[mercy_dude]

How much of this is Washington’s drumming for defence contractors to get rich? And if Russia does invade Ukraine, why do we care? Specifically as a US citizen how does it affect me? Honest question. I either don’t understand geopolitics or there is something seriously wrong with our government and media trying to get us into pointless conflict.

[sschueller]

It's about nordstream 2. The US doesn't want it to be finished and I am quite sure it will end up as part of new sanctions against Russia after a small incident on the border.

I agree with you, having the US in play and the US president negotiating is out of place.

Imagine the US was building up troops at the Mexican border and Russia was objecting saying the US will invade Tijuana. They have done it before with New Mexico. Putin would be meeting with the US president instead of the Mexican president. At the same time Germany would be objecting to the new pipeline Mexico is building to Canada and even have people in the parlement trying to force a vote on it (some people in the US congress wanted to vote on nordstream 2, wtf)

[PhantomGremlin]

They have done it before with New Mexico.

Talk about grasping at straws. The Mexican-American War ended in 1848, and the USA bought the rest of New Mexico in 1854.

Maybe we should discuss instead when Joe Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians to death in the Holodomor[1]. Or maybe that was just an "internal matter"? Or perhaps just Western propaganda?

There is quite the history of wrongdoing by all countries since 1854.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

[a0-prw]

Of course, you know Stalin was Georgian, right?

You know also that Russia is not the USSR, right?

[zola]

If it does happen, whatever the result will be, it'll be a part of your next presidential election.

[_abox]

Crowdstrike is one the best and most expensive EDR systems on the market. I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation.

Personally as a European I wouldn't mind if Eastern Ukraine (Donbas in particular) rejoins Russia. The people in the region sure want it, and that's what freedom is about, making your own choices. If they don't it'll be an unstable area of insurgency for decades anyway. It's been a warzone for years.

However an invasion would cause instability in itself. It would increase tensions and cause NATO to build up forces. I hope they come to a diplomatic solution but I agree that Russia's public demand are completely ridiculous and designed to fail.

I don't really understand why they view us and NATO as such a threat. We'd never invade Russia.. Nobody would ever want to. And Ukraine and Azerbaijan etc they allowed to separate years ago. It was their own choice.

[pomdapi]

While I agree with most of your comment, one sentence triggered me.

> I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation.

His company's top officers lied to the public during the campaign in 2016 (and ever since) that the DNC servers was hacked by the Russian Government [1], but then, when asked about it in a court of law in 2017, retractied themselves that any data trace even existed [2]. However the testimony was kept classified. Nevertheless, they continued to tell the same false story in public when asked until the testimony was unclassified in 2020 [3].

This was outright disinformation, and lies, not misinformation. As the saying goes, the first victim in war is truth. And this war is being prepared since 2014.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-e...

[2] https://mate.substack.com/p/indicted-clinton-lawyer-hired-cr..., see trial transcripts in the middle of the article

[3] https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/05/13/...

[ryanlol]

None of your sources support the claims you made regarding Crowdstrike.

[pomdapi]

I gave the specifics in another answer at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29671485 .

[ryanlol]

Yeah a variety of clowns keep posting this same conspiracy theory over and over, but the fact is that the House testimony does not in any way support your claim

> His company's top officers lied to the public during the campaign in 2016 (and ever since) that the DNC servers was hacked by the Russian Government

The only real takeaway from your links is that crowdstrike does not have pcaps showing data exfiltration.

[pomdapi]

I gave you an answer on your other comment on what my opinion is on asking for pcaps.

[GekkePrutser]

I don't know the ins and outs about the DNC stuff. Here in Europe all that news got lost in the turbulence around Trump. But I thought Russian influence in that case was certain, the Wikipedia page also mentions it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Committe... and also the NYT article you quote is all about Russian involvement in that case.

And evidence in cyber security cases is super hard. There's just too much misdirection and ways to obfuscate traffic. Especially for state sponsored actors. Attribution to threat actor groups is often based on methodology and toolsets (also referred to as tactics and techniques) and not on hard traceable evidence.

However I have no political stake in this as a European (who never even visited the US) and it's just what I read. Perhaps I'm wrong. But I know in terms of capability as an EDR product crowdstrike is very highly regarded. I agree the secrecy around this testimony is very weird.

And like I said I do agree with most of his points. Something is brewing there.

[pomdapi]

> However I have no political stake in this and it's just what I read.

Sorry about my tone earlier. It was uncalled for. I edited my comment.

> Wikipedia page also mentions it:

The "talk" section of the page shows vigorous exchanges, as various editors are constantly fighting to erase or put back that part of the story. As the whole case was central to the fight around Trump being an orange but also Russian menace for 4 years, you can easily divine the editors are probably operatives of both parties.

> NYT article you quote is all about Russian involvement in that case.

Yes, that was the first time they publicly lied about it.

[GekkePrutser]

I understand. I had no idea how heavily this was politicized.

For us the DNC thing was just in the news when it happened and quickly overwhelmed by other news in that period.

Thanks for the links, I don't have time now but I'll read them in the days to come. I want to know more about this case. Especially because we use the product at work.

[pomdapi]

> Especially because we use the product at work.

Used to be in the industry, 10+ years ago. Friends tell me goods things about it too.

And anyways, I'm pro-neither party. Both are corrupt to the core. I just hate it when propaganda and lies at this scale works too well.

[r721]

>Thanks for the links

Aaron Mate is a heavily pro-Kremlin voice, so it's not like those were very good sources, just an opinion of a quite biased journalist.

[bellyfullofbac]

> I don't really understand why they view us and NATO as such a t[h]reat. We'd never invade Russia.. Nobody would ever want to.

I guess it's a paranoia which he's supported with cherry-picked info from history. Someone else better has written that world politics is about who has the most influence, e.g. USA and Europe used to be able to decide almost everything everywhere ("we'll give you development loans, in return you'll have to buy our products"). China is doing that in Africa now, and from Putin's perspective Eastern Europe now has "puppet" governments controlled by USA/Germany (in the guise of EU), I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks their democratic elections are as rigged as Russia's ones, with the media under control of the rulers.

I guess Putin is worried that Russia could fall under that sphere of influence, although I don't know how missiles pointed at Moscow would make the country more democratic... Maybe he sees them as a persuasion tools, after all that's also what he uses his forces for.

[GekkePrutser]

I don't think Russia would ever fall under our sphere of influence. Their media is much too tightly controlled and Russia itself is pretty much the master of social media influencing.

But it's a very interesting insight, that he might think we play the game like he does. And I wouldn't rule out that the EU had a hand in the political changes in Ukraine. There's been some rumblings about it. Not sure if it's another misdirection campaign or real. And I know we don't have an unblemished history either.

Most of the population in Western Ukraine seems to be pro EU though. And I don't think that's a result of influencing.

Ps Thanks for pointing out the typo. I know the difference but it must have been auto correct, I'm on my mobile.

[zht]

yea but the problem is that it likely won't stop there right

[GekkePrutser]

I don't think so. The remaining countries in that area are not very pro-Russian. Thinking of the Baltics, Romania..

It's one thing to take a territory where most of the population wants you there. It's another to take an unwilling territory by force.

But it will lead to more military tension all over Europe that's for sure.

[sschueller]

Even if you ignore that it's always Crowdstrike when it comes to Russians or that one the founder seems to have a personal vendetta against Putin, Crowdstrike is too large and to close the US government to be trusted.