Radio War Nerd #312 — Kazakhstan Uprising

Is that "city of apples" at all related to the Italian POWs who were captured in the USSR during WWII that Annibale mentioned? It's far away from Stalingrad but I'm curious if they got shipped there like so many exiled to Siberia, etc

Just reading Kleptopia by FT Journalist Tom Burgis. Features Zhanaozen and the hijinks of Kazakh Oligarchs abroad. Naming a lot of their accomplices like Tony Blair, absolutely recommended.

I've got a question for our hosts and I mean no offense but why is there a reluctance by people who lived through the Cold War to accept that nukes still matter? I was born after the Berlin Wall came down, and it's something I've noticed; Even at the Pentagon and State Department levels, there is no Civil Defense talk about stockpiling canned food for 30 days and iodine in your basement. No mention of duck and cover. They just don’t mention it. You’d think hawks trying to appear tough would want to show ‘hey we’re preparing for nuclear war over here, we’re serious’. But there is none of that. Is it a generational thing? I ask because in this episode the nuclear question was quickly brushed aside when critiquing any potential NATO war plan. You’d think the obvious critique of a Russia/NATO war would be “If this happens civilization as we know it in the northern hemisphere ceases to exist.” My hidden agenda here is to have a 3 part series on the history of nuclear technology and strategy with special guest Annibale as a follow-up to the XB-70 episodes. Hey I can dream can’t I?

Mark, sorry for the off-topic, but I just realized you and Konstantin Syomin follow each other on Twitter. Frickin' awesome!

Nope, but I will now. Thank you.

I noted the racist overtones of Blinken's statement regarding Russia as well. Indeed, aside from good 'ol Anglo Russia hating, when it comes to U.S. (and Canadian) policy toward Russia, the influence of anti-Russian Ukrainian diaspora personalities and groups deserves closer attention.

Glad to see Tony Blair recently got knighted. 👍🏼👍🏼

Thanks, I got tired of, appearantly goons, saying something like: 'i don't know anything about Kazakhstan. Appearantly it not as complicated as I was being told a month ago. Excepting the oil & mineral interest, thank you for the old school reminder.

@benjamin Cheney thank you!

re: Borat, turns out Sacha Baron Cohen has been working with the CIA since at least 2012 https://www.mintpressnews.com/closer-scrutiny-reveals-close-state-power-sacha-baron-cohen-really/279355/

Aisultan made some weird, very Chinatown-esque claims towards the end of his life

You mentioned a podcast about Russia in passing, sounded like you said Sean Gilory’s Russia podcast? Can you provide the proper name or a link. Sounds really interesting and want to check it out

appreciated the Gorby tangent: far too many people *cough* Werner Herzog *cough* propagandize Gorby rather than discussing him and his legacy with frankness

Been waiting for this episode! Thanks so much

Yes finally! Just what I needed to cut through BBC/NPR/NYT's unrelenting xenophobic hysteria

a hundred years of warfare and conflict has reduced "racism" from a complicated fake-science with weird lore to "racism is hating minorities that live in america", still flexible enough that you can call stereotypical characters racist and excuse a cop for doming someone from behind.

Great episode. Please make this one public so I can share it!

Great, timely episode. The RWN Facebook post on LNG was useful too.

Interesting stuff. My abiding memory of the Gorbachev years was constantly reading in the Telegraph how Gorbachev was aquiring more and more power, centralising it on himself. Yet for all his power, he seemed to not be able to do anything with it. Also, I believe Prince Andrew had aquired a Kazakh girlfriend for a while.

I lost all respect for people like glenn greenwald and the rest of these “populists”. Fucking scumbags

Didn't Greenwald also claim that critics of Joshua Faust were only attacking him because they were homophobic? I remember that being an early "hmm" on Pierre Omidyar's favorite press secretary

(Un)fun fact: first bombing mission ever flown by US Air Force was against striking coal mine workers in Battle of Blair Mountain.

Waiting for this to download and pacing around the apartment like Ray Midge. Tales from the front!

Glenn ... GFDI. There's no circular firing squad like the American left's circular firing squad.

Thanks for this, guys.

A strategy I spent long hours formulating & hope I never need: if you know you're going to be tortured, cut off your own balls, because 1) then they can't torture your balls, 2) there are prosthetic balls for later, and 3) what can they do that compares to cutting off your own balls?

Just in time for a blunt

VERY NIIIIIICE