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Threats, insults, and Kremlin 'robots': How Russian diplomacy died under Putin (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by deconstruct@lemm.ee to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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Russia's diplomats were once a key part of President Putin's foreign policy strategy. But that has all changed.

In the years leading up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, diplomats lost their authority, their role reduced to echoing the Kremlin's aggressive rhetoric.

BBC Russian asks former diplomats, as well as ex-Kremlin and White House insiders, how Russian diplomacy broke down.

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[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 33 points 1 year ago

It's actually hilarious how millennials are refusing to shit themselves in fear over hollow threats of nuclear apocalypse like the boomers did for decades.

Like, I'm going to die a slow death from microplastic poisoning. My kids will slowly cook to death as the earth warms. Instant death by fireball sounds pretty nice.

[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

idk, I think I prefer the constant fear, at least compared to the bloodthirsty calls for nuclear war to begin over Ukraine because ackstually Russia's nukes don't work anymore, and also nuclear war isn't really that bad anyway

[-] BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago

Who is calling for nuclear war exactly? Isn't the whole reason NATO boots are not on the ground because nobody wants a nuclear war?

[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've seen this on reddit and other hellholes from time to time

most people tend to have a degree of separation from it, like early on in the war when people were calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine (which would have necessarily meant NATO strikes into Ukraine or Russian territory, which would put us at the closest humanity has ever been to a nuclear exchange); about mid-way through the war when some countries were trying to form a "coalition of the willing" (article is more recent than when I was thinking though) to enter Ukraine that wasn't technically NATO forces but like, my god, you're really cutting it fucking close there; and some people nowadays are musing if F-16s could be used from NATO territory

there's also been some vague threats from time to time over Kaliningrad but luckily that's never escalated to outright military rhetoric, at least not yet.