Sensible advice from a guy who seems to know more about Russian than most people.
https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1519458560316428289
It would probably have helped them get rid of it 7 odd years ago when Russia first invaded Crimea.
It wasn't built before Russia annexed Crimea.
This report suggests that Russia is just going to keep trying to escalate:
Operation Z: The Death Throes of an Imperial Delusion
its almost sharks with frickin laser beams
https://twitter.com/CovertShores/status/1519409209393229824
It is, interestingly nothing new
Since 1959, the U.S. Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions as teammates for our Sailors and Marines
That bridge
It wasn’t built before Russia annexed Crimea.
Ah right, I assumed it was old infrastructure. All the more reason to blow it up!
What do we expect this lightning response to be?
Hypersonic missile at a British ship?
Well, as it’s Liz Truss being all “brave” on behalf of people who don’t know who she is in Ukraine, I’d much rather they targeted her directly rather than anyone else. Why couldn’t she stick to the “it’s down to the Ukrainians, we will support them in whatever they decide” rather than talking up “our” appetite for risk taking and suggesting targets.
Biden putting through $33bn in funding, expected to pass. Should last 5 months apparently.
If truss got friendly fired I'd not be that upset
I don't intend this post to be dismissive of the death of another person.
Do we think he really is the first UK national?
Do we think the three 'former special forces' soldiers maybe killed in March were actually former?
Rip
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61260402
Probably not. Deliberately didn't post about Sibs, nice lad by all accounts. Few of my friends knew him from his time in the RLC, my SM has been awash with their stories and memories. Damn shame.
Yup. That training camp was a dirty big target with multi-national recruits and volunteers. Zero chance of opsec being kept having a bunch of UKSF hanging around with that many potential leaks.
I don’t intend this post to be dismissive of the death of another person.
Do we think he really is the first UK national?
Do we think the three ‘former special forces’ soldiers maybe killed in March were actually former?Rip
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61260402
Interesting theory on the Moskva sinking. Basically, he suspects the crew just weren't paying attention rather than distracted by the Ukrainian drone. If they were tracking the drone, they would have been on full alert and watching the radar, which was capable of tracking multiple targets. He thinks it's more likely that the Russian's were just fatigued and not actually monitoring the radar at all.
https://twitter.com/anderspuck/status/1517773436826923008
Putin comes across as a tragic, nasty, paranoid little man who is scared shitless of people like Navalny. He won’t even say his name in public, which is quite pathetic.
The brutality with which he deals with any oposition is still acrually quite shocking to witness. It really is a dictatorship. No dissent is tolerated. They trick an FSB agent into casually chatting about the death squad he’s part of, who just bump off Putins perceived enemies. You have to wonder as to how many people they’ve actually assassinated. It’s staggering that you can establish a huge totalitarian state like this in the 21st century
Well worth a watch
It’s staggering that you can establish a huge totalitarian state like this in the 21st century
It is to us in Western Europe, but then look around the world.
Also see some of the moves from our current Government....
So... are we blaming the UN for provoking Putin to attack Kyiv now... because Guterres went there to condemn the war...?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61265635
Rockets hit Kyiv during the UN Secretary General's visit to the city, in which he criticised his own organisation's Security Council.
Antonio Guterres said the council had failed to prevent or end the war in Ukraine.
This was "a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger," he said."Let me be very clear: [it] failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war," he added.
The 15-member UN Security Council is specifically tasked with ensuring global peace and security.
But it has faced criticism, including from Ukraine's government, for failing to act since the invasion began in February.
Russia is one of five permanent members of the body and it has vetoed more than one resolution on the conflict.
They trick an FSB agent into casually chatting about the death squad he’s part of
It's telling that they all agree at the end of the phone call, that they should really reach out to him and offer him asylum or at the very least; a way out of Russia, and they're all saying things "He's just dead now"
The end credits say that they've not been able to get in in contact with they guy and he seems to have just vanished off the face of the world.
I did think as he was saying it that he’d probably signed his own death warrant and that appears to be the case.
It just further highlights the casual disregard for human life of the Putin regime
Re Putin, there was a documentary about Obama-era disarmament talks on BBC4 last week, that showed a lot of Putin. There was a big factory in some town, the main employer, closed down by its owners suddenly. Putin went there, got in a room with the owners and forced them to re-open it.
Sounds good, but not really. No concern as to wether or not the factory was profitable, or anyone wanted the stuff it was making. Or if it was good business. Nothing about how the government can help you stay open, can we find a buyer, what else can we do for these people. And it was done on TV, which means it was only done for image purposes. No actual governing at all - only Putin's image is important.
The shelling when the UN was on the ground sadly tells us all we need.
Putin is hell bent on his dream, the UN talks with Russia have been I assume softly softly from the UN end to try and sound Putin out his response was to lob missiles around near the UN vist.
Even if you look for non western countrys India china ect they must be using back channel talks to try and save face for Putin by asking him to call it a day the eastern power houses I would hope don't want this mess spilling into Poland/Moldova as it benefits no one is he blanking former allies as they are telling him something he doesn't care to hear?
Don't get me wrong china love a bit of western distraction but Russia is to close for comfort.
So Putin has gone all in no real turning back without being replaced or killed he won't win this.
Ukraine has no other option to fight and fight on citys the size of Manchester and Birmingham are rubble nevermind the war crimes no point giving in when you have nothing to lose.
I do hope that this is an indication that Russia has realized that nuclear threats are not going to have any good outcome for them.
https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1520111990378745857
While I suspect he's right that the Russian nuclear arsenal is probably in poor shape, I also think it's much safer to assume that they have enough operational nukes to incinerate dozens of cities than to assume that none of them will work.
https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1520180165095174145
Well, as this seems to be the outcome
I'd say the threats are going well....
There was a big factory in some town, the main employer, closed down by its owners suddenly. Putin went there, got in a room with the owners and forced them to re-open it.
I seem to recall a quote attributed to Stalin that a business does not need to generate a profit?
I seem to recall a quote attributed to Stalin that a business does not need to generate a profit?
Under the Soviet system, they didn't.
Apparently, one of the problems with Russian military modernization is that the Kremlin is still trying to run things like back in the Soviet days. Back then, civilian production was used to subsidize military production, so military gear seemed really cheap. The Kremlin still forces military manufacturers to supply gear at below-cost, but it's much more difficult to subsidize that in a competitive market economy so the manufacturers produce a few prototypes to show off in parades and at airshows but the equipment never actually enters serial production.
Armata anyone?
Lavrov's comments are typical of the way Russia operates. Say one thing, do another, say something different again. It is deliberate, to make it more difficult for anyone to figure out what is actually going on. I am sure they think it gives them an advantage over Western democracies which have to be more careful about what they say.
Armata? I don’t think any have been delivered, for active service, have they?
I seem to recall a quote attributed to Stalin that a business does not need to generate a profit?
The economy collapsed the USSR
Lavrov’s comments
'Surging Lavatory' as I have seen him referred to.
Armata? I don’t think any have been delivered, for active service, have they?
Unfortunately, they seem to be dependent on imported components.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a26326951/russia-to-receive-first-new-armata-tanks-in-2019/
Russia-Ukraine war: Sanctions cripple Russia's tank production - GUR
Sakhalin is in the North Pacific ocean so this would have to either be an accident or sabotage, not a Ukrainian attack.
https://twitter.com/Caucasuswar/status/1520366678785286145
Cyber?
Cyber?
There's a lot of Ukrainian's working in Russia, have family or war objecting Russians. Oops, I dropped a match / jumped the fuses / left the gas on is rather too easy.
One of the replies to that tweet re. the fire:
"For reference, Sakhalin is in the #Russian Far East They deported 1000s of kidnapped #Ukrainians to Sakhalin".
I think the cyber angle is quite possible
Authorities are turning a blind eye to cyber attacks on Russia
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/russia-hacked-attacks
piemonster
Free MemberI seem to recall a quote attributed to Stalin that a business does not need to generate a profit?
It genuinely doesn't. It can service a need, or produce a value by means of what it produces or who it employs. It can be strategic, or research oriented. In the west there's any number of good examples of businesses that don't make money but are still worth keeping open one way or another- and also of businesses that don't make money but attract tons of investor's capital.
It's obviously not an approach to apply widely but it's absolutely appropriate to apply it occsaionally.
Yeh I know, the article I (I think) was remembering was talking about business that normally needs to generate more than it costs.
Didn’t actually find it, but instead found the Wells interview of Stalin which was interesting.
Just watched the Navalny programme and I'm staggered... The scene where he's feeding the donkey with his life... The yellow roadsign is 5k from where we live in Germany's black forest...
Makes sense, it's super quiet and loads of respiratory clinics very close by.
Anyone seeing reports of the UN driving civilians out of Mariupol?
Anyone seeing reports of the UN driving civilians out of Mariupol?
Your source?
If you want a fascinating insight into Putins Russia then the documentary on Alexei Navalny is now on iplayer.
Putin comes across as a tragic, nasty, paranoid little man who is scared shitless of people like Navalny. He won’t even say his name in public, which is quite pathetic.
Cheers Binners. Watched that last night - what an eye-opener ..
For me the question now is - what is 'our'* aim?
Are we going to equip Ukraine to win?
Or
Are we going to equip Ukraine to resist?
If it is the former we have to call Putin's bluff about escalation.
If it is the latter we will make this into a mincing machine bodycount war and the atrocities will escalate accordingly as Putin's frustration boils over.
This is a question that 'we' in the 'west' have been congratulating ourselves for ducking. But sooner or later it will need answering.
*'Our' as in The West, or NATO, or Europe, just not the basket case dictatorships.
For me the question now is – what is ‘our’* aim?
Are we going to equip Ukraine to win?
Or
Are we going to equip Ukraine to resist?
You need to spell out what you think a "win" for Ukraine would actually be. Ukraine is not going to invade Russia and demilitarize it. Ukraine will probably be able to attrit Russian forces to the point where they cannot launch any major offensive operations and then retake Ukrainian territory. They may be able to isolate Crimea, but I doubt they would be able to evict Russian forces from it. That would basically leave both Russia and Ukraine dug into defensible positions but unable to launch successful attacks against the other side. For Russia, that would be a defeat and that's probably the best that Ukraine could hope for. Putin is not going to sign any peace treaty that Ukraine would accept and Russia will be able to sustain a border conflict indefinitely so Ukraine is not going to get a nice satisfying Russian surrender regardless of the weapons systems NATO supplies.
