Maca

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[Bad Baltic @BadBalticTakes]

The bag is made by ErichKrause, a manufacturer of office supplies.

Despite the name, it is a Russian company that just picked the name of a real German artist and used his memory as their brand despite no connection.

They have a hub in Latvia, although their main presence is still in Russia.

Charlot, the largest school and office supply shop in the Baltics, should know better than to sell this bullshit here.

Crimea is Ukraine.

[reālaIVFmamma @realaGrutniecba]

Veikalā CHARLOT šādas “jaukas” mugursomas tirgo:

[Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 @sikorskiradek]

Russian propaganda doesn't want you to know about Soviet-Nazi collaboration 1939-1941.

[counterbrange @counterbrange]

@SanitaUpleja Kā lai cilvēki, kuriem latviešu valoda nav dzimtā un kuri klausās LR nolūkā uzlabot savas latviešu valodas prasmes, pilnveido savas latviešu valodas iemaņas, ja viņiem ēterā jāklausās nepareiza, kļūdaina latviešu valoda ar smagu krievu akcentu?

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

On the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, remember you can always ask a pro-Russian why the USSR was allied with Nazi Germany until 1941, and why that alliance ended

[Roger Moorhouse 🇬🇧🇺🇦🇮🇱 @Roger_Moorhouse]

On this Day - 1939, the signature of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, in which Moscow and Berlin divided Central Europe between them and gave the green light for the outbreak of #WW2. #OTD

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

5/11

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

3/11

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

While Nazism was judged at Nuremberg, Stalinist crimes have never faced equal international justice.

🧵 1/11

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

On this day in 1939, the USSR and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and carved up Europe as allies.

Moscow wants the world to forget this.

Russia holds no moral high ground on Nazism and only fought Hitler after he betrayed them in 1941

[MoD Estonia @MoD_Estonia]

On this day in 1939, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Its secret protocols divided Europe into spheres of influence, leading to occupation of Baltic States and much of Eastern Europe.

russia’s mindset remains unchanged. It must be stopped.

[Gitanas Nausėda @GitanasNauseda]

87 years ago, two totalitarian regimes agreed to partition Europe, setting in motion the most destructive war humanity has ever experienced.

37 years ago, 2 million people from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined hands in the #BalticWay, demanding justice & freedom. Their victory against all odds shaped our region into what it is today – free, prosperous, and full of unmistakable dignity.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

I’m traveling so maybe I missed it. Has anyone from the Trump administration condemned the “double tap” terrorist attack by Putin in Zelenskyy’s home town?

[Baiba Braže @Braze_Baiba]

Latvia restored independence de facto 35 years ago.

It was first recognised by Iceland🇮🇸 and followed by 73 countries shortly thereafter.

God bless Latvia! 🇱🇻

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Please watch and consider that Russia is proudly targeting and murdering Ukrainian children, and that there are real people operating these drones. That they have commanders all the way up to Putin authorizing this terror campaign.

[Gryn ✌ @gryn_a]

Not just that, but THEY KILLED THE AUTHOR too.
This is textbook KGB-style taunting and humiliation. 100% deliberate and used as a weapon.
Or, as it should be known everywhere, the actual russian culture.

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

They killed civilians in Bucha, and now they expect to enjoy holidays in Europe.

The EU wants to stop that.

🧵 1/7 ⬇️

[Lithuania MFA 🇱🇹 | #StandWithUkraine @LithuaniaMFA]

On 23 August 1939, a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union paved the way for the WWII. In protest against the Soviet occupation, OTD in 1989, 2 million people in 🇱🇹 🇱🇻 🇪🇪 stood in the Baltic Way, expressing the will to break free from the evil empire.

[Bad Baltic @BadBalticTakes]

Nothing upsets modern “anti-imperialists” more than seeing actual anti-imperialists doing anti-imperialist things.

It’s a pity these guys didn’t have access to Twitter so they could be lectured by Western academics about why their experiences of colonialism are invalid.

[Bad Baltic @BadBalticTakes]

Here’s how the world reacted to the Baltic Chain on this day in 1989, as two million people here turned their backs on Moscow to demand freedom.

This is proper journalism of a sort that’s sometimes lacking today.

The report is centred on the Baltic Chain protestors, reflects their perspectives about their own countries, and explains the historical context without the imperial lens. The Russian response is included, but not entitled to frame the entire story.

That’s how you do it.

The Baltic Chain protestors achieved something truly spectacular, despite no mobile phones, no social media, and with a brutal regime determined to stop them.

Two million people across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania formed the world’s longest unbroken human chain of nearly 700km across our three then occupied nations.

When pictures of this circulate on social media today, it’s too often by engagement farming accounts that treat it as just a pretty spectacle of people coming together across borders.

It’s treated on the same level as that vacuous “World Clap Day” bullshit that’s been going around recently.

But the Baltic Chain had a real purpose and a real message for the world.

They were marking the half century anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the criminal collusion between the Nazis and Soviets to divide up other people’s nations and pave the way for the aggression that sparked the Second World War.

The continued occupation of the Baltic countries half a century later meant that war wasn’t over. The Pact had to be fully annulled.

As the Baltic Chain organisers said in a statement on the day:

“…only then will Europe divest itself of the last colonies of the Hitler-Stalin era, and the Baltic nations will get the opportunity to determine their own destiny on the basis of free self-determination.”

“…one way or another, we have to solve it together, proceeding from the principles of international law. A common European home can only be set up if all European nations are granted a free right to self-determination.”

“Let us unite our voices and demand that Hitler-Stalin pacts together with their secret protocols be declared null and void from the very moment of their signing! Let us declare the annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania unlawful!”

So the Baltic Chain was indeed spectacular, visually and logistically, and incredibly brave.

But the really, really world changingly spectacular thing they achieved wasn’t the hand holding alone.

It was the actual annulment of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, officially declared just a few years later, fully restoring their independent states, and ending the occupation.

Unlike those who cosplay anti-imperialism today on Twitter, people living under Soviet colonial occupation did describe it as such and actually did things that were anti-imperialist.

And, seriously, fuck that World Clap Day.

The world needs more people who take a stand for real values, hence why we will be marking tomorrow’s Ukrainian Independence Day too.

As then, still today: A common European home can only be set up if all European nations are granted a free right to self-determination.

Thank you, @Carole_Simpson & @JimLaurie_Asia for covering the Baltic Chain so well 37 years ago today.