• hax0ron3 14 minutes ago

    I always wonder about Navalny - why did he go back to Russia? Did he really believe that he could do some kind of Nelson Mandela thing? Or that the Russian people would flock to his cause? I believe that the man was an idealist, I don't think you expose yourself to that much danger without being an idealist at least on some level or if you think that the possible personal rewards make the danger worth it, and I don't get the sense from Navalny that he was after personal rewards primarily. But with his experience in Russian politics, I feel like he should have known that the chance that his return to Russia would bring about any serious political change was extremely small. Not returning to Russia would have hurt his chances of causing political change as well, since that would have made him seem like just an agent of the Western powers. But returning to Russia at the cost of his life also did not accomplish political change.

    • konart 2 hours ago
      • scihuber an hour ago

        More scary articles I think:

        https://theins.press/en/inv/290235 - Lost in translation: How Russia’s new elite hit squad was compromised by an idiotic lapse in tradecraft https://theins.press/en/inv/287837 - The mob’s humanitarian backdoor: Ramzan Kadyrov’s mafia connections reach deep into German critical infrastructure

        • alephnerd 2 hours ago

          First there was Nemtsov, then there was Navlany. Wonder who's next.

          Funny thing is, if 1999 went differently Lukashenka actually had a shot at being in the Kremlin today.

          • varispeed 2 hours ago

            Imagine if all Russians put their energy into making world a better place, instead of killing their neighbours, raping, stealing and corrupting. Sad.

            • drdaeman 29 minutes ago

              s/Russians/humans/. Absolutely nothing special about Russians here.

              • throwaway27448 an hour ago

                Ghee, i wonder what media you consume

                • mindslight an hour ago

                  Obviously something on the hyperbolic sensationalist side, but closer to the truth than the simplistic ignore-your-own-eyes contrarianism peddled by Russian propaganda. FWIW your comment is the type that makes me go back and upvote GP.

                  • stephbook an hour ago

                    Please share it with us.

                  • Svoka 2 hours ago

                    That is a quintessential part of russia through the history of that country. Conquer, oppress, loot. Medieval imperialism brought to modern age.

                    • lifestyleguru 2 hours ago

                      The west is secretly in love with this malevolence, that's why.

                      • Svoka 2 hours ago

                        Yup, they call it 'mysterious russian soul', while it just a blatant disregard to human life

                      • nullorempty an hour ago

                        hm, not much would change. - we'd still see palestine destroyed - iran bombed - iraq bombed - lybia bombed - afganistan bombed - lebanon bombed

                        Imagine if all countries would put their energy into building peace and prosperity. That would make a difference.

                        • Svoka 43 minutes ago

                          ah, here comes whataboutism. And you are correct. It would be great if russia didn't destroy Afghanistan and Syria.

                          Also, equating conflicts is a very shallow and inadequate manipulation tool. For example, russians razed dozens of cities in Ukraine, establish torture and rape chambers, use rape, torture, execution of POW as policy today.

                          "all wars are bad" doesn't mean that whatever russia does is way worse.

                          • nullorempty 40 minutes ago

                            Just pointing out that nothing would change. And you are obviously fixated on Russia. May be broaden your perspective.

                            • Svoka 38 minutes ago

                              only things you point out are russian propaganda points.

                              • nullorempty 32 minutes ago

                                that you need to broaden your perspective? Russian propaganda said that about you?

                        • Mikhail_Edoshin 2 hours ago

                          Or maybe Westerners stop lying that much.

                        • RomanPushkin an hour ago

                          How it is hacker news now?

                          • bigyabai an hour ago

                            Christo does excellent investigative journalism, his curiosity is well aligned with many of the people on this site.

                          • thatsamejew2 43 minutes ago

                            The western propaganda full steam again.

                            Just think of how many people you have killed in the past months who posed much less threat to you than you to their country and their people. And I am anbsolutely sure Israel and Pentagon are not very picky about the means they use.

                            "But these were not our citizens..": true, the little girls murdered by you in Teheran were not. So these "not our citizens" thing you can shove you know where.

                            Filthy murderers.

                            • gavinray an hour ago

                              I don't condone doping in tested sports, but I think there needs to be recognition that preventing athletes from modifying their biochemistry turns most sports into a genetic lottery showcase.

                              Here is what I mean:

                              Suppose that two men are born, with identical brains, but very different bodies. Both of them have a single desire: to be the fastest sprinter in the world.

                              Man A)

                              - Predominantly fast-twitch muscle fiber composition

                              - Possesses ACTN3 RX genotype [0]

                              - Testosterone, Growth Hormone, IGF-1 levels at the very upper end of reference range

                              Man B)

                              - Predominantly slow-twitch muscle fiber composition

                              - Possesses ACTN3 XX genotype

                              - Clinically deficient values of Testosterone, Growth Hormone, IGF-1. Prone to musculoskeletal injuries, possibly connective tissue disorders.

                              If these two men live an identical life, and put the same amount of effort into training, the second man still has no hope of making it to the Olympics.

                              Even doping would only be able to correct for hormonal deficiencies, not the genome-level disadvantages for power performance compared to the other athlete.

                              A truly "fair" sport would pit competitors against each other who had near-identical genetic and physical traits.

                              The Olympics is just watching the people who won genetic lotteries.

                              [0]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11014841/

                              • nradov 5 minutes ago

                                There's no inherent reason that the second man couldn't make it to the Olympics in the air pistol event.

                                • dmurray an hour ago

                                  > A truly "fair" sport would pit competitors against each other who had near-identical genetic and physical traits.

                                  That's what the Olympics is. The men's 100m final pits against each other the fastest 8 men who are in their physical prime, full of fast twitch muscles, with West African descent. With some minor noise.

                                  If you want to watch people from other genotype buckets run 10-50% slower, you can watch the women's event or the Paralympics or, like, the All-Vietnam U-16 event. It seems churlish to complain that not every bucket is on TV at a convenient time for you.

                                  • timnetworks an hour ago

                                    Olympics are literally a showcase of the genetic lottery. We can have Testtube Olympics alongside Special Olympics if there is sufficient interest.

                                    • hananova an hour ago

                                      No, the olympics are a doping competition, and a meta-competition of “who is better at not getting detected.”

                                      In general, the statement “if they got a medal, they cheated” is true so much of the time that it becomes a sensible default assumption. And it sucks for the few that didn’t cheat.

                                      • MengerSponge an hour ago

                                        1988 All-Drug Olympics (SNL Weekend Update sketch)

                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAdG-iTilWU

                                      • mirekrusin an hour ago

                                        It’s best of competition, not everybody at the same time on finish line equity gathering.

                                        • gherkinnn an hour ago

                                          So the olympic games do pit near-identical competitors against each other.

                                          > The Olympics is just watching the people who won genetic lotteries.

                                          So? The olympic games should be the pinnacle of human performance (fed by their nation's interests). Of course it is lotteries all the way from the genetics, to what country you're born in, right to the national lottery putting money in to sports.

                                          Your alternatives are either a proliferation of categories or random people assembling every four years to roll dice to determine the winner. Neither is exciting.

                                          • Rekindle8090 an hour ago

                                            What's the point of this post? You're missing the forest for the trees. It's like saying racing is driver against driver, not driver and car against driver and car. Motivation has NEVER made up for physical fitness, never will, and never should. The olympics are about the human body first.

                                            • gavinray an hour ago

                                                > What's the point of this post?
                                              
                                              I don't see the Olympics as a particularly "fair" sport in the first place, in the sense of "fair" meaning "without favoritism" because physical capability is a vast spectrum.
                                            • bigyabai an hour ago

                                              Most sports are a genetic lottery showcase regardless of how many drugs you take.

                                              • speedgoose an hour ago

                                                Yeah so athletes with more money and better access to doping products win instead.

                                                Hard pass.

                                                • kelipso an hour ago

                                                  Also will encourage athletes to give themselves long term health issues for short term performance gains.

                                                  • gavinray an hour ago

                                                    I'm of the "your body, your choice" mind

                                                    To me the decision to take PED's doesn't feel different than being an alcoholic or having an abortion.

                                                    I wouldn't recommend anyone become an alcoholic, but it's their life and people ought to have the freedom of choice.

                                                    • speedgoose an hour ago

                                                      I’m not sure kids in competitive sports will be able to make an informed decision without any pressure.

                                                      • mindslight an hour ago

                                                        Would you think it a poor dynamic if a company offered to pay people a good salary simply to be heavy sustained drinkers, but only for some limited amount of time? I'd say the problem is that the Moloch attractor tends to undermine this lofty ideal of "freedom of choice".

                                                    • drdaeman an hour ago

                                                      At least that produces tangible value for the rest of us this way.

                                                      Current idea of sports is that athletes wreck themselves for mere performance value (and money to the people who set it up, with a bit trickling down to athletes for enabling it all). As far as I understand, nothing they directly do is otherwise reusable to anyone else.

                                                      I’d rather watch a live commercial for human enhancement industries. At least that’s something that eventually becomes available to everyone.

                                                  • secondary_op an hour ago

                                                    1. How stupid do you have to be to believe that a three-letter agency from any country isn't capable of delivering a lethal dose of poison to eliminate its target?

                                                    2. To this day, it remains unclear who actually slightly poisoned Navalny and to what end.

                                                    3. As of last week, we have an on-camera confession [2] from Leonid Volkov of Navalny's FBK [1], in which he states that it is very disappointing that USAID funding is no longer available. The videos are in Russian, but you should at least care and be capable of translating them with AI. If not, don't even bother raising your propagandized, brainwashed takes.

                                                    I have nothing to say about the OP-linked site other than that it is a trashcan of lies.

                                                    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Volkov_(politician) [2] https://www.jpg.wtf/c54omx.mp4

                                                    • faangguyindia 31 minutes ago

                                                      You don't need 3 letter agencies.

                                                      Billionaires and Tech Executives from CA do it all time too.

                                                      Heck one even threatened to eliminate me because I was working on competing ad tech low latency system. I was much younger back then completely shook.