Onward, Putin’s soldier

Onward, Putin’s soldier

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norman lebrecht

October 25, 2019

Anna Netrebko is in Belarus, feeling patriotic.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Hello from Minsk, capital of Belarus! It’s beautiful here, let’s go see!!!

A post shared by @ anna_netrebko_yusi_tiago on

Comments

  • sopranino says:

    She’s getting in the mood for the weekend down at Putin’s dacha – channelling that pseudo-military with hints of dominatrix leather cuffs. No wonder he loves her so. Only surprised her hubby isn’t in tow by his collar in the photo.

  • SMH says:

    “Putin’s soldier”? C’mon Norman. You know it was the Soviets who really won WW2. Without them y’all would be speaking German on your island.

    • The View from America says:

      The Americans might have had something to do with it as well, but you do have a point.

      The Free French — not so much.

      • Kay Langford says:

        You have no respect for the French Resistance?
        After all they were predominantly communists.

        • Julien says:

          No, they definitely weren’t. The communists didn’t do anything before the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, and even after that, the Resistance fighters came from all possible political backgrounds.

    • Dennis says:

      Had the Brits listened to Oswald Mosley and not meddled in events in central and eastern Europe, letting Germany and Russian bludgeon each other to death in the east, it could have saved itself a lot of trouble, and would have been at no risk of a German invasion in the first place.

      • Tamino says:

        Makes no sense, since the Nazi raised war against Britain first, long before they attacked Stalin’s Empire in the east.

        • LunchtimeOBoulez says:

          Logic and facts are worthless against people like Dennis.

          • Dennis says:

            Facts such as Britain having declared war on Germany before Germany declared war on it? Germany posed no threat to Britain until Britain decided to declare war on it over the invasion of Poland (which was enabled by the USSR, which then invaded Poland itself from the east).

            Funny Britain entered the war supposedly on behalf of Poland, then double-crossed the Polish government-in-exile, helped cover up the Katyn massacres (falsely blaming Germany when they knew all along that the USSR was to blame) in order to help “Uncle Joe” save face, and then delivered Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe into Bolshevik hands. Why did they bother going to war in the first place, if they were just going to allow one totalitarianism to be replaced by another? Would have been far better just to let the two totalitarian states pound each other to death.

        • Dennis says:

          Britain (and France actually) declared war on Germany (September 3, 1939) before Germany declared war on them. Had Britain not declared war on Germany, but simply stayed out and left Germany and the USSR bludgeon each other to the death in the East (which was inevitable, despite the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Had Germany not been diverted with a two-front war in the West, war with the USSR would have come much sooner than June 22, 1941) Britain would have been under no threat from Germany.

          So, no. The Nazis didn’t “raise war” against Britain first.

          But go on telling the same lies that have been reiterated over-and-over for 7 decades about the “Good War.”

          • Tamino says:

            No. I said ‘raised’, not ‘declared’, for a reason. The first offensive act of war was by Germany against Britain.
            It’s delusional to think Britain could have stayed out of it in any way.
            Just as delusional as Brexit probably.

    • Brettermeier says:

      “You know it was the Soviets who really won WW2.”

      You know that’s #geschichtsklitterung.

      • Tamino says:

        Is it? Not really. Honoring the facts it’s reasonable to state, that the Soviets defeated the Nazis decisively. Not single handedly, far from it, but decisively.

      • John Wills says:

        I think there is a better forum for all you guys to wave your sabres. Go find it!

    • Anon says:

      Why the dlislikes? He’s right!

    • Bill says:

      If the Soviets hadn’t entered the war, the more likely scenario is that Berlin would have met the same fate as Hiroshima.

      • Tamino says:

        Possibly. Hard to speculate, too many ifs. Also possible that the Nazis then had dropped own nukes on New York first, since they would have had more resources for their research efforts, without the megalomanic material battles in the east.

        • M McAlpine says:

          Wrong/ Heisenberg and his scientists had long decided it was impossible to make a bomb in Germany

          • Tamino says:

            Heisenberg and others would have acted differently, had Germany been winning. After the war they told other stories understandably. Why should it have been impossible?

          • M McAlpine says:

            You are completely wrong. History shows that they just did not believe it was possible. They were amazed that the Manhattan Project had succeeded.

          • Tamino says:

            No? Scientists knew very well it was possible. Also Heisenberg. Heisenberg actually informed Niels Bohr about the German military research program, as we know from only recently published letters by Bohr.

          • M McAlpine says:

            Yes but he believed that a bomb was beyond them. History!

      • Dan says:

        Hadn’t entered the war? Ok, how exactly do you NOT enter a war when you are being invaded?

  • Petros Linardos says:

    Do snarky comments sell better than information or kindness?

  • George says:

    The opera branch of the Russian troll farm appears to be alive and well.

  • lunchtimeOBoulez says:

    A new level of bigotry from this site.

    Must be time for Norman’s quarterly cheque from the Atlantic Council?

  • Robert Groen says:

    Give it a rest, Norman. It’s getting boring.

  • Tamino says:

    The people of the Soviet Union lost about 20 million lives fighting the Nazis. She is about to visit one of the memorials.
    What would you think if someone cracked lame jokes about somebody visiting Yad Vashem?
    Shameful.

  • MacroV says:

    I’m no fan of Putin or Netrebko, but she’s at a Soviet war memorial. I haven’t been to that one but I’ve been to one in St. Petersburg, and it’s hard to comprehend the scale of deaths suffered by Soviet soldiers. Have to respect that.

  • Tamino says:

    I’m not fond of her wardrobe taste, but I respect her very much, that she is honoring the many millions of innocent victims the Soviets had to sacrifice for decisively winning against the Nazis.
    I wouldn’t try to make jokes or irrelevant insinuations about that.

  • Kay Langford says:

    She looks like a Christmas tree.

  • Stephen Munslow says:

    I’ve added comments, but they have disappeared. Could Mr Lebrecht not tolerate them?

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