Putin is Running Out of Time and Money, part II

Link to Part I

And yet on all fronts he's winning.

^ Only if you watch Sputnik Channel and Tucker Carlson on Fox News, Svetlana.

Why do trolls like R2 exist?

If by "winning" you mean his planned "72 Hour Special Operation" turning into a "365 Day + Land War" which showed Russia's military to be suffering from both micropeen and erectile dysfunction, then ok. "Winning", it is.

I asked this on the other thread: what's the motivation behind cheering on a genocidal dictator? It's completely like cheering on Hitler. If you're a Russian troll why be on DL? You're found out right away and you're mercilessly dragged. If you're a MAGAt I guess it makes sense to cheer on Pootin because your dear leader and Fox like him as they approve of autocrats, or at least they approve of the autocratic tendencies of Dump. It's still odd to me, though.

"If you're a Russian troll why be on DL? "

It's the carpet bomb approach to propaganda. Posting here is part of a larger strategy to just cover as many surfaces as possible with idiotic, pro-Russia blather. The thinking is that a few people here and there will be peeled away and radicalize from this thorough, incessant drumbeat of authoritarian ass-licking slop. It's a glacial slow long game with the intention of influencing how and who people vote for here in the US.

I know. Sounds utterly stupid. That's because it is. But there you have it.

I guess, R7. But boy is it ever stupid--to troll over this on Datalounge??? No wonder Russia is losing, if their trolls are any evidence of their long game.

You fools, Putin is winning in glorious People's Republic of Transnistria! Soon, all of Moldova will be his, and in brilliant pincer move he will encircle Ukraine with tanks and armored vehicles that will not stall out, catch fire, or unexpectedly flip over on relentless path to Gates of Kiev!

"Winning"

[quote]Under Putin’s invasion plan, Russia’s troops were to seize Kyiv within a matter of days in a brilliant, comparatively bloodless blitzkrieg. Instead, the war has proved to be a quagmire of historic proportions for Russia. A year on, Putin’s invasion has claimed well over 200,000 dead and injured among Russia’s armed forces, according to US and European officials; depleted its stock of tanks, artillery and cruise missiles; and cut the country off from global financial markets and western supply chains. Nor has the fighting in Ukraine brought Putin any closer to his vaguely defined goals of “demilitarising” and “de-Nazifying” Kyiv. Though Russia now controls 17 per cent of Ukraine’s internationally recognised territory, it has abandoned half of the land it seized in the war’s early weeks — including a humiliating retreat from Kherson, the only provincial capital under its control, just weeks after Putin attempted to annex it.

...

[quote]Prewar predictions that Ukraine’s army would collapse had largely been based on the assumption Russia’s air force would quickly establish control of Ukraine’s skies. Instead, amid widespread disarray among the invaders, Russia’s army shot down a number of its own aircraft in the early days of the invasion. As a result, it ran out of pilots with experience of combat operations involving ground forces who were also prepared to fly, according to two western officials and a Ukrainian official.

[quote]“It may not have been double digits, but it’s more than one or two” Russian aircraft shot down by friendly fire, says the former senior US official. “There was a lot of fratricide.” He adds: “They may not have had pilots with combat experience who were willing to fly over Ukraine and risk their necks in that crazy environment.” Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence, adds: “It happened. From artillery units, from tanks, and we even saw it from our intercepts of their conversations. They shot down their own helicopters and they shot down their own planes.”

[quote]On the ground, Russia’s advances came at the price of huge casualties and did not help it capture any major cities apart from Kherson. By the end of March, the invading forces were in such a poor state that they withdrew from most of central and north-eastern Ukraine, which it portrayed as a “gesture of goodwill”. The brilliant plan had proved a failure. “Russia screwed up,” says Skibitsky. “Gerasimov initially didn’t want to go in from all sides like he did. But the FSB and everyone else convinced him everyone was waiting for him to show up and there wouldn’t be any resistance.”

Must be like Dump. We’ve gotten so tired of Putin winning r2.

Seriously he must be losing his mind at the fact that it’s been a YEAR.

Poootin's so desperate he's now force-drafting Russia's college students. THAT ought to win him that war--a bunch of terrified, 20-year-old untrained cannon fodder.

Older Americans can tell him how well The Draft worked out for it's leaders. Or, maybe he can ask his good pal, Cadet Bone Spurs. Oh, wait...

The so-called "Developing World" LOVES Putin, because he isn't a Western European colonialist-imperialist.

And MAGAts here at home love him too.

Of course, they're all too stupid to realize how he is manipulating them.

[quote]The so-called "Developing World" LOVES Putin, because he isn't a Western European colonialist-imperialist.

Meh, not that much.

Note the 32 abstentions, however.

I don't think abstentions are a sign of love, R16.

They're a sign of fear, as well as an FU to Western Europe and America.

As such, they're meaningless.

LOL, no. Putin is clearly not persuasive/threatening enough to even get an empty gesture of support. Those countries all knew this resolution would pass and yes still abstained instead of giving any credence to Putin's claim that he had no choice but to invade.

^ "yet"

An unexpected positive from this heinous invasion is that Poootin showed his hand and revealed Russia to be unprepared, unmotivated, and very unthreatening to the West. He's revealed that the world has a lot less to fear from Russia than it might have previously thought. His big ally is Iran. Talk about unimpressive.

[quote]The so-called "Developing World" LOVES Putin, because he isn't a Western European colonialist-imperialist.

No, he's a Eurasian kleptocrat bent on extractive imperialism over every country his tanks don't break down in. There's a reason the countries supporting him are far from his borders (except for ever-loyal Belarus). Even Iran only gave a "meh."

Saddam Hussein was very well-liked by many! And so was Slobodan Milošević, I'll have you gays know. Don't even get me started on Muammar Gaddafi, what a MAN!

Brezhnev got more support in the vote condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: 104-18-18.

And we all know how well the invasion of Afghanistan worked out for Russia.

There’s a lot of countries enjoying the discounted oil amongst the abstentions. (Hey Pakistan!) They aren’t so much supporting Russia as supporting picking Russia’s bones clean.

Good to see you on this thread, ElderLez. Just want to remind everyone that 15 minutes ago the sun set on a free Kyiv on the 366th day of the invasion.

Yes, always good to see the sane and knowledgeable ElderLez on any thread.

Slava Ukraini

May the sun continue to set on a free Kyiv

Slava Ukraini!

“ He's revealed that the world has a lot less to fear from Russia than it might have previously thought. ”

But he has way more meat for the meat grinder of war. That’s his strategy. Wear down the west’s resolve via years of unyielding conflict (sacrificing the younger generation in the process).

How is he wearing down anyone's "resolve"? NATO has little to lose here; in fact, weapons orders only entice the western military-industrial complex, and energy needs are increasingly being met without Russian gas and oil. The "years of unyielding conflict" are just impoverishing Russia and depleting its population via casualties and brain drain. We were saying it last March and we're still saying it: what Putin unwittingly did was recommit western and east Asian democracies to their alliances and expose Russia as a paper tiger, soon to become a client state of China.

[quote] Wear down the west’s resolve via years of unyielding conflict (sacrificing the younger generation in the process)

He's not wearing down the west's resolve at all, R32. This is a myth. Poootin and Russia have everything to lose and the're losing it steadily, day by day.

R32, Putin’s willingness to sacrifice his own people means nothing to “the West.” The Ukrainians HAVE to fight—Russia has nothing to offer them but oppression and death if they surrender. Our investment in the war is investment in our own military production, something that has always helped the U.S. economy.

There's a poster who keeps bleating on about manpower but it's not just manpower - it's also about tanks, equipment, planes, ammo, etc.

"He's not wearing down the west's resolve at all"

Right, at the moment he is not. I just said that that was his strategy. He is just getting started (notice I said "years of unyielding conflict" - it's only been a year). Russia has a fuck ton of college-age kids to sacrifice too, to prolong everything. And the Russian people are too stupid and brainwashed to protest. They will be most proud that their kids are dying for the cause.

Also, watch how quickly we turn tail should Republicans get back in office. They will lift Russian sanctions and speak glowingly of Putin (some already are).

And interesting point r35 re war production. I didnt even think of that re war production.

Everything was fine and dandy as long as Pootz was throwing the hayseeds from remote backwater villages into Ukraine.

But he’s managed to get all of them killed or wounded and is forced to start conscripting men from the more “civilized” parts of Russia to soothe his busted ego.

Once a few thousand of them hit that meat grinder and never return or return permanently maimed, he’s going to have 99 problems and Ukraine will be the LEAST of his concerns.

R37, what exactly do you think western nations are going to get so fatigued over in the long run that they'll stop supporting Ukraine? Republicans like Matt Gaetz talk this way, but they really just support autocracy over democracy and so favor Putin—resolve has nothing to do with it. The long-term strategy you ascribe to Putin can only hurt Russia and him; he doesn't have the vast reserves manpower you think he does, especially trained manpower.

The last year isn't "just the beginning"; it's been symptomatic of Russian weakness, and it's hard to see how they make up for that. We're hearing intelligence that Putin wants to take over Belarus and Moldova—he'll really have his hands full then, not to mention the various problems within Russia he still needs to keep a lid on.

Not to mention, R37, the vast majority of the GOP very much support Ukraine in the war. You're talking about fringe MAGAt freaks. They don't make up the majority of Republicans. That said, I do have concerns about the U.S.'s financial commitment to the war should Republicans retake the WH.

Take over Belarus? Is Putin really so stupid he wants to depose his most loyal ally??? Who told him that was a good idea?

ElderLez, that plan was indicated by some leaked documents. Doesn't seem very doable, especially given current exigencies, but Putin isn't the most realistic thinker.

He’s also been agitating to attack Moldova.

Their new PM announced that Putin’s goon squad trolls and bots have been flooding their media accounts trying to foment a coup.

Moldova has had some issues and Putin believes that if he can take over Moldova, he can encircle Ukraine. The Moldovan government seems to be trying to get out front of this shit by alerting its citizens of what’s going on, who’s behind it and why.

Seems like the entire world is getting wise to Putin’s bullshit troll army except the idiot MAGAts.

Unfortunately there are convoys heading into Russia from China, supplying them with vehicles and who knows what else?

If you need a friend - or at least a "neutral" - China and Iran are good ones to have. India abstained as well.

Link for these Chinese convoys headed to Russia, R44? Bonus points if they're filled with cut-rate tires.

Moldova, Romania. Poootin wants a return of the Warsaw Pact. She's nothing if not ambitious.

R45, anal retentive as I am I took these notes yesterday

FEB 23 NBC nightly news: Russians paying $170,000 each for Ram trucks (bought in Abu Dabi legally, then routed thru Georgia to Moscow to the buyer) – there were 2 and the guy said cars came thru every day. (at the end of the segment, the reporter said there were long convoys coming across the Russo-Chinese border as well -- for the China convoy part, see Minute 17.40 at the link)

[quote]That’s his strategy. Wear down the west’s resolve via years of unyielding conflict

So he abandoned all that territory, withdrew from Kherson, and has held back taking Kyiv *on purpose*?

Interesting strategy.

Miserable Russians, has there ever been a time when the world hasn't HATED Russia and the Russians people? And it's the miserable Russian people not the fucking government either, call it what it is. Pray for a rain of Tunguska comets again!

The Complete W&W of R2 on THIS account:

Putin is Running Out of Time and Money, part II And yet on all fronts he's winning.

Which Famous People Have Songs Written About Them? Or in Bette Davis's case about her body parts

Sheryl Lee Ralph takes a jab at two of the Designing Women They should have kept Jackee on instead of having Julia "I can't win an Emmy if my life depended on it" Duffy

Sheryl Lee Ralph takes a jab at two of the Designing Women Remember when Tootie yelled at Jean Smart on the "Facts of Life."

[quote]If you can't properly look after your kid, keep your sugar walls shut

Sheryl Lee Ralph takes a jab at two of the Designing Women She's probably confusing Designing Women with It's A Living. We gave up Ann Jillian for THAT?

Did You Know Gerri Louis liked His Son Gary until one of Gary's fans came up to him and said, "aren't you Gary's dad?"

And they became estranged.

Raquel Welch is DEAD to me! [quote]Wasn't she just the subject of a thread here? She didn't look unhealthy

She was old, old people die.

Her best acting was in Seinfeld when she beat up Elaine.

"Gerri Louis"?

Has Roseanne Rosannadanna found our thread?

I wish Putin would crawl back into the hole he came out of.

It would be a miracle if Putin decided to withdraw and say ooopsie. He won't, but he should. His fellow Russians will end up paying the price for his destructive miscalculation. The Russian people must really live in fear of him to continually put up with his idiocy. It would be fantastic if they would rise up and free themselves from this piece of shit. The entire world would probably help them get him out....even China would probably help them.

Agree R54 but apparently the ones in any position to do what needs to be done are either too weak or too drunk. Or, both.

What sort of leadership would arise in Russia if Putin died or got coup'd? Is there anyone who could hold the government together without warring factions splitting the country up? Would there be a power vacuum? These are the kind of things that constitutional democracies don't have to worry about.

Whoever can command the army, private guard and secret services I would assume.

But is there currently any such person in all of the Russias?

R58 I'd guess it depends on who wants it but someone like Patrushev although he's quite old too.

“ So he abandoned all that territory, withdrew from Kherson, and has held back taking Kyiv *on purpose*?

Interesting strategy.”

Awww. You don’t know what a war of attrition is. How cute.

[quote]Awww. You don’t know what a war of attrition is. How cute.

That wasn't 'attrition', that was plain and naked failure to take Kyiv. The Russians even took ceremonial uniforms along with them for the parade and *booked restaurants* to celebrate when Kyiv had fallen within days and welcomed them. Didn't happen and they were forced to retreat.

Stop with your straw man arguments. I said his strategy was effectively a war of attrition, a wearing down of resolve, irrespective of what battles Russia wins or loses.

Attrition may be the only viable plan that isn’t defeat now, but it was clearly plan B.

Again with this "wearing down the resolve" argument! If that's Russia's strategy, it's not working so far (retreating from occupied territory is the opposite of "attrition"), and as for the long run, Russia is running out of resources.

R62, that would correct if that were his plan but guess what? It wasn’t his plan! His plan was to perform a massive invasion that would be of short duration. Why do you think he sent 35 miles of tanks and trucks, that stupidly caused a traffic jam? This is plan W, he’s run through all the other ones.

Geez you Putin apologist need to find another job.

[quote] Why do trolls like [R2] exist?

Because she has no friends, and Pittsburgh is boring.

[quote] Stop with your straw man arguments. I said his strategy was effectively a war of attrition, a wearing down of resolve, irrespective of what battles Russia wins or loses.

That wasn’t his plan. Russia’s military is not designed to fight that war.

“That wasn’t his plan. Russia’s military is not designed to fight that war.”

Then what is his strategy?

His strategy is 'I can't win this but I will die than admit it. I would rather ruin Russia diplomatically, socially and economically rather than admit failure'. Like Hitler at the end. Just demented.

Sunk cost fallacy.

Wars of attrition are typically fought by defenders, not invaders. An invader fighting a war of attrition has to commit weapons and an army indefinitely to a country where it is, by definition, outnumbered by the local population. It’s a recipe for serious economic and political trouble.

For what it’s worth, a military analyst thinks that Russia had been retreating into a defensive shell, preparing for a Ukrainian offense, but, under political pressure, prematurely began to attack again before its reserves of soldiers and ammunition had been rebuilt. He calls the current offensive “feckless.”

[quote]Wars of attrition are typically fought by defenders, not invaders.

THANK you, R71!

Many academics, political wonks, former military and journalists are indeed calling this a war of attrition. It really shouldn’t be a controversial assertion at this point.

Of course that's what it is in real terms now but it was never what Putin intended and he still harbors delusions of making advances.

R73, no one is saying that letting his invasion become a war of attrition was a viable strategy—or even a strategy rather than a default necessity—on Putin's part.

Should have added "except for one DL poster."

Yeah, who is this poster? Why are they pushing this stupid talking point that anyone with common sense can see through?

R60, if you understood what a war of attrition is you’d know that if either side has pursued that strategy, it was Ukraine. Their first major move was to cut off starve the Russian supply line. Classic attrition move.

As Ederlez pointed out if—IF—Russia is now pursuing an attrition strategy, it’s a plan b. And a shaky haphazard one at that. A year in and they are already trying to trick/force conscription. The initial strategy was a blitzkrig style, and it failed. Putin has been desperate for a decisive battle and he hasn’t gotten one.

Kyiv in 3 days—failed, not even close.

Kherson, temporarily taken, had to be abandoned.

Attrition is not simply failed attempts at decisive battles. No idea why you’re trying to pretend Putin isn’t trying to Pee Wee his way through this, but it’s not working for you or him.

Looking at the apartment building rubble at r73's preview is so chilling. I've seen plenty of pictures of the destruction and carnage, so you'd think I'd be somewhat inured by now. I can't begin to imagine living next to two hostile countries with psychopath leaders and the constant mortal threat. The generations of psychologically damaged people to come.

Remember the stories that came out months ago from Russian soldiers who claimed they weren't told what it is they were supposed to be doing in Ukraine? Some were dropped off in a field without food or shelter and told to wait for further instructions. Putin is a joke.

I remember, r80.

I also remember how many of the Russian “soldiers” did nothing but loot, pillage and drink stolen liquor as they retreated because they have NO discipline and NO toilets/washing machines/TVs/tablets and couldn’t believe how well the average Ukrainian was living compared to their shithole squalor.

Russia will ALWAYS be a shithole of squalor because they believe that’s their fate. Instead of storming the proverbial Bastille and publicly offing the raping oligarchy, they accept they can’t do better and gratefully accept any crumbs Putin and his gang of thugs care to toss them.

Hey, I tried my best, but you can't fix stupid!

Every country has the government it deserves.

The biggest thing the Russians are hoping for is for China to end their sort-of neutrality and supply Russia with components and weapons. Here's a video of Girkin saying that it's necessary.

We have got to hope that diplomacy and e.g. the threat of sanctions deters China from doing this. The U.S. has released intelligence saying that China is considering it.

R84, China has its own own colonial misadventure with Taiwan coming up; it can only give so much weaponry to Russia without undermining itself.

China = another nation state filled with uppity peasants.

It's believed that the Russians may have run out of the Iranian Shahed drones since none have been seen since February 15th. However, they will probably try to get resupplied since while the drones don't have a good success rate they are useful to divert air defenses from more effective cruise missiles.

R81 You clearly don’t know much about the region. While there is a huge difference between the regions and Moscow or Petersburg, Russia’s GDP per capita is almost 3 times Ukraine. Same when looked at as PPP. Don’t know about the looting and doesn’t surprise me but stop talking nonsense. Russia is no paradise but it is a relatively developed country. Its size has held it back as it just doesn’t have the population to develop and defend so much land. Ukraine is a poor country with even bigger systemic problems. I doubt the Russians are stunned by the opulence.

R88 You haven't taken into account the gap between the rich and the poor. Billionaires, Moscow and St Petersburg take most of the wealth in Russia while a much bigger % of Russian regions remain underdeveloped compared to Ukraine.

The percentage of the population that is middle class is the true barometer of a country’s wealth.

Oil and gas revenue comprises about 10% of Russia’s PPP, r89. Moreover, even that is not spread evenly across the country. Without oil and gas, Russia is exactly where Ukraine is.

If there's any doubt that Putin plans on continuing his conquest of other countries, he's just cancelled the decree underpinning Moldova's sovereignty.

I'm sure Moldova--or the US--did, umm... something to deserve it.

Moldova says it's already foiled a Russian coup attempt.

"Moldova's president accused Russia on Monday of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her tiny country's leadership, stop it joining the European Union and use it in the war against Ukraine.

"President Maia Sandu made her comments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week his country had uncovered a Russian intelligence plan "for the destruction of Moldova", and days later the country's government resigned."

Good interview with Jeffery Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management. A couple of juicy excerpts:

[quote][bold][2:30] Is Russia weathering the sanctions?[/bold]

[quote]No. [...] You're repeating credible sources, but they've been completely duped. [...] Since the last time we spoke, Rosstat has had a change of leadership three times, until they found apparatchiks who will do Putin's bidding. [...] The reason Putin has survived economically are lies: He wakes up in the morning, picks a GDP number, puts it out there, then the IMF and World Bank canonize it.

[quote][bold][10:32] Is the ruble going up in value against the dollar?[/bold]

[quote]No, it's another fake number. There is no one you could put on your show who could tell you they've traded the ruble. It's not an exchange-traded currency. [...] There's not even a black market in rubles.

[quote][bold][25:48] On human capital flight:[/bold]

[quote]It's a conservative estimate that 3 million highly sophisticated Russians have fled the country. [...] I just had a meeting with the ambassador from Uzbekistan, and they have almost half a million people from Russia, sophisticated IT professionals [...] so we've not just seen no capital going into Russia, but there's nothing that Russia sells on the world marketplace other than raw materials.

Why didn't Moldova just merge with Romania thirty years ago? I understand nationalist pride and so forth, but the languages and cultures are basically the same on both sides of the border, and unification would have given Moldova protection at this point (they could have left the People's Republic of Transnistria to its own devices).

R97, Romania is also in the Kremlin's (i.e., Putin's) crosshairs. It was never Molodova's responsibility to give up its identity and sovereignty and merge with Romania. It was always the responsibility of Russia to respect Moldova's (and Ukraine's, and Romania's) sovereignty, which we all know isn't going to happen. If Molodova and Romania had merged, that would have just given Putin one country for future invasion as opposed to two.

Why blame Moldova for the fascistic thirst of Russia?

Sorry, I mistyped Moldova a couple times there.

Isn't the previous Moldovan president the man Trump shoved aside at a NATO meeting in his rush to get front and center stage?

I believe that was Montenegro, r101.

Thanks, r102. I was wondering if that shove might have been symbolic re Moldova's future or Trump just being himself.

It was Fat Donnie being the epic prick he is, r103.

Malignant narcissist who wasn’t getting enough attention so he had to shove his way past the “new kid” and make everything about HIM.

IIRC, Montenegro had either just joined the G20 or NATO and this was the first summit that Montenegro was joining as a member country. So their President/PM was getting a lot of attention from the other members chatting him up before the formal meetings started.

Fatty got mad and shoved him aside to make it all about HIM. Such a fucking embarrassment.

Here we go...

""We're confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment," Burns told "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan on Friday. "

Forget the Montenegro guy -- Trump bulldozed his way in front of 92 year old Queen Elizabeth II, brushing her aside, when they were walking together.

The guy has the manners, grace and sophistocation of a gorilla in the wild. Me see banana, me knock down anybody to get it (or in his case, the limelight), while gleefully mimicking a disabled photographer en route to the banana, and grabbing at the pussy of the female zookeeper.

* sophistication

I man not be much better, but few are worse. Remember him trying to pull world leaders off their feet when he shook their hands?

What was up with the hand yanking? So stupid.

And poor Shinzo Abe? He even did something gross to Vladimir Putin.

I actually think he makes Kim Jong Un, Bolsosnaro, Duterte, hell, Putin, look like statesman.

I don't see how the US ever lives this down.

I did love how Trudeau came prepared, brace himself solidly, and put a lot of pressure with his other hand on top of Trump's forearm, as dumbo tried to throw him off balance and failed.

I'm sure Trudeau's youth, looks and height were a real affront to Trump and he would have loved to establish dominance -- and pitifully failed.

* I'm so upset about Trump I can't think straight: should have been Bolsonaro, "statesmen", "braced himself solidly" ...

Belarusian partisans from the "Pieramoha" (Victory) plan have confirmed a successful special operation to blow up a rare Russian plane at the airfield in Machulishchy near Minsk. It's a radar war plane that was used to fly with the Migs to check the location of Ukraine's air defense.

Zelensky has fired the commander of joint forces, Eduard Moskaliov. No reason given but I'd guess it may be that he wants a change in strategy.

Cute Austin Butler lookalike cries as he is captured by Ukrainian forces. Probably thinks he'll get sodomised six ways to Sunday like he was in the Russian army. He has no clue just how good he'll have it as a POW in Ukraine.

That’s a Ukrainian jacket (American issued) being put on Andrei (the kid).

Translation:

"Don't cry, bunny" ("Bunny" is how little children are addressed.)

Then they asked

- "What's your name?"

and he answers

- "Andreika" which is a diminutive of Andrei.

There is a famous Russian song "Battery" which includes the following lyrics:

I'm not your Andreika,

Our love has

A dead battery"

And they start joking around that his battery is dead.

"Saudi foreign minister meets Zelensky in Kyiv, signs $400 million aid agreements.

According to Ukrainian presidential office head Andriy Yermak, Saudi Arabia will provide Ukraine with $100 million in humanitarian aid and $300 million in oil products."

Well, the above has surprised me. I didn't think the Saudis would be friendly to Ukraine. They seem more like Russia's kind of people.

Maybe some oil rivalry?

Oh yeah, cutting off Russia's oil has had to be good for the Saudis, good point.

No, the Saudis hate Iran with a passion. Goes way back. They’re two different religious factions (not sure if “factions” is the right word here) who loathe each other.

The Saudis are doing this to poke Iran in the eye. Putin and HIS oil are a threat to their OWN OPEC monopoly and once Iran started supplying Russia with drones, they figured they could poke BOTH countries they don’t like in the eye at one time at little real cost (to them).

Well, knowing the Saudis, here's to hoping that Zelensky doesn't have to go to a Saudi Consulate to sign off some papers.

*Unconfirmed rumor*. A Kazakh journalist says that Kadyrov is very sick with kidney problems. He says that Kadyrov doesn't trust Russian doctors so has flown in a well-known nephrologist from the UAE. It may be why Kadyrov missed Putin's annual address a few days ago. There's 'he might have been poisoned' talk.

I wonder why the Russians haven't tried their poison tricks with Americans?

Perhaps they're scared?

[quote]Miserable Russians, has there ever been a time when the world hasn't HATED Russia and the Russians people?

To be COMPLETELY fair, the Red Army made a significant contribution towards defeating Hitler in '45 (employing the tactic that always worked for them, hurling as much human cannon fodder as possible at the enemy. Odd how that's not getting them anywhere in Ukraine at present).

That lasted until, say, '48? When Stalin tested his first nuclear weapons?

Kadyrov? Mr I hide in Chechnya and post videos on TicTok of me shooting abandoned buildings Kadyrov?

It’s no wonder Pootz poisoned him. He’s nothing but a swaggering braggart who hasn’t even gone to the front lines.

People aren't called a 'braggart' often enough around here. We need a word of the day thread...

[quote]He has no clue just how good he'll have it as a POW in Ukraine.

For all we know, those could’ve been tears of joy!

Re: R128: Uh-oh. And Modi was just becoming a MAGAt hero. Sad trombone noise!

Lavrov, that drooping, busted old leather shoe, gets confused when everyone laughs at his bullshit.

People should do it more often.

Ramzan Kadyrov Is Reportedly Gravely Ill With Kidney Problems.

According to Kazakh journalist Azamat Maytanov, the chief nephrologist of the UAE has already arrived in Grozny to treat the Head of Chechnya and key Kremlin ally.

Re: 131: couldn't happen to a "nicer" goat-fucker.

Shovels!

"Russian reservists are likely using "shovels" for "hand-to-hand" combat in Ukraine due to a shortage of ammunition, the UK's Ministry of Defence says.

In late February, reservists described being ordered to assault a Ukrainian position "armed with only 'firearms and shovels'", the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

It mentioned a shovel known as MPL-50.

The tool was designed in 1869 and had changed little, the ministry said.

"The lethality of the standard-issue MPL-50 entrenching tool is particularly mythologised in Russia," the ministry said.

The continued use of the shovel "as a weapon highlights the brutal and low-tech fighting which has come to characterise much of the war", it said.

One of the reservists described being "neither physically nor psychologically" prepared for the action, the update added.

"Recent evidence suggests an increase in close combat in Ukraine," it said.

"This is probably a result of the Russian command continuing to insist on offensive action largely consisting of dismounted infantry, with less support from artillery fire because Russia is short of munitions.""

I hadn't quite realized the level of goat fuckery, R132.

Kadyrov’s Sad Last Days!

Womp fucking Womp!

[quote] Poootin's so desperate he's now force-drafting Russia's college students

And Ukraine isn't?

Both sides in this stupid, pointless war are struggling with a lack of training and shells:

"Yevgeny Prigozhin of the Wagner mercenary group has said ‘shell hunger’ among his forces could lead to a total collapse of the Russian frontline. "For now, we are trying to figure out: is it just ordinary bureaucracy or a betrayal” he said, referring to the lack of munitions."

"Ukrainian infantrymen told of unprepared, poorly-trained battalions being thrown into the front line to survive as best they could with little support from armored vehicles, mortars, artillery, drones and tactical information."

[quote] this stupid, pointless war

Tell that to Pootin, R137. He started it by invading a sovereign country.

Do you really think it's "stupid" and "pointless" for a people to fight against their invaders?

I was about to post, like R138, that the difference is that Russia is a huge, oil-rich country sending an unprepared, underequipped army into a war they'd supposedly been planning for years and actually began in 2014; the Ukrainians have much fewer resources and are literally fighting for their right to exist as a country against an avowedly colonialist invasion. R137 is (stupidly, pointlessly) comparing apples and oranges.

What's stupid and pointless is the post at R137.

So the only resources Putin has left are...methed-up zombies armed with shovels and methed-up internet trolls pushing both-sides talking points?

Sad.

R138, R140 I'm hugely pro-Ukraine and think Putin is the scum of the earth who is the cause of this stupid war.

Also, I got my second quote from the Kyiv Independent who are about as far as pro-Russian as you can get. The Ukrainians need a lot more support. I personally think that the West should just stop pussyfooting around and ambush Russia, kill Putin and end this. They could end this pretty soon. But they're so afraid of 'nuclear war'.

Russians need to take care of Putin themselves. It’s not the West’s place to do the Russian people’s work.

I personally think it's ridiculous and driven by a fear of politicians being afraid that they would be targeted. They prefer to sacrifice millions of cannon fodder than that. So in my opinion that's the real reason why Putin isn't killed. They will protect heads of state because of that. Pure self-interest.

R145, there may be more to it than that. We have a less than stellar history with assassinations and coups. You never know what kind of avalanche you’re going to trigger.

Meh, can't help but think of reading Remarque's 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and his observation that it would be so much better if the heads of state just got in a field and fought each other to decide the result of the war. But they will never do that. They'd prefer 100s of 1000s to die and catastrophic destruction before they take any real responsibility.

OP And yet, he doesn't seem to be losing. Still.

Aren't we supposed to be in the middle of the east Ukrainian push by the Russians?

R148 Putin has absolutely already lost. He's fucked Russia's demographics, economy, international standing. He may keep on with this dumb war but he won't be able to 'win' in any sense of the word.

R150 So, he isn't running out of time and money, he has just soiled his name in the West...

R151 Unfortunately Putin cares. He really, really, really cares.

And that's why he would rather effectively murder thousands of Russian men, drive thousands more to flee Russia and kill off development in Russia for the present. Until he's dead Russia will not progress, only go backwards.

“Russia advances in Bakhmut by sending waves of mercenaries to certain death”

From Putin to the USSR to the Czars, Russian commanders have always freely spent the lives of their soldiers.

CNN: NATO estimates Russia lost 5 times more soldiers in Bakhmut than Ukraine

"NATO intelligence estimates that for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut, Russian forces have lost at least five, a military official with the North Atlantic alliance told CNN on Monday.

The official cautioned the five to one ratio was an informed estimate based on intelligence.

The official spoke to CNN on the condition they remain anonymous because they are not allowed to discuss this intelligence. Despite the favorable ratio, they also said Ukraine was suffering significant losses defending the city. "

NYT: "Ukraine Signals It Will Keep Battling for Bakhmut to Drain Russia

Gradual Russian advances and high Ukrainian casualties have fueled talk of a retreat from the eastern city, but Ukrainians say Russian losses are worse, a reason to keep them fighting.

Ukraine’s top generals want to bolster the defenses of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, the government said Monday, signaling that rather than retreat from the city, they will pursue a strategy of bleeding the Russian army in a battle of attrition before a planned Ukrainian counterattack.

Ukraine has calculated that the brutal siege is weakening and tying down Russia’s military, even as Kyiv awaits a new arsenal of weaponry from the West, including tanks and long-range precision rockets to enable an expected drive to retake occupied territory elsewhere. This achievement, Ukrainian officials say, justifies their own high casualty toll, though soldiers in the field and some military analysts have questioned the wisdom of defending a mostly abandoned, ruined city."

Russia's 2nd Amendment: the right of the c̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶d̶d̶e̶r̶ citizens to keep and bear shovels to fight against 21st century weapons shall not be infringed. Da.

Is Twitter blocking pro-Ukraine videos now? Weird

[quote]Is Twitter blocking pro-Ukraine videos now? Weird

An engineer fucked up a code update on Twitter yesterday, and most links still won't post.

Gay rights in Ukraine get a boost.

How Russia’s War Against Ukraine Is Advancing Sugar Daddies Rights

𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑝! 𝐼'𝑚 𝐺𝑎𝑦 & 𝐹𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑈𝑘𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒 - 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑀𝑒 𝐼𝑛!

This week: Ukrainian pilots being trained on F16s fighter jets in Tucson

Russia’s biggest bank suffers 78% collapse in profit as sanctions bite.

And yet the Durham investigation showed nothing about the connection with Trump servers and Russia's Alpha Bank.

Maybe because John Durham is a rabid partisan hack and the purpose of his investigation was to disprove Donald's ties to Russia? Which it was unable to achieeve?

Just spitballing here.

Womp, fucking womp, r163.

Serves them right!

An aide to Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine will start a counteroffensive in 2 months' time so here's hoping it goes well. Fortunately the winter wasn't a harsh one at least.

Russia can fight in Ukraine for two more years at current intensity, Lithuania says

Lithuania has been one of the harshest critics of Russia in the European Union, and faced the ire of China after it allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in 2021.

Chinese envoy's office in Vilnius did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Russia has repeatedly denied accusations in hacking activities abroad.

Lithuania's intelligence services said sanctions had not harmed Russia's ability to fund its military as it redirects resources to them from public welfare.

Russia uses "long chains of intermediaries" to procure sanctioned Western technologies, and its army is being adapted for long-term confrontation with the West and will prioritize efforts to rebuild its military presence in the Baltic Sea region, where it will remain "a threat and a source of instability".

"This will depend greatly on the duration and the outcome of the war in Ukraine – the longer and the costlier the war, the more time it will take," the report said.

I want to take the opportunity to just say how impressed and awed I am at the former Eastern Bloc countries for spitting fire at Putin.

The day that Putin attacked Ukraine, Estonia issued a statement that absolutely condemned Putin and his unprovoked attack.

While Western European NATO countries were all pearl clutching and hang wringing, this small country right on Putin’s doorstep stood up and said, “no, bitch!”

If you notice, it’s these countries that were under the boot of Moscow for decades that have been at the forefront of calling out Putin while some other countries (not naming names here) have dithered and shown only lukewarm interest in condemning this ongoing attack.

R169, I've seen a lot of commentary about how the Baltic states and Poland—who know what Putin threatens better than anyone in NATO and EU—have really taken the lead in giving Europe a political and moral backbone in all of this.

Concerns out of Italy:

"Italy is by large, it's the most skeptical country in Europe in supporting Ukraine on a military basis," says Stefano Feltri, editor of the daily newspaper Domani. "We are open to Ukrainian migrants and refugees but the military option is very unpopular." He says that's true across the political spectrum, "from left and right."

Italy has taken in more than 171,000 Ukrainians since the Russian invasion this year, according to United Nations figures. Polls show fewer than 40% of Italians approve of their country supplying weapons to Ukraine, a lower rate than other European Union countries surveyed.

Many Italian businesses, meanwhile, are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and closure, due to rising energy costs and interest rates. And inflation is at an eye-popping 11.9%.

Nomisma, a research institute, reports that 62% of Italian households currently live on less than $2,000 a month — and many blame the war in Ukraine for their economic woes....

Brave of Mongolia.

They sure are, r170, and I admire and appreciate it. They certainly don’t get the ink that the US and UK have been getting but those former Eastern Bloc countries as well as Finland and even Sweden have really made it a point to poke Putin in the eye at every opportunity.

I really admire their determination and grit. They very well know what comes next if Putin isn’t stopped now and they do NOT want to live under that bullshit again.

Once all this bullshit is over, I would certainly love to visit some of those countries. I have always been “Eastern Bloc curious” but now I’m even more intrigued and impressed.

THE SUN.- VLADIMIR Putin is presiding over a "mafia" state where murder is a tool used to defeat his enemies and to scare his uneasy allies into keeping in line.

Experts believe the deaths of at least 39 high profile figures - ranging from oligarchs to scientists and even generals - could show the shadowy and bloodstained hand of the Kremlin.

Dozens of high profile figures have died since Putin launched his bloody war in Ukraine over a year ago - with many in odd circumstances, such as sudden "suicides" and falls from windows.

Sergey Grishin - the so-called "Scarface" oligarch who sold Meghan and Harry their California mansion - died this week from sepsis after criticising Putin.

And meanwhile Russian scientist Andrey Botikov - who created the "Sputnik V" vaccine - was strangled with a belt in his apartment last week.

That's a savvy, CHRISTIAN genius right there at R174. Almost as much as my president Big T! Fine, CHRISTIAN men!

The Mongolian former PM at R172 makes the important point about Putin's targeting of ethnic minorities for cannon fodder, and generally the whole colonialist nature of the Russian state, both within and without.

[quote]Putin's so-called "partial" mobilisation has brought fear to Russia's most vulnerable, its ethnic minorities who have been disproportionately drafted and thrown to the frontline. The Buryats, Kalmycks, Tuvans and other marginalised minorities have been used as cannon fodder. By local accounts, the Kremlin is committing textbook ethnic cleansing under the umbrella of a "special operation".

Girkin/Strelkov says that the Russian winter campaign was unsuccessful and that the Ukrainians didn't suffer a strategic defeat. He sounds completely miserable. I'm honestly shocked that Putin hasn't had him assassinated or imprisoned by now.

Probably just poisoning him slowly, R177.

I think more like that Putin has a weakness of being loyal to certain, sometimes random, people. It's a character defect.

Da, R179, charakter defekt! Great leader must be strong and ruthless!

To be COMPLETELY fair...if you're gonna run a country as a dictator consistency is important, as slip-ups can be fatal.

R177, Girkin, besides being a murderer and terrorist, is a far-right military blogger--an influencer, I guess you could call him. The bloggers are the only real supporters of the war in Ukraine and perhaps for that reason seem to be important to Putin.

You mean, the RUSSIAN bloggers are the only real supporters of the war in Ukraine.

[QUOTE]Sergey Grishin - the so-called "Scarface" oligarch who sold Meghan and Harry their California mansion - died this week from sepsis after criticising Putin.

Their first thought "Are we off the hook for the mortgage?"

Putin forced to use 60 year old Russian tanks because he’s running low

All part of his genius plan, no doubt, R185! Like my President T, President Putin plays forth dimensional chess. You libs just wouldn't understand. You'll see. You'll ALL see!

Ukraine short of skilled troops and munitions as losses, pessimism grow

DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine — The quality of Ukraine’s military force, once considered a substantial advantage over Russia, has been degraded by a year of casualties that have taken many of the most experienced fighters off the battlefield, leading some Ukrainian officials to question Kyiv’s readiness to mount a much-anticipated spring offensive.

U.S. and European officials have estimated that as many as 120,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the start of Russia’s invasion early last year, compared with about 200,000 on the Russian side, which has a much larger military and roughly triple the population from which to draw conscripts. Ukraine keeps its running casualty numbers secret, even from its staunchest Western supporters.

Statistics aside, an influx of inexperienced draftees, brought in to plug the losses, has changed the profile of the Ukrainian force, which is also suffering from basic shortages of ammunition, including artillery shells and mortar bombs, according to military personnel in the field.

“The most valuable thing in war is combat experience,” said a battalion commander in the 46th Air Assault Brigade, who is being identified only by his call sign, Kupol, in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol. “A soldier who has survived six months of combat and a soldier who came from a firing range are two different soldiers. It’s heaven and earth.”

“And there are only a few soldiers with combat experience,” Kupol added. “Unfortunately, they are all already dead or wounded.”

One senior Ukrainian government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid, called the number of tanks promised by the West a “symbolic” amount. Others privately voiced pessimism that promised supplies would even reach the battlefield in time.

“If you have more resources, you more actively attack,” the senior official said. “If you have fewer resources, you defend more. We’re going to defend. That’s why if you ask me personally, I don’t believe in a big counteroffensive for us. I’d like to believe in it, but I’m looking at the resources and asking, ‘With what?’ Maybe we’ll have some localized breakthroughs.”

“We don’t have the people or weapons,” the senior official added. “And you know the ratio: When you’re on the offensive, you lose twice or three times as many people. We can’t afford to lose that many people.”

After a year of war, Kupol, a lieutenant colonel, said his battalion is unrecognizable. Of about 500 soldiers, roughly 100 were killed in action and another 400 wounded, leading to complete turnover. Kupol said he was the sole military professional in the battalion, and he described the struggle of leading a unit composed entirely of inexperienced troops.

“I get 100 new soldiers,” Kupol said. “They don’t give me any time to prepare them. They say, ‘Take them into the battle.’ They just drop everything and run. That’s it. Do you understand why? Because the soldier doesn’t shoot. I ask him why, and he says, ‘I’m afraid of the sound of the shot.’ And for some reason, he has never thrown a grenade. … We need NATO instructors in all our training centers, and our instructors need to be sent over there into the trenches. Because they failed in their task.”

At the start of the invasion, Ukrainians rushed to volunteer for military duty, but now men across the country who did not sign up have begun to fear being handed draft slips on the street. Ukraine’s internal security service recently shut down Telegram accounts that were helping Ukrainians avoid locations where authorities were distributing summonses.

Asked at a recent congressional hearing how much more U.S. aid might be required, Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl told House lawmakers that he did not know. “We don’t know the course or trajectory of the conflict,” Kahl said. “It could end six months from now, it could end two years from now, three years from now.”

R186 OPEN YOUR EYES, TODD!

Re: R187:

Those poor people. And Putin has caused it all. What a disgusting bastard he is, along with those who support him.

This is who the GQP stands with, when they stand with Russia. This is who they support, when they support Putin. This is what MAGAts are fine with, to own the Libs.

Laugh and make fun of him all you want, but never, ever underestimate this evil man.

International Court in the Hague just issued an arrest warrant for Uncle Vlad.

Ha ha.

R192 nothing will come of it

How many divisions has the International Court in the Hague

So there's now 123 countries Putin can't travel to without facing risk of arrest.

Truly a master strategist.

It's true that nothing will come of the arrest warrant--while he's in power. After that, it's a different story. If his own country doesn't string him up, he may have to defect to China for asylum. Or Iran, since they love him so much there.

Good! I hope he's only "safe" in the very scummiest of countries, including his own.

Putin demanding money from his rich oligarchs.

I hear that Pyongyang is lovely this time of year.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, over responsibility for war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine during the war ongoing for over a year.

R182, I followed some links when the war started and ended up reading Girkin’s Twitter posts. I had NO idea who he was. He was absolutely scathing about the Russian generals and their ability to conduct the war. He frequently posted photos of the funerals of soldiers who were killed which seemed to have a sarcastic angle. This was using google translate and my ignorant assumption that he was living outside of Russia. I guess it proves that you hear what you want to hear. I was shocked when I found out who he actually was and that he was out of favor at the time but he really really wanted to be directing the war against Ukraine. The last I heard, Putin did send him to Crimea to run something. I guess he’s still alive?

[quote] nothing will come of it

Not true.

Major hit to his credibility. They can try him in absentia--Anonymous will hack it into the Russian television system.

Slobodan Milošević and his supporters/enablers also thought he would forever escape justice for what he did. They were wrong.

Unless someone in Russia finally stops drinking long enough to find the stones to be a global hero, they will get Putler, too.

Slobodan Milošević was once Valdimir Putin.

So now Putin really is in greater danger than before of being assassinated by his people? I would love to know what he is thinking and feeling right now. I hope it is pure terror and dread.

[quote]So now Putin really is in greater danger than before of being assassinated by his people?

People have been wishful thinking this from the start but it's still very unlikely to happen. He has a large private guard whose wages he pays. More likely he'll decide his own fate or die naturally in one of his palaces. The Russian people including the billionaires won't do shit as long as they have enough to eat. And frankly, most of them can't touch him anyway.

After killing so many of the oligarchs he made, with their agreements, he only has the Chinese and Iranians now. So funny the greatest racist now relies on other colored powers for his existence! Lol, lol, lol. 😆

^To the 😆 hating cunt everywhere

[quote] They can try him in absentia

No, the court specifically cannot do that. Empty political gesture.

The arrest warrant means nothing unless a force actually goes to Russia to arrest him.

No, they can motivate other countries to snatch him and wisk him off to the Hague. And this is the first charge. He has Genocide and Crimes against Humanity coming his way. It's like moving from misdemeanor to felony. Russia can negotiate a trade of Putin for relaxing sanctions.

[quote] No, the court specifically cannot do that.

You are correct.

I should have checked before posting. Putin cannot be tried in absentia by the ICC.

I wish

He's also losing people. The life expectancy of the average Russian male keeps falling and is now 64.2. (Males born in Bangladesh live six years longer). "Russia may be entering a doom loop of demographic decline."

The Onion: Russia, Where Russians Go To Die

R203 there are similarities, but Slobodan Milošević was small potato from small Serbia. A month of Nato bombing tranquillized him. While Putin is the president of one of the most politically powerful states which owns nuclear weapon, too.

All that may be true, but Putin now knows how his last chapter will be written.

Latest video of Putin in Crimea shows him limping.

Seriously, when he dies—and he's 70 now—what kind of transition will there be? Can there be any provision for an orderly succession in Russia's basically ad hoc Mafia state? Will there be a power vacuum with the country splitting up between warlords?

Oh, and can I have his stuff?

R216, this is the footage. The limping could be due to some kind of neurological damage.

I thought Russia had huge gold reserves.

A visibly limping Putin arrived in occupied Crimea.

Russian sources report Putin's visit to Sevastopol to «celebrate» the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea.

Which, by the way, will be one of the items on Putin's list of accusations at The Hague Court.

[quote] Latest video of Putin in Crimea shows him limping.

Being Xi's bottom bitch-boy is taking its physical toll on Pootey.

Doesn't Putin have doubles? I just don't trust that the public appearances are always him.

A year ago I stubbed a small toe hard and limped for a week. What would the media make out of that.

Putin is a huge liar and image means everything to him. His sawed off, leprechaun appearance really bothers him so he does absolutely everything to appear bigger and stronger (hence all the plastic surgery). If he's limping around others...it's serious.

I hope so, R224.

I hope so too, r225, but that video was underwhelming. The limp was barely noticeable. I don’t think I would have seen it if someone hadn’t pointed it out.

I hate him and wish him a very painful death. But like R226 I could barely see a limp.

I agree. Most 70 year olds have arthritis - though that time his arm was wonky was more noticeable.

Time is up 🤡

I hope so!

It would be too perfect for him to die at this precise time or become debilitated so that it would end war in Ukraine--or, it should be more accurately described, an invasion of a sovereign nation, in true Stalin or Hitler style, as a pure act of malevolent aggression. He is the most dangerous living despot and the second he's not breathing the world will be a safer place. But when that will be, I would not get my hopes up.

[quote] The limp was barely noticeable. I don’t think I would have seen it if someone hadn’t pointed it out.

Yet it was front page news on both sides of the Atlantic. That speaks more about the media than it does of Putin.

Strong Men, dictators, never show weakness.

And now we are seeing the reemergence of the Sino - Soviet Alliance.

I didn't see any limping either. He looks older and more sick though. Also his botoxed face is absolutely bizzare. I don't think it was a double, the people in Mariupol were staged though.

Doesn't Vlad have a dacha in Crimea? All Soviet Union leaders had dachas on the southern coast there.

If the Ukrainians take back the peninsula, it's even worse for Vlad than losing Donbas.

[quote] Also his botoxed face is absolutely bizzare. I don't think it was a double, the people in Mariupol were staged though.

The smarties on Twitter identified them already.

When he was sitting with Xi, today, it looked like he has some leg muscle atrophy.

Could be what some are calling a limp.

Putin looked seriously submissive to Xi.

Meanwhile Kishida and Modi had a meeting and Kishida is on his way to visiting Zelenskyy now.

r238, Putin is balancing between a new Russian Empire and Russia becoming a vassal state to China.

Choices, choices.

Intelligence: Explosion in Crimea destroys Russian Kalibr missiles.

An explosion in the Crimean city of Dzhankoi destroyed Russian Kalibr cruise missiles during their railway transportation late on March 20, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate.

Krym Realii media outlet previously reported sounds of explosions in Dzhankoi, which is located in the north of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.

"The mysterious 'bavovna' continues the process of Russia's demilitarization and prepares the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea for liberation," Ukraine's military intelligence wrote on Telegram.

[quote]continues the process of Russia's demilitarization and prepares the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea for liberation

YAAAA!

I watched yesterday's news footage of the Xi/Poopin' Putin signage and Poots has had so much plastic surgery and medication, his eyes look as Asiatic as Xi's. Also, his cheeks are bigger than Madonna's.

“ Putin is balancing between a new Russian Empire ”

No he isnt. There is no scenario where a new Russian empire is created. It’s impossible for Russia at this point to more territories in Ukraine, let alone the whole country.

I would agree that he’s already firmly in vassalage to Xi.

I agree. China owns him now.

After Putler dies, how will the Chinese run Russia? I wonder if any Russians are sober enough to realize what he's signed away to them. All two of them must be livid, da?

^^They'll do the same thing they do now: go to work everyday, keep their heads down, try not to be noticeable--and DRINK.

[quote]I can confirm this report myself. I’ve seen video as recent as yesterday showing a whole column of T-54/55’s on a train headed to the front. Absurd. Criminal. Desperate.

[quote]Russia Dusts Off Tanks From 1940s As Losses Mount in Ukraine: Monitor

Savvy genius move to Marie Kondo all of that pesky WWII stuff cluttering up the place! I'm sure it makes sense to someone, somewhere in a trailer park in Kentucky.

What do Russians think about Vlad selling Russia off to China?

I wonder who gets the money of all the oligarchs he’s had assassinated? Surely he has helped himself through threats of violence.

China is going to rip off as many American Trademarks as possible and open McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and as many others in Russia under Chinese ownership.

"The founder of a pop group whose song became an anthem during anti-war protests in Russia has died by drowning aged 34 on Sunday.

Dima Nova—whose given name was Dmitry Svirgunov—founded the popular electronic group Cream Soda, and criticized Russian President Vladmir Putin's alleged $1.3 billion mansion in the song "Aqua Disco." The song was often sung at protests before and in the early days of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine and the protests quickly became known as "Aqua Disco Parties."

Nova fell through ice while crossing Russia's Volga river in the Yaroslavl region, north east of Moscow, according to Russian news website People Talk. He was with his brother Roma and two friends.

"In captivity of spring lips I will drown/I'm going down with you," are some of the song's lyrics."

[quote] I wonder who gets the money of all the oligarchs he’s had assassinated?

Maybe they leave all their stuff to Putin, the way Nero's victims left their stuff to him in their wills, so he wouldn't persecute their families. So maybe if Putin kills enough ologarchs he can buy new tanks?

Will there be any money for new tanks after he pays for his plastic surgery and super safe, big boy train?

Russia is transporting obsolete WWII tanks to the frontlines while the first Leopards are arriving in Ukraine.

I know making predictions is a bit tricky, but I think we're seeing the beginning of the end of Russian troops in Ukraine.

Putin has stopped paying his "soldiers".

It appears there is no sense to paying people who will not be around to cash the checks.

Did he make that decision or did his new boss Xi decide to stop paying the troops?

Xi models himself after Mao, the guy responsible for the biggest mass murder in history. The biggest achilles heel of dictatorships is that only one man and his sycophants make decisions driven by nationalism, pride, hurt feelings, sense of superiority. Most dictatorships self-destruct.

Xi is wasting no time exploiting his dominance over Russia.. He's going to pick apart the former Soviet Asian states to start with.

You mean the Stans?

Yes, to start with, R262. I'll bet he'll be happy to encourage current Russian oblasts who are rumbling about Russian rule as well.

If that is true, and Putin has admitted that Russia will absorb Belarus, if I were Lukashenko, I would attack Poland and SURRENDER. Let NATO take over Belarus.

Boris Nemtsov, Russian oppositioner, killed in Moscow, speaking about Chinese-Russian relations nine years ago, in 2014. His words still stand.

All of that bullshit talking from the MAGATs about Biden being owned by the Chinese and --wait for it-- here it's their Marmalade Jesus' BBF who went and signed his country away to Xi, instead.

Funny how they are always, always wrong.

I wonder how they will turn Xi into a good guy, now?

Incredible how prophetic Nemtsov's words were given that interview was nine years ago. We can definitely see Russia becoming a resource-colony of China in real time. Nemtsov said that he thought Putin would stay in power for 10 years. Which is next year..... Hmm.

A year ago a lot of were saying here that Putin's invasion of Ukraine will have turned Russia into a Chinese client state. And it's happened.

Not as prescient as Nemtsov though.

Where are the tankies, to tell us what a savvy, genius move this is for Russia and Putin?

Russia hasn't paid kazakhstan for environmental fines from their lease at the Baikanur Cosmodrone, and property is being impounded. Imagine the psychological blow to Russian pride if the Chinese were to take over the lease.

[quote] Where are the tankies, to tell us what a savvy, genius move this is for Russia and Putin?

Glenn is too busy - the underage favela boys are not going to molest themselves.

Just like Stalin, he has all the smart people killed.

No wonder it's such a shithole.

Billionaire #Deripaska announced that Russia would turn into a country of baboons

In his telegram channel, billionaire Oleg Deripaska compared Russia to an "East African baboon country" that "barely makes ends meet."

He stated that in #Russia for 12 years there has been neither significant economic growth nor an increase in the income of the main groups of the population. “We live on oil and gas rents,” writes Deripaska.

With the fact that gas is record-low and there is no #NordStream, the #Chinese buy it at cost. Oil, on the other hand, must now be sold below the cost of production. #Russland

Vlad seems to have put all eggs in one basket and then decided to take a big dump on it.

What are the chances that China might decide to watch Russia flail and fail, then swoop onto the Asian parts of Russia?

I mean, this did happen recently...

“China’s Ministry of Natural Resources has just issued new regulations on map content, which require the addition of old Chinese names to the current Russian-pronounced geographical names of eight places along the Russian-Chinese border,” Radio France International in Chinese reported on Feb. 23.

The eight Russian place names, comprise six cities, including Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, one island and one mountain.

This led Akio Yaban, head of the Taipei branch of the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, to quip, “Are you going to recover the lost land?”

The Asia Times noted on Feb. 25 that it is ironic that while releasing a peace plan this week “which conspicuously fails to say clearly whether Moscow should withdraw its troops” from Ukraine’s Donbas region and Crimea,” China “this very month, made a politically sensitive change in its official wordview – a change that affects Russia.”

It elaborates that “Under Beijing’s new directive, Vladivostok once again is called Haishenwai (meaning Sea Cucumber Bay) while Sakhalin Island is called Kuyedao. The Stanovoy Range is back to being called the Outer Xing’an Range in Chinese.”

“China lost large expanses of land in its northern region due to the invasion of Russian,” the Asia Times explains, and now Beijing has directed a return to the use of Chinese names for them. It also notes that despite Beijing seemingly wanting to strengthen its ties with Russia, it has permitted Chinese columnists to publish articles from time to time about the vast territories lost to foreign powers, thereby in effect reminding “Chinese people of their wish to recover the lost territory.”

Wonder if Deripaska knows something about Putin’s health status that we don’t.

Interesting R276. I don’t think there’s a country on earth that would come to Russia’s aid if China decided to invade.

The UN Human Rights Office’s mission in Ukraine says abuses could amount to war crimes.

R277, I wonder too. It seems incredible to be so critical when his peers are being thrown out of windows daily.

I meant to add, r277, absolutely no one would help Russia—not a soul. And Putin knows this. He is so indebted to China right now. He’s made a number of strategic moves that are blowing up in his face.

And China would then have a nice stockpile of energy.

If China takes back Vladivostok and Ukraine takes back Crimea, Russia will entirely be without any warm water ports. Devastating.

[quote] If China takes back Vladivostok and Ukraine takes back Crimea...

Russia responds in a totally unpredictable way (not):

[quote] Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has warned of nuclear retaliation if Ukraine attempts to seize the Crimean peninsula. Mr. Medvedev, who is currently the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Russia is prepared to use “absolutely any weapon” in the event of an attack on Crimea.

The miute they use nuclear weapons it's over for Russia and Putin.

*minute

[quote] Chinese columnists to publish articles from time to time about the vast territories lost to foreign powers, thereby in effect reminding “Chinese people of their wish to recover the lost territory.”

In essence not much has changed since the 1969 Russian-Chinese border war. Each is wary of a backstab by the other.

We have already told the Russians if they use any type of nuclear weapon, we will destroy their whole fleet of ships immediately.

(And their navy is a point of pride for them.)

точно, R286

Russia to store tactical nuclear arms in Belarus. The Russian leader said he struck a deal with his Belarusian counterpart to station tactical nuclear weapons on its territory.

You better believe China is salivating at the thought of parting out Russia once Pootz kicks the bucket. It sounds like they’re already starting.

From what I understand, this whole bullshit attack was because Putin didn’t have enough warm water ports and was unable to export all the oil and gas that he wanted. Instead of making a trade deal with Ukraine or Georgia, he just decided to annex them and do as he pleased. Why pay for port access when you can just slaughter the inhabitants and take what you want? You can see where the GQP has much in common with Putin.

Well, fuck him! Russia is already a backwater shithole of baboons! He’s going to lose everything now.

Russia has bits of a coastline in the black sea R281.

Instigating a fight between Russia and China would be strategically beneficial to the West.

The only thing they have in common is their white hot hatred for western style democracy.

"The only thing they have in common is their white hot hatred for western style democracy."

So they have that in common with republicans, then.

The "west" won't be instigating a fight between Russia and China. That would be totally on them. The west might laugh at that happening, but it'll be all Putin and Xi.

No one in the West has to instigate anything.

Russia and China are instigating fights all the time in the West. The anti vaxx conspiracy theories were pushed by them.

China being the cause of Covid, wasn't exactly a friendship ring to the west.

Like today's GQP, Putin and Xi will turn on one another. Shitheads of their caliber inevitably do, because they just can't help themselves. It's all they know

But Xi is pretty smart; Putin, aside from backstabbing and intrigues, is not.

Everything and everyone Trump coordinates with turns to shit. Unfortunately for Putin, he plotted with Trump. Sad.

Wagner Group's Prigozihn has been frozen out in Moscow for being the nail that sticks up taller than all the others, and is about to be pounded down. Don't these people read history? He's ready to pull his forces out of Ukraine after failing in Bahkmut and go back to causing mayhem in Africa. I frankly don't think he'll survive long enough.

Prighozin said that 5,000 criminals have been pardoned and released back into Russian society as a result of the war. I wonder that he thinks that's something to brag about.

So what's actually in it for Vlad if he is selling oil and gas to China at a or even under cost price?

I don't think Xi is smart. The CCP made several decisions that will come back and bite them in a very negative way.

To be completely fair the line between "Russian citizen" and "Russian criminal" was pretty fucking blurry to begin with.

Here's Girkin telling Putin to shut up. This man is v. unhappy. He's also using the informal 'you' form when telling Pootz to shut up. Speakers of Slavic languages can understand how disrespectful that is.

“Ty” is informal, not disrespectful. “Vy” is rarer now.

When I was a child, “vy” was for anyone older or unknown.

Still, this is disrespectful because he tells Putin to shut up.

r288, A new Cuban Missile crisis?

Husband, a native speaker, says “They don’t have a civilised language anymore.”

Volunteers build points of invincibility where thousands of locals can have hot food, warm up, wash laundry, watch movies, shower, kids can play, socialize and spend time in comfort for those who have not had such things for a year in Orikhiv, Bakhmut and soon Avdiivka.

R303, I think the consensus on Xi is that he’s a guy who has mastered the byzantine world of communist party politics but is not a genius.

The Confederate flag in r305 is certainly fancy

It's the Novorossiya ('New Russia') flag which the Russians use to represent their illegal Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

The flag itself is based on the Russian naval jack flag which you can see at the link.

Vlad just announced Russian nukes to be stationed in Belarus. He is already disregarding his agreement with Xi that Russia would never place nukes outside Russian territory.

Newer generation fighter jets are giving Russia "increasing dominance" in the skies over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, according to a senior Ukrainian official.

The senior official in Kyiv, who spoke exclusively to ABC News, said Russia had replaced older models of aircraft with its more modern Su-35.

The Su-35 is equipped "with very effective radar and long-distance rockets," the official said, and Russia is using these aircraft to attack Ukrainian jets in the air as well as for ground support operations.

Ukraine "does not have capabilities" to counter this threat, the official added.

Two other Ukrainian officials confirmed that Russian dominance of the skies over the combat zone was a top issue, with one official claiming Russia has "12 times more aircraft" than Ukraine.

Disobrying Daddy ought to work out well for him, R313

The new leopard, challenger tanks are arriving in Ukraine and I think Poland will give F16 fighter jets.

Putin is gambling on a long war strategy because he has way more troops than Ukraine and he doesn't care about sending thousands of Russians as cannon fodder into this meat grinder.

Ukraine needs sophisticated weapons now to start a counter offensive. The longer this war lasts the less chances Ukraine can get their territory back.

*Disobeying

[quote]Vlad just announced Russian nukes to be stationed in Belarus.

Saber-rattling, most likely. Experts combing over Belarus don't see any sign of it happening. The threat of nukes is Putin's main card and he knows that people freak out massively about it, which he uses. It's pretty annoying to be honest. The media plasters newspapers with it and stokes fear.

I mean, I just wish that the media wouldn't just report uncritically what a known liar says. At least get some evidence and/or provide some saber-rattling back. If Putin did use a nuke somewhere like the U.S. all hell would break out and Moscow would be nuked back. If he used a nuke on Ukraine specifically, that would cross a red line and support to Ukraine would increase by a lot. There isn't much upside to Putin using nukes in real terms. Only a madman would do it and I think he still wants his survival and the survival of Russia too as a freak nationalist.

US nuclear weapons currently are stationed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Not much of an argument can be made that Russia can't do the same with a wiling state immediately on its border.

R320 Still, big yawn. Even if he does it in the future, it doesn't change a lot. People are strangely afraid of nukes when traditional warfare like in Ukraine is killing several 100ks of people and destroying so much anyway.

Not a big yawn but yes it doesn't change a lot. If you look at the map you see this would mainly threaten Poland, potentially cutting down their warning time.

If he'd put them in Mexico or Canada it would be more threatening but Belarus is a little bit of a joke. I think another reason for him 'announcing' this is that he wants to show off that he has the support of... Belarus. He and Medvedev are both so insecure, weak and pathetic.

Here's an alleged leaked call between two Russian elites where they aim invective at this endeavor and complain about how Putin wasted all his oil money by not building Russia, providing infrastructure and improvements to the backwaters.

"@DAlperovitch

Putin says Russia will produce 3 million artillery shells and 1600 (new and modernized) tanks this year… Cool story. Vlad appears to have learned nothing from the lies his defense industry has been telling for years."

[quote]US nuclear weapons currently are stationed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Not much of an argument can be made that Russia can't do the same with a wiling state immediately on its border.

Which of those countries have a direct border with Russia?

Belarus has a direct border with NATO country Poland. Kaliningrad, where Russian nukes are stationed too has a direct NATO country border with Poland and Lithuania.

[quote]I mean, I just wish that the media wouldn't just report uncritically what a known liar says.

R319, the point is that Xi and Vlad just agreed to not move nukes outside their country's territory. Vlad just completely disregards his master Xi.

I read somewhere that the US has warned Russia that if they use tactical nukes (or any kind I guess), the US will immediately destroy the Russian navy (that Putin is particularly proud of). Sorry I didn't copy the link.

[quote]the point is that Xi and Vlad just agreed to not move nukes outside their country's territory. Vlad just completely disregards his master Xi.

1 - There *aren't* going to be nukes in Belarus.

2 - Putin didn't get anything from Xi. Xi left early (2 days instead of the planned 3 days) and there has been no agreement positive to Russia - aside from some photo ops which again is all surface. Xi appears to not see much upside to helping Putin significantly such as providing weapons - he does not want to risk China being sanctioned and a weak Russia suits him.

Putin snubbed Xi back after their one-sided summit with a nuclear announcement that directly undermines China

Russian President Vladimir Putin "humiliated" China's President Xi Jinping by revealing plans to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, according to former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

The announcement, made on Saturday, marks the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union that Russia has said it will store tactical nuclear weapons on foreign soil.

McFaul pointed to the timing of the announcement, saying it had come just days after Russia issued a joint statement with China in which they declared their opposition to countries stationing nuclear weapons abroad.

"Not very respectful to his 'good friend' Xi!" tweeted McFaul, who is currently a professor of Political Science at Stanford University.

Vlad probably saw those caricatures of him being the shoe shine boy for Xi and he decided to act out to not lose face to Russians.

Publicly insulting piggybank Xi?

Another savvy move by genius Putin!

I think Vlad has a death wish.

I know that it can be read as insulting to use the wrong colloquialism but Vlad is the wrong one for Vladimir. (It's just kind of bugging me.) The correct one would be Volodya or Vova. I mean, continue to use the wrong one if you like but just thought that you might like to know. Vlad is actually used for Vladislav.

I do appreciate the info, R333, however I also enjoy the thought of disrespecting Putler in any way be it large or small so I will continue to mis-name him.

For all others named "Vladimir", though I will update.

I just googled and Putin's is Volodya. But yeah, the English-speaking press calls him Vlad probably because it sounds scarier.

A cunt is a cunt is a cunt.

"Vlad" is a natural English abbreviation of "Vladimir," however incorrect in Russian, and it has the advantage of evoking Vlad the Impaler and his various vampiric epigones all the way down to Count Chocula.

R337 But incorrect and makes people look ignorant. And more evidence that people love to pander to Putin's 'scary' image. I wish people would stop doing that. He's a pathetic, weak and insecure man presiding over a second world country and yet he manages to wreak so much fear and respect.

Texas's economy alone is bigger than Russia's. Same with California and New York.

R338, evoking Vlad the Impaler doesn't pander to his scary image; it makes him seem like a derivative monster movie stereotype with a ludicrous accent from an east European backwater.

Nosferatu.

Monsters are scary, dumbfuck.

You people BUY into what Putin wants.

You sound like a subtle thinker, R342.

R343 I'm a lot more subtle than you. You take things at surface value. I look at what the reality is.

Is the below the surface reality found in a YouTube video?

On another note, male Russian nicknames make great names for women in English; Nikita, Mitya, Voludya. It’s like the whole country is set up to be one big drag story time.

ElderLez, don't forget Sasha, which practically sashays all by itself.

That is another reason why the English-speaking media doesn't use Volodya - because it sounds feminine. Sasha, Nikita and so on are feminine in English because they end in a vowel. Just buying into what Putin wants when they use the incorrect Vlad.

No need to drag Rudy or Stephen Miller into this, r341.

Oh, okay then, let's just call him Psycho Fucking Murdering Scum Putin.

Like we give a fuck what he wants or doesn't want to be called.

R350 Suits me, Just stop with the pathetic 'Vlad' that makes you look ignorant to Russians and makes him sound scary to non-Russians. Please.

I hope we can all soon call him: "The LATE Valdimir Putin".

Remember when Stephen Smith and his wife had a baby?

Nah. I'm glad he sounds scary to non-Russians. He IS fucking scary to all people, including Russians. Someone should really shoot him in the head sooner rather than later.

Vlad it is and Vlad it will stay. Vlad the Impaler became Vlad the Impaled when he took on Ukraine. Good times.

Why are Americans so proud of brandishing their ignorance?

Today, r355, it's mostly about just fucking with you because you're a pedantic cunt.

And you're a pro-Putin troll.

I’m glad to know his real “go by” name is Voludya. I appreciate being corrected by people who are more knowledgeable than I am.

I do think V. V. Putin is scary because he’s a terrible person who has chosen to use the power he has to kill, maim and destroy.

Why are the Russian people so fucking cowardly? How many would it take to storm the Kremlin or where ever the fuck his "secure" lair is and slaughter that mother fucker. Say 50 or 100 die in the process..so what? He's murdering over 150,000 of his own people and about the same amount of Ukrainians. He doesn't give a fuck about his own people, or the rest of the world. Get off your asses, Russian citizens and get your so call "leader' a dirt nap. HURRY.

R359, Russia must have more systemic problems than we can ever imagine. The Russians overthrew the Tsar, destroyed their unbelievably wealthy aristocracy, and a fat lot of good it did them.

The Russian people are cowardly?

What a weird assertion.

This video interview of people on the street in Moscow is not a scientific survey of Russian political opinions. Russians can be fined or imprisoned for speaking out against the war. But this does give you an idea of the mindset of the people who still support Putin a year after "the Special Operation."

One women at timemark 10:00 -

[quote] We welcome (that the West has) homosexuals. Let their nation fall apart since they are nuts about it. We welcome (that they have) 30 genders, and gender X and all that. I think that Russia chose the right way. We attacked Ukraine preventively, it is clear. Putin is a leading intelligence officer, and he has surrounded himself with decent people. All the people around him are his friends, honest and decent people….I think we’re doing the right thing, and so do all the people my age.

One estimate of Russian public opinion on the war is:

20% to 30% say they strongly support the war;

20% to 30% say they strongly oppose the war;

50% say "Leave me alone."

The Russians are submissive and servile.

“Honest, decent people” who surround Putin seem to keep falling out of windows and ingesting poison. Someone is not being honest and decent. Denial worthy of Trump followers.

Putin is strong intelligence officer! Fascist Ukraine threatened peaceful Russia!

I can have beet now?

Puck article.

-Ukraine needs to make gains this year to keep up support for a bit longer:

[quote] most likely in the southeast, where Ukraine hopes to cut Russia’s land bridge to Crimea. Since the beginning of the year, I have heard from State and White House officials that Ukraine is not economically viable without Zaporizhzhya. If Kyiv doesn’t wrest back control of this province, which Russia has illegally annexed, Moscow can maintain its stranglehold on the Ukrainian economy by blockading its ports and cutting off Ukraine’s exports.

-While publicly the US is committed to supporting Ukraine, behind the scenes they are saying that they are getting questions from voters about how much money is given to Ukraine and it's election season next year.

-Many US politicians and officials think that the conflict ends up in a stalemate and a negotiated settlement in the long term.

WSJ about Russia's economic oil and gas situation:

[QUOTE]In January and February of this year, however, oil and gas tax revenue, which accounts for nearly half of total budget revenue, fell by 46% year-over-year, while state spending jumped more than 50%. Analysts estimate that Russia’s fiscal break-even oil price—what it would need to balance its books—has swelled to over $100 a barrel as war spending weighs on the budget. The country’s flagship Urals crude fetched an average of $49.56 a barrel in February, according to the Ministry of Finance, a deep discount to the benchmark Brent, which traded around $80 a barrel that month, although some analysts argue the difference is smaller.

The Guardian says that Putin is conditioning Russians to live with a forever or 'never ending' war. The country has gone full fascist to control Russians - 'patriotic' education, constant TV propaganda, jailing of critics, etc. The war is being framed as an existential one against the US and Europe who are supposedly the Nazis.

Putin is unable to make a major offensive but also cannot accept giving up or losing. So he is banking on the West getting tired of helping Kyiv:

[quote]“Russia simply does not have the offensive capabilities for a major offensive,” said US military expert Rob Lee. “Their forces can slowly achieve a few grinding attritional victories but do not have the capacity to punch through Ukrainian defensive lines in a way that would change the course of the war.” “We see that Russia’s military is preparing for a long war. Putin is banking that his country’s resources will trump Ukraine’s as the west gets tired of helping Kyiv,” Lee said.

[quote]We welcome (that the West has) homosexuals. Let their nation fall apart since they are nuts about it. We welcome (that they have) 30 genders, and gender X and all that. I think that Russia chose the right way.

Make no mistake about it. Russia is one of the main entities making the global anti-gay push.

I guess Russians think of themselves as particularly holy and Christian. I find that ballsy coming from a culture that openly embraces alcohol, adultery, domestic violence, etc.!

Russia has:

-the world's third highest divorce rate

-the world's highest abortion rate

-the highest murder rate in Europe (also higher than the US and all other developed countries)

-the world's third highest heroin use

-the world's 11th highest suicide rate (higher than all developed countries)

-the lowest life expectancy in Europe (lower than all developed countries)

It's a good thing for us (in the US and the west generally) that the Russians are using up all of their military equipment and also impoverishing themselves at the same time. It is worth any amount of money not to have them turn around and bomb Syria or Georgia or wherever in a few years. Russia has been propping up not only their own dictatorship, but others in the world.

Biden Approval on Issues. Russia/Ukraine

Approve 46.3 Disapprove 48.3

R370, and yet Russians think gay people are the problem!

No, bitch. It's your ass-backwards culture that they think is so great.

[quote] Russia is one of the main entities making the global anti-gay push.

I was interested that they ask their citizens opinion poll questions that are never asked in the West on this subject.

In 2020, 18% of Russians said that gays and lesbians should be eliminated from society (Previously in 2013, 5% of Russians said that homosexuals should be physically destroyed.)

Of the 198 countries rated on LGBT rights, Russia placed 156, the US ranked 13, and Ukraine ranked 116.

R373 I do think that it's a huge distraction. Using cheap hot topic issues like gay people, trans, wokeism, race to give people someone to hate on and despise but more importantly to divert attention from poor economic and social issues that Russians have.

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” ― Lyndon B. Johnson

Some propagandists suggesting Russia end this "adventure". Biden gets a mention towards the end.

I think their only play left is to drag this out by any means necessary until November 2024.

[quote]Why are the Russian people so fucking cowardly? How many would it take to storm the Kremlin or where ever the fuck his "secure" lair is and slaughter that mother fucker.

Russians lack these instincts because they've never practically had a democracy.

They just want a strong daddy in charge to think and make decisions for them, it's a common paradox in macho cultures. They see Americans changing their minds in 2020 and electing Biden instead as a sign of weakness.

They're also constantly high on their own supply -- they keep conflating geographical vastness with might, a rookie mistake and one that will be their undoing. In reality, they had the economy the size of Italy's before the war, despite having 2.3 times more people. Now their economy is closer in size to Chile's.

Russia's name needs to be changed to China's Bitch.

Russia is a big, drunk bottom.

[quote]I guess Russians think of themselves as particularly holy and Christian. I find that ballsy coming from a culture that openly embraces alcohol, adultery, domestic violence, etc.!

For a second there, R369, I thought you were talking about southern US fundamentalist MAGAts.

[quote] Russia must have more systemic problems than we can ever imagine.

America and the West thinks of Russia/Russians like they're culturally Western Europeans just because many of them are blonde and fair.

Make no mistake about it... They're not.

The biggest systemic problem in Russia is the corruption. Zelensky nailed it yesterday when he called Putin "informationally isolated". That's exactly what he is. Even if he ordered his generals to tell him the truth and nothing but the truth, they could not do so because the reports are all redacted at least five times before they reach the president. Everyone keeps polishing the data here and there before they send it to their higher-ups, so they don't look incompetent. And of course pocketing the difference in the process wherever possible.

[quote] The biggest systemic problem in Russia is the corruption.

Russians, in general, benefit from the West's pro-blonde bias. If anything, they are more culturally like the worst of Muslims/the middle east.

So, R333, that chipper morning TV host is actually Volodya Duthier ?

Corruption is another good one. The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Russia 137 in the world. That's lower than every other developed country and the lowest in Europe.

[quote] The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Russia 137 in the world.

People really need to stop treating Russians like they're European.

They are in both Europe and Asia. And their major cities (Moscow and St Petersburg) are in the European part. Putin likes to throw his weight around like Russia is a major power so it's fun to look at the facts.

[quote] Now their economy is closer in size to Chile's.

Don't diss us. We've got copper and lithium and we're on the upswing.

Russia is not.

Kazakhstan is asserting itself.

Interesting WSJ article recently predicting a sharp fall in the Russian economy now that full sanctions start to take affect. Hopefully he won’t be able to pay off his people for their complicity any more and they’ll rise up and do the right thing.

I fear that the jaded and servile Russian people will just put their heads down and get on with suffering through it.

Two days ago Putin signed a decree getting rid of the age limit for conscripts.

One of Russian people's greatest accomplishments is the common misbelief that they've experienced a form of darkness and tragedy that puts their suffering above others.

Not true at all.

R390, that’s an incredibly interesting development. Not only is Baikonur the center of Russia’s space industry, that’s where they launch their spy satellites. And launch complexes are not easily replicated.

[quote] Two days ago Putin signed a decree getting rid of the age limit for conscripts.

It's going to get real fun when Putin has to start digging into the actual-Russian conscripts of Moscow, St. Petersburg for his shitty war.

Right now he's feeding Russian minorities into the meat grinder.

Agree, R396. That was will become a lot less popular to them when it isn't the "undesirables" being mowed down, all so he can feel like a big boy.

Here's an unpopular opinion: Millennial fraus are going to save America.

Are you lost, R398?

R399, only somewhat.

And are millennial fraus going to save Ukraine, R398?

well, it's relevant because Trump in his latest rally went full-on Putin love so if he won that would be very bad for Ukraine.

R401, perhaps, just a little bit, with borscht!

That's a reach, R402.

R404 It's not. It would likely mean Ukraine not getting weapons from the U.S. Ron DeSantis has been very weak on this as well.

Unfortunately, I can see this becoming a huge campaign issue - asking the poorly educated (or disengaged), why are we spending so many billions of tax payers' money on an exotic place like "Ukraine" that we never heard of before this mess?

Saakashvili is close to death from allegedly being poisoned (fyi, the Georgian Dream Party is pro-Russia, subservient to Russian interests).

Re: R406

This is how it ought to be framed to those people, to everyone, because it is reality: Putin isn't going to stop with Ukraine. He has said so, numerous times. Publicly. America can join other democratic nations to help Ukraine and stop him now, saving lives and working for own eventual best interests globally, or rush to try and stop him later after too many (more) lives are lost and perhaps fail. Failure at either juncture would be catastrophic not just for Ukraine, for for the global community and, eventually, for our own domestic safety and economy.

So, appeal to the mothers, whose sons and daughters will be fodder in this war that Putin will continue next with a NATO country. And he will, he's stated it and he's shown he will carry through at all costs to his own nation's safety. Do you want that, mothers of America? No, of course not. How do you stop it? Well, you stop Putin. There is no simpler solution.

r389 I wasn't dissing Chile, I love Chile. But Chile has a population of 20 million, while Italy's is 60 million. That was my point -- that's how far Russia's economy has fallen in a year.

r391 Yes, I really liked that WSJ article. Read it if you like, for a major dose of Schadenfreude.

R405, there were and are more than just "millennial fraus" who kept Trump from being reelected.

Macron really steps up.

France will double the number of 155 mm shells delivered to Ukraine from 1,000 rounds per month to 2,000 rounds per month, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu told the French Le Figaro newspaper on Tuesday, according to the French BMFTV news outlet.

Paris will "deliver land equipment necessary for Ukraine's counter-offensive: we are thus doubling the delivery of 155 mm shells to bring it to 2,000 per month from the end of March,” Lecornu said in a joint interview with Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire.

Ukraine, in contrast, has been using about 110,000 155mm shells a month, a quarter of the amount used by Russia, Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said earlier this month, according to FT.

[quote]there were and are more than just "millennial fraus" who kept Trump from being reelected.

I think what that poster is referring to is the fact that usually as people become older, they tend to vote more conservative. In the case of millennials, they've bucked that trend - they've been continuing to vote Dem as a group as they get older. Suburban women have also been making the difference for Dems in tight elections in recent years. Ask anyone who studies elections.

So. Has he lost yet?

Defense Ministry: Russian, Ukrainian losses in east 10 to 1 some days.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Telegram that there are days in Ukraine's east where the ratio of Russian and Ukrainian losses is "as high as 10 to 1."

Is that 10 Russian or Ukrainian losses to 1?

Look at the word order -- Russians are mentioned first and the 10 is mentioned first as well, which means the two go together. So, as high as ten dead Russians for every Ukrainian casualty. Obviously that's an outlier, but it's still something like 5:1 on very slow days.

r414 Both sides are waiting for the mud season to end, which is April for most of Ukraine and May for the southern parts. You can't use tanks in the mud for a proper assault, you're just courting disaster.

Putin wants a long war, he has more people he can throw in the near grinder and he's hoping that Ukraine runs out of soldiers eventually.

We need to provide Ukraine with better and more weapons, so they can get their territory back earlier. For many reasons it's not good if this war drags on. Ukrainians are exhausted, the West needs to set an example of not putting up with Russia's bullshit any longer, it's a message that China needs to get as well so they don't get any stupid ideas about Taiwan, and for Joe Biden it would be a great win if he can end this awful war before Nov 2024.

*meat grinder

[quote]And he's hoping that Ukraine runs out of soldiers eventually

I think it's more that he hopes the electorate in both Ukraine and the West gets tired of the war, with his big bet in particular being November 2024. Ukraine obviously will not run out of soldiers even if this goes on for decades. Far smaller countries have lost far more people during WWII and went on to thrive after the war. With 40 million people, they're still one of the largest European countries by population.

40 million people does not mean 40 million battle fit soldiers R420. Their age pyramid doesn't look good for years of war. Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain all have larger populations than Ukraine.

The age pyramid doesn't look good for anyone in Europe. That has nothing to do with the fact that Ukraine has more than enough men to wage this war for decades. Plus, there's usually a baby boom after a war. They'll be more than fine.

[quote]Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain all have larger populations than Ukraine.

And? I said Ukraine has one of the largest populations in Europe. It's in eight place and Europe consists of 44 countries.

Oooh Russia is arrest an American journalist mad about that Wall Street journal article R391.

And I wonder if Kazakhstan has been talking to China about giving the them access R390.

[quote]Both sides are waiting for the mud season to end, which is April for most of Ukraine

In the meantime, there will be mudslinging.

This might have been posted before, but this is a really good channel that features short interviews with ordinary Russians on the street. You have the young and the old, some parroting official propaganda, while others being against the war.

Great insight into their mentality. The sense of victimhood seems to be a pretty constant theme.

"Russia's biggest bank suffers 78% collapse in profit as sanctions bite"

R426, this is not necessarily good news; they still made a profit and are projecting more this year. The article hints that other Russian banks are dealing with actual losses, which is more of a threat to them.

And Russia still has many billions in their reserve fund so they can keep the war going for at least a couple years. Their economy is definitely fucked but not so much in the short term. Putin will probably keep it all going as long as he fears his own death.

Pardoning prisoners who volunteered to fight in Ukraine is going well...

Convicted murderer and Wagner fighter Ivan Rossomakhin returned to the same village he had killed a woman in 2019.

He "made headlines locally just days before the murder, when residents publicly pleaded with authorities to do something about the fact that he was drunkenly wandering around the village with a pitchfork and ax, yelling, “I’ll kill everyone! I’ll cut up a whole family!” Local coverage by a news station in the village showed footage of Rossomakhin using an ax to bust out windows of vehicles. “We don’t sleep at night,” Galina Sapozhnikova, a local resident, told the news station."

Then eight days after being there he killed another woman. "A local resident discovered their mother’s dead body. She’d been badly beaten and was found with stab wounds, according to sources cited by Baza."

R429, gee, who could've expected such an outcome?

r429 And there is going to be so much more of that that will go unreported. Releasing violent criminals -- with PTSD from the war on top -- back into the public seems like one of those things you don't give much thought to because you're in a time crunch, but something that will come to bite you in the ass years down the line.

To say nothing of all those disabled veterans coming back home to Russia, a country famous for its compassionate treatment of disabled people.

Putin is getting more NATO.

"Sanna Marin @MarinSanna

Finland’s application has now been ratified by all members and we will join NATO. Thank you to all countries for your support. As allies, we will give and receive security. We will defend each other. Finland stands with Sweden now and in the future and supports its application."

R432, those Baltic and Nordic countries know better than anyone else what the threat of Russia's incursion into Europe could mean.

Putin flew some planes with nukes on them over Sweden last year. The EU and NATO know for quite some times that Russia has stored nukes in Kaliningrad. The problem with such provocation is that there is not enough pushback from NATO. Kim Jong un playing with his rockets should have been stopped long time ago. Bullies need to be told NO or else, otherwise they don't stop. For how many years has Russia attacked and annexed ex SU country territory?

I'm not shocked that an ex Russian prisoner did that R429, only that he did cannibalize her afterwards.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been detained in Russia for what Moscow described as espionage, marking the latest diplomatic flashpoint in U.S.-Russia relations.

February13th

"@NeilPHauer

Pretty startling to see the Russian offensive put in these terms. At the expense of immense amounts men and materiel, Russian forces have conquered an additional 0.01% of Ukraine last month."

r438 Most of them were Wagner convicts, they don't give a shit about those. I'm sure many in the US wouldn't mind if their overcrowded prisons got "refreshed" in the same way either.

R439 But for only 0.01% of Ukraine? What happens when Putin runs out of ethnic minorities and convicts? He already has signed a new round of 147,000-man conscription this spring. The ISU says that due to political sensitivities, they won't be sent to the front but you know that eventually he will have to. He'll be coming for you and yours, Ivan.

*ISW

r440 I agree with all that, I'm just saying that the Russkies won't care until regular men in Moscow and Saint Petersburg start dying in large numbers. And even then, it might take a million of them dead before they start properly questioning this "three-day special military operation".

I have long given up on them caring by large enough numbers - as you say, by the time they do care, it will almost be irrelevant then.

I agree with that as well, the war will be won with a Ukrainian military breakthrough, not by Russians deposing their leadership. This romantic delusion was prevalent last year among those who don't quite understand the Russian mentality. The vast majority there are still fully in the "if only the tsar knew" mindset regarding Putin, they're not blaming him at all.

Russian officers use female combat soldiers as sex slaves

[quote]Female Russian combat medics serving on the front lines in Ukraine are reportedly being used as "field wives," according to Radio Free Europe. This is to say, they are being used as sex slaves by other Russian combat soldiers.

[quote]In an interview with Radio Free Europe, one such woman revealed that Russian officers force women to perform sexual acts with them and rape them repeatedly. Those who manage to refuse face abuse.

Rape a combat medic = die of your wounds on the field.

The problem is, the ones who are wounded obviously aren't the ones doing the raping.

Interesting discussion of why Russia's air force has been so ineffective (and why their pilots are old and fat, like the guy that ran into the US drone the other day). One telling stat, they had fewer trained pilots at the beginning of the invasion than Iraq did in the Gulf War.

[quote] Russian officers use female combat soldiers as sex slaves

Where do we enlist ?

They lost many of their best pilots early on in the war and that kind of experience is irreplaceable.

However, that doesn't really matter anymore since both sides don't have air supremacy and probably won't have it until the end of the war. There's just too much AA deployed out there on both sides, pilots don't play much of a role.

The other stat I found striking was the estimate that up to 60% of their air losses have been due to friendly fire. Crazy.

Re: R451:

So, at any one time, 160% of soliders are anti-Russian? Nice!

I was only kidding at R452, tankies.

"A prominent pro-war Russian military blogger has been killed in a blast in a cafe in central St Petersburg, Russia’s interior ministry said in a statement.

Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the country’s most influential military bloggers.

The interior ministry said 19 people were injured in the blast on Sunday. Citing sources in the country’s security agencies, the RIA news outlet said a bomb was hidden in a statue presented to Tatarsky in a box as a gift. There was no indication of who was responsible.

Videos posted on social media show an explosion and injured people on the street.

Tatarsky was among the attendees at a Kremlin ceremony last September where Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine, a move widely condemned by the international community.

“We’ll conquer everyone, we’ll kill everyone, we’ll loot whoever we need to, and everything will be just as we like it,” Tatarsky said in a video message recorded at the ceremony.

The blogger, who frequently travelled with Russian troops on the frontlines, emerged as one of the loudest critics of Russia’s defence ministry over the last year for its inability to achieve military gains in Ukraine."

[quote]“We’ll conquer everyone, we’ll kill everyone, we’ll loot whoever we need to, and everything will be just as we like it"

Now who would want to blow up such a nice guy?

It was a woman who gave him the bomb in a box. There's some video of her at the link.

Brave girl. How do you time the delivery of a TNT package like that without risking being blown up yourself?

Cellphone detonator, probably.

Ya don't say.

"On 27 March 2023, a Russian Telegram news channel reported there have been ‘extremely high’ numbers of incidents, crimes, and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces."

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

To be completely fair alcohol-related friendly fire is a classic Russian military tradition. The Red Army lost quite a few soldiers in April 1945 that way in the big rush to Berlin.

Shit, that's one brave woman.

[quote] "....there have been ‘extremely high’ numbers of incidents, crimes, and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces."

Here are the top 5 countries with the highest rats of MALE alcoholism:

Hungary - 36.9%

Russia - 36.9%

Belarus - 33.9%

Latvia - 28.8%

Slovenia - 23.5%

(The US rate of MALE alcoholism is 17.6%)

So more than 1 in 3 males in Russia are alcoholics, (and the other 2 probably drink a lot but are mostly functional.)

I'm pretty sure Russia takes the cake, it just doesn't get reported. They don't even report their domestic abuse cases anymore, I don't know why we should rely on their alcoholism stats.

The male alcoholism rate in the US might be low, but the men there have other problems that some of us living in those Top 5 alkie countries don't have, and which might be even worse than alcoholism. Like meth and opioids. To say nothing of the violent crime and the incarceration rates.

I worked for a company that used to do do business in Russia. At most I can say that many of them are functioning alcoholics. But yes, they drink a huge amount.

Hungary is tied for first place with glorious Russian Federation! Screw you, sober EU liberals!

Ugh, Orban. The other day Orban gave a speech where he said that we could end up in WWIII because the West provides Ukraine with weapons and support. In other words, blaming the West and not Russia(!)

He's also refused to send weapons to Kyiv and criticises countries that have sent aid.

However, hilariously Hungary has signed all the anti-Russian sanctions packages of the EU and has to strictly comply with them (probably because they want that sweet €€ money) which is why Russia has officially designated Hungary as an "unfriendly country".

That's some A+ bothsiderism, wow.

[quote]Ugh, Orban.

I think she's tremendous.

[quote] The male alcoholism rate in the US might be low, but the men there have other problems that some of us living in those Top 5 alkie countries don't have...

I think that's very true. But the reason we are referencing Russia's male alcoholism rate of 36.9% in this thread is that they are the ones currently in trenches fighting a war with guns and operating other killing machines, a situation made more hazardous by the alcoholism.

By comparison, the male alcoholism rate in Ukraine is 11.5% according to the info at r463 .

I was listening to a Russian soldier's intercepted phone call on Youtube from last fall. His wife was asking him why he was drunk at the time of the call, and he said something like, "We're sitting in trenches with mud, we don't have much food, and it's cold and it's raining. Of course we're going to be drinking."

The Russians are building several miles of trenches to defend Crimea. There are some amazing satellite photos of it in the WashPost.

I can't wait to see how Ukraine's counteroffensive goes and where it will be although I'm nervous.

Germany cuts off further Ukraine arms. Let the US spend its money instead..

German defence minister Boris Pistorius has said that the NATO Nation won't send anymore military aid to Ukraine apart from the promised packages. This as Germany needs to fill up military gaps, which could approximately take up to 2030. Pistorius told a German newspaper bluntly that Germany has a limited inventory and he can't give away everything to Ukraine.

This is an historic week. Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as the 31st member of NATO, making Finland safer & NATO stronger.

Gleb Karakulov is the highest-ranking secret service officer to leave Russia and condemn the Ukraine war since the start of the invasion. He was a captain with Russia’s Federal Guard Service (FSO), which is responsible for Putin’s security.

He escaped to Turkey from Kazakhstan while he was accompanying Putin during a visit to the former Soviet state in October. His duties included providing encrypted communications for Putin.

In an interview he has depicted an isolated, out-of-touch leader living in an information vacuum in his heavily guarded residences, which he described as “bunkers”.

“[Putin] has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov, 35, said. “His take on reality has become distorted. It is a kind of paranoia. He is pathologically afraid for his life.”

“The president insists on having Russian television in every venue he stays in,” Karakulov said. “With Putin… he doesn't use the internet or a mobile phone. He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum."

The Kremlin is still implementing strict measures to try and protect Putin from coronavirus. “We have to observe a strict quarantine for two weeks before any event, even those lasting 15 to 20 minutes,” he said. “Everyone is a little perplexed as to why this is still going on. I know that all of the president’s aides take PCR tests several times a day.”

He revealed that Putin refers to his two adult daughters — Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova — as “these women”. The Kremlin has never publicly acknowledged that they are related to Putin.

He confirmed that the $1bn Black Sea palace and the $500m yacht Scheherazade are Putin's, which has been vigorously denied by the Kremlin.

Was Trepova framed in an elaborate sting by Putin's secret services?

Military analysts from the ISW have said Trepova might not be the cold-blooded assassin they would like us to believe; instead they suggest that Tatarsky was killed by Russia's fearsome FSB as a warning to Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who owned the cafe where the bombing occurred.

Both Trepova and her husband say that she was set up and would never have committed a terror attack of her own volition.

Welcome to NATO, badass Finland!

" The Finnish Defence Forces are one of the most combat-ready armies in Europe

Finland became the 31st NATO country, and as a result, the border between Russia and the countries of the NATO alliance has doubled (by 1,340 kilometers). Moreover, #Finland is one of the most combat-ready armies, whose artillery forces are the largest in Europe - about 1500 guns, including 700 howitzers, 700 large-caliber mortars and 100 missile systems. Finland's artillery capacity exceeds Poland, Germany, Norway and Sweden combined, according to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

"President Putin started the war against #Ukraine with the clear goal of having less #NATO [near Russia's borders]," said alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the eve of Finland's official accession to the bloc on April 4. - He is getting exactly the opposite."

Before the war in Ukraine, the likelihood of Finland joining NATO was extremely low: The population did not support the idea. Finland remained neutral during the Cold War and after joining the European Union in 1995.

However, the country still remembers the events of 1939-1940 when the Soviet Union attacked Finland and eventually seized a part of its territory. That is why they "never stopped preparing for a possible war," says Minna Alander, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Relations (quoted by AFP). Unlike the vast majority of other Western countries, Finland's military conscription remains high and defense spending has remained quite high even after the collapse of the Soviet Union (2.2% of GDP in 2021).

With a total population of 5.5 million, the wartime armed forces number 280,000 and another 870,000 are reservists, Alander notes."

From yesterday:

"Zelensky will meet Polish PM @MorawieckiM today to sign:

1. A deal on the purchase of Polish weapons

2. A document on Poland’s involvement in the reconstruction of Ukraine

3. A new partnership between 2 strategic companies from PL & UA

Source: @michaldworczyk"

Finland also has these awesome extreme cold weather tanks. When we went tank sledding in Finnish Lapland the tour guide/driver/tank creator told us all about how he’d spend the summer months in Russia retrofitting their tanks to withstand extreme weather conditions for big money and the tours were kind of a side hustle. I am guessing that Russian industry in the north is going to miss the loss of Finnish expertise.

RIP Mearsheimer. Haha.

China’s Ambassador to the E.U. Tries to Distance Beijing From Moscow The ambassador, Fu Cong, said China was not on Russia’s side in the war in Ukraine. “‘No limit’ is nothing but rhetoric,” he said, referring to a statement from last year about the countries’ relationship.

Yet another $2.6-billion aid package announced by the U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday.

Russian Defense Ministry go boom.

Bill Clinton.- “I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons. And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons"

Any real negotiations between Russia, China and Ukraine should start with

a) acknowledging that this is an unprovoked war by Russia on Ukraine

b) that NATO expansion happened because ex Soviet Union independent countries sought security from Russia by joining NATO

c) direct negotiations with Ukraine and recognition of their territorial boundaries

So far China hasn't done any of those

Another dead oligarch. Energy boss Igor Shkurko has been found dead in pre-trial detention - claimed to be suicide.

Putin is going to end up killing the wrong fella over there, one day. Some Russian is going to actually be sober, have a set a balls, and go after him. Probably going to have to be somebody's mother or wife since all their men are gormless, raping, sniveling toadies.

Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network Former security officer tells of president’s strict quarantine and says he has ‘lost touch with the world’

A senior Russian security officer who defected last year has given rare insight into the paranoid lifestyle of Vladimir Putin, confirming details of a secret train network, identical offices in different cities, a strict personal quarantine and escalating security protocols.

Gleb Karakulov, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a powerful body tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials, said the measures were designed to mask the whereabouts of the Russian president, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life”.

The 36-year-old said the train was used because it “cannot be tracked on any information resource. It’s done for stealth purposes.”

The Russian investigative outlet Proekt reported previously on the existence of the train and of a secret railway network including parallel lines and stations near Putin’s residences in Novo-Ogaryovo in the Moscow region, and near his Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Link for R487

So he's happy to send hundreds of thousands of young men - recently sending officers to kidnap the boys on university campuses - but little him is terrified of losing him's little life? WTF? And his people LIKE that about him? That he's a scared little mouse who's fucked up their lives forever?

* send young men TO WAR

He's recruiting mostly from the poor and ethnic minority areas, or prison inmates.

[quote]"The Kremlin on Thursday said it saw no "prospect" for China to mediate the Ukraine conflict and that it had "no other way" than to press on with its offensive. The comments came as French President Emmanuel Macron was in Beijing to try to dissuade China from supporting Moscow's campaign."

Macron simply doesn't understand that both Putin and Ukraine are dug in and will not concede.

China will likely continue their neutral position - a weak Russia and cheap oil suits them plus they will not want to suffer sanctions from the West. They will neither help nor hinder Russia.

Macron and van der Leyen made their position clear during their meeting with XJP. I didn't expect much from Macron, but he did better than I thought. I guess they know China isn't going attempt any talks with Vlad about withdrawing troops from Ukraine. XJP has had no talks with Zelenskyy so far, which tells you all you need to know about how much he cares about Ukraine.

XJP? Vlad? And it's 'von der Leyen'.

Big recruitment push going on in Russia. Posters, flyers, stands in malls. Good money being offered to sign up. It looks like they're running out of convicts and are struggling to attract Russians (not surprising given the meat grinder the Ukraine war is).

𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬.

WASHINGTON — A new (second) batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an assessment of Ukraine’s air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.

One analyst described what has emerged so far as the “tip of the iceberg.”

Early Friday, senior national security officials dealing with the initial leak, which was first reported by The New York Times, said a new worry had arisen: Was that information the only intelligence that was leaked?

But the leaked documents appear to go well beyond highly classified material on Ukraine war plans. Security analysts who have reviewed the documents tumbling onto social media sites say the increasing trove also includes sensitive briefing slides on China, the Indo-Pacific military theater, the Middle East and terrorism.

Well, shit.

But her emails...

So this is what happens when Trump has a year jump on the investigation? All those empty sleeves.

Tell me why again these Senators were in Russia on July 4th?

I just had a great conversation with my neighbor, who just returned from Russia. She lives here in the US with her husband and three sons (two of whom are of military age). They are very educated and all have dual citizenship. She visits Moscow because she has elderly parents. She’s says NO ONE—and she meant NO ONE—supports the war. They hate Putin and are furious he has taken money that should go to infrastructure to fight an unwanted war. She said that many Russians have Ukrainian friends and despise the of fighting them.

Half keep their mouth shut and half speak about it only to very close relatives. She won’t send her sons to visit because she fears they’ll be drafted. The sons of her relatives who are of draft age and have skills such as IT have all fled. Everyone is fearful. Everyone is terrified. She was eating in a restaurant and two “secret police” walked in and arrested a couple who were apparently talking shit about the war and were overheard. They were never seen again.

She is very worried about traveling there but has no choice. The father and the sons aren’t returning until Putin is gone. Btw, I don’t know if she likes Dump but the family is registered Republican.

^ Btw, everyone she saw in Russia—strangers and friends—all thought she was crazy to travel to Russia and would love to be able to leave.

R501: how remarkably Soviet of them.

I remember being in grade school and being shown Soviet films, where children turned in their parents for military awards.

[quote] They hate Putin and are furious he has taken money that should go to infrastructure to fight an unwanted war

They're just bad sports

Convicts are now getting new contracts that last for 18 months instead of the six they'd been contracting for up until now. It's almost as if something important is happening in the world 18 months from now, specifically on November 5th.

r505 That money isn't a simple handout, it's used on cleaning out old gear that was produced specifically to fight Russia (and is now doing exactly that) and is being replaced with modern stuff designed to fight China. All the while, the US economy gets to benefit from this new surge in orders from home and also abroad. This war has been the best advertisement imaginable for US military gear -- countries previously buying weapons from Russia are now buying them from the US instead.

So I really wouldn't bitch too much about this fraction of your annual defence budget going towards Ukraine, this is going to be a return on investment for the ages. To say nothing of your international reputation improving after the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascos.

Russia has taken passports away from state company executives, politicians and government officials now - they need official permission to leave Russia now. Becoming more totalitarian by the day.

Yeah, those Putin haters flee to the US or Canada and still support fascist pricks. Idiots.

I have r505 blocked, so no doubt it’s a pro-Dump, pro-Russian troll. And r507is right, these are weapons that have already been built and the economy has benefitted from. And most important, we are not sending the most important and expensive capital—people.

Ukraine's air defenses could fall to Russia by the middle of next month as Zelensky's army runs out of weapons to protect its skies, leaked Pentagon papers claim.

One of the documents, dated February 23 and marked 'Secret,' outlines in detail how Ukraine's S-300 air defense systems would be depleted by May 2 at the current usage rate, after repeated attacks by Russian forces.

The same New York Times report claimed that Ukraine's air defenses protecting troops on the front line could be 'completely reduced' by May 23. It comes as the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the leak, according to CBS News.

Another leak has been obtained by the Washington Post. This one is bleak and is the U.S. saying that they doubt that Ukraine's counteroffensive will make big gains. (As far as I understand it, this is mainly because Ukraine has deployed so much manpower holding Bakhmut as well as depletion of artillery and other weapons.) However, the U.S. has been wrong before (they thought that Kyiv would fall) so we'll see. Small gains appears to be the expectation either way.

[quote] this is mainly because Ukraine has deployed so much manpower holding Bakhmut as well as depletion of artillery and other weapons.

People who speculated this was the Russian meatgrinder's purpose were called Boris.

Ukraine didn't have much choice though. It was either that or let the Russians make gains. And yes, the Russians are just going to sacrifice many hundreds of thousands of lives to a meat grinder but they haven't gained anything much. I don't see what much good of an end game for the Russians is really going to be. I think that the strategy of pouring so much human life into it is actually quite risky domestically.

OP You seem deluded and wrong.

looks like Egypt is another shitty country - one of the leaks is a document purporting to show that Egypt was planning on secretly supplying the Russians with rockets.

^^ I don't think he'll be supplying those rockets now though because Egypt gets a lot of U.S. aid and the plan has been rumbled. Too bad, Sisi.

Another leaked document:

[quote](AP) — U.S. spies caught Russian intelligence officers boasting that they had convinced the oil-rich United Arab Emirates “to work together against US and UK intelligence agencies,” according to a purported American document posted online as part of a major U.S. intelligence breach.

In all seriousness, so many leaks - Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner, now this. I've read that it's probably because the U.S. allows so many people access to such documents. They need to tighten up on that.

And how many releases are counter intel confusion.

"Czech president compares Russia to ISIS

This is how Petr Pavel reacted to the video showing an alleged Ukrainian prisoner of war being beheaded.

"If the video is authentic, it puts the Russian military on a par with ISIS," Pavel said.

According to him, such situations have no place in the 21st century."

Pentagon Leak

Russia jamming US precision weapons.

A day after the U.S. imposed sanctions, Hungary is withdrawing from a controversial Russia-linked bank that allies cautioned could be used as a cover for Moscow’s spies. The bank had moved its headquarters from Moscow to Budapest.

(Reminder here that Orban claimed that sanctions 'don't work'...)

[quote]Border Panic and ‘Total Disarray’ as War Spills Into Russia

I don't remember them shedding any tears when Ukrainians were being terrorized just a couple of miles away.

r524 That was such a good move by Biden, that bank was causing all sorts of problems in Central Europe and the Western Balkans.

Scumbags.

"Today is the 80th anniversary of the world finding out that the Soviets had murdered 22 000 Polish POWs in the Katyn Massacre.

So here is a reminder about what the Russians did 1 year ago, to “protest” against Poland siding with Ukraine after the invasion on February 24th, 2022."

"A window into twisted Russian minds.

Trucks & bulldozers with “Zs” have pulled up to cemeteries where victims of the Katyn Massacre are buried in Russia.

They used loudspeakers to announce they could demolish the graves but won’t because they are good."

Goddamn them all, r527.

Every last one to the firey pit of hell.

Fuck their parades.

"Putin cancels Victory Day parades as Ukraine invasion continues to unravel"

"The cancellations are officially due to security concerns related to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, numerous commentators have speculated that Moscow is also increasingly short of tanks and is understandably eager to avoid highlighting the scale of the losses suffered by the Russian army in Ukraine."

Jack Teixeira arrested over leaked US military documents.

A national guardsman suspected to be behind a series of US military document leaks has been arrested by the FBI. Jack Teixeira, 21, is said to have overseen a private online group, containing around 25 active members, in which the highly classified documents were shared.

Ukraine has officially forbidden their national teams from competing in all sports where Russian and Belarusian athletes compete. All eyes will be on what the Olympics does now. The cowardly IOC wants Russian and Belarusian athletes there even though Putin regularly uses them to support him politically like in an early rally supporting the Ukraine war. They had this bullshit separate 'non-Russian' team for the Russians but everyone knows it's the Russian team because only Russians competed in it.

Since the Russians are usually caught doping and are disqualified in real sports, you'd think this would be a no-brainer for the IOC.

[quote] The cowardly IOC wants Russian and Belarusian athletes

Not that I'll be watching either way but that is totally in keeping with the Olympic tradition. In the ancient games it was a matter of course the games included contestants from states otherwise at war.

The Olympic Truce is a tradition originating from ancient Greece that dates back to 776 BC. A "truce" (Ancient Greek: ékécheiria, meaning "laying down of arms") was announced before and during the Olympic Games to ensure the host city state (Elis) was not attacked and athletes and spectators could travel safely to the Games and peacefully return to their respective countries.

In 1992, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) renewed this tradition by calling upon all nations to observe the Truce during the modern Games. The Truce was revived by United Nations Resolution 48/11 of 25 October 1993,[1] as well by the United Nations Millennium Declaration relating to the world peace and security.[2]

R533 In reality the teams are highly political. I've been reading that some countries will say that they will ban their athletes from competing too so let's see if the IOC will fancy a much diminished Olympics if that happens. They'll probably go with the money in the end.

The top 8 apps in the Russian App Store are all VPNs.. finding it hard to give up their freedoms still...

Alexei Navalny is in critical condition with a stomach ailment in prison. He lost 8kg in 15 days - poisoning is suspected.

I knew Putin would kill him shortly after NAVALNY won an Oscar.

Horrifying. Putin is a devil!

See? Not all my political opponents fall off high rise windows like the Western world is insinuating.

All of the suffering that Russia is causing to people, animals, and land is heartbreaking. I despise them.

"A cow tries to get up on its feet again after Russian shelling.

It has deep wounds in its back from the shrapnel"

This thread is getting wonky… too close to 600 posts. Anyway, I will be toasting to the demise of Putin, hopefully it doesn’t take too long. Move it along, Vlad!

I ask again, what sort of succession plan is in place in Russia if and when Putin dies? Will someone smoothly take over his place with the general assent of other powerful people, or will there be a breakdown of control with various political and ethnic groups splitting off from each other as after WWI?

I think there certainly will be chaos. High chance of Shoigu or another military general taking over to establish order. Prigozhin and Wagner are another possibility, since they have armed forces. Regardless, whomever it will be will be a shithead.

R541 The rumor is that Nikolai Patrushev's son is being groomed to take over. For example Putin praised him in a speech recently. The son would be less tainted by the hawkish far right and therefore more acceptable to the West while his father has a lot of power/influence as head of the Security Council (which will be important for control of the army, private guard, etc).

But of course there may be other factions who fancy their chances such as Prigozhin who heads the private Wagner Group, Kadyrov (unlikely), Shoigu (unlikely as an ethnic minority) and others. So nobody knows for sure.

Looks like Girkin has pushed things too far. Today authorities in Russia have launched an investigation into him after someone called Tatyana made a complaint that he made comments offensive to the Russian army. Tatyana apparently 'works for law enforcement' so that smells a bit like a cover to me.

The hour-long show that Tatyana had watched 'saw Girkin accuse Putin of “behaving like a doormat, not the president of a country with a millenia-long history” and suggesting he blew the chance to capture Kharkhiv and Odessa in 2014 “practically without a single shot”. Girkin also blasted the Russian leadership for dragging their feet on the offensive in eastern Ukraine.'

Putin's soliders are animals and thugs.

"Today is the 9th anniversary of Russia starting the war in the Donbas.

On April 12th, the Russian FSB agent Igor Girkin and his team of thugs attacked and captured the City Hall in Sloviansk."

A series of Russian intercepted phone calls were published by the AP in February of this year. Maxim, who is fighting in Ukraine, is calling his mother and talking about how the war should end

[quote] Maxim and his mother discuss the opposing stories about the war being told on Ukrainian and Russian television. They blame the United States and recite conspiracy theories pushed by Russian state media.

[quote] But Maxim and his mother believe it’s the Ukrainians who are deluded by fake news and propaganda, not them. The best way to end the war, his mother says, is to kill the presidents of Ukraine and the United States.

Mother: “It’s the Americans driving this, of course! Look at their laboratories. They are developing biological weapons. Coronavirus literally started there.”

Maxim: “Yeah, I also saw somewhere that they used bats.”

Mother: “All of it. Bats, migrating birds, and even coronavirus might be their biological weapon.”

Mother: “They even found all these papers with signatures from the U.S. all over Ukraine. Biden’s son is the mastermind behind all of this.”

Mother: “When will it end? When they stop supplying weapons.”

Mother: “Until they catch (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and execute him, nothing will end. He’s a fool, a fool! He’s a puppet for the U.S. and they really don’t need him, the fool. You watch TV and you feel bad for the people, the civilians, some travelling with young kids.”

Mother: “If I was given a gun, I’d go and shoot Biden.” (Laughs)

Maxim: (Laughs)

They sound as deluded as our Qanonners.

[quote] One night last March, Maxim was having trouble keeping it together on a call with his wife. He’d been drinking, as he did every night.

[quote] He told her he’d killed civilians — so many he thinks he’s going crazy. He said he might not make it home alive. He was just sitting there, drunk in the dark, waiting for the Ukrainian artillery strikes to start.

Wife: “Why? Why are you drinking?”

Maxim: “Everyone is like that here. It’s impossible without it here.”

Wife: “How the fuck will you protect yourself if you are tipsy?”

Maxim: “Totally normal. On the contrary, it’s easier to shoot ... civilians. Let’s not talk about this. I’ll come back and tell you how it is here and why we drink!”

Wife: “Please, just be careful!”

Maxim: “Everything will be fine. Honestly, I’m scared shitless myself. I never saw such hell as here. I am fucking shocked.”

Everything in R546 would be at home in a Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet.

Prigozhin wants to announce the end of the 'Special Military Operation', that Russia's aims have been met and to consolidate what they have instead of pushing to conquer more. This is interesting because it suggests that he knows anything more is likely doomed. But will Putin the megalomaniac agree?

[quote]"The ideal option is to announce the end of the Special Military Operation, to inform everyone that Russia has achieved the results that it planned, and in a sense, we really achieved them. We have ground a huge number of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and we can report to ourselves about that the tasks of "SMO" are completed. Theoretically, Russia has already received this fat point by destroying a large part of the active male population of Ukraine, by intimidating another part of it, which fled to Europe. Russia cut off the Azov and a large piece of the Black Sea, seized a fat piece of Ukrainian territory and created a land corridor to the Crimea. Now there is only one thing left: to firmly gain a foothold, to claw in those territories that already exist." [Prigozhin]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Finland is now actively building a wall along their Russian border.

I hope they get Russia to pay for it!

It's more of a fence than a wall. They just cut down some trees, they definitely won't be blowing stuff up like Trump did with those hills in Arizona, which are now an eternal eyesore.

Still, I always feel bad about the fauna whenever these barriers are erected.

Leftist Brazilian president called for Western powers to stop providing arms to Ukraine.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva drew criticism from the United States on Monday for his recent comments suggesting the West had been "encouraging" war by arming Ukraine, while he was praised by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for his proposal for peace talks.

Lavrov, on a visit to Brasilia, met with Lula and thanked Brazil for its efforts to resolve the conflict. But a White House spokesman accused Lula of "parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without looking at the facts."

Lula has pitched himself as a broker for peace talks to end the Ukraine conflict, which began when Russia invaded the neighboring country in February 2022. That proposal was based on Brazil's tradition of non-intervention and open diplomacy.

But Lula has angered many in the West with comments over the weekend, when he called for Western powers to stop providing arms for the war. The comments came shortly after he returned from China, where he discussed the matter with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Like many leaders in middle income and developing countries, Lula has adopted a policy of non-intervention over the war in Ukraine, rebuffing efforts led by US President Joe Biden to unite the global community in opposition to Russia’s invasion.

Interesting Russian ad trying to recruit men to fight in Ukraine.

[quote]@KevinRothrock Pretty smart ad from the Russian military here, showing men “wasting” their manhood as lame security guards, trainers, and cab drivers. Taps into the ennui of modern life and especially the masculine panic that’s hardly unique to Russian men.

"Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department has the authority to prosecute Russian war criminals in the U.S"

"DOJ supports Ukrainian pursuit of war criminals During a meeting with Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the U.S. will assist in prosecuting war crimes. "

^^ I saw a former Russian central bank official who fled to Germany when the war broke out say that she talked to a colleague still in Russia and he said that he was vacationing in Iran and that it 'wasn't so bad'. LOL. Yeah, Iran and all these crappy countries who won't arrest you. That's just peachy.

Russian MoD admits its own SU-34 "inadvertently" bombed the Russian city of Belgorod, creating a massive crater and damaging residential buildings (they say no civilian casualties).

Putin’s Homophobia Is Advancing LGBTQ Rights in Ukraine

Many have begun to associate anti-gay bigotry with imperial aggression

[quote]In March equal partnership rights inched one step closer to becoming reality. That month, Ukrainian lawmaker Inna Sovsun introduced a bill to parliament that would recognize same-sex civil partnerships and grant LGBTQ civil partners the same rights as their married heterosexual counterparts. This recent step appears to be part of a larger trend of increasing acceptance toward and rights for LGBTQ Ukrainians since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Sovsun said that proposing her legislation “definitely would have taken longer” if not for the war. While the liberal lawmaker has always been a strong advocate for gender and sexuality rights, she believes the recent conflict has brought LGBTQ issues to the fore and increased the likelihood that her bill will be passed.

[quote] SU-34 "inadvertently" bombed the Russian city of Belgorod,

"inadvertently" my ass.

Someone who just came back from a honeymoon to Thailand told me it's basically like Russia over there right now, there's Russians just everywhere, trying to wait this out and dodge the draft. Same in Armenia, Georgia, and most of the -stans.

In other news, the counteroffensive has officially started, per Ukrainian officials. We won't see epic assaults -- impossible because neither side has the air superiority -- it should be a trickle for about a month before the damn breaks.

The Russians can be their own worst enemy. The reliable Fighterbomber telegram channel who has contacts in the Russian air force today posted about a Mi-35M helicopter that suffered a non-combat crash. The pilots died.

Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation have a new campaign to sanction the wife/partner of the Deputy Minister of Defense. He's currently responsible for 'rebuilding' Mariupol. Five months into the war she divorced him and illegally obtained an Israeli passport, likely to avoid sanctions, but is still living it up large in France.

Some of the images and amounts of money are staggering. He is clearly almost certainly procuring it through corruption - skimming off budgets he gets.

r561, the helicopter that suffered a non-combat crash, the pilots died, simply saved Ukraine the effort.

Thanks for the catch.

About a fifth of recruits sent to fight in Ukraine from Russian prisons are HIV positive, according to estimates by Ukrainian authorities, with several captured Russian soldiers telling The New York Times they were promised life-saving anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight.

One detainee told The Times that he took the offer to fight in Ukraine because the Russian prison system deprived him of supplies of effective medications that he needed to survive

A Russian Sophie's Choice.

This might even be true. It would be the logical extension of Castro's precedent in cleansing Cuba of its criminals, mental cases, and general undesirables.

Another aircraft bomb (unexploded) has been found in Belgorod, near the one that exploded the other day. 3,000 people from 17 apartment blocks have been evacuated as a result. Hard to not giggle.

Sometimes things fall off airplanes

A drunk Russian (he failed a breathalyzer test according to the Russian Telegram account Baza) overturned an expensive S-400 air defense system into a ditch. Those systems are worth about $160m.

Germany has expelled about 40 Russian diplomats. It's thought to be linked to this Washington Post report about how the Russians have been trying to marry the far right and the far left in Germany to build an antiwar coalition.

This is according to Russian documents largely dated from July to November that were obtained by a European intelligence service and shared with the WaPo. Supposedly Kremlin political strategists even wrote a proposed manifesto for the AfD (Germany's far right and pro-Putin party).

[quote]Soon after the Kremlin gave the order for a union to be forged between Wagenknecht (a MP for Germany's far left Die Linke party) and the far right, AfD deputies began speaking in support of her in parliament and party members chanted her name at rallies. Björn Höcke, chairman of the AfD in Thüringen in eastern Germany, publicly invited her to join the party.

[quote]Russian troll farms pumped out slogans for German social media platforms and protests — “Buy gas, not war” and “Ukraine wants war, Germany wants peace.” Preparing slogans for protests over soaring energy costs formed another part of the strategy.

[quote]The campaign even extended to graffiti to be painted on walls across Germany and then photographed and placed in the German press, the documents show. These included a drawing of a fat “Uncle Sam” saying, “Bear it a few more years.” Another depicted German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sitting on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany, waving a Ukrainian flag and saying, “I don’t care what the Germans think.” It is unclear whether any of this graffiti appeared.

[quote]Leaked emails from Russian officials, including an attache in the Russian Embassy in Berlin, previously reported in Der Spiegel in cooperation with the Dossier Center in London, have offered some insight into how the Russians viewed their German guests. “We will have our own absolutely controlled MP in the Bundestag,” one April 2017 email said of Markus Frohnmaier, an AfD member of parliament and a guest on several junkets.

[quote] We will have our own absolutely controlled MP in the Bundestag

Nothing new in that. Putin owned two consecutive German chancellors.

[quote]Murder, alcohol and prostitutes: Wagner convicts pardoned by Putin return to terrorise home towns

This is such an upsetting read. Wagner convicts returning home from the war now killing pensioners and people with developmental disabilities. The photo of a sweet old lady with strawberries who was killed with an axe by one of them is heartbreaking.

BILD reports that 34 of the 90 German diplomats currently in Moscow are being expelled in a retaliatory new Cold War measure.

Moscow always does these tit-for-tats. The problem is that Russian diplomats are all spies, so Russia always ends up with more spies than the country that did the expulsion first.

As long as the Germans finally get completely disabused of their delusions about the Russians, I'm happy. Have really not understood the relatively lukewarm German response (a few people like Baerbock excepted). Merkel basically rolls over for Putin. I just don't understand it.

I think it’s $$$, r575.

That seems to be the common thread through this whole clusterfuck. Money.

Putin has been waging a three pronged war against NATO since around 2006 or so. Probably earlier.

He’s been attacking NATO via the internet with his troll armies. Stoking fear and mistrust among the citizenry. He’s been hacking or stealing data to blackmail or at least neutralize his opposition in NATO and who he couldn’t blackmail outright, he can pay off. Or any combination of those.

He’s managed to keep Germany quiet, cripple the US with fat ass, and keep Macron distracted with his own issues. He’s fucked around in Australia and stirred up shit in Canada.

He knows Russia would be obliterated In a conventional war NATO. So he had to resort to a new frontier. The internet and social media. THAT is where he’s waging his war and winning. So far.

They’ve been planning this sort of “disinformation warfare” for decades. Watching and waiting for their chance to attack us in the hopes we will consume ourselves. He won’t stop. Even after Ukraine hands him his saggy ass, the infrastructure he’s put in place will remain.

We need to dismantle his troll armies and expose his enablers ALL OVER THE WORLD.

R576, don't forget about Brexit.

Duh on me, r577. Yeah, THAT whole Brexit mess was his “prototype” to see if his plans could actually work IRL and they did.

Once he realized it worked better than he ever dared hope, he unleashed upon NATO countries.

He ain’t gonna stop so we ALL need to get wise.

NYT.- Russia’s Technocrats Embraced the West, Then Enabled Putin’s War. The expertise of economic officials who continue to work in the government has helped President Vladimir Putin largely keep the economy afloat in the face of Western sanctions.

Russian mercenaries closely linked with Sudan’s warring generals. But the Wagner Group and its backers in the Kremlin have much to lose if they back the wrong side. (The Washington Post)

The Washington Post says that in February Ukraine was making plans to attack Moscow on the first anniversary of the war but that the U.S. stopped them.

In the day of anniversary of Chernobyl tragedy....

[quote]Nearly all the combat vehicles Ukraine’s Western allies promised to deliver in time for Kyiv’s expected spring counteroffensive have arrived, NATO’s top military commander said on Wednesday.

[quote]“Over 98 percent of the combat vehicles are already there,” said the officer, Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, who is also the top commander of U.S. forces in Europe. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, he said, “I am very confident that we have delivered the matériel that they need and we’ll continue a pipeline to sustain their operations as well.”

𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍 𝑬𝒍𝒍𝒔𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒈, the man behind the largest and perhaps most consequential disclosure in U.S. history, said the latest intelligence leaks show that the war between Russia and Ukraine is at a “stalemate,” drawing similarities to the Vietnam War.

“The war is stalemated, that seems so obvious now except for the fact that both sides totally deny it,” Ellsberg said to the Post. “What these new leaks show is what the Pentagon Papers showed, that the insiders all know that.”

A February document that was part of the leak and reviewed by The Hill details a U.S. conclusion that the conflict is headed to a stalemate beyond 2023.

“It’s not Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan,” Ellsberg said. “None of those had any real possibility of blowing up the world. This one really can.”

Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Massachusetts National Air Guardsman who was arrested in connection with the most recent intelligence leaks, has faced intense scrutiny, with lawmakers and government officials criticizing him for putting U.S. foreign policy in danger. It is an argument Ellsberg pushed back against.

“There is no reason to believe that it harmed American national security in any measurable way,” Ellsberg said.

Obviously it's at a stalemate, hence the upcoming counteroffensive. Congrats to Daniel Elsberg on having eyes.

Russia's winter/spring offensive fizzled out completely, now it's time for Ukraine's. We'll see how much of a breakthrough they can achieve. They're certainly going to do one more counteroffensive this year after this one, possibly two. And then we'll see where Russia decides to attack on the changed map. Weather is king, you only have so many shots per year when the country isn't covered in mud.

So it’s like Vietnam, but with Ukraine the Viet Cong and Russia the United States? Interesting

Here's to hoping hearing that his favorite news anchor Tucker Carlson getting fired from FOX, causes Putin to pop his clogs.

Russian media report that several minutes ago Putin unexpectedly rushed to the Kremlin.

What could have happened?

There's absolutely nothing thus far that says Erdogan had a heart attack. Sounds very speculative thus far.

Anyway, the BBC is reporting gastroenteritis.

Did they doom him by stating: "He's resting comfortably", yet?

Prigozhin says Wagner forces have advanced by between 100 and 150 meters in Bakhmut today — and lost 94 men for that. Which in fact means each and every of the killed militants on average died so that they could redraw maps by a distance shorter than his own height.

He's complaining yet again about lack of ammunition.

R591, how do you know that this glorious victory was not won by a dwarf convict battalion?

Prigozhin gave Shoigu an ultimatum - if Wagner PMC doesn't receive ammunition, it will leave Bakhmut.

He gave Shoigu 24 hours to make that happen. And he says that they already ran out, on the 28th... I'm trying to work out what he's doing with this. I read that Iran recently sent Russia tons of ammo so is it a bluff? I'm finding it hard to see Wagner actually leaving Bakhmut but if they truly don't get ammo then maybe they wouldn't have much choice.

Re: R594:

"

Sorry! Hit post before I finished. THIS is a Civil War I am 💯 behind!

Re: R594:

"Bakhmut may very well end up being the catalyst for a Russian civil war.

1) Putin has ordered that Bakhmut must be taken by May 8th, in time for the Soviet Victory Day parade on May 9th. He has threatened Shoigu and others with dire consequences.

2) Prigozhin has Putin's blessing as head of Wagner PMC, a mercenary group established and largely controlled by the FSB & GRU (Russian Military Intelligence).

3) Army and intel services famously hate each other. The jockeying for power between the various factions has been ongoing.

4) Expect Wagner PMC to retreat from Bakhmut in the coming days to completely screw over Shoigu and the Russian army. This is a perfect way for Prigozhin to setup Shoigu and other generals.

5) For May 9th, Ukrainians may end up controlling all of Bakhmut, and possibly much, much more. This would have highly unpredictable domino effects domestically in Russia.

6) Right now, the Russian Game of Thrones is just backstabbing, scheming in the shadows, assassinations, and so on. But Bakhmut may turn out to be the catalyst to ignite a 'hot' civil war among the factions in Russia.

Thread is almost maxed out. Part III link:

Thanks, R597.

Thread ...

... closed.