gandhium

Yes. I had the same situation, tried everything (except installing Windows anew) - nothing helped.

And at this time I'm not concerned about patiently waiting for ~1 hour, I'm worried that someday that "update+fail" cycle will botch my system.

> Soviet Union did not accept the blame for occupation of Baltic states so I don't see how it should be Russia's obligation.

USSR didn't accept 'Tsar's bonds' yet Russia payed them out.

So, yeah, double standards.

> What do you want Russia to accept here

Same as for praising 'Russian' victory over Germany, for example. Accept their involvement.

How NATO expansion is related to a Russia violating their agreement with Ukraine?

Accepting blame for Soviet occupation of Baltic states or Poland. Accepting repercussions for Holodomor.

> Instead we decided to humiliate the Russians

By providing billions of dollars to them in humanitarian help, credits and jobs?

Humiliation, for sure.

> assured Gorbachev on February 10, 1990: “We believe that NATO should not expand the sphere of its activity.” (See Document 9) After this meeting, Kohl could hardly contain his excitement at Gorbachev’s agreement in principle for German unification and, as part of the Helsinki formula that states choose their own alliances, so Germany could choose NATO.

So, if unified Germany could choose NATO - that will mean that NATO is expanding.

So, basically TLDR - some vague promises to Soviet Union, some vague promises from Soviet Union.

Of course current Russia will twist history the way they want.

They _tricked_ others to take debt obligations for themselves. Since they took _all_ the Soviet properties as well.

> how many countries participated in the Russian civil war on the side of the whites.

All those countries were protecting assets sent to Russia and Czechs abused by Bolsheviks. If they were actually _participated_ in civil war, Bolsheviks will be crushed in a week or so.

> Since all socialist revolutions are met with the full ferocity of the capitalist states, it's not clear how they can win militarily without becoming a dictatorship.

Yes, sure. "I'm not guilty, they've made me do it" - looks like favourite mantra for wrongdoers all over the world.

> No socialist revolution has succeeded in an industrialized nation. They have all taken place in the periphery.

Correlation doesn't imply causation. Many "peripheral" countries didn't have socialist revolutions and there were few attempts in industrialized nations. For example, Poland and Finland, having even lower industrialized level than Russian Empire - they were spared from socialist revolutions. Not that Bolsheviks didn't tried to instigate them.

> It sounds like socialism hasn't ever been achieved.

Ok, why you're still calling USSR, Venezuela, Cuba etc socialist countries then?

Sadly your first TLDR offended bunch of folks still believing in socialism and you've got downvoted.

Meanwhile - all (and I mean ALL) countries which adopted socialism - all of them plunged into poverty, corruption and in some cases civil war and dissolution.

One can think it should teach a lesson... but some people just want to believe.

Russia since the creation (26 years ago) was involved in: Transnistria (war)

Nagorny Karabakh (war)

Chechnya (2x 'official' wars and still going)

Georgia (war)

Ukraine (war)

Montenegro (coup d'etat)

And as for economical blockades, they've did that to almost all their neighbours:

Belarus

Estonia

Georgia

Lituania

Latvia

Poland

Ukraine

Looks like there's a golden rule - blame US for everything.

Bureaucracy, lack of reforms, unreliable chips/components, paranoidal secrecy and tendency to lie in their economical reports - sounds pretty much Soviet Union to me.

> Specific examples please.

All their articles related to Ukraine: Donbass, Crimea, MH-17.

They're repeating same lies designed by Kremlin hosts.

> The US was more than hostile, we had soliders on the ground in Murmansk and Vladivostok.

US sent soldiers to secure shipments sent to Tsarist Russia. And surprisingly bolsheviks declared themselves "free" of any Tsarist Russia financial burden(s), so allying with Whites was logical.

So it wasn't hostile at that time.

Relief program was a _relief program_. Free as in beer.

Why do you think treasures were involved is beyond me.