Do you live in North America or parts of Europe where your subway smells like p*** and s***? Then you definitely don’t want watch yet another video of a clean and safe Russian subway station (Trubnaya—a newer station from the mid-2000s) decorated for the March 8th holiday. 😉

@NinaByzantina

Stripped of Citizenship for the "Wrong" Opinion: Lithuania's Government is Terrified of Ballet Dancers

First, Lithuania stripped its best and brightest, the medal-winning Margarita Drobiazko, for the crime of participating in a professional ice dance (!!!) event in Russia. Now, that country also stripped a famous ballerina of Bolshoi Theater caliber, Ilze Liepa, of citizenship simply for thought crimes of expressing positive opinions of Russia in an interview.

Liepa (whose father was a Latvian ballet dancer and actor, hence her name), was a dual Russian-Lithuanian citizen until recently when she had her Lithuanian citizenship taken away. Her "crimes" included criticizing the Baltic states for their politics and her "support for Putin." (I haven't seen the interview, so I'm not sure how far this "support" even goes.) Simply having such opinions is the equivalent of posing a "threat to Lithuania’s security interests."

European values on full display yet again!

@NinaByzantina

Healthy food. Cultural workshops. What else does one need for a good life? 😜

@NinaByzantina

For every ̶d̶e̶m̶o̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶m̶ ̶ NATO stan like Ursula von der Leyen, there are normal Europeans with a healthy heart and mind like these just chilling in Russia and not giving a flying bleep about sanctions. The future is with them! 😎

@NinaByzantina

Well, hello there, Macron 🇫🇷

@NinaByzantina

According to CNN, Russia is producing 3x ammo than what the official West is able to provide its chosen cannon fodder, country, Ukraine. This media source suggests that Russia is currently firing around 10,000 shells a day, compared to 2,000 a day from the Ukrainian army. Considering the source, the discrepancy might be more drastic.

NATO begrudgingly admits that Russia successfully transformed into what, in part, is a wartime economy:

“Russia is running artillery factories ‘24/7’ on rotating 12-hour shifts, the NATO official said. About 3.5 million Russians now work in the defense sector, up from somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million before the war.”

In light of historical threats and invasions from the West, Russia has been preparing for something like this for years. But it’s taken two years and hundreds of thousands of lives for the Western politicians and media echo chamber to admit the obvious.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/10/politics/russia-artillery-shell-production-us-europe-ukraine/index.html

@NinaByzantina

Wow!!!

The video of this Persian 🇮🇷 lady at Russia’s World Youth Festival 🇷🇺 blew me away! Her Russian is perfect! Even the interviewer thought that she was Russian, at first, and then that she lives in Russia. But she only studied in a Russian university and lives in Iran!

The Persian lady pointed out that Russian doctors saved her life when she was a little girl. (Neither she nor her parents spoke Russian when they brought her to Moscow for treatment.) Since then, she fell in love with the Russian people.

She also pointed out that various parts of her outfit represent different regions or cities in Iran.

@NinaByzantina

I can’t stop laughing at this video featuring a giant, aggressive Russian hockey star 🏒, Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin, playing football (soccer). What is his opponent even doing there? 🤣

This video is a couple of years old, but I’m seeing it for the first time, and it’s hilarious!

@NinaByzantina

I’m about to hop on the Syriana Analysis stream https://www.youtube.com/live/XKUjom5Nqq0?si=mWxmbU-pJMOyOJNX

Soviet T-34-85 tanks enter the liberated Harbin, China, 1945.

@NinaByzantina

A level of badassery previously thought impossible 😜

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13181993/English-exist-badly-pronounced-French-linguist.html

@NinaByzantina

A French comedian discussing Macron’s threats to send French troops to Ukraine and challenge Russia:

-If I had to choose between going to war against Russia and France becoming Russian, then my name is Sergey. After all, I already have a “shapka” since it’s chilly in our Perpignan-de-Bourg. 🤣

Good to see that normal Frenchmen, who think Macron’s statements are insane, exist (and they might be the majority).

@NinaByzantina

Ordinary Russian people got massively screwed over by the rapid and, at times, criminal privatization drive of the 1990s, after the Soviet dissolution, with the help of Western vulture advisers. We discuss privatization and the rise and fall of the Russian oligarchs in about 2.5 hours at 1:00 pm EST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJWw_GLmCNQ

@NinaByzantina

One of the most virulent Russophobic rags, The Economist, was forced to admit the reasons for the failure of anti-Russian sanctions. The very sanctions it supported, of course. These reasons include:

☑️ The overall sustainability of Russia’s economy
☑️ The successful restructuring of Russia’s economy in response to Western sanctions
☑️ The partial replacement of major Western brands that left the Russian market with Chinese and domestic Russian counterparts
☑️ The rerouting of oil / energy sales to other countries to bypass sanctions
☑️ The successful promotion of Russian patriotism through the media and textbooks

Etc.

Whereas some commentators outside the Western establishment highlighted these features earlier, it’s noteworthy that a major Western mainstream publication was forced to state the obvious pointing to the failure of the West’s Russia policy at large.

@NinaByzantina

In another jaw-droppingly misguided address in an auto-translated Russian, the former Amb McFaul attacked ordinary Russians for supporting the war in Ukraine. It’s not even that he wouldn’t write this about another country within the Western sphere, including and especially his own. It’s that his brilliant inference is that ordinary Russians shouldn’t pay taxes. So now he’s getting attacked and ratioed by Russian-speaking anti-Putin Libs (who are part of his usual fan base ) asking, “How the effff are we supposed to just not pay taxes?” 🤦🏻‍♀️

@NinaByzantina