Sanctions against Russia

[spacesailor]

No real poor in Australia ,

No job, means , p,p , " job search allowance  " unable to pay your ( excessively high  ) rent ,

No clean cloths to get a " job interview " , not a lot of food , ( money spent on bus fares  ) .

What a life and how do the parents help , when their anger is threatening them .

Smashed bedroom door from mums State-house, puts a working family in jeopardy of eviction .

Then another will be homeless , & another empoyer will castoff a good worker , just because of the ---

Homeless stigma .

spacesailor

[red750]

I see where Australia is now supplying Ukraine with cardboard drones.

 

 

[willedoo]

These are allegedly the visually confirmed losses of Russian armour in their recent failed assault on Vuhledar.

 

Tanks - 19 destroyed, 33 damaged, 4 abandoned, 1 captured

Infantry fighting vehicles - 31 destroyed, 28 damaged, 9 abandoned, 1 captured

Specialised armour (armoured minesweepers, recovery machines) - 6 destroyed, 1 damaged

 

A total of 133 units of armour put out of action. From reports, it appears the Ukrainans mined the fields using remote artillery dispersed anti-tank mines to force the Russians on to the roads which were under fire control of Ukrainian artillery. The ones that tried their luck in the minefields were like lemmings over the cliff. Their only tactic if the lead tank hit a mine was for the following tanks to drive around it and hit the next mine.

 

 

[willedoo]

While putin is distracted by his mad invasion, former staunch allies are slipping away. It's been a good opportunity for the U.S. to wedge their way in further. Kazakhstan has been backing away for a while now, and even normally joined at the hip Serbia is headed in the other direction. Serbia has called for Russia to de-occupy, are talking about cancelling Russian MiG-29 orders to buy French aircraft instead, and recently, a Serbian defence company has been supplying Grad rockets to Ukraine.

 

Serbia helping to arm Ukraine is a good sign putler is rapidly running out of mates. As the Russian ship sinks, a lot of their former allies will be looking for ways to cut the umbilical cord. Most of them are smart enough to know winners are grinners. Except for that moron in Belarus; he's so far up putin's klacker, only his bootlaces are hanging out. He's in the same predicament as his master - one of personal and political survival.

 

https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-us-blinken-meeting/32291409.html

[facthunter]

You don't have to be very bright to work out whether one method of government is better than another except those with interests vested with the status Quo. Oligarchs etc. What's Poo tin got to offer the ordinary Russian? Is it better than the EU offers?  Russia is more vulnerable now than in a long time thanks to his mismanagement  and poor judgement. Nev

[nomadpete]

It is all very well to gloat about alleged successes by Ukrainians. Even allowing for optimistic unconfirmed success, there still remains a hundred million nervous, but loyal Russians who are feeling rather vulnerable at present.

That makes a big number of people ready to send their sons and husbands along.

That will make for a long, sad war of attrition.

[facthunter]

The ones whose Husbands are DEAD want the other women to be in the same boat. . How's that for a good idea?  Let's ALL be miserable..  WAR is MADNESS.   Nev

[willedoo]

14 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

I really don't understand why they ( the ordinary russians )  put up with being so poor while the oligarchs are so rich. Oligarchs can get away with being super-rich here, but there is a big middle-class and nobody is really poor.

I have my doubts there are many oligarchs in Russia who made their money by being totally above board. A lot of graft, corruption, paid-off politicians and monopolies at play. One of the rare exceptions is billionaire Tatyana Bakalchuk, founder of e-commerce company Wildberries. Almost twenty years ago, she was a teacher on maternity leave with her first child, and realised how hard it was for new mothers to shop for clothes while stuck at home with a new baby. She then started an internet retail business, at first re-selling clothing lines from German e-stores. The business took off and is now in 15 countries employing around 48,000 people. The online sales boom during covid lifted her net worth from about 1.5 billion to 13 billion in one year.

[Bruce Tuncks]

It's really hard to decide what to do with deserving oligarchs. If they really are good people, then maybe they wouldn't object to paying a fair tax, which would be over 90% after the first few millions a year.

Australian oligarchs are pulling out all the stops to attack Albanese I notice.

[facthunter]

OF course they would. Money is something they never have enough of. It's a game to them and they don't like the current Pope either because he helps the poor. Albo knows what being poor is first hand.  Nev.

Edited March 4, 2023 by facthunter
spelling

[willedoo]

putler's talking head got laughed at in India at the Raisina Dialogue conference after the G20 foreign minister's meeting.

 

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1631706415386574848

[willedoo]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Liar-ov has become as delusional as his boss. The whole inner circle has. Mass dementia and delusion has hit the Kremlin. Or maybe they know very well that they are lying through their teeth and just don't give a stuff anymore. They're so far down the rabbit hole now, possibly they think if they keep lying and doing things the same way there might be a 50/50 chance it will work out.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I liked the story about how russian culture admires liars who are convincing. Of course, this makes them impossible to work with which also explains a lot.

[willedoo]

10 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

I liked the story about how russian culture admires liars who are convincing. Of course, this makes them impossible to work with which also explains a lot.

Bruce, it seems to be ingrained into sections of society over generations. I'm not saying all Russians are born liars, but it's become the culture in government and military for so long that people probably think it's an expected thing to do to stay out of trouble and get somewhere. It's so entrenched in authority that it's become normalised.

 

I guess it needs to be looked at in the context of their history. Oppression has been the norm from the Imperial days, through the communist years, and maintained in the current period of the Russian Federation. In the days of Stalin, telling the truth could get you shot, so better to not smile, tell a lie and please your boss. Survival depended on keeping a low profile and staying under the radar.

 

A problem for them now is that culture of lying is entrenched in their military. From the lowest private up to the highest generals, they lie and provide false reports to please their superiors, who in turn, do the exact same thing up the chain. All the while, funding and equipment is stolen, and what's left is not being maintained as per the official reports. The same happens with training. Funding and equipment is allocated, then stolen by everyone from the enlisted to the officers, complete with false reports, posed photos and video reports to make it all look good. They're really just a third world class army with a lot of numbers.

 

Having said all that, I've dealt with Russians on a regular basis (before the war) for many years in a customer/vendor relationship, and I can't speak highly enough of the ones I've known. I've dealt with people from around the world, and have always found the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians to be top of the class.

[Yenn]

As far as lying goes, the USA is up there with the best of them and it would appear that there is no place for truth in our own past government.

[willedoo]

It's hard to know what to read into the statement from Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence. He has said "The decisive battle between Russia and Ukraine will take place this spring and it will be the last before the end of the war". A hint of something big from Ukraine or just confidence building propaganda perhaps. It's spring there now, so he's talking about the next three months. I recon the most decisive turning point would be if they captured Crimea, but that's not an easy task.

[willedoo]

The Russians are receiving MT-LB armoured fighting vehicles that have been modified with 25mm naval gun turrets added on top. Very visible high profile, they will be good target practice for the Ukrainians. It looks a bit like a mobile thunderbox.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Curious looking device.

But is it light enough to float on mud?

[Bruce Tuncks]

It looks like it would not withstand a javelin

[willedoo]

6 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Curious looking device.

But is it light enough to float on mud?

It's an amphibious model, but I don't think it would be very stable for a river crossing with that top heavy turret welded on. Some other pics have emerged with just the 25mm gun mounted on a stand without the turret. They are at full standing height with nothing to restrain the shooter so the vehicle would have to be stationary to fire from it. Definitely  not a game changer..

[nomadpete]

Was just thinking of the spring thaw confining tracked machines to the formed roads.

[willedoo]

That's right, it's the start of the mud season. You would think if it got in real sloppy slush, the flat bottom would float on top and the tracks would just spin.

[onetrack]

Tracked vehicles with flat sealed undersides actually do quite well in muddy slop, they just paddle along quite happily - although speed and fuel consumption is adversely affected.

 

In Vietnam, the M113 APC's, and the Centurions, had to put up with slop on a regular basis, in the wet season. This performance (below) was right after we had about 150mm overnight from the tail end of Typhoon Kate in Oct 1970. If you stepped off a machine in this ground after a heavy rain, you sank up to above your knees.

 

We had to lay down Marsden Matting (PSP) to make a boardwalk out to the Landing and Refuelling pad for the choppers. You can see how far the oil drums sank into the ground, they were at ground level before the rain.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by onetrack

[willedoo]

That last photo looks like some big belly plate slides - like a crocodile slide.

[willedoo]

A lot of Western countries are continuing to do a roaring trade with Russia since the war started. French company Yves Rocher has released a new promotion for 2023 praising Russian beauty and racial purity. They've even added a chart to their brochure so women can measure their heads to see if they conform to the master race specs.

 

Here's a translation from their new catalogue:

 

'Yves Rocher Corporation presents a new revolutionary and unique approach to the beauty industry. Starting from the first of March in all Russian stores of our company, a unique promotion "Russian Beauty" starts. Tens of thousands of our clients will be able not only to choose the necessary cosmetics and skin and hair care products, but also to make sure that their metric data matches the ideals of Russian beauties. To do this, tables and templates with anthropometric ideals corresponding to the pure phenotype of a Russian woman will be placed in all outlets.

And our specialists will be able to suggest free of charge how and with what cosmetic means and techniques ladies can emphasize the original Russian features of appearance and, if necessary, smooth out personal features that do not correspond to Russian anthropometry.

 

The Russian Beauty project by Yves Rocher was the result of a lot of hard work. The corporation's specialists collected and summarized thousands of historical and contemporary data on the appearance of famous Russian beauties, whose outstanding appearance was indisputable and whose Russian origin was documented. This approach made it possible to draw a clear parallel between the ethnic features of the beauty of Russian women and the most optimal use of cosmetics.

 

Today, when patriotic sentiments in Russia are stronger than ever, Yves Rocher Corporation considers it it's duty to pay attention to the uniqueness and exclusivity of pure Russian beauty. The best genes from generation to generation have created a unique image of a Russian beauty. And our duty is to preserve and increase it. The Russian phenotype is a reflection of the purity of Russian culture, a special and vivid example for those who have long lost their originality and exclusivity, wastefully mixing their genes with the genes of other peoples. Mothers, wives, daughters - those who have always been the guardians of the family hearth in Russia, while men increase the glory of their native land - this is the basis of a special Russian civilization. Civilizations of greatness, strength and unique beauty.'

 

It's amazing how many Western countries are still sucking up to Russia to make money. A good example is Heineken. Despite saying they were going to back away from Russia, they've released around 60 new products in Russia since the war began.