The slogan these Russian ladies are holding says, “WE ARE EVEN READY TO DIE TO HELP PUTIN.” How their deaths will benefit Putin is not specified but it’s the thought that counts.
Are you ready to die to help Obama? Or Trump, or Sanders, or Rubio? No? And that’s why I prefer to have you as my neighbor and not these ladies.
Clarissa's Blog 
Russia’s sure got some crazy ass folks living there…. The scary thing is that the sign looks professionally made (rather than the impassioned scrawl you might expect from an isolated crazy person).
Neither one looks like they could put together the sign on their own so this is obviously made by someone else and they’re (willingly!) following orders to carry it around.
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These protesters are usually paid between 300 and 500 rubles to do this. It’s like a little side job for them. But this doesn’t cancel out the fact that they actually believe the slogans.
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I vaguely remember asking this before but forgetting the answer, is sdohnut’ a normal way to say ‘die’ in Russian?
The Polish cognate (zdechnąć) is only used of animals and would be highly insulting used about a person.
Cognates across Slavic language are a crazy web of strange changes in meanings and/or false friends but that seems extreme.
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You’re right, this is much stronger than die. I’m not sure what the exact equivalent might be in English. But these women are ready to die like animals for Putin. Which is even worse?
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The Pocket Oxford RussianDictionary on my desk gives the translation as “to kick the bucket.” Which is an English idiom, but doesn’t refer to animals.
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I thought of using this expression to translate the word but it’s less cruel and more humorous in English.
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Hollande going to Moscow on Wednesday to trade Ukraine sanctions for Russian aid against ISIL?
“The sanctions that have been imposed on Russia are not because of Syria. They’re because of Ukraine, and Russia’s persistent violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” – Obama officials
“But Obama officials aren’t certain of Hollande’s intentions. The French leader — whose country is losing lucrative business with Moscow to the sanctions — has spoken optimistically in recent weeks about their eventual removal.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/obama-hollande-216118#ixzz3sLWc2B2E
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He’s going to plead for Russian ground troops. What a weasel.
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I don’t understand why Hollande doesn’t evoke Article 5 of NATO, which would compel fellow NATO countries to commit ground troops against ISIS.
Perhaps some powerful NATO country is privately pressuring him not to do so??
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What ground troops?
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NATO countries all have standing armies. Even without U.S. ground troops, the combined European NATO ground forces would be much larger than ISIS and could destroy them readily in conventional warfare. (The U.S., which obviously has the single largest forces, would also be obligated by France’s evoking of Article 5 to send ground troops.)
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“Perhaps some powerful NATO country is privately pressuring him not to do so??”
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Yes, but that doesn’t explain why he thinks he can get more help from Putin than NATO. Does anybody in Europe really want a large number of Russian ground troops in the Middle East — as Putin is threatening to send in??
And it is going to take a large ground force to retake the vast amount of territory held by ISIS. Air power won’t do it, no matter what anybody claims.
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I think everyone in the West prefers for Putin or the devil or anybody else whatsoever to send troops for as long as they don’t have to do anything or take any risks.
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If they want to die (actually, they are using a worse word, like ‘kick the bucket’), why do they live?
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Agreed….
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I’m surprised you haven’t done a blog post yet on the power being cut off from Crimea.
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What’s the big deal? Power outages happen many times a year in Ukraine and nobody ever cared. I went without electricity and heating in the dead of winter many many times back in Ukraine, so what? It was much worse when my entire city of 1,5 million had to go without any running water for 3 months.
So why the sudden interest in electricity – deprived Ukrainians?
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