Tanks are easy to get! First you have to befriend a tank manufacturer...
REEEEvolution
Tankie is a perjorative word, but it refers to those who support authoritarian communism. For instance by denying documented historical events, or support or defend repression from authoritarian regimes.
Multiple problems with this paragraph alone.
- There is no non-authoritarian communism.
- Then most liberals would be "tankies" because they still think the 1928 famine in the ussr was a genocide and the june 4th incident in China was a massacre. Historians widely disagree with both notions.
- Communists do not deny anything, we just care a lot more about the reasons for events to learn from them. This leads us to learn that the liberal, anti-communist naratives of such events is always bs and leads us to much more reasonable discussions about them.
- "Authoritarian" is a meaningless word. All states are authoritarian, because they use their authority and state violence to uphold their laws and defend their existence. Thus there are no "non-authoritarian" states, ergo "authoritarian state" being a trueism. The term is part of the liberal propaganda toolkit, scary terms for states that are not based on liberalism.
- "tankie" refers to britsh communist who supported the intervention of the Warsaw pact to put down the Hungarian counter-revolution. By now it is a mix of a liberal version of "woke/SJW" and red scare "commie", with the intention of both.
Well, you deserve an answer regarding your economic question for the way. Russias economy is doing pretty well, its government used the time from 2014 onwards to create alternatives to western markets. For example gas and oil go to India(who resells some to the EU) and China now. And the US who, of course, does not comply with the sanctions. Another factor of Russias resilience to western sanctions is the historical fact that the west sanctions non-western countries all the time. This created a situation in which most of the world is under western sanctions of varous kinds, the sanctioned countries are less inclined to follow western dictates regarding Russia. So Russia still can trade with most of the world.
Meanwhile Europe did expect to get cheap gas as always no matter how much it antagonized Russia. Unfortunately for them, Russia did not renew the delivery contract it had with the EU countries(which would guarantee delivery for a pre-settled price). Leading to the EU having to buy Russian gas on the spot market (highly variable prices). Some EU countries did not antagonize Russia as much, and thus had their contract renewed, thney got fucked another way by big daddy Washington. With the US blowing up Northstream 2 and Ukraine stopping transit over its territory, the EU is physically cut off from Russian gas and and has to find alternatives fast.
One adress was Qatar, who can not cover the demand. Another was the US, who can but wants multiple times what Russia demanded. Furthermore, in either case the delivery would happen in liquified form. Which is ecologically problematic to say the least.
Liquidification requires lots of energie and produces a shitload of CO2 emissions. Driving it over by special ships (of which not enough exist) again pumps lots of CO2 out and poisons the oceans because the large ship machines are using the absolute worst for fuel. That stuff then has to get on land, sufficient terminals only existed in Spain, in Germany they had to be built ignoring safety standards, because they were needed asap. The US gas is extracted from shale, as a side effect of shale oil extraction. This process poisons the land and water, leading to tab water being flamable in many parts of the US.
Overall this means rising energy costs in the west, which means less favourable conditions of energy intensive companies. The US solves that way by pulling all restrictions regarding shale oil extraction, digging up Alaska and so on and providing tax incentives for companies moving to the US - in short: They loot their vassal states in Europe.
Europe is fucked. Which, of course, leads to tensions within NATO. Especially as the US wants the euros to shoulder the cost of their occupation now, too. Teh EU countries have already been weakened by austerity and neoliberal politics, now have to pump billions into their militaries. Said money is created via debt on one side, via further cuts on social services on the other, creating internal tensions. Said tensions can be observed by the rise of the far right in every EU country.
Another reason for inter NATO and EU tensions is the fact that the countries in the Eu who did not antagonize Russia, now also are fucked. Because the US and it's ukranian dog blocked direct pipelines.
So put together the situation, the EU got fucked by the US and its own stupidity, Ukraine got fucked by NATO, EU, US and its own stupidity, Russia got away cleanly, the US got away cleanly at the cost of its imperial periphery. Climate Change won big. Humanity lost big.
"To be an enemy of the United States is risky, to be an ally is fatal."
That would make both states just two more puppet states the US eventually shot in the head. At no point did these states oppose the US empire, they were just good lapdogs until daddy US took them behind the shed and put a bullet to their head.
Both Palestine and Russia are on the western "to be conquered"-list. The difference that Russia can muster enough military power to directly oppose those plans. Palestine is in amuch worse position. Both however, are support worthy because of their place on that list.
Thank you for editing your post, it literally proves my point.
Maybe do not accept everything his detractors said about him as holy gospel. And stop projecting, holy shit.
You know, when you change the name of a thing, you totally change its essence too! Or something like that, I'm no anarchist.
"It wasn't a prison. it was a prison by another name!!11111"
Those communists wanted to coup the USSR and had connections to the nazis. Your point is incredibly childish.
Being the poster boy of the red scare means that his government was effective enough to scare the piggies. You only get smeared if you're feared. I assume you rather had it that he'd be loved by all the piggies out there so that they would not do a red scare that would force you to use your intellectual muscles to dispell the bullshit. Reality doesn't work that way.
Factually wrong, he was a excellent socialist.
The man tried to resign four times. It always was denied.
Trotsky and Bukharin constantly crossed him and he let them until hey tried to murder him. Hell, he defended Bukharin even then.
In short you are off by several universes.
Then They'd have done no pushups in the last 6 years and thus had atrophied muscles.