Zelenskyy: Modi is a ‘huge disappointment’ for hugging Putin

Gsus4 , 16 days ago

Meanwhile, in China:

Chinese are angry that West isn’t outraged enough by Modi meeting Putin 🤣

www.msn.com/en-in/news/opinion/…/ar-BB1pI80U

Cold war II is going to be 10x more confusing than cold war I

st33lb0ne , 16 days ago

Understatement of the century

skozzii , 16 days ago

India tries to play both sides so they always win…

hark , 16 days ago

Huge disappointment? Does that mean he had high hopes for a nationalist? That’s just silly.

UnderpantsWeevil , 16 days ago

Americans when they’re doing Realpolitik with China: “Haha! Yay! What fun!”

Americans when they see India do Realpolitik with Russia: “Oh no! Aw man! This sucks!”

FrowingFostek , 16 days ago

I don’t understand this comment. What example are you using for America and China? What “Realpolitik” is happening between Modi and Putin hugging?

UnderpantsWeevil , 16 days ago

What example are you using for America and China?

A secret trip by Henry Kissinger grew into a half-century-long relationship with China

What “Realpolitik” is happening between Modi and Putin hugging?

India and Russia are forming a long term mutually beneficial economic relationship that parallels the relationship Nixon’s America and Mao’s China formed in the 1970s.

FrowingFostek , 16 days ago

I don’t know much about Kissinger but, from the AP article you sent gives me the idea China saw him as the “Giant Panda”. I hardly see this relationship as a “yay” from Americans.

I thought Modi was significantly weakened with the last vote in India. Is this not him aligning with other authoritarian leaders? Thats the only politics I see.

UnderpantsWeevil , 16 days ago

I hardly see this relationship as a “yay” from Americans.

American business leadership broke the domestic union movement and monopolized retail sales with overseas outsourcing. It was a huge win for the folks Kissinger represented back home.

I thought Modi was significantly weakened with the last vote in India.

His BJP party no longer enjoys a singular majority in Parliament, but the NDA coalition holds a surplus of 21 seats needed for the 272 seat majority. Modi’s policies aren’t going to radically change, but he is forced to include more senior members of friendly parties in his overall cabinet.

Is this not him aligning with other authoritarian leaders?

India and Russia have been politically and economically aligned since the end of WW1. A big part of that was the USSR-backed anti-colonialist movement. But India has also relied on Russian surplus agricultural and energy exports for nearly a century.

Pakistan was the historical western ally in the region, dating back to the CIA-backed military coup in '58. But the War on Terror, which used Pakistan as a launch pad into Afghanistan, burned away significant amounts of Pakistani goodwill. The (highly illegal and hugely unpopular) US invasion into Abadabad, to assassinate Bin Laden, was more or less the last straw. Now Pakistan is increasingly aligning with China, and the US has been forced to court India’s government as an alternative.

So this isn’t Modi spontaneously aligning with Putin. This is India continuing a long-standing friendly relationship with Russia, while the NATO block nations try to coax/shame Modi away on the grounds that Putin is ontologically evil.

FrowingFostek , 16 days ago

Sounds to me like:

Kissinger business interests in America align with China = Yay (USA corporatism)

India continuing politics as usual with Russia = Boo (USA regular people)

UnderpantsWeevil , 16 days ago

That’s the nut of it.

mohammed_alibi , 17 days ago

Damn, Modi can redeem himself by just doing it again, but this time, stick a dagger in Putin’s back!

juice702 , 17 days ago

Two douchebags embracing one another

_haha_oh_wow_ , 17 days ago

He’s a disappointment for lots of reasons.

homesweethomeMrL , 17 days ago

Ain’t it the truth

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

Is Zelensky not a huge disappointment for supporting Israel?

Doesn’t mean he’s wrong but kettles and all that.

rockerface , 17 days ago

We kinda need to align with US stance since we do still need those delicious delicious weapons to defends ourselves with. I don’t agree with it, but I also kinda want to survive the war

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

If you want to side with genocide to protect yourself, you lose all right to complain about Russias plans for genocide.

rockerface , 17 days ago

Did you, perchance, miss the part where I don’t agree with it?

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

No, nor did I miss the part where you tried to justify it; As if you can excuse genocide elsewhere because you think your life is more important.

rockerface , 17 days ago

Is your life more important, then? If not, you’re more than welcome to visit

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

So you agree, you justified genocide?

I don’t care why you’re doing it.

Tryptaminev , 17 days ago

Meanwhile Russia uses Israeli drones to target you with their Artillery. They were even sold after Crimea was already invaded and Israel conveniently did not sanction Russia even when the main invasion happened in 2022.

Zelensky is sucking up to people who are fine with and even helping in you getting murdered. You are also victims of Zionism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Russia_relations

SpaceCowboy , 17 days ago

Hamas is a fascist group that’s supplied with weapons by Iran that routinely fires rockets at civilians.

Russia is a fascist country that’s supplied with weapons by Iran that routinely fires rockets at civilians.

There are groups in the West that think Ukraine shouldn’t be supplied with weapons. There are groups in the west that think Israel shouldn’t be supplied with weapons.

Both Ukraine and Israel is the target of a lot of propaganda. Main difference is Ukraine has won the propaganda war, while Israel has lost the propaganda war.

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

Holy fuck, Ukraine and Palestine are victims of terror and genocide. Not Ukraine and Israel.

Israel and Russia are the fascist countries. Israel has done everything in its power to spread propaganda to the contrary but anyone with eyes can literally see what they are doing.

ShinkanTrain , 17 days ago

Bro, did you just learn about Modi?

dactylotheca , 16 days ago (edited 16 days ago)

Yeah like how is this a disappointment? I get what he means of course, but it’s like being disappointed in Stalin if he hugged Hitler. Disappointment sounds like he was expecting something better of Modi

eran_morad , 17 days ago

It’ll get interesting for India when their conflict with china really heats up.

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

It’s okay Russia will have their back, I’m sure China will send them the weapons to send to Indi… wait a minute.

Viking_Hippie , 17 days ago

Alternative headline: Zelenskyy previously unaware of everything Modi has said and done.

How the hell did he manage to know ANYTHING about Modi and still be surprised enough to be disappointed??

givesomefucks , 17 days ago

Because hes not surprised. This is entirely expected

He’s commenting on it to draw attention to it

I thought that was obvious

eskimofry , 17 days ago

It sounded too surprised for some of us.

hark , 16 days ago

It wouldn’t be a disappointment if it was expected.

Buffalox , 17 days ago

India is showing a terrible double standard, they are hesitant towards the west, because India was once a British colony.
That is understandable.
But to support and “embrace” Russia when they are doing the same even worse to Ukraine is a disgusting double standard.

Shame on you India, for not changing with the times. Russia is obviously the evil empire today, even threatening nuclear war that could destroy life on earth.

eskimofry , 17 days ago

Blame the conservatives… same as… checks notes everywhere?

Buffalox , 17 days ago

Yes unfortunately it seems the right is getting more extreme almost everywhere.

CosmicTurtle0 , 17 days ago

As we enter late stage capitalism, with wages stagnating and cost of living going way out of control, people are looking for someone to blame.

And for conservatives, if there is anyone to blame it’s always immigrants, gays, and liberals. In that order.

Never the capital class.

dactylotheca , 16 days ago

Moderate conservatives pretty much no longer exist.

The “moderates” are more than happy to collaborate with actual fascists; it’s not like the leopards will eat their faces, after all

Womble , 16 days ago

Always has been, never forget it was the “moderate” conservatives under Hindenburg that let (indeed advocated for) Hitler become Chancellor.

dactylotheca , 16 days ago

Touché, it’s not like this is anything new

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

You forget that India wants to be an evil empire today.

Buffalox , 17 days ago

I was not aware of that, in what sense?

derpgon , 17 days ago

Probably just wants to be a scamming empire

Deceptichum , 17 days ago

Well Modi’s ruling a wannabe fascist genocidal party.

Hindu nationalists dream of expanding into neighbouring states because historical borders at some period or whatever.

Ruthless capitalists like Adani who fuck over countries around the world to extract their wealth.

Etc.

jaybone , 17 days ago

Also they seem unwilling to crack down on scammers and hackers preying on the west, so they should pair well with their Russian counterparts who do the same but are much more sophisticated.

rozodru , 17 days ago

they also refuse to crack down on their people immigrating to the west in droves via…surprise, surprise…scamming. They scam their way into countries by lying and falsifying documents. Saying their immigrating to go to school when in truth they’re doing it for the easy PR status. Essentially travelling half way across the world to attend a community college and get a degree or certification in a minium wage field. And they can barely do that as most fail their community college classes. you essentially have “businesses” in india set up purely to scam people into a western country.

But they provide cheap and exploitable labor for companies in countries they immigrat to and they’re too ignorant to realize they’re being exploited. And then you have the Indians who immigrated legitimately and start their own businesses now being shaken down by organized Indian gangs who entered the country the same way the “students” did in order to scam “protection money” that gets sent right back to crime families in India.

If there’s one country that needs to be sanctioned and it’s people barred from entering a country it’s India. at least until they get their own house in order. I guarantee you in a few years they’ll be no better than russia.

privacyfreak84 , 17 days ago

Do explain the Hindu’ nationalists dream of expanding into neighbouring states because historical borders at some period or whatever’ part. I am unaware

rockSlayer , 17 days ago

I’m not familiar with the politics of Modi’s party, but if I had to guess based on “historic borders”, that would probably be Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal.

privacyfreak84 , 17 days ago

OK, but any specifics? That’s what I’m looking for, not what some people’s intuition tells them is the ‘hindu fascists’ intention to occupy foreign territory

rockSlayer , 17 days ago

I don’t know what you want me to explain. There are only a handful of countries on the Indian subcontinent that could, in any sense, be called India’s “historical borders”. It’s literally the same as any other fascist colonizer belief.

UnderpantsWeevil , 16 days ago

Modi is a little late to the War on Islam Terror, but he’s perfectly in line with Europe and the US in his desire to wipe Muslims Fighting Age Radical Islamic Extremists off the face of the earth.

Deceptichum , 16 days ago

Modi wants to wipe little old women and babies off the face of the Earth as well.

ZoopZeZoop , 17 days ago

John Oliver talks about it on this episode of Last Week Tonight.

Buffalox , 17 days ago

Thanks, although that was a bit depressing, I was not aware he is this bad, and I checked other sources too.

oce , 17 days ago

A big reason is India is getting cheaper Russian gas and oil since Europe has stopped or lowered its imports.

Buffalox , 17 days ago

Modi doesn’t have to embrace Putin for that, Putin is desperate and has to take what he can get.

Tryptaminev , 17 days ago

doing the same even worse to Ukraine is a disgusting double standard

This is grossly understating how terrible British colonial rule was. Britain committed multiple genocides including by starvation, up until even the 40s in its colonies, including areas that are now India.

Events like the Bucha massacre were basically just another Tuesday under British colonial rule.

Lets not revise the history of one imperialist genocidal shithole to criticize another imperialist genocidal shithole

Buffalox , 17 days ago

OK AFAIK UK did not cause evacuation of more than 10% of the population, they didn’t bomb schools and kindergartens, or destroy infrastructure to a point to make areas unlivable, and bomb cities until there is nothing left, or explode dams flooding large inhabited areas and risking nuclear incidents. Or cause half a generation of young men to be lost.

But I admit my knowledge of the occupation of India is limited. And I 100% grant it was bad. But were conditions honestly worse than they would have been under the former rulers? I suppose there was a reason India was relatively easy for UK to take.
India had lots of problems before UK invaded, way more than Ukraine, and most Ukraines problems was from hostilities from Russia that preceded the war.

Fortunately UK ended up leaving India voluntarily, which is the opposite of what Russia is doing, Russia left Ukraine in 1991, but then turned around and invaded, despite Ukraine had done nothing to provoke this.

Tryptaminev , 17 days ago

independent.co.uk/…/worst-atrocities-british-empi…

British rule in India was objectively worse. Much more people displaced, much more people killed. And “was easy to take” is a quite shit argument to create “perspective” on these kind of atrocities.

The British empire got away without facing any real consequences and is fairly effective at controlling the cultural and societal narrative about it. But it is in one league with Maos China or Stalins Sovjet Union.

Also considering Holodomor, what Russia is currently doing is not as devastating in humanitarian terms like what Stalins reign brought.

Buffalox , 17 days ago

OK I’ll grant that’s pretty horrible, maybe it seemed less so in history class, because complete inhumanity seemed more common back then?

Tryptaminev , 15 days ago

It is because in history class they give us a whitewashed version of history.

SpaceCowboy , 17 days ago

Lets also not use past problems to justify fascists making problems right now.

UltraMagnus0001 , 17 days ago

A lot of irony going on. Like the Jewish state doing what was done to them throughout out history to others now.

SpaceCowboy , 17 days ago

More like fascists using propaganda to convince socialists that the Jews are the real bad guys.

Same shit different century.

UnderpantsWeevil , 16 days ago

German police invaded the venue of the Palestine Congress, organised by Jewish Voice for Peace together with DiEM25 and civil rights groups, and shut it down by cutting off electricity, confiscating microphones, and detaining some of the participants.

History repeating itself

SpaceCowboy , 16 days ago

Maybe you need to actually read a history book.

clot27 , 16 days ago

Cry all you can. Won’t change the fact Russia/USSR stood with US when whole world (including USA) supported Pakistan in 1971 war and have supported Pakistan against India multiple times, and now the USA just want to use us as a weapon against china. I absolutely hate what Putin is doing and modi, but we have to see our past and then decide our future relations, not to forget Russia has used veto power multiple times to support us.

Buffalox , 16 days ago

You may be right, but I am not aware of the west taking sides between India and Pakistan, but I know there were borders decided by UK, that were not agreeable to both sides. Which AFAIK is the reason for the conflict between India and Pakistan.
UK was probably involved, because it was them that fucked up IDK? But there’s a huge difference between UK the colonial power 60 years ago, and Europe after EU, which has a mission for peace as a fundamental value and reason to be formed. As an example this was also the reason many EU countries did not join USA in the attack on Iraq.

Russia on the other hand, is now showing they may be even worse than the USSR. So zero progress under Communism, and 30 years of zero progress for Russia after Communism, while Europe has developed strong democratic values, that also aim to respect the rights and sovereignty of other countries outside the EU.

Again this has to be compared to Russia not only waging war, but threatening to use nukes, and risking all of humanity, if they don’t get their evil ways, this is IMO worse than when India was a colony of UK. Although I acknowledge there were atrocities against India that should never have happened, and were definitely very serious war crimes against Indias civil population.

UnderpantsWeevil , 16 days ago

we have to see our past and then decide our future relations, not to forget Russia has used veto power multiple times to support us.

I’m reminded of the comment by the Kenyan Ambassador to the UN, wrt their international relations: “Every time Britain sends a diplomat, we get a new lecture. Every time China sends a diplomat, we get a new hospital.”

Westerners really do suck at diplomacy. This isn’t an India-Russia problem nearly so much as it is NATO states thinking they’re owed fealty without any reciprocity.

TankovayaDiviziya , 16 days ago

I am not sure what you mean by double standards. India has always been playing both sides since the Cold War. India is a military ally to Russia while keeping close economic ties to the West. But in the context under Modi, he is basically of the same feather as Putin, both are authoritarians, which explains the hugging.

Buffalox , 16 days ago

he is basically of the same feather as Putin, both are authoritarians, which explains the hugging.

True.

autotldr Bot , 17 days ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

---

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday criticized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for embracing Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on the day the Kremlin’s forces bombed a children’s hospital in Kyiv.

Modi arrived in Moscow on Monday for a two-day state visit, marking his first trip to Russia since it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a video clip that went viral Monday evening, Modi climbed out of a car, walked up some steps to meet Putin, and gave the Russian president a warm hug.

Earlier the same day, Russia launched a mass missile attack against Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih and other cities in Ukraine, killing at least 42 people and injuring at least 206.

Modi did not address the strikes while speaking to the Indian diaspora in Moscow on Tuesday, but praised relations between the two countries, calling Russia a “reliable friend.”

He also announced the opening of two new Indian consulates in Russia and hailed his “friend” Putin for working toward developing the partnership between the two countries.

---

The original article contains 255 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 31%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!