Russia

[Whistler]

Common sense = Putin nahhh!

Agree with you Dean that it is illogical, but the whole Ukraine fiasco is devoid of logic. Putin is now desperate, who knows what addled logic has invaded his cranium

[FrazeeDK]

and what is Putin's ultimate goal? He's adjusted it several times. I'd say that 5 years from now history will judge what he's done to be catastrophic for Russia militarily, politically, diplomatically and economically. The once vaunted "professional" Russian Army has shown itself to be poorly led at best and rabble at worst.

[Whistler]

It is the Russian military that is the biggest loser in this entire debacle. Are they pissed off enough to arrest him? I'll bet theiy are thinking about it very hard.

[tamada]

Rick,

There is no doubt that the pipelines were deliberately blown up. The two pipes were blown up simultaneously in quite shallow water near Denmark. That answers another question on this thread, if the breach was in shallow water, a lot if not all of the pipeline will be filled with seawater.

Speculation is a commercial vessel was used to deliver the bombs which were detonated after the ship had cleared the area. Presumably governments are tracing ship movements in recent months to narrow down a suspect vessel.

Given Europe's stance against Russia, there is a good chance that the pipeline would never be used as it made too much of Europe vulnerable to a rogue Russia.

Maybe this is a case of the naughty child tossing the toys out of the crib. Putin certainly has that type of character trait.

The only other likely actor would be the CIA, if Trump was in the Whitehorse I wouldn't be surprised, but I think Biden is more cautious and would not authorise such an attack, too risky to damage the USA's reputation with European allies.

For me, I reckon Putin is behind it and investagtions might finger the ship that delivered the bombs.

Biden has long been very loud on his objections to Norsdtream 2 and the European power dependency shifting to Russia. This was before Putin started massing troops on the Ukrainian border.

[parrot]

Rick,

There is no doubt that the pipelines were deliberately blown up. The two pipes were blown up simultaneously in quite shallow water near Denmark. That answers another question on this thread, if the breach was in shallow water, a lot if not all of the pipeline will be filled with seawater.

Speculation is a commercial vessel was used to deliver the bombs which were detonated after the ship had cleared the area. Presumably governments are tracing ship movements in recent months to narrow down a suspect vessel.

Given Europe's stance against Russia, there is a good chance that the pipeline would never be used as it made too much of Europe vulnerable to a rogue Russia.

Maybe this is a case of the naughty child tossing the toys out of the crib. Putin certainly has that type of character trait.

The only other likely actor would be the CIA, if Trump was in the Whitehorse I wouldn't be surprised, but I think Biden is more cautious and would not authorise such an attack, too risky to damage the USA's reputation with European allies.

For me, I reckon Putin is behind it and investagtions might finger the ship that delivered the bombs.

Biden has long been very loud on his objections to Norsdtream 2 and the European power dependency shifting to Russia. This was before Putin started massing troops on the Ukrainian border.

What would be in it for Biden? I'm guessing the European power dependency on Russia is over......as is the US's trade dependency on China. We began learning our lesson when we couldn't source masks from anywhere other than China. The EU now realizes an autocratic energy supplier isn't in their best interest. Back to the drawing board......so much for the theory that The World Is Flat (Thomas Friedman).

[tamada]

^ Probably the only trait that Biden shared with Trump was a strong dissenting voice on the EU's inexorable pursuit of Russian energy dependency. One would think that shared intel and a broad alignment on military strategy through NATO, something more than strong words were needed to defeat the political wrong-headedness in Brussels. Who was blowing smoke up who's kilt for the EU to ignore caution and go all-in with Gazprom?

[tamada]

Anyway, the media is talking up a Russian nuclear train and a nuclear drone torpedo this morning.

I guess the threat to Russia as a nation and creed is so terribly real, the only way to prevent it is to get everyone to kill everyone else?

[Earnest]

Steve Rosenberg reporting on growing anxiety in Russia.

https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR/status/15 ... 8845367299

[mak]

Two Russian nationals fleeing President Vladimir Putin’s call-up of military reservists landed by boat on a remote Alaskan island in the Bering Sea and are seeking asylum in the United States.

Big Boris left Russia in the year of twenty-two
With Igor Romanov and his brother Yuri too
They crossed the Bering Sea and they found the land of the free
East to Alaska go East the rush is on

[Whistler]

They will jump around the time zones. Alaska is the most easterly and most westerly part of the USA. I think 20 hours time difference within one kilometre

[noosard]

[Whistler]

Yep noos, the timeline warp makes sense, but these guys came from Siberia and jumped the time zone line

[noosard]

The United States will stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and start negotiations with Russia only after main industrial competitors in Europe go bankrupt, political scientist Marat Bashirov believes.

European countries already find themselves on the verge of an economic disaster due to anti-Russian sanctions. Europeans were thus forced to move many industrial productions to the United States, the expert said.


See more at https://english.pravda.ru/news/world/15 ... r_weapons/

[noosard]

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to take the facilities of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) into federal ownership.
The accession of new territories to Russia is justifiable from the economic point of view and will not have a negative impact on the Russian budget, the Kremlin said.
As Russia readies to grow even larger, experts try to calculate how much it will cost the Russian budget to rebuild cities and restore peaceful life in the new territories. Some others try to find out how much profit the new territories will bring.
In fact, Russia will receive more than 5,000 industrial, agricultural, processing, energy and other enterprises.

According to AMIK, all of them have a serious economic potential, and their restoration is an excellent start for the future for Russia. Peaceful life should guarantee the well-being of those regions — this is the goal, for which everything started.

[noosard]

The 20 Things That Putin Has Really Achieved in the Russian-Ukrainian War

https://renatosabbatini.medium.com/the- ... b3e6f1eb0e

[tamada]

The United States will stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and start negotiations with Russia only after main industrial competitors in Europe go bankrupt, political scientist Marat Bashirov believes.

European countries already find themselves on the verge of an economic disaster due to anti-Russian sanctions. Europeans were thus forced to move many industrial productions to the United States, the expert said.


See more at https://english.pravda.ru/news/world/15 ... r_weapons/

Makes sense. The US has finally taken it proxy wars into Europe's back garden (coming to a front garden near you). When the EU is powerless and broke, the US will parachute in another Lend-Lease Act that will keep them Euro-peons cash strapped for another several generations. Serves them right for pursuing the fantasy of a United States of Europe.

PS: Note that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland deftly slipped them EU shackles. Don't let the Guardian's claims that the "Rejoin Europe" activities on the Tory Conference fringes were anything more than some redundant, angry, clench-fisted Remainers having a reacharound.

[rick]

yes, slipped the shackles and still falling!

[mak]

Kerch Bridge.

[mak]

Queue for ferry to Crimea, 3-4 days.
https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/sta ... 9306502151

[tamada]

Long read but.

Unrest over mobilization in Dagestan: Homegrown in the majority Muslim Russian region or stoked by outside forces? https://www.rt.com/russia/564588-riots- ... -dagestan/