#access to the baltic

[lemayday]

get estonia'd

[thevagueambition]

people have begun validating prepper ideas in denmark out of fear of russia and i find it so absurd

even if they came here we would simply surrender immediately like we did during ww2 lmao

forget canned food and stock up on cream for the sahnefront revival!

[tenosit]

To be exactly fair, when my father first saw blue mold cheese while part of "Western Group of Forces" in GDR (he was new to locale and his new roommate bought it to try out with beer), he did throw it out. Had to buy replacement moldy cheese.

"I open my fridge and pull out some cheese. Moldy. The cheese has mold on it. Only in a society of morally bankrupt excess like the US could this happen."

[girl-lostconnection]

Harbour seal!Soap with Grey seal!Reader, send tweet.

Inspired by my dialogues with @nightunite about seal couple of Soap and Reader.

Seal!Soap who is elated to finally, finally have seal addition to the team. God knows he enjoys company of his squad mates and they are good lads, but sometimes he can’t help but yearn for someone who understands him on a different — primal level.

And here you come — strong and absolutely gorgeous, your grin wide enough to show short canines, tips of them peeking out from under your lips, Soap’s own grin so wide it’s inappropriate.

He knows you feel that too. The pull, the excitement, the basic creature in your head huffing happily when he smacks your shoulder a little harder than necessary.

Soap licks his lips when you tilt your head at him, your eyes shining and oh, this is going to be good.

Gaz raises an eyebrow silently, already planning to take his leave and let Johnny get properly acquainted with fellow seal hybrid when the mad bastard full on locks lips with you.

Soap’s hands cupping your face, eyes wide open (why the fuck his eyes are even this widely open, why would he stare in your eyes like a bloody lunatic??) and then he angles your head carefully to shift your jaw and get access to the soft wet insides of your mouth.

It’s not too deep, not too heated, but just enough to get to know each other properly.

Johnny knows that you could break his fucking jaw if you actually wanted, you are bigger than he is — probably stronger too.

But you don’t mind, readily accepting a chance to greet him properly, to feel him up as well.

Soap drinks in it, shudder running down his spine when your fingers slip under his T-shirt, stroking the line of his spine — his whole body melting into yours.

“Mate— come on, what the fuck? Let them go”, Kyle hisses, bird part of him enraged at Soap’s lack of proper courting or a basic fucking “can I kiss you”. Who even jumps in straight into the abyss like that?

If Johnny heard him (and the bastard definitely did, Kyle saw the way Soap curled himself around you, just pressing himself in harder) he prefers to ignore Kyle completely, giving all of his attention to you.

Soft, warm, welcoming you who stares right back in his eyes — laughter simmering on the edges of your irises, smile already crinkling the corners of you. Pretty fucking seal. God, this is just grand.

Best fucking day of his week.

Soap finally pulls away, licks his lips before grinning wider and pressing another short kiss to your wet lips, primal part of him sated and happy, human part of him vibrating with excitement.

He was accepted so well, you didn’t push him away — you like him too, you are happy too, you’d like him to “chat” with you again. You are a little far from home, but you definitely already tried out local waters - he can taste salt on the tip of your tongue.

“Baltics, eh?”, Johnny hums like Kyle should understand what the fuck does it even mean, but you happily nod and Gaz feels like wrapping himself around you as well. That’s probably the concussion speaking in him, he should get checked out pronto.

“Welcome to the Taskforce, sergeant”, Soap grins like a maniac and grips your shoulder, your fingers still stroking the line of his spine. Your fingers still under T-shirt of his. “Good to have you here.”

“Thank you, sergeant.”, you just smile back like nothing special happened, like it’s a regular occurrence for you to get kissed by someone you hardly know — your new teammate no less.

Kyle’s befuddlement written in letters so big Johnny actually takes pity on him and shrugs nonchalantly, his hand still on your shoulder, your hand still on his lower back, “Seal to seal communication. That’s how we talk.”

You just nod like it’s the most normal thing in the world, not even blinking when Gaz looks at you for confirmation because there is just no way. What do you mean, that’s how you talk?? What the fuck?

“I know it’s unconventional, I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself properly. It’s just been a little while since I met another seal”, you smile sheepishly, sharp points of your teeth peeking out from underneath your upper lip and Kyle has to force himself to swallow.

Pretty seal. Dangerous seal. Never before he wanted to switch spicies so badly.

“It’s alright. Glad to hear you feel…welcomed.”, Gaz musters up, mentally smacking the back of his head, bird part of him enraged that he is fumbling so badly, bird part of him already thinking about showing off.

Oh, this is bad.

Soap smiles wider and pulls you towards barracks, already chatting you up about your homeland and family and swimming and “we have proper waters not far, you up for a swim this weekend, bonnie?”.

Gaz rubs his face, quietly groaning in his palms before he turns to follow the two of you. God knows that’s concussion speaking, he should get checked out.

Because he is definitely (not) going to show off to his new teammate like some sort of pretentious wanker.

Bird part of him snaps in annoyance and Kyle sighs harder. He most certainly won’t.

Next one>>

[iamthetruenhaz]

Russia's prep work

I originally wrote this as a reply to a reddit comment about the prep work Putin's Russia has done to reconquer Eastern Europe (and Central Asia) and soften up the West in order to "reclaim" the "lost" global power status the USSR had.

Putin* has been prepping his "reconquering" of Eastern Europe and Central Asia since he stepped into office. He took on an openly anti-western course since the Munich speech in 2007. He probably saw American global dominance weakening following Afghanistan and Iraq and because Russia had stabilised after the 90s, he thought it was time to act.

First he paved the way with the Chechen war where he "won" and got to jump on the War on terror bandwagon and use Islamic terrorism as a boogeyman for his own imperialistic purpose to rile up Russians against external threats.

Then he invaded Georgia to probe the soil and see how the west would react. They mostly ignored him so he went on to meddle in Eastern European politics, coerce Ukraine for gas and fund right-wing parties all across Europe (at the time mostly to drive a wedge between Eastern and Western Europe and suck EE countries back into Russian orbit) while pumping anti-western sentiment and Soviet nostalgia at home.

He saw that the west was disunited because of the US-UK-EU split following the wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria. He capitalized on that in several ways using both the wars and the refugee crisis that followed. One, to increase racist and nationalist propaganda and stir up hatred against "the liberal gay western cabal" and the resulting Euroscepticism. Two, to prop up the "proper" traditionalist Russia as an alternative. Three, to paint Eastern European countries as a puppet of the US liberals who were "ackschually" nazis in disguise, which was easy when the West was divided between trying to coax them into the EU and leaving them as a buffer-zone backwater. The brightest example of the latter was in late 2021 when Lukashenko started dumping Middle Eastern migrants on the Polish border so the Poles could be painted as a racist, white supremacist state. Unlike, you know, Belarus (really Russia) which weaponized the migrants.

Then he failed in Ukraine when his puppet's sharp turn away from a planned EU accession path caused the Euromaidan revolts. Pro-Russian protesters soon spawned, staging provications (my own country had a wave of protests and pro-russian counter-protests back then and I remember neonazis and other paid protesters being at the forefronts). Russian media started hurling accusations of nazism against pro-western protesters.

All of a sudden, it's like a switch was flipped in Russian society. Decommunization was out the window. In 2015, Stalin was chosen as the most influential figure in *world* history by Russians. All the anti-Western, Russian irredentist, traditionalist, racist and homophobic sentiments coalesced into one, directed against the "evil nazi gay jewish West". Putin started openly provoking the West with displays of military force, close flybys in territorial waters, playing Cuban missile crisis in Kaliningrad. All to rack up the atmosphere of an imminent Cold War II and maybe even WWIII where a "wronged", "humiliated" Russia would finally make the West pay. The WWII victory celebrations also took on the appearance of a war cult, with jingoistic slogans like "we can do it again", "to Berlin" and "we're coming for the German women" displayed on every 9th May parade. Eastern European countries, especially the Baltics and Poland, noticed and tried to raise alarm, but were mostly told to keep their paranoia down and ignored.

In the last decade, he used his military and propaganda machine (what we call "hybrid warfare") to create the impression of the following: (1) The West is imperialist (and is being hypocritical about it), waging pointless bloody wars in the Middle East; (2) The West is weak in those wars, causing Russia to step in like in Syria and deal with the issue "properly"; (3) Western democracies are weak in dealing with "barbaric" refugees because they're too greedy not to let them in but too soft to throw the bad apples out (this was used to boost nationalism and Euroscepticism).

By those means, Russian propaganda managed to manipulate both anti-imperialist and nationalist groups within the West as well as in Russia and Eastern Europe and pave the way for its "just war" of "reconquering" Eastern Europe. In the West, the image of Eastern Europe was molded as either "poor backwards savages we're better off without" (for nationalists), "paranoid silly yokels crying wolf about Russia who is now playing nice" (for moderates), "ingrates not worth defending so we'll pull out" (for Trump-like US conservatives) or "backwards homophobic barbarians we don't want here because they'll ruin our utopia" (for progressivists). In Russia, they were portrayed as "lost property", accused them of being "taken over by nazis" anytime they tried to acknowledge any of the repressions suffered from USSR, and "unconscious puppets of the West" and routinely threatened with "annexation in 3 days" whenever they "misbehaved" by taking a stance against Russia's politics, whether past or current. Finally, in Eastern European countries themselves, Russia tried to ruin the image of the liberal West by portraying them as "the real fascists", "liberalism gone so far it circled back to fascism" and to prop up its own image as the "savior from debauchery upholding the good ols ways".

Also worth noting that Putin was all too eager to intervene in any country that tried to reject Russian dominance or even its own pro-Russian dictatorship. He was ready to support Belarus in 2020 and intervened in Kazakhstan in 2022 just a month before the invasion of Ukraine.

So yeah, it was quite the prep work. All to ensure that when he went on his imperialistic crusade in EE, people at home and in the West and even in Eastern Europe itself would applaud him, failing that be indifferent, failing THAT remain unheard.

* by "Putin" I don't necessarily mean just him, but the lobby behind him as well.

[ltwilliammowett]

Today on the second advent and door no. 8 we have a lovely pair, La Grace and Shtandart

More about them here:

La Grace is a replica of a historic tall ship from the 18th century that will sail the seven seas like the original ship 300 years ago. The aim of the project is to give anyone interested the opportunity to sail a historic ship as part of the Navy's training programme and to share the proud traditions of sailing.

The brig was built between 2008 and 2010 by a group of volunteers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia in an Egyptian shipyard in Suez using traditional craft techniques. The brig was designed by its owners (Josef Dvorsky and Daniel Rosecky) according to technical drawings published in 1768 in the Architectura navalis mercatoria by the Swedish admiral Fredrik Henrik af Chapman.

According to available sources, the original La Grace was a ship owned by the first Czech naval captain Augustin Herrman, a famous navigator in Czech history. He sailed across the Atlantic in the service of the Dutch West India Company. After leaving the company, he commanded the small privateer ship La Grace. This relatively weak and vulnerable ship with six cannons brought large quantities of captured Spanish galleons to New Amsterdam every year.

The Shtandart is a replica of an 18th century frigate. The original was the first frigate built at the Olonez shipyard under Peter the Great and the first ship to be commissioned as a frigate for the Baltic Fleet. During the Great Northern War, Tsar Peter succeeded in conquering the area that would later become St Petersburg on the Neva. With the conquest of the fortress of Nöteborg in 1702, Lake Ladoga was removed from Swedish control and the Tsar hoped to gain access to Finland. The aim of these endeavours was to gain access to the Baltic Sea in order to establish a port city there for trade and naval purposes.

The frigate was built from 1702 at the Olonez shipyard on the Lodejner Feld on the River Swir near Lake Ladoga, where it was given its name in reference to the newly introduced Russian naval flag, a standard. Tsar Peter personally transferred the ship to the Baltic Sea in 1703. When seven Swedish ships of the line, five frigates and other small ships attacked the mouth of the Neva in June 1705, eight Russian frigates, presumably including the Schandart, lay behind a barrage of trees. In 1712 and 1713, she took part in troop landings in Swedish Finland near Vyborg. No further use is mentioned after this action. The ship was decommissioned as unserviceable in 1718. In 1723, the ship was scrapped in St. Petersburg.

According to another version, Tsar Peter had ordered the Schandart to be preserved as a reminder of the beginnings of the Russian fleet. Tsarina Catherine I ordered the condition of the Petrine ships to be examined in 1727. However, the Shtandart broke up while trying to take her out of the water.

As a result of the sanctions against Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian ships are denied access to European ports. However, following a request from the Président des Amis des Grands Voiliers association to the French Secretary of State, the Shtandart was granted permission to call at French and Spanish ports and has remained there ever since. There are plans to put her under the French flag, as her captain strongly distances themselves from Russia.

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

How Russian colonialism took the Western anti-imperialist Left for a ride

Blindness to Russian colonialism distorts Westerners’ view of the Ukraine war

"Fucking shit Russian car," my driver spat as a Lada sedan passed us on the highway from Georgia's capital of Tbilisi to Stepantsminda during my trip there in 2019, shortly after our long conversation touched on Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia.

His momentary flash of anger was an eye-opening glimpse at the consequences of Russia's steadfast refusal to let go of the 14 nations whose independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union dictator Vladimir Putin infamously called "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" – not to mention the ethnic minorities still under Moscow's yoke – and its brutal punishment of Georgia and Ukraine for daring to seek a bright future outside of Russia's sunless orbit.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has cast a long-overdue spotlight on Russian imperialism and colonialism, yet many Westerners fail to grapple with how Russia's colonial legacy continues to this day and is part and parcel to its war against Ukraine and descent into fascism. Consequently, many end up whatabouting, excusing and even overtly sympathizing with an empire whose colonial practices mirror those of historical Western European empires in cruelty, chauvinism, thievery, exploitation, cultural erasure, racism and genocide and that is now ruthlessly attempting to conquer one of its neighbors.

Russia displayed that ruthlessness last week when it lobbed missiles at Odesa, damaging port and grain storage facilities as well as its historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"They're interested in lands and influence and a buffer zone between them and the West, in sea access – but not in people and not in culture," said Ukrainian Parliament adviser Yuliia Shaipova who, together with her husband, Aspen Institute NextGen Transatlantic Initiative member Artem Shaipov, was at home in Odesa after hiding in a nearby bomb shelter.

Yet, Westerners safe from bombardment like long-shot third-party presidential candidate Cornel West continue to accommodate Russia. In a July 13 interview with CNN's Kaitlan Collins, West called Russia's invasion "criminal" but insisted it was "provoked by the expansion of NATO" and is a "proxy war between the American Empire and the Russian Federation," adding Neville Chamberlain-esque icing on the appeasement cake by proposing Ukrainian territorial concessions to Russia.

The tell in West's remarks was calling the U.S. an empire but referring to Russia by its de jure name, implicitly erasing its imperial, colonial character. It's a common tendency among the segment of the left to which West belongs, one that Kazakhstan-born Pitzer College sociology professor Azamat Junisbai attributes to ignorance and a myopic, know-nothing focus on American imperialism to the exclusion of imperialism by other nations.

"They're kind of imperial about their anti-imperialism," Junisbai said. "There's something very provincial and strange about it where you literally do not know anything about what's happening beyond this one issue you care about."

While West and other leftists blame "NATO expansion" for provoking Russia, Junisbai compares NATO membership – which, after all, the former Warsaw Pact and Baltic countries all sought voluntarily – to a restraining order against an abusive partner.

"People don't recognize that there was an abusive relationship, that there was colonialism," he said, speculating that blindness to Russian colonialism could be due to a failure of Western education systems as well as Soviet propaganda and leftist valorization of the Soviet Union as a foe of Western imperialism. Another potential culprit is knee-jerk distrust toward American foreign policy popular among some leftists and alternative media that leads to a simplistic "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" worldview.

"People, I think, just get so wedded to their vision of themselves as fighting 'The Man,' fighting the power that they are blinded and taken for a ride by Russia, in this case serving as useful idiots," Junisbai said.

Both Yuliia and Artem Shaipov pointed the finger at academic studies of Russia in the West that view it through Moscow's imperial lens. The two have published articles advocating for a "decolonization" of Russia studies and greater attention to how veneration of the "great Russian culture" – such as the genocide- and conquest-glorifying literature of Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Pushkin – has provided a conduit for Russian imperialist ideology to sneak into the Western mind.

"Part of the reason is that it's Western academia that kind of perpetuates this imperial understanding of our region that benefits Russia's imperial policies," Shaipov said, pointing to how Western academic institutions place Ukraine and other post-Soviet nations under Russia's geopolitical umbrella of "Eurasia." "It speaks volumes about the reasons why still many people in the West see Ukraine and other independent states as the sphere of influence of Russia."

The resulting sympathy for Russia's imperial worldview finds expression among Western academics, media personalities and activists who deny Ukrainians' agency in repeating the Kremlin conspiracy theory that Ukraine's 2014 Revolution of Dignity was a "U.S.-backed coup" – as if Ukrainians couldn't have removed outrageously corrupt Kremlin stooge Viktor Yanukovych from office after his security forces murdered over 100 peaceful protesters without foreigners pulling the strings – or characterize former communist nations' NATO membership as provoking Russia rather than protecting them from it.

And it's a mindset rooted in over 400 years of imperialism and colonialism that caused atrocities as horrific as those of Spain or Britain.

Russia's conquest of Siberia starting in the 1580s, for instance, included the enslavement of indigenous peoples whom it forced to pay tribute in the form of furs known as yasak on pain of death, resulting in starvation as people struggled to meet yasak quotas instead of feeding themselves in a system some historians have compared to Belgian King Leopold II's enslavement of the Congo. Russian Cossack gangs raped and murdered while Orthodox missionaries stamped out native religions and alcoholism and smallpox decimated local populations. Today, indigenous people in Siberia and the Russian Far East frequently live in poverty while Moscow strips their lands' rich natural resources to line the pockets of oligarchs and fuel the glitz of cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, while their men disproportionately make up the cannon fodder that Russia sends to the Ukrainian front.

"If we take the Russia that is situated behind the Urals – the Central Asian part of Russia, the far East Asian parts of Russia, the [northernmost parts of Russia] – the cities are just being used for extractive purposes, so [the Russians] don't care even about their own people and minorities that are in Russia itself," Shaipova said, noting how nearly all of their enormous wealth goes to the Russian metropole. "So basically, take Norilsk or Irkutsk – those cities look like an atomic bomb has exploded there."

In the Caucasus, where Russia vied with the Ottoman and Persian empires for power, the Muslim Circassians, who had inhabited the area for millennia, resisted Russian domination. So in 1857, Tsar Alexander II ordered their expulsion to the Ottoman Empire under a proposal by Count Dmitri Milyutin, who said it would "cleanse the land of hostile elements" and open their farmland for Christian settlers. The result was the Circassian genocide in which nearly the entire Circassian population was killed or expelled to the Middle East, where most Circassians live today.

Junisbai's own life is a testament to Russia's thorough colonization of his country, which began in earnest in the 18th century after Russia conquered it. His mother tongue is Russian rather than Kazakh thanks to generations of Russification that made learning Russian essential to get ahead while casting indigenous languages by the wayside. That led to him being conditioned to look down on Kazakhs who could not speak Russian properly while growing up in Almaty, whose population during the Soviet era was about four-fifths Russian and had only two Kazakh-language schools in the early 1980s, while Kazakhs largely lived in rural areas. Meanwhile, his great-grandfather was a member of the Kazakh intelligentsia, for which the Soviets executed him at Omsk in 1935 during Stalin's purges. Consistent with Russia's pattern of extractive relationships with its colonies, Moscow picked Kazakhstan as the place to test nuclear weapons, Junisbai's mother growing up only a couple hundred miles from a testing site.

The 2022 invasion of Ukraine brought to the forefront the issues of language and Russian colonialism that Junisbai had been thinking about for a while. Today, he spells Kazakhstan's name as "Qazaqstan," reflecting the native pronunciation, rather than the more common Russian-based spelling.

"This invasion – just the scale of it and how blatantly imperialist it was – was a point of no return," he said, regarding how it got him thinking more about those issues. "Like how strange and horrible it is that I am stuck with Russian, and it's like having something stuck in my body, and I cannot remove it."

In contrast with its terrestrial empire building, Russia didn't have as much luck overseas, as its North American and Hawaiian colonies proved unsuccessful, along with its lesser-known attempt to partake in that most infamous example of European colonialism, the 19th-century Scramble for Africa.

Russia's covetousness toward Ukraine differs somewhat from its other colonization activities, but comes from the same underlying desire to subjugate. It stems from the popular myth that Russia is the legitimate heir to the medieval state of Kyivan Rus, centered on modern-day Kyiv, which Putin cited in a July 2021 pseudohistorical essay denying Ukraine's right to sovereignty, "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians." But as Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy points out in his new book, "The Russo-Ukrainian War," although the Grand Principality of Moscow – later called Muscovy – derived much of its culture from Kyivan Rus, 15th-century ruler Ivan the Great invented the myth of Muscovy's inextricable link to it by declaring himself the sole legitimate heir to the Kyivan princes in order to justify his conquest of the Republic of Novgorod.

"The independent Russian state, born of the struggle between Moscow and Novgorod, resulted from the victory of authoritarianism over democracy," Plokhy writes.

Shaipov said Muscovy inherited its political culture not from Europe, but from the Mongol Empire of which it had long been a vassal.

"This is their political tradition of authoritarianism, oppression and continuous imperial conquest," he said.

Ukrainians learned that the hard way in the mid-1600s when Ukrainian Cossacks rebelled against their Catholic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth rulers and established an independent state, seeking protection from their Orthodox co-religionists in Muscovy. But after helping them achieve victory, their Muscovite allies sought to dominate them, leading to another Ukrainian Cossack rebellion in 1708 that soon allied with Sweden. Muscovy defeated them at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, and in 1721, under Tsar Peter I, Muscovy became the Russian Empire.

In other words, Russian claims of lordship over Ukraine are about as credible as if British leaders called decolonization a "geopolitical catastrophe" and then dredged up medieval manuscripts to make the case against Irish independence.

The Russian Empire collapsed with the 1917 October Revolution, but that tradition of authoritarianism, oppression and imperial conquest persisted as the empire got a new coat of paint, trading tsars for commissars and rebranding as the U.S.S.R.

Numerous nations under Russian rule for centuries declared independence – including Ukraine as well as Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, the Tatar-led Idel-Ural State and others. But the Bolsheviks quickly invaded nearly all of them, forcing them into the newly established Soviet Union, which reoccupied the Baltic nations after World War II, leaving only Finland independent. In Ukraine, Stalin caused the Holodomor, a genocidal famine that depopulated most of the country's east, allowing its resettlement by Russians. In 1944, he accused indigenous Crimeans – for whom even the term "Crimean Tatars," Shaipov noted, is a misnomer with colonialist undertones – of collaborating with the Nazis and deported them all, allowing Russians to become a majority in Crimea too.

Those malign political traditions continued after 1991 as Russia crushed the fledgling Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and Tatarstan and sponsored pro-Russia breakaway states in Moldova's Transnistria region and the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Russia used false accusations of genocide as a pretext for its 2008 invasion, a tactic it would rehash in Ukraine six years later.

And they live on today in Russia's nationalist, imperialist, bloodthirsty and downright genocidal "Z" propaganda for domestic audiences.

Even Russian liberals remain far from untainted. While Westerners lionize Alexei Navalny as a freedom fighter, Junisbai highlighted his history of racism toward Central Asians.

"Navalny is not really well-liked in Central Asia because he's the person who contributed to hate crimes against Central Asians in Russia," Junisbai explained, lamenting how many Westerners continue to see that part of Navalny's past as marginal.

Navalny also drew scorn for a series of tweets on July 25 in which he called Russian war criminal Igor Girkin a "political prisoner" following his arrest for criticizing Putin.

Shaipov and Shaipova pointed to how Jan Rachinsky, the head of Memorial, rejected the idea of Russian repentance for waging war against Ukraine in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture last year.

"This understanding of themselves as an empire is part of their national identity, and this is also what concerns the so-called Russian liberals," Shaipova said.

At the same time, Junisbai said people inside Russia consistently fail to acknowledge their nation's colonial history.

"The surest way to offend a Russian person is to talk about colonialism or Russians as colonizers," he said

Instead, Russians overwhelmingly view themselves – in true colonialist form – as having civilized Central Asians, believing they were illiterate before Russia introduced Cyrillic, despite Junisbai's grandfather having written in Arabic script, and that if not for Russia they would still be riding horses and living in yurts.

"It's just like, 'we built your schools, we built your hospitals – how dare you be disrespectful, how dare you not appreciate us,'" he said.

This lack of self-awareness stands in stark contrast with European nations that decolonized and, although in fits and starts, today seek to atone for past injustices. In 2021, Germany formally apologized for genocide in Namibia in the early 1900s, while Queen Camilla declined to wear a crown at King Charles' coronation bearing the Kohinoor diamond, which Britain plundered when it ruled India.

Shaipov and Shaipova said Russia must also undergo decolonization, a process the world should not fear.

"In order for them to heal, they need to go through this healing process and repentance so that they can reconcile with neighboring countries and with the peoples that populate the Russian Federation," Shaipov said.

But Russia must first remove the Harry Potter-like invisibility cloak that has long allowed its colonial legacy to go unnoticed.

"Once you tear it off, then people can see the horribleness – like, how could people side with an abuser and against someone who's trying to take out a restraining order against this abuse," Junisbai said.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: Atlantic cod

Hello, do you have tome to hear the world of cod? You see, the Atlantic cod is one of the most popular food fishes in the world, but it is in danger. these mighty fish once dominated the north Atlantic, but their numbers have dropped massively due to overfishing. I will tell you the lord of the mighty cod so you too can become an evangelist for this magnificent fish.

(Image: an Atlantic cod swimming. It is a long fish whose widest point is just behind the head. Both the head and tail taper to narrow points. It has three dorsal and two anal fish, with small pelvic and pectoral fins. A single, curled barbel extends from the lower jaw. Its body is spotted brown and white, with a notable white stripe running down the side. End ID)

Gadus morhua is a bony fish in the Gadidae family of true cods. They are large fish, with adults typically reaching 1 - 1.4 m (3.3 - 4.6 ft), though there are record of individuals reaching up to 1.8 m (5.9 ft). Cod used tog et larger, but fishing has reduced the maximum size. Cod are long-bodied fish with a pointed face and a humped back that then narrows to the tail, forming a torpedo-shaped body. They have three dorsal fins and two anal fins, more that other fish have. The cod's mouth contains sharp teeth hidden behind prominent lips A single barbel extends from the lower lip. Atlantic cod have a prominent lateral line. The lateral line is a series of pores along the side that detect pressure changes, allowing the fish to read the movement of the water around them.

(image: a cod viewed from a more frontal angle, seen floating just above rocky sediment. End ID)

Atlantic cod are found in cold northern waters of the Atlantic ocean from the east coast of the United States and Canada, southern Greenland, Iceland, the British Isles, mainland Europe as far south as the Iberian peninsula, and north into the Baltic Sea and Arctic Ocean. They tend toward deeper waters along the base of the continental shelf, but can be found in shallower water as well. Cod are typicality found between 150 and 200 m (492 - 656 ft), but can dive as deep as 600 m (1969 ft). They are demersal, meaning they spend most of their time near the seafloor. They also prefer rocky seafloor to sandy or muddy. Cod are predators with a very wide diet that consists largely of fish and crustaceans, but can include molluscs, worms, tunicates, echinoderms, and comb jellies. Cod are also cannibals known for eating the young of their own species. Their barbels and lateral lines are useful for finding prey buried in sediment. Cod are shoaling fish, swimming together in large quantities. The largest (and therefore oldest and most experienced) fish scout ahead and seem to claim the largest and most varied share of the food. Even the smallest fish, who lag behind and get the smallest share of the food, benefit from being in the shoal as they get more food than if they were hunting alone. Atlantic cod are high on the food chain, with only large sharks and toothed whales being large enough to eat adults. In parts of their range, including the Baltic Sea, they are apex predators as adults.

(Image: a small shoal of Atlantic cod swimming together. End ID)

Cod reproduce seasonally, with the date varying based on the location of the population but usually taking place between January and May. For many, but not all, populations, the spawning ground is in a different area than a feeding ground, requiring a yearly migration. They are broadcast spawners, releasing gonads into the water and providing no parental care. Pawning occurs in batches, during which the female will release thousands of eggs for males to fertilize. Males compete for access to females by establishing dominance hierarchies and territories that they defend. When a female chooses a mate, they will ventrally mount each other can release eggs and sperm. The mounting ensures the maximum amount of eggs get fertilized. A mature female can release millions of eggs a year. The eggs and young larvae are carried by the current to nursery grounds. Larvae are sustained by a yolk sac for the first few weeks. Juvenile cod are vulnerable to predators and spend most of their time in rocky areas or amongst seaweed where they can hide. Cod become sexually mature between ages 2 and 8 (varying based on population and temperature) and can live for up to 5 years.

(image: a juvenile Atlantic cod. It is similar on body plan to the adults, but the coloration is different. It is a patchy brown and white, with brown stripes on the finds. End ID)

Atlantic cod are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. Their main threat is overfishing. Atlantic cod are one of the most heavily fished species in the world as their meat is high quality and tasty. The wild cod population today is a fraction of what it was before industrial-scale fishing started, with some estimates placing it at 5% of historical numbers. In particular, the North American population underwent a major collapse in the 1990s. This led to a trophic cascade, with effects occurring all over the food web. The collapse led to the cod's prey animals increasing in population, putting strain on producers. Interestingly, many of the local ecosystems affected by the collapse are beginning to stabilize, with former prey species filling the same role the cod did. The North American cod population has not shown signs of recovery despite regulations and bans on fishing in the USA and Canada. The Greenland and European populations are more stable, but still threatened by overfishing. Many seafood watch and conservation organizations recommend you not buy cod to reduce the demand and help populations recover.

(Image: two cod, with more in the background One cod is brown while the other look more yellowish. End ID)

[mariacallous]

US President Donald Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark has recently helped to highlight the growing geopolitical importance of the Arctic region in international affairs. As global temperatures rise and polar icecaps melt, increased access to Arctic resources and trade routes look set to make the region and major focus of international competition in the coming decades.

Since the Trump White House and the Kremlin began negotiations in February 2025 to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, potential cooperation between the United States and Russia in the Arctic has been high on the agenda. However, the US will face stiff competition from China in this arena, with Arctic initiatives occupying an important place at the heart of the strengthening strategic relationship between Beijing and Moscow.

Maritime strategy has long played a significant role in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s thinking as he works to expand Moscow’s influence on the international stage. In August 2024, Putin ordered the establishment of a Russian maritime collegium headed by his close personal ally and advisor Nikolai Patrushev, who formerly led Russia’s FSB security service and the country’s National Security Council.

The recent creation of a maritime collegium comes at a time when Russia is accused of engaging in a wide range of hostile naval acts including the sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea along with surveillance activities off the coast of Britain and other NATO member states. Unsurprisingly, one of the stated goals of the new collegium is to help secure Russia’s national interests in the Arctic.

[starstrike]

Free Disco Elysium papers

Disco Elysium is a profoundly thought-provoking game, and I’ve seen a lot of wonderful meta for it on here. Plus, video game studies is an incredibly interesting and rapidly evolving field! I think a lot of you would enjoy reading some published literature on the game! I’ve also seen people talk about how a lot of the online meta for the game comes without considering the Estonian context the game was made in. Guess what, there’s an open access journal for that! Baltic Screen Media Review did a special issue on Disco Elysium! You can find it here: https://sciendo.com/issue/BSMR/9/1 Some of these texts are... really dense, and not super approachable. I found myself checking out books from the library just to understand one (The Object Gives Rise to Thought: Hermeneutics of Objects in Disco Elysium; I liked it a lot! Having the lens of Disco Elysium to guide me let me understand the philosophical framework a lot better tbh). I haven’t read them all. Plenty of them have concepts in the titles I’ve never even heard of, especially because I don’t have much background in philosophy. But I learned a lot from them, and I’m excited to learn more. Have fun, everyone!

[ifindus]

I didn't know norway has interacted with HRE, could you tell us more about that?👁️

Of course!! Don't mind the essay below ✨

A direct relationship between Norway and HRE is difficult to find due to many reasons. One reason is that while HRE existed (962-1806) Norway was for the most part bound to Denmark and becomes non-existent in international relations. Another reason is the way that HRE was organized made it difficult to have a linear and stable relation. We mainly see potential interactions between HRE and Norway in two different ways: the Hanseatic league, and through wars and treaties.

The Hanseatic league.

The ­Hanseatic League was a guild of German tradesmen founded in the early 1100s, growing into a large organization for all German tradesmen by 1282. The guild was a result of common interests in trade and a need to protection; a network of alliances. They were essentially tradesmen based in the German area (HRE at the time) who banded together to make more profit in other cities and nations. Some foreign cities even getting their own areas where the German tradesmen lived and functioned as they would have under German rule. Bergen is a great example of this, and was the only Norwegian city included in the Hanseatic League trading network with an office, where still today there are areas referred to as the German dock. The League had their own laws and rules their members had to align with and had its high point from the 1300s to the middle of the 1400s.

The Hanseatic League founded the German office in Bergen at a time the Norwegian nation was weakened by the Black Plague. The access to grain from the Baltics was important for Norwegians and in Bergen the Germans got access to dried fish that came south from Northern Norway as well as fish oil, beer, iron, and certain fabrics. From around 1560, however, the Hanseatic League’s power in Bergen diminished as the Norwegian townspeople got a stronger trading position. Still, the Hanseatic League dominated the trade in Bergen until the middle of the 1700s. The Hanseatic office in Bergen was one of the last sold in 1754. The German population living in Bergen interacted with the locals through cooperation, competition, and conflict and had a great influence on the city.

The Hanseatic League was a major force in Northern Europe during the middle ages and more or less controlled all trade in the North, stretching from the Baltics to England. Middle Low German dominated the trading sphere and such has had a great influence of the Norwegian language and terms connected to trade. The Hanseatic League also made it easier for Norwegians to get access to continental goods and a more steady access to grain.

Wars and Treaties.

Firstly, there’s the German-Danish War of 974, where Norway fought along side Denmark against HRE. This is perhaps the only time we see a direct interaction between the nation Norway and HRE. HRE wanted to crush the Danish rebellion and prevent Viking raids further south. Denmark and Norway moved into German territory to ransack, and the first battle ended with a surprising Danish victory. After this battle, Norway returned home. A year later, HRE attacked again and this time they were successful, bringing the war into Denmark and even claiming Danish territory. The wat was a Danish loss.

Then we have the Treaty of Speyer in 1544 where the HRE Emperor recognised Christian III as the rightful king of Denmark and Norway and fully supported him against his rivals (just so far as to not aid them). In return Denmark-Norway would become pro-Hapsburg and respect the rights of the Teutonic Order, as they had had some disagreements over land previously.

Then there was the Danish-Norwegian involvement in the Thrity Years’ War (1618-1648) started in 1625. The war was in large related to a religious conflict within the borders of the HRE, and a want for European dominance between the Hapsburgs (Spain and Austria) and the House of Bourbon (France). The possibility to gain territories and seeing the war as a threat towards protestantism was what prompted Denmark-Norway to enter the war. Denmark was already present in German area due to trade and control of rivers leading into the sea around Denmark. The Danish intervention was financed by the Dutch and the English against HRE. The following battles were a massive failure for Denmark.

The Danish-Norwegian participation in the Thirty Years’ War ended with the treaty of Lübeck, signed in 1629, between HRE and Denmark-Norway. After the treaty, Denmark-Norway contributed to the war on HRE’s side and had to relinquish some territories. HRE and Denmark-Norway also ended up on the same side in the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678), fighting against France, though they were both occupied in different areas of the war and never fought together.

HRE and Denmark-Norway were on opposing side in the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1814), which led to the dissolution of HRE in 1806) and a cede of Norway to Sweden in 1814, but never engaged in any battles against each other.

Summary.

The most extensive and influential interaction between Norway and HRE was within trade and contact through the Hanseatic League, with extensive cultural exchanges affecting language and norms and even local Norwegian politics.

They rarely dealt with each other directly in wars and treaties as the treaties were mainly organized by Denmark and to avoid fighting each other in the wars. The one time Norway as an independent nation fought against HRE in battle, Norway won. And Denmark lost.

[whencyclopedia]

Birka

Birka, located on the island of Björkö in present-day Sweden, was an important trading center and strongly fortified town in the Viking Age which flourished from the 8th through the 10th centuries CE. Along with the town of Hedeby which is located in present-day Denmark, Birka was the most important Viking trading center in Europe. Due to its prime location on Lake Mälaren, which provided sailing access to the Baltic Sea through the Södertälje Canal, Birka attained great wealth as a mercantile settlement and entrepôt with extensive trading ties to Western Europe, Scandinavia, the Slavic and Byzantine east, as well as the Arab World. Birka was also the location where the Frankish missionary St. Ansgar (801-865 CE) first introduced the Swedes to Christianity c. 829-831 CE. UNESCO recognized Birka's importance in early medieval European history, declaring its archaeological site a World Heritage Site in 1993 CE, together with the neighboring site of Hovgården on the island of Adelsö.

Geography & Early History

Birka is located on the Swedish island of Björkö, which sits about 35 km (22 miles) to the southwest of the Viking town Sigtuna and 30 km (19 miles) west of Stockholm. In the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE), Lake Mälaren functioned as a bay adjacent to the Baltic Sea, and Birka was thus perfectly positioned near the northern long-distance trade routes that ran between the British Isles, Western Europe, the Kievan Rus, the Byzantine Empire, and the Abbasid Caliphate.

Although Danish and Norwegian Vikings sailed westwards towards the British Isles, Iceland, and Western Europe from the 8th-11th centuries CE, Swedish Vikings sailed eastwards, trading and raiding their neighbors in what is present-day Finland and Estonia as well as the Slavic Wends who inhabited what is now present-day eastern Germany. By the 800s CE, Swedish Vikings had managed to navigate their ships through the rivers of what is now Russia and Ukraine, penetrating as far as the Byzantine Empire and Abbasid Caliphate via the Dnieper, Don, and Volga Rivers. They brought back furs, silks, iron artifacts, and other luxury goods to Birka, which they then sold to merchants from Hedeby and Western Europe. The wealth that traversed the Baltic Sea also helped encourage Birka's founding at some point between c. 750-800 CE. As one of the earliest Viking trading hubs and one which generated (and, in turn, spread) tremendous wealth, Birka can be viewed as a catalyst for social and economic development in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, becoming part of a larger network of trading centers which sprung up across the region.

There had been an earlier trading center on the island of Helgö, which is located about 8 km (5 miles) to Birka's southeast, and it is probable that both Helgö and the area in and around Birka became inhabited sometime around c. 400 CE. The name “Birka” might mean "marketplace" or "place of commerce", although its location on the island of Björkö ("birch island") fosters the idea of a connection with the Old Norse word bjǫrk, meaning "birch tree". It is likely that the Swedish kings who ruled from the nearby island of Adelsö – this is where the royal residence of Hovgården was located – oversaw or took some part in Birka's founding and the organization of economic activities on the island of Björkö. Birka, located in proximity to the royal court, was protected by royal charters as the town greatly enriched royal and noble coffers.

Continue reading...

[artpollsblog]

Round 3 - Set 2

Please click the images or open in a new tab to see the full art.

Left: An angel's revelation to the Shepherds 1899 by Albert Edelfelt

Description: painting of an angel floating over a group of sheepherds almost all of them kneeing down, the angel is semi transparent and seems to glow the white light a contrast to the brown, black and grey tones of the shepherds and surrounding landscape

Propaganda: Even through the angels are portrayed as very humanoid the use of light gives it such an otherworldy feel that I really dig.

An angel's revelation to the Shepherds 1899 by Albert Edelfelt. The art is 56 × 44,5 cm. The art is in the Finnish National Gallery (link to the art here). The art was photographed by Jenni Karjalainen.

Right: The defense of the sampo (1896) by Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Description: An action scene in a long rowboat at night. Louhi, a hag who has transformed her arms into wings and legs into an eagle's talons, swoops down to attack the wizard Väinämöinen. Väinämöinen meets her eyes and holds up a sword, his long white hair and beard flowing in the wind. Other people on the boat strike at Louhi with spears. In the corner of the image, chained in the middle of the boat, sits Sampo, a magical artifact.

Propaganda: An epic scene from an old, famous story of the Baltic-Finnish peoples.

The defense of the sampo 1896 by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Tempera on canvas. The art is 125 × 122 cm. Accessed through Wikipedia Commons (link here).

[scotianostra]

October 11th 1297 was the date of the letter from William Wallace to the mayor of Lübeck.

Today in 1297 a letter from Sir William Wallace and Sir Andrew Moray to the mayors of Lübeck and Hamburg was drawn up, saying that "The Kingdom of Scotland has, by God's Grace, recovered by battle from the power of the English".

This is a remarkable piece of history, and I am honoured to have seen it in person when it was on loan to Scotland a few years ago.

The Lübeck letter was first discovered preserved in the Lübeck archives in the 1820s. It was often mentioned in books thereafter. In 1942, Lübeck, on the Baltic coast of Germany, was attacked by Allied aircraft. As a result, the town's archives, including the letter, were moved to a saltmine for safety. At the end of the war, the Soviet army took the papers east. The archives were later handed over to the archive administration of East Germany, but the medieval documents were not among the records. It was assumed that they had been lost.

In the 1970s Lübeck documents were found in the archives of the USSR. In 1990, after some negotiation, the town's medieval records, including Wallace and Murray's letter, were returned to Lübeck.

There have been calls for the letter to be returned to Scotland, whereas it would be nice to have it to display in one of our museums I think it is as much a piece of Lübeck's history as ours, and also as recipients of the letter it is rightfully there property.

Originally, there were two letters; one to Lübeck and one to Hamburg. The contents were identical and the letters were scribed within a month of the Scots’ success at Stirling Bridge.

The translated letter reads......

"Andrew de Murray and William Wallace, leaders of the army of the kingdom of Scotland, and the community of the same kingdom, to their worthy, discreet and beloved friends the mayors and communes of Lübeck and Hamburg, greeting, and increase always of sincere friendship.

It has been intimated to us by trustworthy merchants of the said kingdom of Scotland that you by your own goodwill are giving counsel, help and favour in all causes and business concerning us and our merchants, although our merits had not deserved this, and therefore all the more are we bound to you to give you thanks and a worthy recompense, to do which we are willing to be obliged to you; and we ask you that you will make it be proclaimed amongst your merchants that they can have secure access to all ports of the kingdom of Scotland with their merchandise since the kingdom of Scotland, thanks be to God, has by arms been recovered from the power of the English. Farewell.

Given at Haddington in Scotland on the 11th day of October in the year of grace one thousand two hundred and ninety seven.

We request moreover that you will see fit to forward the business of John Burnet and John Frere, our merchants, just as you wish us to forward the business of your merchants. Farewell. Given as before."

Significantly, the letter carries the only known impression of William Wallace's personal seal, which shows the Scottish Lion Rampant on the front and on the reverse, a strung bow with a protruding arrow. The inscription appears to read ‘William, son of Alan Wallace’, which is interesting in relation to determining just who Wallace was exactly. An Aleyn Waleys – described as ‘tenant le Roi du counte de Are’ – signed the 1296 ‘Ragman Roll’ and he is quite possibly William Wallace’s father.

Another thing about the letter is the fact that Moray is involved with it, Andrew de Moray was, in the North of Scotland every bit as important as Wallace, history tells us that he was wounded at Stirling Bridge and died of his wounds in November so how involved in this was he?, if I had a time machine I would use it to learn more about Wallace and Moray.

This is a great piece of history and as I said earlier, I would love it to be part of our archives and on display in a museum, but it is the property of the people of Lübeck and we as a nation are grateful that they lend it to us on occasion.

[lifenconcepts]

Barnacles headcanons! (There’s a lot)

Is likely a dawn/dusk person, and while everyone are still unsure wether they’re conscious and are tucked away in the rooms he probably enjoys to go out and enjoy to first and last rays of sunshine, takes in the peace and calm of the pod as he does one final patrol, and with a smile on his face begins or ends the day.

Likely needs glasses but doesn’t admit it over a fear for being seen as less of a person over that and as if he isn’t worth of being a leader, and so he never wears them unless he’s 100% sure he’s alone. Also likely worries if his octowatch breaks due to using it as an aid in case his vision fails him.

Strength > stamina. Pure brute force and sprint more preferable to constant force or jogs, and likely has more endurance in short bursts of energy vs using it on a spread out course.

Probably gives physical affirmation to his crew through shoulder or head pats. 

Has a list of phrases to say for each member of the crew to make them feel the most loved, had figured out what makes the best effect and jotted them down secretly.

Likely has some Siberian/Russian blood in him somewhere and so (if humanised..) his features resemble Slavic/Baltic faces somewhat.

Forgets basic bodily necessities to the point of being a danger to himself at times, being able to stay focused on more important things at hand and ignore any signals that his body is hurt or deteriorating until he practically collapses.

Is a picky eater.

Loves to do that breathing thing in the cold and watch a cloud of icy air escape his mouth.

Secretly loves cold ‘hot’ cocoa and tends to leave it around to cool down before drinking it.

Forgetful when it comes to keeping track of past memories and likely keeps a journal full or whatever information he finds important (stuff he must do, the adventures they went on, new information he studied, resources they gathered, moments he had with the crew, and the sorts).

When tired tends to elongate his M-s and N-s far more than average goobers.

Has accidentally purred before.

Receives gifts from the crew from time to time and treats it like the most important piece of equipment the world has ever seen.

Occasionally gets nightmares/night terrors.

Tends to read any brochure or information booklet he receives, often focusing his attention on things that hold practically no real purpose other than to fill space.

Tends to do things ‘by the book’ but has an open mind and insists that others find their way of doing things that works for them, encouraging them to try out new tactics and trust their gut.

Very skiddish when it comes to intimacy.

Touch starved but doesn’t mind that, dislikes anything more than a quick hug or pat on the shoulder, any longer and he becomes rather uncomfortable.

Whenever he gets hiccups he genuinely gets embarrassed enough to hide from the crew.

Quite private about his past experiences but very open about his feelings, being able to engage in a heart to heart conversation with those he trusts.

Despite facing conflicts head-on, he usually avoids actual conflict by escaping a situation - if feeling threatened, would rather leave the room than do anything. But does stand up for himself when necessary but usually prioritises others before him. If others aren’t in immediate or potential danger, he would usually just exit the room to not have anyone get riled up. 

Has many books he thought he’d be interested in but never gets past the first few pages and has to re-read them over and over since he takes such long breaks that he forgets all that he previously read.

Likes to stick his tongue out when it snows and eat the snowflakes.

Whenever he feels a bit lonely he listens to The Smiths (usually only when alone).

Has a bunch of different cds and a cd player despite having full access to modern technology that can cram it all into one tiny gadget. Tweak has tried to get him to change what he used, especially for some of his musical records being quite damaged, but he refuses as it gives him a sense of comfort and a strange sense of satisfaction - even when the music is all rumbly.

Sometimes worries that the windows to then octopod or gups may collapse under pressure of the water and gets increasingly tense when near one as the water is unsettled.

Loves to cuddle up in a thick warm blanket until he overheats and has to kick it off, then ends up pulling it back again for that comforting feeling until he’s too warm again and is stuck in limbo of either being pleasantly cold but no blanket or cozy soft blanket but too hot.

Occasionally blows air onto his paws just to see the fur move, as it gives an oddly calming effect on him.

Has helped build a few things around the octopod and always leaves a little touch of his own, wether it be putting a paw print on his finished product or indenting a little design with his claws.

Doesn’t like to scold his crew but sometimes has to so they understand what lesson he’s trying to teach, despite that, tends to try find the softer way to get a thought across and express what he needs of the team.

Sometimes growls to stim, but tends to only do it when alone as to not scare anyone.

Likes the texture of jello!

Is incredibly supportive to whatever his beloved friends and teammates identify as, and abides by their preferred pronouns and name.

Rarely asks for help, if at all, and has learn the hard way how to get out of some incredibly inconvenient and dangerous situations you would probably never even be in if it weren’t for overconfidence and desire to protect the beloved crew.

Is wildly unsure of how to react in romantic situations and often gets uncomfortable enough to announce his leaving and absolutely skiddadle out the scenes.

Loved animated movies as a child but grew up to enjoy drama and historical films.

Takes his dental hygiene very seriously.

Occasionally joins the crew to make silly little paper crafts and sometimes makes collages out of different colours to create landscapes he saw.

P.S I won’t be making any age/sexuality/show related headcanons but rather stuff that fits their personality. ALSO THEY ALL HAVE AUTISM. ALSO THEY ALL HUM TUNES.

Source? I said so. I am litterally going off nothing from the show apart from the vibe :3

[tomorrowusa]

Undersea telecom cables in the Baltic Sea connecting NATO members have been intentionally damaged. Russia is suspected of involvement.

Poland has suggested a regional effort to patrol the Baltic to reduce acts of sabotage.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday he wanted to launch a “navy policing” program to secure the Baltic Sea against Russian threats. Speaking to reporters in Warsaw ahead of a summit of Nordic and Baltic leaders in Sweden, Tusk said the initiative would be “a joint venture of countries located at the Baltic Sea, which have the same sense of threat posed by Russia.” "If Europe is united, then Russia is a technological, financial and economic dwarf in relation to Europe,” he added. “But if Europe is divided, Russia poses a threat to each and every European country individually.”

A fragmented Europe is easy prey for Putin. Countries in the region need to act together to ward off acts of terrorism.

The suggestion comes after a 1,000-kilometer-long undersea telecoms cable linking Finland and Germany, and another connecting Sweden to Lithuania were severed last week. A Chinese-flagged ship that departed Russia and sailed through the Baltic Sea is suspected of being involved.

The Baltic Sea is accessible only through Danish waters or through Germany's Kiel Canal.

Any country which isn't playing nice could theoretically see its access to the sea restricted.