### Author:  [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2241 "2022-03-13T22:03:46Z")
I mean I have had an engineer raging on about how stupid not only Daylight Saving Time is, but how DANGEROUS multiple time zones for one country are.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2242 "2022-03-13T22:06:23Z")
You do realize that Tulsi Gabbard is not a reliable source of anything except Russian propaganda, right?
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2243 "2022-03-13T22:07:04Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#):
>
> US admits the presence of 25 US bio-labs in Ukraine.
Could you provide a cite?
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2244 "2022-03-13T22:11:43Z")
The author of that tweet has been and may well still be on Moscow’s payroll. She’s giving Russia cover to use bio/chem warfare if they deem it necessary to defeat Ukraine.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2245 "2022-03-13T22:19:05Z")
A statement from Tulsi Gabbard is proof only that Tulsi Gabbard really wants people to pay attention to her.
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2246 "2022-03-13T22:31:07Z")
>
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2247 "2022-03-13T22:41:14Z")
Tulsi Gabbard is no more reliable than Tucker Carlson.
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### Author:  [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2248 "2022-03-13T22:48:12Z")
> [@enipla](#):
>
> And as the young experience this. They will eat propaganda instead of food. It will make them more aggressive. This is just IMHO.
No, I don’t think so. You forget that young Russians are more tech-savvy than their parents and grandparents:
> “In broad terms, younger Russians are less likely to have anti-Ukrainian sentiments. We have seen that the anti-war protests have also largely involved younger people,” said Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Center. “A lot of how you perceive the war depends on where you get your news,” he said. “If you watch television, you are simply more likely to toe the official line. And older people tend to watch more TV.”
>
> In the past, polling has found that television [remains](https://www.levada.ru/2021/08/05/rossijskij-medialandshaft-2021/) the biggest news source for Russians, with more than 60% of the population relying on it for information. Russians over 65 are 51% more likely to watch television than under-25s.
(From [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/13/my-mother-says-i-am-betraying-russia-putins-invasion-divides-the-generations))
The information available to younger, tech-savvy Russians may get cut off, but it’s too late: they already know the truth. Furthermore, [according to 538](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-war-in-ukraine-might-change-putins-popularity-among-russians/),
> As the war rages on, Putin’s popularity may become more precarious, too, if history is any indication. Russians have tended to [lose faith in Putin](https://theconversation.com/putins-public-approval-is-soaring-during-the-russia-ukraine-crisis-but-its-unlikely-to-last-177302) when faced with ongoing war, economic uncertainty or public protest against the leader.
>
> “While examining hundreds of thousands of Russian public opinion survey responses from 2003-19, I have found that **merely being exposed to public protest depresses approval of Putin and his regime** ,” Noah Buckley, a political science professor at Trinity College Dublin, wrote in [a recent op-ed](https://theconversation.com/putins-approval-has-stayed-strong-over-the-years-war-in-ukraine-could-change-that-178179) for The Conversation. “Members of the general public learn about regime misdeeds from these protests, and discover that there are more dissenters in their society than they may have previously assumed. In other ongoing research, **my co-authors and I have found that when Russians find out that Putin’s approval levels are not as sky-high as they thought, their own feelings towards him sour substantially**.”
>
> [bolding mine]
>
> TL;DR: Don’t discount the impact of the young, who are opposed to the war (only 29% of 18-24-year-olds support it), and don’t discount how easily Russians are deterred from supporting Putin.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2249 "2022-03-13T22:54:04Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#):
>
> US admits the presence of 25 US bio-labs in Ukraine.
Gabbard is almost certainly paid by Russia to advance their interests. She’s been spewing their propaganda for years. Nobody considers her a reliable source of information.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2250 "2022-03-13T23:20:31Z")
Labs are rated by containment levels (e.g. how dangerous of stuff they’re equipped to handle). Here is a map of BSL-4 labs (the most dangerous) on the planet:
[https://images.app.goo.gl/FcLs6X2Gfu7HtqDj7](https://images.app.goo.gl/FcLs6X2Gfu7HtqDj7)
Levels 3 and 4 in Europe:
[https://images.app.goo.gl/dqVp6GssN3t79UwF6](https://images.app.goo.gl/dqVp6GssN3t79UwF6)
I don’t think that anyone cares about levels 1 and 2, really.
Also, for the record, an edutainment video from a random laboratory in the UK:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIavxAm4Mts)
Biological labs are liable to be dangerous at probably any level and the US almost certainly does support some biotech projects in Ukraine. But that’s true of all countries on the planet, isn’t secret, and isn’t nefarious.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2251 "2022-03-14T00:22:56Z")
Someone in Russia took the obvious and incredibly mundane fact that Ukraine is a big country with (gasp!) _laboratories_ and _scientists_ that conduct _research_ and, scariest of all, _sometimes coordinate with other scientists around the globe_ and turned it into a conspiracy theory to help justify this atrocious invasion. Their useful idiots like Gabbard and Carlson are just repeating this bullshit, out of dishonesty, ignorance, malevolence, or all three.
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2252 "2022-03-14T00:27:50Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Their useful idiots like Gabbard and Carlson
They are not idiots, they are employees.
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2253 "2022-03-14T00:38:26Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#):
>
> US admits the presence of 25 US bio-labs in Ukraine.
You are making a joke here, right? Right?
You can’t actually think that Russian propaganda, as parroted by one of their own is accurate, can you?
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2254 "2022-03-14T00:42:05Z")
> [@Al128](#):
>
> except when they don’t work, like in this war…
What evidence do you have they don’t work?
You claim Ukraine has 75% of its air force functioning. How ACTIVE are they? How many sorties? What impact are they having on ground operations? If they’re dominant, why is Russian artillery still attacking towns and killing civilians? Why isn’t the Ukrainian air force blowing them to shit?
> [@Bootb](#):
>
> They **used** to work. But clearly something changed, as evidenced by the fact that the Russia STILL does not have control of Ukrainian airspace.
Russia does not enjoy air supremacy because Ukrainian AA assets also work. We have no evidence the Ukrainian air force is operating with impunity, either.
The evidence so far strongly suggests that both air forces have reason to fear AA.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2255 "2022-03-14T00:48:00Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> A statement from Tulsi Gabbard is proof only that Tulsi Gabbard really wants people to pay attention to her.
To be fair, it may also be proof that the Kremlin’s checks aren’t bouncing yet.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2256 "2022-03-14T01:03:50Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#):
>
> To be fair, it may also be proof that the Kremlin’s checks aren’t bouncing yet.
Or maybe they are bouncing, but she hopes for a change:
> [@](#):
>
> Believe me, three months from now the check will be as good as Donald Trump’s casinos.
— [”To Russia with Rubber,” Art Buchwald](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/04/23/to-russia-with-rubber/6fea6068-09c5-4921-a548-c98ea8641b4b/)
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### Author:  [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2257 "2022-03-14T01:04:38Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> The evidence so far strongly suggests that both air forces have reason to fear AA.
Yeah, that’s my understanding so far. Ukraine has been quite successful with their UAVs, it seems. But I haven’t seen any evidence of their piloted aircraft venturing too near to Russian positions.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2258 "2022-03-14T01:06:04Z")
Ooopsy!
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2259 "2022-03-14T01:15:54Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#):
>
> the Kremlin’s checks aren’t bouncing yet
I believe she lives in Hawaii, right? She probably takes her skiff out past the 12-mile limit to pick up her shipments of vodka, caviar and borscht from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii, which is only a short ~3500 miles away.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2022, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/2260 "2022-03-14T01:26:57Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#):
>
> To be fair, it may also be proof that the Kremlin’s checks aren’t bouncing yet.
Remember when Hillary Clinton commented that some American politicians might be Kremlin assets and Gabbard complained Clinton was talking about her **even though Clinton never mentioned Gabbard?**
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