when wisdom was more needed? Wisdom and courage and the right answer... or at any rate the best answer in the circumstances...?
I'm not trying to justify what Russia / Putin has done. No invasion of a sovereign country is right. Just as the US was wrong to invade Iraq etc., so is Russia here! However, we are only seeing what our media wants us to see. Sure, a good deal of what they show is is happening. But, as time tells us, some of the picture we were shown and became emotionally reactive to can be misleading. And some of it turns out to be absolutely false!
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Inside a Neo Nazi Music Festival | Decade of Hate
1,498,725 viewsSep 18, 2021
15.4M subscribersMusic festivals, like most cultural events, were badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, impacting both the smallest of DIY festivals to behemoths like Glastonbury. And this was no different for the neo-Nazi music scene.Rechtsrock is a German term for music that acts as a vehicle for far-right ideology.A key part of this scene are music festivals that act as key networking hubs for neo-Nazi groups across Europe. Festivals in Ukraine, Italy and Greece feature bands from across the Continent, and there’s a strong scene in Germany, which is home to some of the largest neo-Nazi music festivals in recent years.One of those festivals, held in the German state of Thuringia, drew in an estimated 5,000 neo-Nazis. It was organised by the Turonen, a violent neo-Nazi gang who were recently targetted in a raid by police where large amounts of cash, weapons and crystal meth were found. These festivals can make organisers hundreds of thousands of euros, which are then pumped back into the neo-Nazi underground scene.From Athens to Milan to Kiev and beyond, far-right music is a vital cultural weapon for right-wing extremists. And as the far-right music scene looks to make its return after a covid-induced hiatus - all eyes are on the authorities to find ways of dealing with this dark and twisted subculture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKX9OjNy_NI
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Washington Post
Ukraine turns a blind eye to ultrarightist militia
By Jack Losh
February 13, 2017
MARINKA, Ukraine — A jeep hurtles down a long, potholed road toward the front line. Inside, Misha, Monarch and Dinamo balance their assault rifles between their legs. The mood is upbeat; it has been days since these militiamen traded fire with their enemy entrenched across no man’s land.
They approach a Ukrainian army checkpoint surrounded by untended fields. This should be as far as these three gunmen get. The red-and-black flag fluttering from their SUV shows they belong to Right Sector, an ultranationalist group of paramilitaries banned from the battlefront.
But the guards wave them through. They drive on to join other members of Ukraine’s secret army holding the line on their country’s eastern frontier.
Please click on the below link to read more
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Because of things like this, the evils of racism etc. being allowed to exist, it can give people like Putin an excuse to invade. Again, I do not support what Putin has done and I have to voice my condemnation. But there is other info out there that can put this all in a better perspective. And our media is not doing that for us.
BTW: Where were they back in the day in condemning Bush?
