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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 8232409, member: 110504&quot;]During the couple of weeks leading up to the Russian invasion, I was looking at this, from a Ukrainian detectorist who&#039;s been listing on US ebay.&nbsp; An arrowhead, Kievan Rus&#039;; to quote the seller, &#039;c. 9th-13th century.&#039;</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1447567[/ATTACH]</p><p>I wound up springing for it, after the detectorist offered a fairly hefty discount.&nbsp; Predicated on the notion that whatever Putin was going to do still wasn&#039;t as imminent as it, well, was.&nbsp; Even then, I couldn&#039;t help congratulating him on &#039;your brave, and otherwise admirable nation.&#039;&nbsp; He sent a tracking number and everything.</p><p>Except, Oops, according to the tracking, it hasn&#039;t left Kiev since February 16.</p><p>...Yes, I bought it for the significance of Kievan Rus&#039; to the Viking Age, as a complement to a coin I&#039;ve already posted about a couple of times, too recently to warrant finding the links.&nbsp; --Okay, here&#039;s the pic; an imitation of a common&nbsp; contemporaneous Byzantine miliaresion.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1447569[/ATTACH]</p><p>Right, Kiev gave its name to the Viking-ruled polity that evolved into the Russian state.&nbsp; But regarding Putin&#039;s argument that history going back this far somehow overrules what happened over the succeeding millennium, there was this on NPR tonight.</p><p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/26/1083332620/how-ukraines-history-differs-from-putins-version" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/26/1083332620/how-ukraines-history-differs-from-putins-version" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/2022/02/26/1083332620/how-ukraines-history-differs-from-putins-version</a></p><p>...I paid via PayPal, with its expansive refund policy, but if that was going to come out of the seller&#039;s pocket, I&#039;d much rather just walk away from that, slowly, backward, showing both hands.</p><p>The Ukrainians&#039; communal response to what&#039;s happening is nothing short of heroic.&nbsp; Never mind Premier Zelensky&#039;s 0-60 acceleration from television personality to statesman.&nbsp; (Yes, apparently, Sometimes, that actually Works.)&nbsp; I have no particular ties to the country (apart from a maintenance guy at the apartment, whose English is, well, thank you, that much better than my Ukrainian).&nbsp; But I&#039;m sure that the people here who pray are doing some of that.</p><p>...Otherwise, this probably belongs elsewhere on this forum.&nbsp; But you&#039;re cordially welcome to riff on this, any way you care to.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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