Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Part III: Give Putin the Gaddafi “Special”!

We need to take action immediately. People are not thinking clearly.

The foreign-backed twitter lackeys are claiming that we can’t fight back. There’s nothing we can do. Our hands are tied.

It’s all a lie. We can and should do something at once.

Thank heavens we are doing that, r1. Putin is huddled in his mountain cave while the youth of Russia are being decimated.

Keep that fighting spirit alive, r1!

Proportional response. Let's hear from the experts.

Keep this in mind: the media only reports information it has access to. Covert operations are not publicized.

Ok.

[quote]We can and should do something at once

What exactly, r1?

Ignore the troll at R1; he's all over DL this afternoon.

Question: have Russian operations quieted down in the past day? There was speculation of a huge ramp-up this weekend. Are they waiting for new supplies or fresh recruits? Regrouping?

Are you guys really doing two part 3s? This would have been a good time to consolidate the threads. You still can. There is still time.

Israel's PM made a highly unusual trip today to Russia and spent 3 hours alone with Putin. On shabbat!!!! Rumour has it that while it relates to Ukraine, there might be another crisis looming on the back of this one in Middle East which involves Russia and Iran.

Earlier in the week it was suggested that Israel might try to play a mediator role in this crisis, because they have ties to both the US and Russia. So it's probably that, R9. But good question...

Putin is hiring a 1,000 more mercenaries to kill as many people in Ukraine as possible.

Well they better collect their pay up front R11. Cuz Pootie about to be broke.

Mercenaries from where R11? I also though mercenaries were illegal under international law.

Though why PMCs are permitted is beyond me.

Nearly everything Putin is doing is illegal under international law. That doesn't appear to be stopping him, does it?

Obviously R14. My question is where is he getting them from? Mercenaries don't generally walk around advertising themselves precisely because their existence is illegal, though I have no doubt many exist. Is he pulling them from Chechnya?

Yes, R15. Dan Savage posted an obituary of one of them yesterday who was a fierce homophobe as well as an all around piece of shit.

R11 is probably referring to this CNN story from yesterday:

Russia is poised to deploy up to 1,000 more mercenaries to Ukraine in the coming days and weeks, as a senior Western intelligence official warned Moscow could "bombard cities into submission," an escalation that could lead to significant civilian casualties.

The US has already seen "some indications" that Russian mercenaries may be involved in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine "in some places," a senior defense official said earlier this week, but it wasn't clear exactly where or in what numbers.

"We've seen some indications that they're being employed," the official said.

Now, a US official tells CNN that Russia is planning to deploy up to 1,000 more mercenaries in the near future.

Stalled forces: Some Russian forces have struggled with morale issues and setbacks on the battlefield, including a massive convoy north of Kyiv that has remained largely stalled for the past several days.

The mercenary forces would fortify the flagging units, the official said, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its second weekend.

The official added that the US believes the mercenaries already in Ukraine have "performed poorly when facing the stiffer-than-expected resistance from the Ukrainians," and that as many as 200 such mercenaries have already been killed in the war as of late February.

Meanwhile, US and Western officials expect Russia to increase the pace and strength of its strikes on key Ukrainian population centers, including the capital Kyiv.

An intensifying assault: Russia now seems prepared to “bombard cities into submission,” one senior western intelligence official said on Friday, which could include a significant increase in the number of civilian casualties.

“It’s a very crude approach,” the official said. “The heavier weapons are not just heavier in the weight, they’re also heavier in terms of the damage that they can inflict. And they’re far less discriminant.”

Other officials have noticed a shift in Russian strategy from military targets to civilians, with more attacks becoming focused on population centers.

"The days to come are likely to be worse, with more death, more suffering, and more destruction, as the Russian armed forces bring in heavier weaponry and continue their attacks across the country," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed the sentiment during a press conference in Brussels Friday where he is meeting with European allies.

“The Kremlin’s attacks are inflicting an ever-increasing toll on civilians there. Hundreds if not thousands of Ukrainians have been killed, many more wounded, as have citizens of other countries. More than a million refugees have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries. Millions of people across Ukraine are trapped in increasingly dire conditions as Russia destroys more critical infrastructure,” Blinken said.

Let's hope this young cutie survives.

R17. Thanks. I suppose we'll see how reliable they are. You get what you pay for with mercenaries and I doubt Putin can afford to pay much.

And who wants to die just for money anyway?

One possible explanation for that Russian convoy north of Kyiv being stalled- they’re stuck in the mud.

LOL. Germans in WW2 were stuck in the mud, too. So were the French troops and Napoleon.

Who would've have guessed there can be mud in this place at this time of the year?!?

Two cuties at R18!

FTR the English name for that species is "great tit."

R21 It's their mud season, just like the ski areas. The ground is thawing and turns to mud fairly quickly

No more Mastercard and Visa in Russia.

Those oligarch bitches must be tearing what’s left of their hair out.

R23, that's what I was alluding to. What sort of fuckwit issues the command to start an invasion there at this particular time of the year?

Clarissa just reported for the first time in suburb of Kiyv after seven days of war. Old women cried and so did younger ones while holding their babies and getting into bus and hopefully away from the city. Now Andresson is interviewing a mother holding her baby in the shelter. I am glad CNN is giving voice to women in the middle of Russian attacks. Of course CNN wants higher ratings but nevertheless those women get their voices heard. Wars are cruel because women and children suffer always.

Maybe this was discussed in the previous thread, but I read recently that Putin was obsessed with Gaddafi's ultimate fate and is known to have watched the video footage of it many times over, fearing that would be his ultimate fate. Of course he's only made that many times more likely with what he's done.

R26. I saw Clarissa helping some of the elderly, many of whom seemed in shock. So heartbreaking.

R25 Well his buddy Xi asked him to delay the invasion until after the Olympics and he did as he asked, lol. Now he’s screwed.

I'd be willing to bet Erik Prince, prince of all mercenaries, is in the mix, working for Putin's war against Ukraine.

US embassy in Russia not mincing words.

I doubt R30. Not even he would be so stupid as to work for Putin right now.

I'm glad I'm not Brittney Griner right now, yikes!

The map is changing quickly.

MSNBC just reported about the fact that there is mostly all artillery fire and not planes in the air so a no-fly zone would not really help. they are taking the city with artillery and ground-to-air missiles. they are sending high-tech fighter planes to Ukraine to use but their pilots don't yet know how to fly them. they are training but at this moment they can't use them.

A good point: it is one thing to take territory.

It’s another to hold it.

Of course R36. But turning Ukraine into another Syria isn't good for the people who actually live there. Russia needs to be repelled. Bogging them down will be effective but it's pretty heartless.

An update. 8 km from Kiev.

Western Ukraine will be another Idlib (Syria), rife with arms from the West, nationalist fighters who turn to organized crime, and sealed off from the rest of Ukraine. A nightmare dumpster fire for the EU.

Come you masters of war You that build the big guns You that build the death planes You that build all the bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin' But build to destroy You play with my world Like it's your little toy You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old You lie and deceive A world war can be won You want me to believe But I see through your eyes And I see through your brain Like I see through the water That runs down my drain

You fasten all the triggers For the others to fire Then you sit back and watch When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion While the young people's blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world For threatening my baby Unborn and unnamed You ain't worth the blood That runs in your veins

How much do I know To talk out of turn You might say that I'm young You might say I'm unlearned But there's one thing I know Though I'm younger than you That even Jesus would never Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question Is your money that good? Will it buy you forgiveness Do you think that it could? I think you will find When your death takes its toll All the money you made Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die And your death will come soon I'll follow your casket By the pale afternoon And I'll watch while you're lowered Down to your deathbed And I'll stand over your grave 'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Pretty funny.

R34 Bringing the Russian lines here huh?

Wow.

Russian troll farm trolls, whatever Xi promised Putin, he didn’t promise you. You and your children will starve. Your loved ones will die slow painful deaths of radiation poisoning. Rise up. You have power. You have ties to the West the rest of your country does not have now. Save yourselves and your families. Save Russia.

R43, you overestimate the importance of DL. No one cares about what we think. Stop being paranoid.

Thanks, R22, I was wondering what kind of bird that was. I thought it was some type of Chickadee.

I found this scrolling below the tweet at R42. The obsession.

Oh, Eeyore has left the COVID burrow.

Yes, R45—same family! Very similar to American chickadees.

For when leave returns.

Reuters is a fairly neutral and reputable source. Here's their regularly updated invasion map -

*peace returns

These fucking assholes need to be removed from the committee:

"Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Steve Daines (Mont.) shared photos from U.S. lawmakers' virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after they were reportedly asked not to do so due to security concerns. "

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Mearsheimer and Ray McGovern the other day.

R53, he's saying all that even though he's doing to be cancelled. Wow.

R55 They haven't opened comments, even moderated, on his piece.

Rubio has been trying to ride the coattails of Zelensky and Ukraine since the war began. This burst of color commentary on twitter is nothing more than political PR... for himself.

Of course the fucker couldn't help himself posting sensitive pics from the Zelensky zoom meeting.

Another cease fire for Mariupol today to establish humanitarian corridor but few have faith it will hold. Yesterday's cease fire lasted about 7 minutes.

I want to comment on ElderLez' comment about Norway. Supporting Ukraine actually costs Norway A LOT. We share a border with Russia. Many companies in the north sell their products and services to Russia. For some companies Russian customers make up 70-80 % of the total. Some companies may go bankrupt due to loss of income from the Russian sanctions. We still support Ukraine because what Russia is doing is wrong. Norway condemns Russia's war on Ukraine. It will cost Norway some lost revenue, but in the end it's not a big deal... human lives are more important anyway. I haven't yet heard of a single Norwegian supporting Russia. We all know Putin is a crazy madman and the support for Ukraine is huge. Everyone here supports Ukraine. Also, Russian athletes are banned from competing in Norway and Norwegian athletes have worn the Ukraine flag on their sleeves.

Ukraine is in a very unfortunate position in the middle while NATO and Putin play chicken. The one stepping over the line (drawn by Putin for some reason) is the one who started WWIII.

NATO should declare that, by invading Ukraine, Putin started WWIII and be done with the struggle over semantics. Help Ukraine and cast all the blame on Putin. He will say and do whatever he wants anyway. He uses diplomacy as a means to adjust his invasion strategy.

Elderlez commented on Norway?

Was that in a different thread?

R61 I think that was in Part II.

Peter Hitchens has been simping for Russia since the start. He is pushing every Russian propaganda point and claiming everyone who doesn't buy them is too simple minded to understand the situation or history,

Lot of Russian money in the UK. Just saying. Or he's an ideological descendant of the old time communists excusing every atrocity Stalin ever committed.

Is Peter Hitchen's basic argument that Ukraine should have stood down and simply let itself be invaded? And that any war is their fault since they didn't just lay down and take it?

Essentially, yes.

Does anybody see the big picture as of now, today?🤔

Hope this thing ends soon.

The big picture is the same as it's been for the last week and a half: very gradual Russian encroachment, which gets more dire for Russian prospects the longer it plays out. Also, of course, more dire for Ukrainians who are trying to survive under Russian bombardments. We're still heading towards a Russian occupation of part of Ukraine at the very least—but it's not clear what effect that will have on Russia, now that the Russians' military, economic, and political weaknesses have become so clear.

We're a couple of hours from sunset on the eleventh day of fighting. No one knows why the Russians haven't been even able to dominate in the air, but there's a lot of speculation that their equipment, training, and preparation left a lot to be desired.

I don't assume 'this thing' will end any time soon.

Hitchens’ view of current events is joined at the hip with his political views. As with most people like that, he ends up seeing “history” as starting somewhere in his lifetime.

In his world, Holodomor didn’t happen.

And from that flows the rest of this opinion piece.

I guess what Ukraine and its allies should do is send airplanes dropping gallons and gallons of water to turn Ukraine's countryside into marshland, impossible for Russian tankers to cross for weeks to come.

[quote]We're still heading towards a Russian occupation of part of Ukraine at the very least—but it's not clear what effect that will have on Russia, now that the Russians' military, economic, and political weaknesses have become so clear.

The Russians don't have enough man power to occupy Ukraine long term. Most analysts say that would require at least 500,000 Russian troops on the ground, stationed there - forever? Any puppet government they install would be overthrown immediately without a huge force permanently stationed in Ukraine. How does Putin expect that's going to work long term?

There is a serious humanitarian situation unfolding in the South where the Ukrainian nationalist resistance fighters (who apparently not controlled by Zelenskyy) are hellbent on not giving an inch. We are looking at potentially over million civilians trapped between them and Russians. Each side is pointing fingers at each other of course. But there is more and more evidence spreading on social media that at least to a certain degree Ukrainian side is responsible, as they are not letting civilians leave the conflict areas.

r70, the Dutch have broken their dikes to ward off invaders for the same reasons

[quote]How does Putin expect that's going to work long term?

apparently he's willing to wait (like he has been, he's been in office for a couple decades) and find out

Right, R72. It's the Ukrainians who are shooting and killing their own civilians.

R71, he will likely see how it plays out. Their goal isn't to occupy the whole Ukraine, unless that's easy to do. It is to partition it into multiple manageable pieces and then negotiate and trade them with the West.

Links, R72?

I've not seen that anywhere (that Putin means to split the country). And even if that were to happen, the resistance is furious all over Ukraine, even in the Russian speaking parts.

I don't believe you R72 Svetlana. it's the filthy Russians who can't keep a ceasefire for more than 7 minutes to let civilians out in the east.

*$5000/month.

R78,

FSB document/analysis of current situation has been linked. Basically, Russia will not be able to hold out past June.

Ukraine will be Putin's Iraq.

I don't know if torture is necessary. I think the best way to remove a dictactor like Putin is just to efficiently dispose of them, never provide any details other than that they are now gone, and then efficiently dispose of anything he ever had created to glorify him. Demonstrate to all would-be dictators motivated by legacy that they will have no legacy. They will just disappear.

Konstantin Kisin on suggested solution. He hates Putin but he tries to be objective about dealing with him.

Kisin's family emigrated to UK when he was about 12. They are Jewish - I think prosperous cause he went to boarding school. His wife is Ukrainian. His grandmother is in Ukraine.

R61 and R62, yes. She just said good for Norway or something like that. It was in part 2.

So apparently this is Kyiv today. Some of you girls may be envious of that guy.

R84, a public death is best. The Ceaușescus are a good example. Get it on camera, so the public sees the death. Display the body publicly for abuse (e.g., Benito and Clara). And then incinerate the corpse and flush the ashes down the toilet. Get that on camera too.

If Putin’s fan girls want a shrine, give them the shitter.

How do I get conscripted, please and thank you?

[quote]Lot of Russian money in the UK. Just saying. Or he's an ideological descendant of the old time communists

Like his brother the late Christopher Hitchens he started out as a socialist. But somehow evolved into a rightwing religious conservative.

Putin has been financing anyone in the West who will be useful to his plans of 'divide and conquer'. He doesn't discriminate ideologically between rightwing and leftwing. Definitely Russian money have sloshed in the Conservative party coffers and financed the Brexit campaign.

R82, Igor is HOT!

Also, that thread is very interesting. I, of course, wonder if that FSB letter was real.

R88 I don't think brutal public torment is good for the public psyche. I do think a public dispatching is useful though to limit rumors the person is still around.

I do understand the inclination, though.

Liberians executed their autocratic dictator publicly in a savage way:

[quote] The president is almost spent, but the worst is yet to come. He is shirtless, with no trousers, his white underpants soaked in blood. His gris-gris has been ripped off. His eyes are wide open and his legs are already gone: a round of Kalashnikovs severed them from his body. Doe lies on the floor of this dingy office, surrounded by overexcited soldiers, begging. He is ready to give up everything: his fortune, the caches where his relatives are hiding, his bank account numbers and even his power – if he has any left. The soldiers bully him, we don’t even know what they really want. Is it Doe’s pleas or the sneers of his torturers? You can’t hear anything in the small room at the Bushrod Island clinic in Monrovia. Amidst the hubbub, one journalist hands a microphone to the head of state, another films the scene. It lasts 14 minutes. The next day, 9 September 1990, the recording became a best-seller in Monrovia’s markets. It is not often that one witnesses the killing of a president.

[quote] Doe has been whimpering in front of him for almost 15 minutes. Enough is enough. His men rush to the president: they cut off one of his ears...Doe has no lower limbs, then his genitals are crushed and, after a sip of Budweiser, his ears are cut off. Why? No one really knows, and it goes on for hours. The exact moment of the president’s death is not filmed, but for several days afterwards, the president’s body is displayed by Prince Johnson’s rebels. They parade the body through the streets of Monrovia in a wheelbarrow. Crowds scream with delight, reports say, as if horror has become the only source of joy.

Putin is building up nations of people and many of his own subjects to such bloodthirst. I don't think brutality is the way to go but if it were to happen, it would be by his own design.

Here is an analysis/explanation of Putin's thinking and why he felt justified invading Ukraine. Russian is his native language & he tries to follow what the Russian people are actually seeing on Russian TV.

I posted

[quote] Good for Norway! People forget they have a border with, albeit a small one.

I realize I dropped the word Russia in the above. Norway is a NATO country that borders Russia, which gives whatever they do added significance. Norwegian, I hope what I wrote didn't offend you.

It's really strange but in a way I honestly feel as if I have fallen in love with the people of Ukraine from all the people who have been featured in news reports. They have totally indomitable spirits and mostly are not giving into feelings of victimhood or blaming supposed allies for failing them. And most of them say that Putin is 'sick' instead of 'crazy' or 'evil.' I'm inspired by their outlooks and almost physically sickened by watching this happen to them. Putin has now surpassed Trump on my list of most-resented human beings but only because Putin has a level of power in his government that Trump never had.

I'm making Halushki to think of them

A discussion of Angela Merkel and how she helped make Europe energy dependent on Putin. She along with her predecessor.

This is another reason Putin invaded - both in 2014 and now. With Ukraine's great natural resources - especially the gas reserves discovered in 2012 - and Zelensky's more recent invitation to Shell et al to start helping Ukraine develop those resources, Ukraine was ready to challenge Russia's stranglehold on the West's energy supply. Putin wants to keep Ukraine poor so he is doing whatever he can to do so. So he invades and annexes Crimea near much of the newly discovered natural gas and brings war to Ukraine making it harder if not impossible to develop those resources and become a rich and powerful country - almost assuredly prime for the EU and maybe NATO.

Gas prices aren’t the only ones spiking, now wheat is too. Ukraine supplies 40% of Europe’s wheat and Russia is a major supplier to the world as well.

yup, this is terrible

Russia saw the largest day of protest today.

Ukraine was the breadbasket for Russia wasn't it? Amazing that Stalin deliberately created a famine there killing about 7 million people - there are always debates about the numbers. Then shipping in "ethnic" Russians to repopulate those areas of Ukraine that today Putin is using as one of his excuses to invade - the protection of deliberately transplanted Russian population.

Analysts are calling this whole crisis the end of globalization. When you have expansionists with totalitarian governments and who share almost none of your values, you take a great risk to your own values and freedoms when you place your survival in any sector into their hands. They will end up controlling you.

Putin and Xi are why we can't have nice things like world cooperation and shared resources.

More protests in Russia despite threats of prison sentences and forced conscription.

This is unsustainable for putin.

what is that news source ?

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Destroyed an airport in central Ukraine to prevent fighter jets from Poland from being able to land.

Hitchens isn't wrong that, if Ukraine surrendered, the fighting would stop.

The West is leading Ukraine to think it can win and that Russia desperately wants cities like Kiev to stay intact—that they won't annihilate Ukraine at some point if it doesn't surrender.

Rather than a real fight for Japan, America burned its cities down and then used atomic weapons. They just razed it. No house-to-house fighting. You think Russia won't do the same at some point?

[quote]Question: have Russian operations quieted down in the past day? There was speculation of a huge ramp-up this weekend. Are they waiting for new supplies or fresh recruits? Regrouping?

Are we talking about Russian military or Russian trollfarms?

Putin wants to destroy Ukraine. Period. Now that he sees he may not be able to successfully invade and conquer.

#Holodomor2

#HolodomorRedux

Military, R107—the trollfarms were definitely up and running yesterday!

Good question here- what happens in Russia (and Europe) after Putin? No one knows. Situation is very unstable.

R104 I can't find that news anywhere else.

This in addition to the thousands already detained. Dies Putin think he can throw half the country in prison?

[quote]Hitchens isn't wrong that, if Ukraine surrendered, the fighting would stop.

That's one point of view - the Russian one .

Am I the only one who didn’t know Ghaddafi was dead, much less butchered?

yes, you idiot

R111 - seems like it’s breaking news. Just google “Russia nuclear Kharkiv” and select news results.

You may need to refresh as updates become available. Also, the media reporting is lagging the real-time reporting from residents. So look for some good Twitter accounts - I find those to be telling me now what the AP says tomorrow.

You can look in some of the DL threads on Ukraine for decent Twitter accounts.

Putin now expanding beyoud Belarus, bringing Moldova into his war.

CBS Sunday: Krushev's grand daughter says the Putin government is already burning the bodies of fallen Russian soldiers in Ukraine at a rapid rate, no transporting them back to Russia or their families as heroes and a proper burial, Putin is erasing them, just like he is criminalizing anyone who calls the war in Ukraine an actual War, 15 years in the gulag...

Statement from Zelenskyy on the destruction of the airport.

R106 Hitchens isn't right that if Ukraine surrendered the fighting would stop. Because Putin has no intention of stopping at Ukraine. If we don't stop him HERE and now, he will move onto invading more countries. Likely starting with Moldova as hinted at on the map Lukashenko had, then the Balkans, Poland..

R118 There were reports of Russia bringing in mobile crematoriums early on in the invasion.

WOW.

R112, some thousands of arrested protesters is not nearly half of Russia's population of 144 million.

Sure, Hitchens is right that if Ukraine surrender, the fighting would stop. They'd then be given a puppet government and would be part of Russia. Their leaders and intelligentsia would probably be killed or imprisoned, too. They don't want that, so they're fighting (and not being "convinced by NATO" to fight).

Re the Orthodox dude--Putin has been cozying up to the church for years, hasn't he?

r122, traditionally the church and state haven't varied much in opinions in the russian sphere, that the pope would speak out against western leaders has much to do with the wars of the middle-ages where holy roman imperial and papist factions dragged out wars of attrition for centuries. the eastern orthodox church never really embraced that

Ongoing protest in Moscow, at 5:30 PM their time. Soon it will be dark..

R85 and R93, Kisin's views are no more interesting than anyone else's. His only claim to relevance is having relatives in both countries. Two of his hot takes: if Trump were in office, it wouldn't have happened; Putin is doing this now because the West is weak with wokism.

There are better sources out there.

The biggest Russian troll-farm operation right now is at the Hagerstown Speedway.

^ Follow the $$$.

r126, I couldn't even watch more than ten seconds of that

It's increasingly clear that the Russian soldiers didn't know or think that they would be invading Ukraine until the last minute, which goes some way explaining why the performance has been subpar considering the resources they have.

"Lieutenant Kovalensky said he learned Russia would invade Ukraine only the evening before the tank columns began moving, and that soldiers at the rank of sergeant and lower were not told where they were driving until after crossing the border." (NY Times)

The pro-Russia Youtube video poster is getting annoying.

The Russians didn't honor their promise of a ceasefire for humanitarian evacuation. Instead they used it as a break to redeploy. You can't trust anything they say.

R123 I realuze that. The question was rhetorical, not literal. How many more thousands of people can Putin throw in jail? The protests are continuing and getting bigger, and they’re all over Russia (latest ones in 29 cities,) not just Moscow.

I don't the believe the FSB leak is real for a minute. It reads like something written by a Russian-speaking CFA analyst at any investment firm (i.e., someone with a vaguely market-liberal mindset who's paid for rational scenario modeling). I'm sure it was written and translated accurately from an original Russian source, but I would not take it for granted for one second that this came from the FSB.

These fuckers close to Putin are crazy, paint-sniffing Rasputin-style Nazi kamikazes, ideologically driven and obsessed with some cosplay Medieval neo-Holocaust blood-cult.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Russia can hold out past June. Just that Putin and his people do not think like somebody's 24-year-old hedge fund analyst.

R134 Yeah, I am sceptical. However, the Bellingcat guy who got hold of it says that he took it seriously because of the source, the length of it, and because he talked to two (current and former) FSB contacts who told him that they had 'no doubt' it was written by a colleague. I've linked to his thread on that anyway.

The situation in Kharkiv sounds bad.

R132, just to be clear. That is a different part of Ukraine (Irpen, Kiev suburbs) where there was no cease fire agreement. The agreement was supposed to happen in Kharkiv and Mariupol.

R137 The Russians did not honor the ceasefire agreement.

[Quote]People in Mariupol are trapped without power and water and unable to recover their dead, its mayor said Saturday, as he accused Russia of trying to "choke" the city by shutting off agreed evacuation routes.

Free speech and reporting is dead in Russia - the last independent media reporting on the war has been shut down. The word 'war' is blocked by the censor.

R139, oh these people are doomed. But I am curious the logic behind the Ukrainian side claims there? Russians want to flatten the place and keep moving on with minimal resistance. Letting people leave would be the easiest way of achieving that. If I were Russian I would want Ukrainians to flee to the West.

Even the pro-Russian faction in Ukraine has been turning against Russia. Odessa mayor Gennady Trukhanov, generally known as pro-Russian, has come down firmly on the side of Kyiv in recent days. “I don’t know what kind of bastard you have to be to press the button to drop bombs on Odessa”

R142, Odessa is next. It's the only big city of any value left. Once that city is taken, I expect Russia to declare the mission is accomplished.

R106, nuclear weapons caused damage in Japan; even so, conventional bombing of cities caused more civilian deaths overall over the course of the war. And despite what the Imperial government may have wanted people to believe, the legacy of Japan in the war was violent suppression of dissent. No wonder the Communist Party of Japan had 10 percent of the vote by 1949 - and today, they also speak out against Imperial Japan’s war crimes in China, even though their party broke with China and the USSR back in the 60s. Today, they are part of the 56 percent of representatives who support gay marriage, which is opposed by the historical revisionist, sometimes far right LDP. I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m hopeful still that someone will act as an intermediary- Israel maybe. The longer this goes on, the more Putin and Russia will be pushed to the far right.

R143 I think they need to take Kyiv and get Zelensky to surrender (or killed) to be able to say that.

[quote] Odessa is next. It's the only big city of any value left. Once that city is taken, I expect Russia to declare the mission is accomplished.

In the Bushian sense. What do the Russians think they could possibly gain from taking Odessa except another quagmire?

R135. If it is from the FSB that's really interesting. The part where they were told to write hypothetical reports without much detail, but positive about Russia's ability to withstand the sanctions, is very telling.

The false-flag operation to accuse Ukraine of building nuclear weapons is unfolding now as well.

All in all it seems an interesting mix of possibly good and bad information as well as some rampant speculation from the writer.

[quote]It's really strange but in a way I honestly feel as if I have fallen in love with the people of Ukraine

[quote]I'm making Halushki to think of them

I’m not sure why, but reading r95 and then r96 had me thinking of this.

R145, Kyiv seems like an afterthought or cherry on the top. Looking at the map and how they are moving, it becomes more apparent what goal is here. R146, it's the largest port and the only remaining big city preventing Russians connect the whole south coast. Ukraine will be cut off from the sea and Russia will control the Black Sae with Turkey, including all shipping routes.

BBC NEWS: Putin intends to realise aims through negotiation or war - Macron

The Elysée said Macron had urged Putin to end the Russian assault and ensure the security of Ukraine's nuclear sites after shelling caused a fire on the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Putin told Macron Russia did not seek to attack nuclear plants, the French readout says.

Putin also told Macron that Russia would achieve its aims through "negotiation or war", the French presidency said.

Meanwhile the Kremlin readout says Putin blamed Ukrainians for the nuclear plant incident. He told Macron it had been a "provocation" staged by "Ukrainian radicals". Ukraine has blamed shelling by Russian forces.

The Kremlin added that Russian and Ukrainian personnel were jointly guarding the site, and that the radiation levels were "normal".

Putin also said Saturday's attempts to evacuate civilians from the southern cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha had failed because "Ukrainian nationalists" refused to let people leave and used the temporary ceasefires only to reinforce and entrench themselves.

Ukraine said Russian shelling had continued during the ceasefires on both Saturday and Sunday. Earlier today the Red Cross said the two sides had failed to agree details of how the evacuations would work.

147, are referring to this? RIA Novosti is relatively legit Russian language news agency.

Russia isn't stopping nothing. They are just pretending to "talk"

They ain't gonna do anything promised. They gonna continue until they achieve their aim.

They ain't stopping until Ukraine is theirs.

R151. No? Biological weapons are not nuclear weapons.

I was talking about this.

But that RIA stuff shows Putin really is shameless with these false accusations. He's clearly desperate and throwing out anything he can to try and cut through the noise.

REUTERS: Russia warns against offering airfields to Ukraine Any country offering its air fields to Ukraine for attacks on Russia may be considered as having entered the conflict, a Russia defence ministry spokesman has said.

“The use of the airfield networks of these countries to base Ukrainian military aircraft and their subsequent use against the Russian armed forces may be regarded as the involvement of these states in an armed conflict,” Interfax news agency quoted spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying.

People are saying that they think about 50-100k Russians have fled Russia because they can see what's coming. Likely mostly the educated.

"As Russian film critic Anton Dolin fled Moscow, he noticed his apartment door had been marked by a big Z. “The meaning was clear,” he wrote. “‘We know where you live.’”"

R154. Not surprising now that the Russian forces seem to be destroying any airports they can find. They know Western aid is grinding them down.

The word "may" is key here. Bluster like this is just to try and get countries to stop providing aid. I doubt they would seriously consider it an act of war.

R151 The Russians love to project, so when they accuse the Ukrainians of working on anthrax and plague-spreading bacteria, I'd rate the chances of the Russians themselves doing that to be high...

Iran isn't the only politically leprous petrostate getting touched in a very special way by the West and its allies as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. U.S. officials went to Venezuela yesterday, home to 18% of the world's proven oil reserves (more than any other country), and under sanctions for the past decade-plus.

Their economy has been in the shitter for a long time, and covid sure as hell did not help, thus leading to a recent spike in illegal crossings of Venezuelan migrants into the U.S. via Trump's beloved southern border.

Lifting or relaxing some sanctions on Venezuelan oil fills some of the available market gap left by the end of Russian supply, and can also be spun into "addressing root causes of migration" and engaging Latin American neighbors.

[quote] leprous petrostate getting touched in a very special way

Pics please.

[quote]Hitchens is right that if Ukraine surrender, the fighting would stop

He's not right. The Ukrainian people would continue to revolt. Even if Ukrainians did what Hutchins wants and all gave up and let Russia take over, Russians would continue to commit atrocities. War would not end.

It's obscene that anyone would be pushing the lie that if Ukraine simply surrendered everything would be fine.

The people who think that R160 are either trolls or have just never encountered any real hardship in their life.

r160, nobody pushing any lies. It's just an opinion of one person of how he sees the bloodshed can be reduced and innocent people can survive the slaughter.

Just because someone offers a less bloody solution, it does not make them trolls, liars or traitors. It is clear resistance won't stop Putin, he is ready to kill all 45 million Ukrainians if he has to. And unless we are here come to rescue in real way, we are just encouraging more pointless suffering.

I hope Putin dies a painful death BUT I also do not agree that the only solution out of this crisis is throwing civilian population into a grind of war with molotov cocktails and urging them to defend themselves. That's what I took from that opinion piece.

Peter Hitchens is an idiot. What he is saying that he thinks Ukraine should simply roll over and surrender. Give up their country. But he hasn't learnt from history (or indeed Putin's personal pattern) that Putin won't stop at Ukraine and that if he got away with that, he would simply move onto another country. Then another.

So in a way the poor Ukrainians are doing the rest of Europe a favour by fighting back. They are going to try to stop this Russian advance. No Vichy France for them.

monster unexploded bomb

Disgusting 'useful idiots' in the west

Russian gymnast wears the symbol 'Z' to show his support for the war at the World Cup. Sport is political.

What are the chances that Z symbol will probably be seen alongside the swastika in the future?

Russia is going fascist.

Z can only mean one thing...

This whole question is not just about the narrow choice "surrender or keep fighting." It's about finally deciding that a kleptocracy like Russia (even that term gives their political system too much dignity) can't expect to exploit a global system while threatening it at the same time. Putin and the oligarchy were stupid enough to plunder their own country and shift most of the wealth overseas; let them live with that.

R170, say it to these people.

i'm sorry but this made me laugh - Russians are painting over anti-war slogans etched into the ice. WTF?

We might be 48-72 hours away from Poland entering this war. Let's see what Putin does then. Whoever is in Europe, brace yourself now.

that is not them joining the war, it's giving Ukraine planes, as they have done before.

R174, Russians made it clear today if that to happen they will consider Poland part of this conflict. Let's see if they follow on that threat.

This is like Venezuela trying to fight of America. A Disney ending isn't possible, regardless of the media's narratives.

More people survive if the weaker country just surrenders and complies. It's undeniable. It's pure numbers.

fight *off America

R176 no, more people will not survive because Putin would be emboldened and then just move on to more countries. And it will be extremely unlikely that all of them would choose to simply lay down arms and surrender. A war like this was always inevitable against an imperialistic aggressor like Russia is right now.

Poland is so gung-ho about giving Ukraine fighter jets because it thinks America will protect it because of NATO. I don't know about that.

Zelenaky thought Ukraine was a de facto NATO member. He even bragged how he was considering getting nukes for Ukraine when Harris last visited Europe. See what that got him.

You've misunderstood, R160. I meant that if they all stopped fighting (ie surrender), the bombing, etc. would stop. I think you mean if their government surrendered, the people would continue fighting. I agree with that.

r18 kid is adorable

Kherson. How could they just dump all that? What a waste.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Vindman: Putin Is Taking Russia Back To The “Depths Of The Cold War”

[quote] Those oligarch bitches must be tearing what’s left of their hair out.

I’m sure most of the oligarch heaux left via Central Asia then flew to their international homes.

I think an early turning point was Switzerland firmly stating, we’re not neutral on this.

Are most Americans (still) following this war? Or do most not really care much?

biden admin is about to ban russian oil imports. expect europe to implement at least some limits in short order as well.

From India.

R184 I believe that Putin mostly really cares about the Russia-based oligarchs, and he's reportedly taken them to his bunker with him.. canny!

FYI: India is on Russia's side, and RepublicTV is shitty India propaganda TV.

[quote]Putin Is Taking Russia Back To The “Depths Of The Cold War”

A very, very hot cold war.

Not so fast, Putin signed a new law today which permits nationalisation of any hidden assets by oligarchs and public service workers.

We keep falling for this notion that this kind of conflict can be simply solved economically. Nationalism and security concerns will always trump economics for countries like Russia, China and India.

r187 is the Kim Iverson troll, r189.

I've been seeing quite a few reports that a fair few Belarusian generals and soldiers have been unwilling to go and fight the Ukrainians.

r191 in the **Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Part II** thread:

[quote]R374, I think Zelensky is Russian agent. Meanwhile Russians brought food supplies to the occupied cities. Thank you, Putin!!!! That's what true liberators do.

Thanks, R194. One's suspicions were aroused by "We keep falling for this notion ...."

Is it at all possible that Lindsay’s remarks on Fox News about “taking out” Putin were actually a directive by Putin himself? I think Putin has kompromat on Graham and would have released it by now if Graham was genuinely calling on Putin to be assassinated. Putin could use Graham’s remarks to drum up support.

We have to be on our toes, r195, the trolls are going to be steady through midterms.

Economic sanctions are designed to squeeze the Russian economy to the point that Putin won't be able to afford his wars - both domestically and practically. Not to mention the stopping of supplies of things like semiconductors which will affect the production of military weapons, planes, etc.

He is already finding it hard to get people to sign up to fight and has been forced to deny that conscription is coming. It not that likely his people will tolerate a severe decline in their economic conditions without threatening some serious unrest. That is not helpful for his war adventures either.

Tiktok is out too. What will all those Russian influencers do now?

The Chinese have blocked Russian TikTokkers?! This is getting serious.

Ukrainians are finding that family members in Russia don't believe that there's a war or they shrug their shoulders, no sympathy for the Ukrainians.

In which Russia inches toward "Northwest China Special Semi-Autonomous Region", with all the rights and privileges of Hong Kong.

yep, I can only see Russia becoming China's bitch out of this. Putin is such an idiot but people have always said that while he's a good tactician (short term thinking), he's a poor strategist (long term thinking).

I only today realised how big UnionPay is. Essentially all retailers accept it in Europe. There go our sanctions.

What’s this about Trump saying we should label fighter jets with “China” so they won’t think it was us? Fitting for a moron who suggested we ingest bleach back in 2020.

That's the amazing thing: Putin's intention was to show the world that Russia was on top, and now Russia will have to depend on China for the foreseeable future.

Am interview with Yanis Varoufakis, the anti-austerity and left-wing former Greek PM and economist.

An*

R207 No offence but I switched off when I saw that it was Russell Brand and an 18-minute video, can you summarise please?

Sure Dimitri R188. All 'the oligarches' are hangin with sick mentally ill hopped-up Pootie in the Paranoia Lair, kickin back and reminiscing. Canny!

"Alec Luhn

The lack of an antiwar movement is not just due to arrests. A state pollster found 68% of Russians support the "special operation" in Ukraine. An independent pollster told me they're getting similar numbers."

If India is on Russia's side why do we still have call centers there?

^ This is a job that can be done by telework.

[quote] The lack of an antiwar movement

I take the point of the quotation at R211, but there evidently IS something of an anti-war movement in Russia if, despite the dangers, people keep coming out into the streets to protest in dozens of cities. Obivously it won't be effective, but at least some Russians aren't fooled by this "special operation" bullshit.

R210, I'm definitely not a Russia-supporter. I'm just explaining that Putin has taken measures like this to cut off oligarch opposition/coups. So if you're betting on a coup conducted by the oligarchs, it's hard to see how that would happen if they're stuck in a bunker with Putin. I personally think that mass defection by the elite - generals, officials and so on - would be more likely a way to take out Putin.

R206, Russia was never big enough to not depend on China, as happens with the rest of the world. The Chinese have created an economic miracle in 40 years, and they've already overtaken the US as the largest economy in the world. The Russians would have never been able to compete, but Putin has had the intelligence of approaching the larger power and establishing an extremely close partnership against a common enemy, and this will allow Russia to strengthen its position in spite of the sanctions (which will affect the entire world, by the way - Biden's and the UE's actions have rash and we will all pay the consequences, while they remain comfortably entrenched in power).

Russia has simply flexed its muscleand made it very clear that it won't allow NATO to expand further East, and it has also become the spearhead behind which the US and Europe's enemies will gather. The fact that Western leaders cannot see this, will ruin us all.

R216 Such a cute view of things when it's very clear to even Russians that the economic sanctions alone are going to royally fuck Russia for the near future.

is this war gonna last all year?

I think we should just nuke Russia and get it over with. Gas is gonna be 10 bucks a gallon by end of year.

Europe continues to pay Russia millions of dollars a day for gas and oil.

An "extremely close partnership?" BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Keep it up Comrade. China will benefit from Russia's desperation, buying up their assets (including their oil) real cheap and probably headhunting much of whatever talent hasn't already fled.

Russia will become entirely dependent on Chinese technology and beholden to Chinese creditors for generations to come, but the technology integration will take time, and the creditor relationship is not a sign of "friendship" or "equal partnership," but rather a vassal-line dependency on Beijing that Putin would likely rather die than have to experience in its full flower (and probably will).

Putin throws out bigger lies than Trump. That's quite a feat.

Russia warned its bondholders that it may default on its foreign-held sovereign debt for the first time since the Russian Revolution in 1918. (The 98 default was a failure to pay its domestic debt holders).

This came from a Russian Foreign Ministry statement reported by Reuters.

sure Jekaterina R216. The sanctions are meamingless, and this conflict is 'the West's ' doing.

[quote] The Chinese have created an economic miracle in 40 years, and they've already overtaken the US as the largest economy in the world.

The first part may be true, but the US share of the global economy is still almost 50% than China's.

^^^ bitching about Kisin. He has a very good take on the Russian mind and the Ukrainian mind set today. Certainly, a deeper understanding than those without his life experience with those cultures. I have heard other expert saying recently what Kisin said before the invasion started and at the start of the invasion. He's not wrong about countries being too absorbed with nonsense when we neglect our basic survival.

Some videos today are enlightening about military opinions.

This former US Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker discusses the use of no-fly zones which the US HAS used in the past, e.g., over Kurdish land for humanitarian purposes only.

"It's force that Putin listens to."

This is how you protest.

R218 So many people have been thinking that the war could be over in days but that's nonsense. At minimum it will last weeks more and it lasting a year or more is certainly more likely.

The Reuters story with the Foreign Ministry statement is from today (Sunday 3/6). Gazprom has a $1.3bn bond payment due tomorrow.

Russia is due to pay $107mn in coupons on two bonds on 3/16, ex-30-day grace period. The next full 'principal' repayment is a $359mn 2030 bond on 3/31 and then a $2bn maturity on 4/4.

LOL, the delusion of Americans!!!!! So by your logic it's better for Russia to be dependant on the West than China. I am sure that's a Sophie's choice for him. :) I can picture it, Hmm....Amex or UnionPay?????

Great. The stock market is gonna tank tomorrow! FUCK YOU PUTIN!!!!!!

Another interesting military analysis of the situation today, Sunday - Mar 6. This one with a big map!

[quote]The Chinese have created an economic miracle in 40 years

And how do you think they've done it. It wasn't on the size and strength of the Russian market. How many made in China labels can be found in your house? China needs the West more than it needs Russia.

[quote]Poland is so gung-ho about giving Ukraine fighter jets because it thinks America will protect it because of NATO. I don't know about that.

Do you think perhaps the NATO membership have discussed it?

It's not a question of Amex vs UnionPay, it's about Russia being dependent, because it's been run by klepto cultists who would rather pay whores, hackers and hitmen than develop a semi-functioning country (or pay their bondholders).

Have we started to seize assets held by the Russians in the USA yet? the super rich ones...

R232, the Chinese don't need to rely on the West anymore. They have a very strong internal market and are bringing Africa, South Eastern Asia and Latin America up with them. They have reached the point where they can throw their weight around and put a stop to Eurocentric arrogance and the USA's misguided sense of omnipotence.

Good luck trying to convince yourself that America is still on top of everything and your empire will never fade. :D

Vladimir Putin hiding lover Alina Kabaeva and their kids in Switzerland

R237 Ew, so they all have Swiss passports so can't be touched. Fascinating that he did not think it safe enough to keep them in Russia though...

Russia is still a genocidal war-crimes shithole responsible for the bloodiest and most notorious war-crimes fuckup since 1945, and that's going to be true whether your check bounces in dollar or dogecoin.

The U.S. doesn't need to be an empire for Russia to be fucked for decades.

Nice try, R229, but the point is that Poot fucked up his grand dream of putting Russia back on top of the world as a superpower. The invasion of Ukraine—through its own incompetence as well as the response by other big economies—has thrown Russia on the mercy of China, dooming it to global near-irrelevance.

No country can go alone R236. Not even China. Everyone on the planet is importing and exporting right now simply because it's the only way to maintain the lifestyle we're all accustomed to. Even China can't produce everything they need - they don't have the resources.

Trade is the bedrock of the modern economy and China does a LOT of trade with the US and Europe.

R240, again, really tough choice for Putin between being on the mercy of West or China. What's the difference exactly for him? Think before you talk, fools.

Air Marshal Philip Osbourn: 'Putin's in a hole, he's personalised the conflict in Ukraine'

Some very good insight. I want to be an Air Marshal. Also discusses what a no-fly zone means in real & operational terms.

That's inevitable R222. The Russian economy is uninvestable and the Kremlin is trying to hold on to as much liquidity as possible. They aren't going to be handing out money that they need to try and stabilize their domestic situation to other governments.

I suspect they will eventually default on their domestic debt holders too. Shit's really going to hit the fan in Russia once that happens and their citizens' life savings vanishes.

Putin's whore has lived in Switzerland for years. I've always expected Vlad would finish out his days there as well.

R236, sorry to disappoint you but I'm not American and I'm talking about global markets. The wealth of the western nations outpunches the markets of any other parts of the planet, based simply on incomes. But you know that.

I know you're attempting sarcasm, R242, but that choice IS tough for Putin and he didn't intend to have to make it. His grand agenda was for Russia to be an independent superpower, and he's blown that dream away in a week and a half. He's no less miserable being subject to Chinese power than he was at being dissed by Bush and Obama.

Yeah, but when he was being dissed by Bush and Obama, his country was not reeling economically and guilty of war crimes on mass scale like it is now. He was in a much better position back when they were dissing him.

r247, clearly he has a different view of "superpower" means from you. It is clear he wants to change the world order and he already succeeded at least at European level. The damage caused is irreparable already.

Everything we are currently doing to Russia economically are inevitable and the right steps but they are also being watched by everyone else. Major economies will start being careful how they work with the West and to what degree they can allow their security and national interest to be undermined by economic concerns. I hope I am wrong but I fear Putin is doing much bigger damage in the long run to the world. Certainly, the globalisation and any hope for saving climate are most certainly fucking dead now.

[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.]

Very true. Btw good to see you back jeangenie—you have no idea the troll assaults we endured yesterday.

R251 was for R248.

R250, thats old news and a fake one.

[quote]But there is more and more evidence spreading on social media that at least to a certain degree Ukrainian side is responsible, as they are not letting civilians leave the conflict areas.

Just a hint, Trollinova, in English we'd put a 'the' before Ukrainian in that sentence. Read this sentence with a Russian accent and it makes more sense.

R 254, Подсказка, Троллинова, в английском мы бы поставили "the" перед украинским в этом предложении. Прочтите это предложение с русским акцентом, и оно станет более осмысленным.

Actually we aren’t, it’s considered gauche now to add the “the”.

Nice catch, R254!

R256 Er no, read again.

R253 = Why are you lying?...It's breaking news...Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology is being attacked now.....WTF?....Quit lying...

That's not exclusive to non-Western states R249. Everyone is learning the lesson that economic concerns and neoliberalism have had a negative impact on people's ability to respond to international crises like this. This is exactly the problem that Germany and Europe are coming up against.

The realignment of global politics to once again recognise that national, political and economic interests must be aligned - in essence, only do business with people you trust - is NOT something Putin should have wanted. He has done very well corrupting people with money who were willing to overlook his fascist, kleptocratic regime and Germany was willing to turn a blind eye to his ambitions for the sake of cheap gas.

That seems to no longer be the case, and that spells the end to Putin's ability to truly influence the world stage, as well as Russia's status as a superpower.

I agree that what it means for climate change is truly troubling though.

^^psy op vua a dimwitted potato head.

R254, yeah it's a typical mistake of Slavic-speaking people since most Slavic languages haven't got articles at all.

But please don't tell them how to improve their English.

R262, not only Slavic, you racist twat.

NETFLIX is unplugging Russia.

What we will all do if and when they get to Zelensky? That is my biggest fear. That's when this war will take a very dark turn, as if it's not dark enough. But it will be like an extinguishing of all hope if it indeed does happen.

Russia's war crimes keep increasing. At this point, if we could manage to off Putin hardly anyone would complain.

Putin is not crazy and the Russian invasion is not failing. The West’s delusions about this war – and its failure to understand the enemy – will prevent it from saving Ukraine

Any big developments today?

Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan hit out on Sunday at Islamabad-based Western envoys who last week urged Pakistan to condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine, asking them if they thought Pakistan was their "slave". The heads of 22 diplomatic missions, including those of European Union member states, released a joint letter on March 1 urging Pakistan to support a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

The move to release the letter publicly was rare.

"What do you think of us? Are we your slaves...that whatever you say, we will do?" Imran Khan said while addressing a political rally.

R265. That will be hard. He has said he expects to die. He apparently told the Zoom call with US legislators, that idiot Little Marco broke the rules over, that it was the last time they would see him alive.

Anthony Blinken told CBS this morning the Ukrainians have a continuity of government plan in the event of Zelensky's death. I hope somehow he is spared. He has been a brave character. We haven't seen that in a long time.

That Khan cunt was signing a trade deal and shaking Putin's greasy hand literally on the first day of the invasion.

Lots of public performances.

Hey Vlad, you think you are so smart but we will find you.

The article at R267 is no more than a series of assertions mingled with straw-man claims about how commentators think Putin "has gone crazy." No one doubts that Russia can eventually take over Ukraine; the bigger picture is how it can handle an occupation of a hostile country without crippling diversions of money and manpower. The article doesn't address the problems with materiel and supply lines that the Russians have evidently had, or their failure to seize air dominance in more than a week and a half—maybe the author thinks these will get cleared up soon, but in all likelihood they're symptomatic of longer-term problems in the Russian military (esp. lack of resources and training).

To: Svetlana who feebly asserted that China was blocking Russia TikToks -- not true. I just watched a dozen of them slamming the fascists. I enjoy.

WOW, Putin taking to the next level. I can't wait to see the ending for this stand off, now.

R275 = Needs to be BLOCKED....He keeps going on multiple threads calling posters Russians and "svetlana"....A TROLL...

Anonymous hacks Russian state TV again to show war footage

All have been hacked, lolol!!!!

The whole invasion is just Pootie's bait for NATO, just beeegging them to enter the fray so he can fire nukes on the U.S. cities that cost Trump the election. That's why it's so weak: it's just a line in the sand.

[quote]Ukrainians are finding that family members in Russia don't believe that there's a war

Oliver Stone's 2016 movie about Ukraine.

R204: "I only today realised how big UnionPay is. Essentially all retailers accept it in Europe. There go our sanctions."

I don't care. I want to hasten the moment of Russia's subservience to China. The great whore, Moscow, laying in her bed waiting to be fucked by China. And, with tears in her eyes, made to beg "More".

Fuck Russia, remove the ambiguity, and let Putin contact us as Xi allows.

Anonymous:

The fight in Russian IKEA store over the last pillow before the stores are closed for good. DL whores will enjoy this.

Nice, r284. I'd like to see Anonymous rat out Putin's whore and bastard children.

Twinky Russian Athlete wears Z to please Putin.. oh my...This is a sad turn...

Poland backtracks. No fighter jets for Ukraine, after all.

[quote]Poland backtracks. No fighter jets for Ukraine, after all.

Says who? Every source I can see indicates that it's still in the works. Apparently they're going to provide Poland's own Soviet era fighters.

This is r288 in the **Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Part II** thread, r289:

[quote]R374, I think Zelensky is Russian agent. Meanwhile Russians brought food supplies to the occupied cities. Thank you, Putin!!!! That's what true liberators do.

The Russian troops are killing civilians and something needs to be done. These poor people are merely trying to get the fuck out of Ukraine and they're being shot. It's the very definition of war crimes. I don't have the answer but I know that I don't have the stomach for it and it has to stop. Of course I don't want nukes to fly but what is happening is an abomination.

R289

R291, this happens every day. Do you know what's going on in Central Africa?

Do you know how many died in Iraq?

Get ready for more inflation. Sanctions hurt everyone. Our masters don't care.

Save your money for what's coming.

WARNING.....Someone keeps posting lies and false information in this thread...One of them is R288

Yes, r296. Again, this is r288 in the **Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Part II** thread, [R289]:

[quote][R374], I think Zelensky is Russian agent. Meanwhile Russians brought food supplies to the occupied cities. Thank you, Putin!!!! That's what true liberators do.

Hyperactive but brave American is on the ground. Today's post.

Gee, so I guess Ukraine should just go ahead and fucking surrender then. Because inflation. I don't want to pay more than $4.02 per gallon at the pump, so I'm gonna suck Vlad's dick for the next three decades. That's a great plan. I'm sure they're counting on that.

Of course, prices on consumer items are going up. The world is going to be destabilized in 10 kinds of ways. That's not the fault of sanctions, it's because fucking Russia invaded Ukraine.

We didn't ask for this shit. We're just cleaning it up.

May that twink in R287 be impaled by a Ukranian rocket.

R299, why are you so hysterical? Nobody suggested surrendering.

R288 might be referring to this.

Check out his other posts, r302.

No more Netflix in Russia. Haha.

It's now past midnight in Ukraine, we're approaching the twelfth day of hostilities, the Russians still haven't taken Kyiv, and by all accounts the jet fighters are on their way.

Really, r305? Because according to r288, they have Kyiv totally surrounded.

R288 has also advised that they are shortly storming the moon and will just so slightly alter its pull on earth as to slosh the Atlantic across Western Europe leaving St. Petersburg as the new hot coastal city.

Even now, the Times is prepping its 36 Hours on the Red Coast!

I'm not kidding, r307. This is r288 in the **invasion of Ukraine has just begun - part 2** thread:

[quote]Kiyv is now fully surrounded.

On CNN, according to the Secretary of Defense 95% of the troops which surrounded Ukraine are now in Ukraine.

Oil hit $130.

WINNING!!!!

Yes, the Russians are surrounding Kyiv—they should be taking it any day now. Same with Kharkiv. But the fact that they've been trying for eleven full days without success tells you something's amiss with the Russian military. Ukraine ain't South Ossetia.

Trouble at home Putin?

European futures are tanking hard. Down 3.5-5% across the board (that’s the equivalent of the Dow losing 1400 points.) People are nervous. This shit is in their back yard.

[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.]

Sanctions map.

Putin is using the same pilots used in Syria because they know how to effectively bomb cites and target Dunkin Donut stores.

The Kharkiv railway station, jammed with people desperate to get out.

R26 Women are literally being given the privilege of fleeing before anyone else while men who've never picked a gun from 18 years old twats to 60 years old gramps are forced to stay and stand in the frontline. Men always have sky high possibility of being killed, tortured, and subjected to brutal executions in these kind of situations but somehow, wiminz suffer the most, right?

Some Russians are getting angry that their young men are being sent to die in Ukraine, like so much cannon fodder.

Now Biden’t trying to cozy up to Venezuela’s dictator to get more oil, lol. Not gonna happen.

The Saudi’s aren’t gonna play nice either. They’re next on Blinken’s travel schedule. They’ve already said no once but go off, Tony.

Yeah OPEC said no to pumping more oil.

Yikes

R318. Women are far more likely to be raped or brutalized in these sorts of situations so I kind of get it. Also, I'm fairly certain many men in Ukraine served military service so they aren't going in completely unprepared.

It's almost funny to revisit old articles on Trump brokering the deal to slash OPEC production, which just happened to benefit Russia bigly.

As of January 2022 the population of Ukraine was over 44 million. Since the war began, 1.5 million have fled the country. That leaves a lot of people still still there, shit.

Ok I'll just leave this here again. Of the crude oil imported by the US, 50% comes from Canada, 11% from Mexico, only 7% from Saudi Arabia and 7% from Russia. The US is not a big exporter of Russian oil.

And as of 2020 the United States became a net annual petroleum exporter in 2020. Net importer of crude, but when looking at overall petroleum products the US exports more than it imports. There are lots of complexities and a summary can be read at the link.

I forgot....roughly 37% of US oil consumption is from imports. The rest is pumped in the US.

.....so when there are sudden price increases at the gas pump that get blamed on the Russia-Ukraine war, that is bullshit. It's price gouging.

Yes R328. Though a dip in the global supply, as people try to wean themselves off Russian gas and oil, is inevitably going to cause a rise in prices. That's the basics of supply and demand after all.

Still gross I agree.

Agreed. But the sudden next day price increase at the pump is gouging.

R328

Biden ought to do a prime time address.

Let people know what a monster Putin is and tell them we’re going to sanction the hell out of him, including cutting off purchases of Russian oil. Tell Americans NOW that sanctions are going to worsen inflation here (petroleum, and everything that uses it - from plastics to food delivery - is going to go up until Putin relents). Gasoline could rise $1.50 a gallon. But if we don’t stop Putin outside NATO, our future will be even worse.

If Biden does it now, he’ll garner broad, bipartisan public support (aside from Vladimir’s usual puppets); and preempt lots of mid-term attacks.

[quote]The US is not a big exporter of Russian oil.

You mean importer? Or are you trying to tell us something more sinister?

OPEC production affects a lot more than just US consumption, and lifting US sanctions on Venezuela is not just about reducing the US' share from Russia--it's to steer Venezuela AWAY from other markets as well, including unofficial Russia supporters China and Iran. Biden is negotiating on an international scale here.

Europe needs the oil, that's why the negotiations. US could sell more to Europe but then the price at home would get costlier.

R269 "He said Pakistan had suffered because it had supported the Western NATO alliance in Afghanistan, and instead of gratitude faced criticism."

That's because they pretended to be a US ally during the Afghan war, but were providing the Taliban with supplies, money, troops and sharing US intelligence. They even harbored Osama Bin Laden for fuck's sake.

Military experts say the West (and mostly Americans) think Russia is losing because we're used to US-style warfare. The Russians hunker down, entrenching their missiles and artillery outside of a city, shelling here and there while they starve the people out. Occasionally troops will be sent in on tacticals, but it's just part of the meat grinder a reminder they're at the gates. Once the city is starved out and mentally exhausted, then they send in paramilitary. Its actually really brutal, a mix of psychological warfare, bullying and then assault.

Putin is recruiting Syrian fighters to help.

Link to these military experts, please, R335.

Update from a senior US defense official:

- they think the Russians have now committed 95% of the combat power they'd amassed along the border

- they don't see any significant movement along the Russian axes (they are still trying to advance and isolate Kyiv, Kharkhiv and Chernihiv across the north and east but are being met with strong Ukrainian resistance).

- "We’ve observed continued ongoing fighting and efforts to encircle Mariupol. There continue to be reports of wide-spread utility outages (water and electricity)."

- "We have not observed an amphibious invasion in or near Odessa, nor do we assess that one is imminent."

- "We assess that both sides still possess a majority of their air defense systems and capabilities."

I really don't want inflation to destroy my life. How about getting rid of some tariffs and sending everyone checks?

Yes, but that also sounds inefficient R335. US-style warfare is, presumably, optimized for speed, economics, logistics and optics (although that last one never seems to work out well).

What is Russia optimizing here? It certainly isn't lives or equipment because they've lost a number of both. Their PR is in the toilet. If this is the only way to actually win the war it's pretty damning for their capabilities.

If this is their standard strategy than they need to get a new playbook.

"The Russians hunker down, entrenching their missiles and artillery outside of a city, shelling here and there while they starve the people out."

Incorrect. Russia's long war strategy is Afghanistan. Invade. Watch the west pour in weapons. Retreat.

Russia is taking longer than they expected, but they're playing the long game, and Putin doesn't care about how many casualties there are on either side. What Putin has in plan once he takes over all Ukraine is not known because Russia does not have the military personal to occupy it, especially since there will be significant insurgency.

"Putin doesn't care about how many casualties there are on either side."

He does care, desperately. It's why he's taken such care to criminalize the publication of Russian casualties in Russia.

Putin is a joke. He invades Ukraine but cannot enforce long-term occupation.

R340, that's how they've fought for over a century.

I've seen estimates of that the Russians will need half a million people to occupy Ukraine successfully. I don't see how they're going to pay for that. They are already reported to be having trouble recruiting as well.

R346 Putin will impose mandatory draft.

R347 So why has he been forced to deny that? Because Russians don't want to serve and many have fled Russia because of the rumor. And he's looking to recruit from non-ethnic Russians like Chechnya.

Could the trolls who keep coming around with some new version of "you think Russia is losing but they're not!" give it a fucking rest? Your complete inability to grasp nuance gives you away every fucking time. How many times do you need to be told that no one thinks Russia can't succeed in invading, destroying, or at least temporarily annexing Ukraine? Where Russia will lose is LONG-TERM. They will have a very hard time holding Ukraine for any sustained period. They will be destroyed economically. They will be isolated in many ways from the rest of the world. And their failures thus far have exposed to the world the extent to which their military might was exaggerated--they're been hampered by cheap knockoff tank tires made in China, for fucks sake. And so on.

All Russia can do is destroy its buildings and kill as many Ukrainians as possible.

But the endless supply of weapons from the west will mean Russia can't hold it.

Putin has historically blundered on an Operation Barbarossa scale.

He can try R347 but turning making half your army conscripts who really don't want to be there seems a terrible idea. Give them a gun and they're liable to point it in your face rather than the enemy's.

It sounds like a horrible nuclear false flag staged by the Russians may be coming:

"BREAKING: Russia says Ukraine's Security Service is planning to blow up a nuclear reactor and blame it on Russia"

If US troops were there they would eat the Russians for lunch and spit out the bones. Then Putin would lob a nuke. What a bleak situation.l

Well that's terrifying R352. Got a link?

I'm sure they've love to try it R352, but who with any credibility themselves is left who would actually believe them?

"Could the trolls who keep coming around with some new version of "you think Russia is losing but they're not!" give it a fucking rest?"

I actually kind of like them. You get a chance to further hone your argument. Also, I always welcome their posts as an opportunity to gratuitously insult Putin.

As in: Putin got fucked by a dog, and after the dog came and Putin was sucking the cum off the dog's dick and tasting Putin's own ass, the dog whispered "your mother was better".

It's not funny. But I like to mock Putin as someone who a dog fucks.

[quote]I always welcome their posts as an opportunity to gratuitously insult Putin.

Oh, well then, carry on!

My hope:

Ukraine is divided through negotiations, separating Ukrainian and Russian speakers—West and East respectively. There's a huge well-managed and funded migration as in India when it split by religion, so there's complete separation (yes, I know India is still mixed and their split was a nightmare). They are divided by a high-tech wall (like what we're supposed to have at the southern border soon).

Western Ukraine demilitarizes (no military except a small internal security force). It never joins NATO under a treaty. It gets massive aid from the West and modernizes. It becomes an EU member at some point (typically takes around ten years). Lviv is the capital. Western tourists flood it with money. It's connected to the EU with modern highways, high speed rail, and brand-new airports. It grows rich and remains peaceful.

Eastern Ukraine joins Russia. That's that.

You're an idiot, r358.

That wall is a fiction R358, as is your entire scenario.

Russia isn't trying to hold all of it. He's trashing it while keeping the east and south.

That's was a valiant effort R358, but you showed your deplorable ass with that southern border line. You stooges just can't help yourselves.

Igor Sushko has a good master thread going on Twitter with news about Ukraine from some people he follows.

In this thread, one of the tweets from someone he follows is about Russia planning to blow up a nuclear reactor and blaming it on Ukraine.

Igor's master thread is linked below. It's good.

I'll link to the specific tweet after about the reactor.

RE Reactor

[quote] while they starve the people out

Are we going to let that happen? I would think that we would do whatever is possible to make sure that didn’t occur.

R362, the concept of a high-tech border is a Democratic concept. It's not a wall.

Tiktok only suspended livestreaming and new content from Russians because of the Russian laws that forbid any reporting on a 'war' in Ukraine.

Tiktok: "In light of Russia's new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend livestreaming and new content to our video service while we review the safety implications of this law. Our in-app messaging service will not be affected."

Some news for R358 (whom I had blocked for some MAGAtry or other): the Russian invasion is getting minimal support even in the *Russian* areas of Ukraine.

And Russian users can’t watch foreign tiktoks right now. It was a great way to show what’s happening and spread some information.

R362 the high-tech border is becoming a reality thanks to Biden. It's humane and smart.

When a government bans anyone saying anything bad about how things are going, I feel like that government knows that shit is getting real bad.

Will Vladdy Morpheus go nuclear when he realizes he is losing because of US intervention? He seems like the kind of loser that would blow up the world just to have the (literal) last word.

R362

nice try again r 370.

what does Trump say when Putin's finger is up his ass?

"just don't do me like Fido did"

You're just ignorant, r374. The smart border is the main border solution from Democrats.

I'm blocking you.

R366, and yet you called it a wall in R358.

Can't even keep the most basic talking points straight, can you?

R376, you're paranoid. Smart wall, smart border—whatever. Blocked.

[quote] Some news for [R358] (whom I had blocked for some MAGAtry or other): the Russian invasion is getting minimal support even in the *Russian* areas of Ukraine

Funny, the Russian *military* doesn’t care

Sure. You reference a high tech wall that's coming "soon" but it's not a wall it's a smart border that... already exists.

God, the paranoia here. It's like the most recent South Park episode. Just old people reliving the 80s.

It's not paranoia, it's exasperation with stupidity.

The high-tech wall, you dummies. It's not a literal wall. Jesus. These are the same people who had no idea where Ukraine is or what's been going on there until CNN told them a few weeks ago.

Just shut up about the wall. Let's focus on the actual thread topic shall we?

Thanks R364 for the link. I hope it's not a prelude to a nuclear disaster - even Putin can't be that stupid. Surely he knows staging an explosion like that would affect Russians too not to mention being a major escalation.

There is a very active Moscow man being super active all of a sudden.

Would you people quit bickering please? JFC it’s fucking annoying and boring.

Latest map of Russia’s (very) slow but steady gains in territory held/controlled.

Wow, comment on the Twitter post at R385 says Putin's going to confiscate assets from "corrupt" Russian officials. If true, that's huge. That'll obviously be anyone who disagrees with him.

Can you imagine how much his own servants will hate him? That's a terrible idea.

He needs to finance his war. If oligarch wealth will do it, then Putin won’t care.

^^ OK, seems like there's some validity to that claim. Assuming the Institute for the Study of War is a legit org.

Rumor has it Putin is trying to recruit Syrians to fight in Ukraine because he's already deployed 95% of his force and it's not getting the job done. Shows utter weakness of Russian military.

Marked is Irpin, where the Russians fired on a family that was running away trying to evacuate, killing four of them. They’ve also been bombing the shit out of this town (actually a suburb of Kyiv.) They’re getting closer to surrounding the city which is their endgame. It’s gonna be ugly and awful.

r358, Ukraine cannot truly be divided with some sort of clean partition.. Many of the Russian speakers in the eastern part of Ukraine are married to and have children with Ukrainian speakers. What you are talking about would literally split up families. There are tons of Ukrainians working in Russia (maybe 2 or 3 million), which means that there are people, furious people, now living inside of Russia's border, not on the other side of it. When they finally get word of the atrocities that have happened in Ukraine, it's hard to imagine their degree of outrage, or what they might do in the way of subterfuge and revenge. Russians in Russia also have many relatives living in Ukraine. This has been a porous border for the past 100 years and people came and went freely between the two countries. They are also going to be outraged when they hear that their Russian-speaking relatives got bombed out in Russian military actions - even though the propaganda story will be that it was the Ukrainians that bombed the civilians.

Imagine being a Russian conscript being ordered to "guard" a Ukrainian city - never knowing when a sniper might shoot him for an apartment window, or having a molotov cocktail thrown into his vehicle. And that sort of defiance happening for years. Not an appealing prospect.

This is the family that was killed in Irpin. Irpin is also the place where people have been crowding under a bombed-out bridge to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Horrific R392. I feel terrible for them.

Anderson just showed the video of the Irpin family being killed. Horrible.

Here's the guy featured in the article.

R391, is there any way that they could make a landlocked rump state in the northwest that's a kind of catchment for whomever doesn't want to live in a Russian Ukraine (perhaps say up to 30 million)? Also, all the Ukrainian militants (Azov etc al) can go there, as in Idlib, rather than die in a Russian Ukraine, and engage in the informal economy (as in Idlib).

Like this, R391. Everything west of the yellow part.

What a load of crap. Ukraine is a sovereign country with territorial borders and doesn't want to be divided. Fucking stupid, why are some posters parroting the Russian line especially when Russia is attacking Kyiv.

From the Telegraph in the UK, something I didn't know: China, where a third of corn imports come from Ukraine, might yet encourage Russia to the negotiating table.

Hard to raise crops when everything else is rubble or dead.

Zelensky: "Russia announced that tomorrow it will be bombing our defense industry enterprises. Most of them are located in our cities, with civilians around.

It’s a murder, simply a murder. And I didn’t see any world leader react to it today, any Western politician."

You heard wrong, r13.

FU, r399.

One thing about the 7% of US oil imports being from Russia... that's not the case for elsewhere, particularly Europe. The economies of the world are now so interlinked, it needs to be a move to cut supply and find alternate sources of supply simultaneously.

Some more hottie Russian soldiers!

It doesn't appear this is working out very well for them.

R358, What the bloody hell? Your "hope" is a piece of excrement!

Ukrainians are fighting and dying because THEY DO NOT WANT THEIR COUNTRY DIVIDED.

WTH are you and Putin to decide, or "hope"?

Can high-tech border infrastructure be installed in office settings?

[quote]Get ready for more inflation. Sanctions hurt everyone. Our masters don't care.

They care, and so should we. We should be perfectly willing to tolerate some shorter-term pain to aid in ridding the world of the greatest threat to our security and stability in our lifetime.

Grow a pair, tighten your belt, and learn to make do with a lot less over the coming months and possibly years. If that's what it takes on our level to help bring Putin down, bring it ON. We'll ride it out.

The scenarios above that you find so offensive are just to understand how things might unfold. Relax; no one here has any power.

^^We heard your hopes and dreams the 5th time you droned on about them Sergei

Sanctions take time to work, but they will do damage to him where it matters. Westerners need however to suck it up, and take the hits that sanctions will also bring to their doorstep: higher prices for most goods including food, and much higher oil and gas prices.

The same people out there crying for Ukrainians and wanting so badly to help out, to insure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again (or is greatly deterred) can do so by putting up with the inevitable inconveniences, gracefully: tightening their belts; buying simpler groceries and eating at a more basic level; lowering their thermostats; using public transport and carpooling.

There's going to be a lot of pain to go around for everyone, until Russian goods and services (including gas and oil products) are wrung out of the markets and pricing settles back down to normal levels. We all have to toughen up, sacrifice and stay the course.

One senses Jill Dougherty is posting on this thread. Hi, Jill! Love you, hon.

Zelensky needs to drop thousands of this photo on the Russkies.

R225, the point about Kisin is this: there are lots of good sources out there. Go ahead and listen to him if you want, but be aware that his only claim to expertise is his personal relationships. He's a comedian turned contrarian/anti-woke activist. That's all.

I'm an American living in Germany. Should I end up on German TV explaining the American mindset and opining on world affairs the next time American invades a country?

[quote]Russians fired on a family that was running away trying to evacuate, killing four of them

It's hard to tell in the video but I think whoever fired on that family was trying to hit every single family on the sidewalk at the time, and there were about 5 families, roughly 20 people. Looked like they wanted that bomb or missile to go straight through and get everyone.

This kind of thing has happened so often that it's obviously part of the plan, which is why I don't get why people keep saying Putin is bluffing with the nuclear threat.

[quote]I don't get why people keep saying Putin is bluffing with the nuclear threat.

His psychopathic ego also conveys in his threats that he alone has nuclear capability. As if retaliation wouldn't be at least proportionate.

Equally though I realise that he loves death, knows he's essentially dead himself, and wants the same for as many millions as possible.

If that fat Chinese Hitler were taken out, the world would be a much better place. He’s very shrewd, helping Putie and cheering on support for Russia in China. Like Russia, China is enforcing a chokehold on its media sources and executing even more pro-Russia propaganda than even Russia itself was and has. Any anti-Xi Jinping outlets in Hong Kong has been crushed and the crackdown on pro-democratic forces in Hong Kong were quickly annihilated just as any opposition to Putin were put down.

These two autocrat, fascist dictators are two peas in a pod. Why can’t the West be smart for once and head off and prevent an even greater threat to our democratic values and simply declare the two countries as sharing the same long-term goals. If China had a true democratic election for their President for a term, than we could trust that this President may want to abide in true international trade and laws.

I don’t believe China is “watching” to see how this works out for their brethren (Russia). They are studying what not to do and plotting on how to improve their attack towards on behalf of their future goals. Talk about taking out Puttie should also apply to his most stringent ally Xi Jinping.

Assholes fuck up other people's lives, turning them into resentful and hateful assholes.

The uncomfortable truth is that guys like Putin, after their death, leave a legacy of assholes they've created. And those assholes create a new generation of assholes and so on. The only slight comfort, or hope, is that with each new cycle the group of assholes gets smaller and smaller. Maybe in 200 years, humanity managed to breed that whole vicious asshole cycle out of humanity's system.

Yeah, good luck with that.

The ruble hit a new record low against the dollar today.

Squeeze, motherfuckers, squeeze!

One wonders if the average Russian citizen would stop and think twice about why they are being cut off from everything. Or would they believe Putin that it’s the evil West again doing this all of a sudden in a devilish, out of the blue plot.

Probably for every brave Russian protester risking their liberty for fifteen years there's what - fifty? A hundred? - too scared to make a move. Information gets through to those who want it, who will pass it on, and knowledge at least will spread and deepen. Maybe it's too much to hope for a real groundswell of opinion to form, organise and stand up.

Sanctions will compound the above for the informed. Nothing to be done about those who are too scared or in such deep denial that they believe Putin's disgusting lies. Plenty always believed and still believe that Hitler was right.

Instead of boosting Russian propaganda about a divided Ukraine, we should speculate about how Russia will be divided up after its economy completely collapses and its government folds in on itself.

I've just seen on the news here in London, that British surgeons are holding Zoom training sessions with Ukrainian Doctors to help them prepare for and manage war wounds, including limb loss, blast fragment injuries etc.

ugh!

R426 Russia is surrounded by unfriendly countries. Who knows what will happen when Russia gets in trouble with sanctions and money.

This morning on CNN I read an interview with a highly informed general who, along with the NY TIMES "briefing" this morning, in which both are suddenly acknowledging the handwriting on the all that many others have refused to accept:

This is not 1990, or 1969, or 1985.

This is 1939. We were, as always, on the back foot; months ago the West could have streamed troops and military equipment into Ukraine before the invasion, because the intelligence was there that Russia would invade; and if we let Putin succeed in his monstrous carnage, Taiwan is next, and as democracy recedes, replaced by authoritarian empires, we will become a shrinking island surrounded by increasingly powerful illiberal empires.

The fact is, it's in all our interests to stop him, whatever it takes.

Our arses are on the line here, too.

Sanctions map. It looks like the US and some of its vassals for now.

Putin’s speech about checking the bank accounts of civil servants and their families searching for the income from bribes and payoffs…. It will be cross checked against their government salary. Too much money in the account? >>POOF<< You’re screwed. Here’s the kicker: the bar for discrepancy is $200 (in pre-crash roubles)

Imagine having an extra $200 that you can’t account for and therefore it must be from a bribe.

Not that I think this directive will actually be carried out but it will certainly put the fear of god into many.

A ruble today is worth less than a U.S. penny.

[quote] This morning on CNN I read an interview with a highly informed general who, along with the NY TIMES

Get better sources, honey.

[quote] Instead of boosting Russian propaganda about a divided Ukraine, we should speculate about how Russia will be divided up after its economy completely collapses and its government folds in on itself.

It’s in Russia’s interest to start WWIII now. There’s no where else to go for them. They’ll make money via war.

bribes are a way of life in Russia - what now?

Great map, r431. Europe is ahead of us on many of the sanctions now, but I'm glad the US is catching up - even if we were last to ban Russian aircraft!

Keep posting these great tweets!

Good coverage in the NY Post of 10 captured Russian soldiers' press conference, with the Lt. Col. profusely apologizing to Ukranians for the genocide. The lies about toppling Nazis weren't made to only 18yo conscripts, but went all the way up. The story should be everywhere by this afternoon as it's a compressed bite easily conveyed with pictures.

Maureen Dowd, known for her decades of bashing the Clintons, compares the performances of Zelinskiy and Trump.

Now is the time for these NYT cocktail party socialites to end normalizing efforts in behalf of DJT.

Dowd seems like she is out of place in 2022.

Who said people are supposed to keep the same job forever? It’s time to leave her output in the past where it belongs.

Styles change and thing come in and out of fashion. But she is stuck in the past and her style of writing is obsolete in the internet age where every Joe schmo has a snarky opinion.

Elsa Klensch has died. Maureen Dowd can replace her -- "Style with Maureen Dowd."

Maureen Dowd is the new Peggy Noonan, she just doesn't know it yet.

[quote]Elsa Klensch has died.

NOOOOO! Is there any way we can blame Putin for this, too?

A poignant photo.

[quote]NOOOOO! Is there any way we can blame Putin for this, too?

If they can find polonium in her system, sure.

[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.]

[quote] I'm an American living in Germany. Should I end up on German TV explaining the American mindset and opining on world affairs the next time American invades a country?

Well, yes you could. Why wouldn't someone with actual lived experience in the American culture opine on how some groups in America view things? You would even have first hand knowledge of how many systems & things work in America that a German probably would not know. Of course you could opine on your fellow citizens during an invasion. Maybe try another, better example.

Kisin is very bright and has an education as an economist. As Russian is his native language, that affords him the ability to read & view source material rather than having to rely on interpretations and secondhand reports. He knows the history of his country and of Ukraine in a way that most Westerners do not and because of his deep connections to Ukraine via family and frequent travel there - as recently as a few months ago - he also understands the relationship between Russians and Ukrainians. He is as informed as most reporters on the subject with the added advantage of the language & his personal connections. He's not pretending to be an expert on military maneuvers, the law or the like. He's explaining the Russian mindset and to some extent the Ukrainian mindset and the history and politics of the regions which he knows very well. The only difference is that he is also analyzing it and so far he has proved correct. For as long as I've watched him he's always tried to stay balanced on topics and give differing opinions and sources fair play. That he is also a comedian is irrelevant.

When Russian propagandists in the West spread BS about Ukraine genociding ethnic Russians and Russian speaking Ukrainians he knows first hand that is not happening as he has Russian family where they claim this is happening.

So as one of my sources for a good take on things I will continue to view him.

R446, thanks. Interesting.

[quote] To end its brutal invasion, Russia is demanding Ukraine ceases its military action

[quote] It is also demanding Ukraine enshrine neutrality in its constitution, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory and Donetsk and Lugansk as independent territories

[quote] As Russian is his native language, that affords him the ability to read & view source material rather than having to rely on interpretations and secondhand reports.

and yet, he still has nothing important to say. most germans can read the american press in english, this is a false comparison

Here is something I did not expect. From Reuters: Hungarian PM Viktor Orban signs decree allowing deployment of NATO troops in western Hungary

Orban will remember 1956.

Depressing Washington Post article:

"The Ukrainian military has mounted an unexpectedly fierce defense against invading Russian forces, which have been dogged by logistical problems and flagging morale. But the war is barely two weeks old, and in Washington and European capitals, officials anticipate that the Russian military will reverse its early losses, setting the stage for a long, bloody insurgency.

The ways that Western countries would support a Ukrainian resistance are beginning to take shape. Officials have been reluctant to discuss detailed plans, since they’re premised on a Russian military victory that, however likely, hasn’t happened yet. But as a first step, Ukraine’s allies are planning for how to help establish and support a government-in-exile, which could direct guerrilla operations against Russian occupiers, according to several U.S. and European officials."

Joe Rogan on Ukraine.

Vigilante group Anonymous hacks Russian state TV with banned Ukraine footage

The online group Anonymous claims it has hacked Russian state TV and streaming services to air footage highlighting the horrors of the war on Ukraine.

The secretive vigilante cyber group late Sunday shared footage of channels that are forced to air pro-Kremlin footage instead showing shocking scenes of missile attacks that killed innocent civilians.

A message also told Russians, “This war was waged by Putin’s criminal, authoritarian regime on behalf of ordinary Russian citizens.”

“Russians, oppose the genocide in Ukraine!” it says, according to a translation by Ukrainian national news service Ukrinform.

The official Anonymous Twitter handle @YouAnonNews initially said it hacked “live TV channels Russia 24, Channel One, Moscow 24” as well as “Russian streaming services Wink and Ivi (like Netflix).”

In an update, Anonymous TV said, “All Russian-state TV channels have been hacked.”

Hackers also reportedly jammed Russian airwaves with audio of the Ukrainian national anthem — and broadcast “troll faces on Russian military radio.”

It was part of “the biggest Anonymous op ever seen,” the shady group said.

“We only want peace, not war,” Anonymous said, adding it feared false-flag campaigns to make it look like it was a “threat.”

“Remember us when various powers turn their attention towards us, because it will happen. We can change the world for the better. That has always been the idea. Ideas are bulletproof. Signed, #Anonymous,” the group said.

In another tweet, Anonymous said simply, “F–K PUTIN.”

Good for Viktorbácsi—the EU should have let him know long before now what the responsibilities of a civilized government (as opposed to a troll autocracy) are, but better late than never.

[quote]They’ll make money via war.

If it were 1922, maybe. Now it doesn't work that way. The failed Russian state will be entirely dependent on China and Iran, Good luck with that.

The Kremlin has approved a list of countries who have been “unfriendly” to Russia. They include:

Australia, UK, EU countries, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Korea, San Marino, Singapore, USA, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Japan

[quote]Russia tells Ukraine it will halt its onslaught 'in a moment' if Kyiv gives up three key regions and ceases military action

[quote]To end its brutal invasion, Russia is demanding Ukraine ceases its military action

The military action being of course military reaction against said brutal invasion. Russia saying it will halt its onslaught comes from the same source which said there would be no invasion; and which said it would cease fire, before bombing trusting escaping civilians. Among other colossal lies.

Putin said that Ukraine's existence as an independent state could be in question if they continue fighting.

He's said that a lot, r459. At least it's not something new, he's saying. Right?

A week after he told us Ukraine isn't an independent state.

Where Russians go abroad for vacations. Bans coming soon?

R451 Beat me to it. They know what Russian occupation is like, and the West didn't intervene there, either. 250,000 or so fled.

Footage of Russian tanks in Budapest and civilian bodies in the streets could be right out of today's bulletins.

The Russians are trolling, putting out videos like this (note the English-language)

The Ukrainians say that the Russians have damaged or destroyed 202 schools, 32 hospitals and 1,500 residential buildings.

They are also outright shooting unarmed civilians dead now. There's a photo on the front page of the NY Times of a family shot dead as they were trying to evacuate.

As Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine’s people and sovereignty, it is now more important than ever to celebrate and raise awareness of the uniqueness of Ukrainian culture, including its rich literary tradition.

We have selected five works that evoke the resilience of the Ukrainian national character.

With the Ukrainian government now calling on IT professionals to join the so-called IT Army of Ukraine, the country’s technology sector is very much a part of Ukraine’s concerted effort to fend off Russia’s invasion.

In a world first, Ukraine is assembling a cyber army of volunteers to defend the country’s critical networks as well as strike back against Russia.

so their orders is to just kill everyone and everything?

Is that how you liberate people from "nazis"?

I like how Anonymous picked the side of Ukraine. It's hard to penetrate the state-controlled media in Russia. But it's good that every now and then, Anonymous injects a brief glimpse of the catastrophe Russia and Putin have created.

Ukraine is permanently in our thoughts at the moment, and to better understand this amazing country we have selected five films that offer an insight into the vast, complex land.

Few people realise that Ukraine was an important country in the development of cinema. Its capital Kyiv was one of the cultural centres of the Soviet Union, and the Russian Empire before it. During the proliferation of cinema in the 1920s and 1930s, Kyiv-based film studios managed to produce experimental, avant-garde works which pushed the fledgling industry to new heights.

[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.]

In order to control and subdue the domestic population, Putin and his bitch-coven will have to control not only the narrative about the "military operation" that circulating in the country right now, but what is known about the war forevermore. How the fuck does he plan on doing that? At least some soldiers will return from Ukraine and will no doubt tell the truth about what happened.

Maybe, like his wet dreamboat Josef Stalin, he plans on liquidating his own soldiers, or putting them in a gulag, so as to limit the number of living witnesses.

[quote]Kyiv today rejected Russia's offer of 'humanitarian corridors' to evacuate civilians after it emerged several of them led to Russian territory or its close ally Belarus (top). Red Cross workers in Mariupol also said one of the routes Russia identified for civilians to leave the city had been covered with land mines

We know stuff like this is going on constantly, yet people still say that Ukraine should give in to Russian demands so the fighting stops.

It won't stop, the Russians will keep killing civilians even if Ukrainians stop fighting and agree to whatever demands Russian says they want.

[quote]so their orders is to just kill everyone and everything?

Seems clear Putin is akin to Colonel Kurtz. For just few seconds we might indulge the fantasy of Zelensky as Captain Willard, doing what the civilised world yearns for.

[quote] For just few seconds we might indulge the fantasy of Zelensky as Captain Willard, doing what the civilised world yearns for.

Indeed. Except for the desire to see the Russian POS butcher suffer for a lengthy period of time before dying. “Make it quick,” he’d ask. “No.” Let him experience at the very least some modicum of suffering that he has inflicted on so many others.

One Ukrainian said that the safe passage for them into Russia would probably lead to Northern Siberia.

This is going to be a long, drawn-out war, isn't it?

Yep.

Italy has seized assets worth more than $100 million from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, the Associated Press reported.

Since Friday, Italian officials have seized roughly $156 million in villas and luxury yachts owned by members of Putin's inner circle amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the AP.

Among the targeted oligarchs is Gennady Timchenko, a Putin confidant whose superyacht "Lena" was seized in the port of San Remo, per the AP. In Imperia, Italian officials seized a 215-foot yacht estimated to be worth $71 million and owned by Alexei Mordashov, the richest man in Russia.

Billionaire Alisher Usmanov's villa on the island of Sardinia was also seized, as was a Lake Como villa owned by Russian state TV host Vladimir Soloviev, Reuters reported.

"We must be able to stop Putin's attack, bringing him to the table, and he won't go with niceties," Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told Italian state TV on Friday.

"Sanctions will hurt Putin. This is the only way to make him see reason," Di Maio added in his remarks.

Italy isn't the only country seizing Russian elites' assets in response to the attack on Ukraine.

France said earlier this week that it seized a $120 million yacht owned by Igor Sechin, CEO of Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers in Congress is also preparing to introduce the "Yachts for Ukraine" Act, which would allow authorities to seize and sell off Russian oligarchs' assets to provide aid to Ukraine.

Russian elites have reportedly been moving their yachts to places like the Maldives, which has no extradition treaty with the US, to keep the vessels from being seized.

Kudos to Lyndsey Addario, she was the one who took the photos of the family as they died. I believe she was kidnapped in Syria a few years ago.

Stay safe, we need the world to know.

Remember...?

Actor Pasha Lee has been killed in Irpin.

Just a reminder: the sun has now set in Ukraine on the twelfth day of fighting, and the Russians still haven't taken Kyiv. Just the usual steady march of Russian atrocities and global economic sanctions.

Interesting that one of Putin's new demands is that Boyko become PM (effectively bypassing democracy). I say interesting because Boyko was mentioned in the alleged leaked FSB report as someone they were thinking of heading the new regime. The report did say that Boyko would not get support though which will be true of pretty much any Russian puppet.

Interesting assertion from an analyst in The Times that is worth remembering for the long term: "China may remain a trading partner, but it is unlikely to jeopardise its £950 billion bilateral trade with the West for £87 billion with Russia."

China is playing all sides...they are looking after their own interests. They will still be friendly to Russia.

But not equally friendly if you follow the money.

A warm friendly big hug from China to Russia.

Just like Russia's big brother hug to Ukraine.

That's how these things work.

Hot priest marries couple:

Priest has quite a stylish haircut. I wonder, does the Ukrainian Orthodox church sell "hot priest" calendars like they do in Italy?

Damn. If this is true, can you imagine MSNBC being hacked and a message like this being broadcast?

Dollface alert?

It's not just about money for China though - it's also about geopolitics. China sees the West as a threat to them, and they'll like to increase their hold over Russia too, so China is more likely to be friendly to Russia than not in my opinion. They won't try to piss off the West enough that they get sanctioned too, but they won't help the West in this either.

ukrainian boy is cute too

[quote]Damn. If this is true, can you imagine MSNBC being hacked and a message like this being broadcast?

Can you imagine any group of MAGATs having more than 5 functioning brain cells capable of hacking an American cable broadcast national feed?

Yeah, not likely.

No, MAGAts (i.e. domestic extremists) need Russian help to hack shit. And probably will get it before too long.

Do Americans know what the EU is? The question just popped into my head.

R494, but Russia cannot survive being at the mercy of China (and maybe Iran Venezuela and a couple more outlaw states). That would be a disaster, although just what Putin deserves.

R500, it's what Putin has gotten his country into by leading it into an unprepared-for war with an upcoming unaffordable occupation.

On the exodus from Russia (a lot of them are going to Tblisi, Georgia and Turkey.)

How things are going in Poland. Very touching.

China will be getting cheaper oil and wheat from Russia as a result as well. Low-key supporting Russia is a win-win for China.

R502 is the Moscow correspondent for the Telegraph.

DL fave Tony D. from the CBS morning show was reporting live from Poland this AM, interviewing Ukrainian refugees near the border.

R504 China will be fine now, and they will be even better if (when) Russia collapses. I wouldn't be surprised if instead of Taiwan, it's Vladivstock that China ends up invading.

Vasilyeva is the real deal. I recall seeing video of her being harassed by Russian police for protesting early on during this war. They would definitely have gone after her if she had stayed. It's better she's out. It means more brain drain for Russia though.

At some point, they need to get Zelensky out of there if it seems to country is close to falling. He will be more valuable as a rallying figure alive in exile than he would be a dead martyr.

He can be brave and smart at the same time.

It would have done the French no good if De Gaulle had stayed behind and been executed by the Germans.

R508. It sucks she's getting harassed like that but this is exactly what Putin has unleashed on his own people everywhere. He needs to go.

Even the Russian Tea Room in NYC is getting tainted just by name association.

Well I agree r509. The trick of course, for everyone in that situation is to know when.

And in the very unlikely event it ever happens here, I suspect I'll be one of those sad cases that waited too late. Dropping everything and fleeing to a new country is one hell of thing to ask, even though of course it is sometimes the only good choice.

The Red Army blasted the fuck out of Vienna in 1945 with artillery fire. Ukraine today reminds me of that precedent.

[quote] Dropping everything and fleeing to a new country is one hell of thing to ask,

These people are fleeing with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs, or maybe a small suitcase. They have no idea if they’ll ever see their homes again or even if there will be anything left of what used to be their homes. It’s awful.

Gas prices have already set an all-time record. It’ll only get worse from here.

Jeangenie I don't recall seeing you around much before these threads (I am somewhat new to the DL) but just want to say I appreciate your posts and spirit.

R515 Suck up.

R514. Due to speculation. You know what is also at an all-time high? Rent. Tuition. And well, pork.

Maybe so, R516, and I admit that part of my enjoying their posts is the fact that I agree with them, but I stand by my appreciation.

Reagan and the 80s version of deplorables killed the great opportunity we had after the 70s oil crisis to expand regulations and renewable energy and develop more fuel efficient vehicles, homes, and transport. Sadly I think the 2020s deplorables will do the same now. If we had a functioning government and responsible journalism, we'd be talking accountability for price-gouging and Green New Deal non-stop right now.

Ding, ding.

"China's FM: “No matter how precarious and challenging the international situation may be, China and Russia will maintain strategic focus and steadily advance our comprehensive strategic partnership co-ordination for a new era,”

China's just playing both sides R520. Nothing new. They see themselves as the superpower for the modern age and both Russia and the US as relics of the 20th century. No doubt this conflict, to them, is just the dying gasp of Russia as a global superpower followed by, in their mind, the decline of the US.

They'll never have too much skin in the game either way because their hope is that Russia and the US destroy each other so they can come out the winner.

Well quite. I don't understand the poster who thinks that China will purely be driven by economics. Even if we take geopolitics out of it, playing both sides means that they will economically be the winner.

"They'll never have too much skin in the game either way because their hope is that Russia and the US destroy each other so they can come out the winner."

The only way that the US and Russia "destroy" each other is by way of a nuclear war. Which will take the rest of the world with it. So I seriously doubt that is their hope.

[quote]"China's FM: “No matter how precarious and challenging the international situation may be, China and Russia will maintain strategic focus and steadily advance our comprehensive strategic partnership co-ordination for a new era,”

A word salad (or chow mein?) signifying nothing.

love this uh, local way of dealing with caught looters.

The New York Times is admitting that many of the stories coming from Ukraine are falsehoods that have, as their ultimate objective, to keep morale high in the face of the Russian invasion. The fact that the NYT itself (among many other media outlets) has published these "myths" as legitimate stories in the past, as a means of illustrating the Russian military campaign's failure, is part of a shameless propaganda war.

So, why has RT been banned / forced to close over its alleged "spreading of misinformation", when legacy media around the world has KNOWINGLY done the same for the sake of "keeping morale high"?

It's disgusting.

The so-called "freedom fighters" of the Azov battalion are using civilians are human shields. Here, a member of the battalion tells a woman that they won't be evacuated and when she starts to weep, he tells her that she ought to be grateful, because 'she hasn't been shot'.

As we can see, these degenerates behave in exactly the same way as the "moderate rebels" that the US was financing in Syria, and ended up being nothing more than ISIS and Al-Nussra members who were slaughtering innocent civilians.

Of course the sinophobia comes out.

China isn't an actor in this drama. The EU, US, Russia, and Ukraine are.

The EU and US are the powers that appointed themselves leaders in this. Why drag China and other uninvolved countries like India into it?

They're not your slaves anymore. Move on.

Nice try R526.

The NYTimes was quick to run and tell us not to trust stories out of Ukraine. But they happily laundered Trump's (Putin's) lies for YEARS.

The International Judo Federation is cutting ties with Putin, a big Judo enthusiast. This has probably pissed him off more than anything else.

LOL, so now NYT is also Putin's laundromat, just because they dared to say something contrary??? Then we wonder why they hate us. Do you even listen to yourself, people???

China is funding this war.

R527 conveniently very short video, so we get no context, insufficient details for verification. Also inaccurate translation. There's a longer video (of course) that shows what's really happening.

R531 that article isn't "contrary" it's FALSE. The FBI was investigating the Trump campaign at the time.

For Brits wondering, as I was, if we're as dependent on Russian gas as the continent, the answer is no. I found out that we import just 2% off our gas from Russia. The majority comes from our own drilling. Norway supplies about 36%, the other suppliers are in single figures.

For Moscow Masha at R526 and R527: the NYT is not "admitting that many of the stories coming from Ukraine are falsehoods"; they singled out a couple of morale-building legends that are dubious. There's no comparison with RT, which is nothing but a propaganda outlet for a kleptocracy and a war of aggression.

The troll at r527 is going on and on in these threads about the Azov Battalion.

Hey, dumbdumb, the people doing the bad stuff are in the RUSSIAN Azov Battalion.

There, I've taught an idiot something important. I'm getting a drink.

R532, how so? Europe consumes the bulk of Russia's oil exports. Half, actually (link).

There is no Russian Azov battalion, you imbecile @R536.

There are the separatist forces in Donbas and the Russian army, but the fallacy that Russia is sending neo-Nazis to kill Ukrainians is nothing but a way to justify the fact that Ukraine has openly incorporated Nazis into their military.

Now, go have a drink and hopefully, it will clear your mind. It's obvious that your brain needs all the help it can get in order to function normally.

Ukraine Official Says Russia Won’t Collect Soldier Corpses, Burning The Ones It Has

[quote] “We have asked (Russians) to take the dead bodies, and they have refused to do it,” Volodymyr Goy, Deputy Chief of the Cabinet of the Head of the Presidential Office, noted. “Ukrainian medics are just having to bring those dead bodies to the morgue.’

[quote] “They are most probably just going to say that those people have disappeared, that they don’t know where they are, to avoid paying their families,” he continued. “Because if somebody is officially killed in the war, they (the government) have to pay some remittance to the family. So, to avoid that, they would probably say that he has been lost in some unknown location.”

There is one country for which Ukraine is a win/win situation: China.

They're staying on good terms with the Russians ("steadily advance our comprehensive strategic partnership co-ordination" blah blah blah) and, if Putin comes out all right -- an admittedly unlikely outcome at this point IMO -- they'll have favored status with Russia on trade and strategy, and probably win some major natural-resources contracts now that the West has burned those bridges.

On the other hand, if Putin's Russia collapses, they'll have on less powerful neighbor/ rival.

Win/ win.

one less powerful neighbor

unlikely??? LOL.

Good thing I saved up my FFs today!

So what, R540? China isn't causing any of this: Russia is the one invading, and the EU and US are the ones imposing sanctions and sending weapons.

Why are white people trying to drag China into this? They're not your servants; it's 2022.

Russia still pushing their propaganda about Ukraine secretly developing a nuke/dirty bomb. They’ve been working on this for years, now getting ready to ramp it up, it seems.

To all the people ranting about how the Rouble is now worth less than a penny....it was only worth about 1.3 pennies before the war started. It's not like it was on par with the USD and suddenly dropped to less than a penny. It dropped from $.013 to $.009.

It's now $.006 R546. That's a drop of half. Imagine if your bank account tomorrow was worth half of what it is today.

Russia working on encircling Kyiv. Ukrainians have some hard choices to make.

Real drone view of a battle.

More on Russian strategy:

Again with this Bill Roggio character? He just repeats obvious truisms and says "This is Russian STRATEGY. Ukrainians have HARD CHOICES." There are more reliable analysts out there.

I’m not crying. I swear I’m not.

I understand the math R547. What I was pointing out is that value dropped by let's say half (to use a round number). Not 99+%. But the media story is more sizzling if you use the penny reference because people who don't research or understand the context end up overstating the impact in their minds. They think people lost over 99% of their purchasing power, when in fact they lost about half. Still horrible, absolutely. I'm pointing out media bias and hyperbole.

McDonald's is still open in Russia.

That'll kill 'em!

People in the US with retirement funds invested in S&P500 index are also getting hammered. That index is down almost 12% YTD, with 2.95% of that decline today.

Russia will not win this. They will not survive. Their people will leave in droves, the ones who don't get killed anyway.

I wish we could somehow get more media coverage of how things are going "on the ground" in Russia, like how people are handling and reacting to the real-life impacts of all the sanctions. But I don't know if we can get that anymore because most western journalists left the country? There are still sporadic stories of protests but I haven't been hearing much else.

Big time General Vitaly Gerasimov was “liquidated” today. So did they grind his bones for soup?

For people with 63 crayons in their 64 box, the Rouble thing is like this:

1.3 pennies became less than a penny

It is NOT this:

A dollar became less than a penny

The torture you are suggesting degrades YOU as a human being. Yes people can and should be "removed" in times of war. But torture and degradation make the torturers and those who revel in it into the kind of monsters and inhuman filth they purport to fight.

Is someone starting a new thread for when this one hits 600?

It appears true what R559 says. Russia may be losing more troops and officers than we're hearing about—certainly more than the Russian public is hearing about.

R551 He’s editor at FDD (Foundation for Defense of Democracies,) which is a think tank that

[quote] publishes research on foreign policy and security issues, focusing on subjects such as nuclear-non proliferation, cyber threats, sanctions, illicit finance, and policy surrounding North Korea, Iran, Russia, the war in Afghanistan, and other areas of study

So his credentials seem to be solid. He’s hardly a “character.”

Sky News Australia: Russian troops "demoralized" and "running out of gas"

Did you just WW yourself R565? How shameful!

Whoa, the Kyiv Independent is reporting (per its official Twitter feed), that Ukrainian forces killed Russian General Vitaly Gerasimov near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry said.

Gerasimov was a senior military official who participated in the second Chechen war and was awarded a medal for “capturing Crimea.”

You're late to the party for once, jeangenie!

I thought you all might appreciate this reply.

R564, that paragraph just rattles off his publishing activities. His credentials may be "solid" for a think tank, but his analyses on this war simply report troop movements on the unquestioned assumption that that they're part of a long-term Russian plan. He takes no account of the evident supply and training problems the Russians are experiencing, or the overarching problem of taking and holding a hostile country one-third the size of Russia (in population). There are better analysts.

Because it is important to consider alternate views (from non-propaganda/bootlicker sources of course), a poli-sci professor and expert in terrorism and repressive regimes shares why she believes despite sanctions the oligarchs will not turn on Putin:

R572, the purpose of the economic sanctions is to isolate Russia, hobble its ability to continue the invasion, and stop it from invading any other countries.

That seems pretty reasonable R572. She notes at the end that Russia will essentially be bankrupt in a matter of weeks, most likely drawing the war to a quick close.

The analysis of the oligarchs is an interesting one. Certainly their power is reliant on Putin's control over the state but this is the model that Kings and Emperors used to control their countries and even then it didn't stop them from being assassinated. A conspiracy of oligarchs, working together with some of the more ambitious "strongmen" she mentions, could possibly topple Putin and install themselves as a new regime, making conciliatory moves towards the West to undo some of the sanctions and quell unrest at home. She even mentions that Putin is growing less interested in arbitrating their "squabbles" and delegating more - that gives them more freedom to make moves without oversight. The "legitimacy" of their power is unnecessary - if they can establish control over the state's machinery by politics or force I doubt many Russians will question the "authority" of their new rulers.

But I'm not an analyst so who knows.

Thanks for the pedantry R573, but there are lots of folks hanging hope on the oligarchs turning on Putin as they face economic disaster.

Hunger is a great motivator.

cf: 1917.

The Russian stock market supposedly opens again tomorrow. In completely unrelated news Dow futures are down 900 points.

Wheeeeeeee!

[quote] Did you just WW yourself [R565]? How shameful!

Not R565 but I don't think you can WW yourself.

Actually, the fact that the oligarchs can't pass their friendship on to Putin, as she notes, is even more of a reason to begin thinking about overthrowing him - particularly as he is getting up there in years. I would certainly be thinking very seriously about how to get control over as much of the state's machinery as possible when Putin dies (either naturally or not) and trying to set my children up as the new oligarch-rulers of Russia. Some of them must have plans like that in the works already and Putin's actions here, which threaten the economic and political power of his underlings, must have some of them at least considering how much political power they might grab in the vacuum Putin would leave behind.

You sure can R577. And if you refresh the page, you can WW again and again. I was testing the function and discovered this flaw.

R576 No they’re not, you nutcase. They’re currently down 82 points.

R572, that person makes good points, but the mainstream commentary that I read is also cautioning that we shouldn't the oligarchs to overthrow Putin right away, for various reasons (e.g. Eliot Cohen in The Atlantic today). It's not just a few experts on Twitter.

R578, something like that occurred to me, too.

Ukrainian troops killed gen Valery Gerassimov

via Bellingcat

"His boss, who makes a looong pause when he hears the news of Gerassimov's death (before swearing), is Dmitry Shevchenko, a senior FSB officer from Tula. We identified him by searching for his phone (published by Ukrainian military Intel) in open source lookup apps."

R538: "There is no Russian Azov battalion, you imbecile"

Me: wrong! I'm right, and you're wrong.

R576. I doubt that the Russian stock market will open tomorrow. Nothing has changed since last week. In fact, they've arguably got worse for Russian companies.

If they do it's highly likely the entire Russian market will plummet and a number of companies will collapse.

My suspicion is they'll just keep it closed for as long as possible and say nothing. Better to have companies of uncertain value than those worth literally nothing.

Fuck... look at this poor woman.

Part IV is below.

Jesus R582, the incompetence of the Russian military on display is breathtaking. Russia's "might" was all an elaborate hoax, it would seem.

[quote]So, why has RT been banned / forced to close over its alleged "spreading of misinformation"

Gee, I can't imagine.

oops sorry Gen. Maj. Vitaly Gerassimov, not the guy who came up with the Gerasimov doctrine

still a big deal, he was chief of staff of the 41 Army

- R582

It really is R587. Taking out the 3G/4G towers only to find out you need them for your secure communications? How stupid can one be?

Ugh does part 4 really need to be about torture pron?

yeah, agree r591. Wish they had not led with that.

Same R592. It's disturbing.

If you have to put something about Putin at least make it amusing.

The paragraphs at the end of the new thread are very distasteful. I despise Putin with my entire being but starting a whole thread with graphic stuff like that is not ok.

I started a proper Part IV without the tasteless beginning of the other part IV.

Are the Russian soldiers deliberately sabotaging the war?

The REAL Part IV

going

gone