MEGATHREAD: whatever the hell is going on in Russia right now

https://beehaw.org/post/742740

MEGATHREAD: whatever the hell is going on in Russia right now - Beehaw

please post any subsequent updates here unless they’re huge happenings. i just woke up and half our news front page is updates which is nice but also A Lot and most of these don’t have to be their own thread

Swan Lake

If Moscow stations start playing this, it's a probable sign that the Coup is legitimate and the transition has started. Bonkers to think think that in our lifetime we'd see the collapse of a nuclear power. Even if Putin and his government survive this Coup, I don't think he'll have any political capital left to lead. By 8:00pm EDT, we'll have a pretty good idea who's left standing.

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Swan Theme)

YouTube
This is the second collapse of a nuclear power in 30~ years
Except that with the USSR falling the transition of power for Russia was a bit more peaceful than this seems like it could go since in 1991 Russia didn’t have a complete power vacuum due to Boris Yeltsin was accepted as the legitimate leader of the succeeding Russian Federation. It’s looking like the shit going on in Russia now makes the August coup attempt look like a misunderstanding

Except that with the USSR falling the transition of power for Russia was a bit more peaceful

At the time that wasn’t a given. Gorbachev was under a lot of pressure from hardline communists within the party to crack down on the uprising and no-one really knew where the loyalties of the military lay. As it turned out Yeltsin won the day and the transition went peacefully but it could very easily have turned out differently.

What are you talking about? Yeltsin literally bombed congress and killed many congress people… the transition to capitalism from the USSR was and is still one the worst humanitarian crisis ever.