Sanctions against Russia

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

That's where you wake up frozen to death. How good is that?  Nev

Indeed it would be amazing to wake up dead :-)

 

[nomadpete]

[willedoo]

I've been a bit sceptical on the issue of claimed putin body doubles. But it does make you wonder sometimes when you see the out of character putin visiting places for propaganda purposes. He's shown up in Dagestan to a rock star welcome by a smallish crowd. This putin is highly animated, waving hands everyehere, in close body contact among the crowd, kissing people, shaking hands and not wearing his usual bullet-proof vest under his coat. At one stage in the short video, he's calling out very loudly to people in a voice that doesn't sound like his. He was even blowing kisses to the crowd as he was leaving. Unless he's schizophrenic, it's totally not his normal style.

 

The putin who visited Ukraine some time ago seemed to be the same highly animated one as the Dagestan putin. There's even something about the face shape that doesn't look quite right. Given how paranoid putler is,it seems odd that he would suddenly jet off to Dagestan without his vest, and barrel straight into the thick of a public crowd hugging and kissing people. For sure, the crowd would be select and vetted carefully, and they seemed to be genuinely excited and looked like they believed it was putler, but his behaviour was totally out of character.

[onetrack]

I see where the woman who claimed to be Putin's real mother has recently died, and she says she's ashamed of his behaviour. Just looking at her, it appears she could be right with her claim, her facial appearance and blue eyes match Putins. If her story is true, Putin certainly had a pretty bad upbringing, maybe this explains his poor behaviour and his dictatorial, murderous attitude.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Putina

 

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/offbeat/vera-nikolaevna-putina-woman-who-claimed-to-be-russian-president-vladimir-putins-mother-dies-aged-96-c-11072999

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by onetrack

[facthunter]

HE HAS to be a Psicko the way he shows no value in lives but that is a sign of his toughness that he says Russia needs. His WORD is worth Nothing and he's Rich as hell  Tell ME he's a good bloke and misjudged by the western world but their Ruler's haven't clean Hands either. The Americans backed the Mujahadeen to kick the Ruskies out of Afghanistan.  Nev

[willedoo]

Now that putler has admitted Wagner PMC was state funded, how does that effect the U.S. position on state funding of terrorism? The U.S. has so far refused to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism like some other countries have done. But recently the U.S. officially declared Wagners to be a terrorist organisation, and now Russia has admitted to funding them. The logic there is that the U.S. should now declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, but my bet is they won't.

 

Another question is whether putin's admission of state funding will assist war crimes investigators to link Wagner's war crimes to the Kremlin.

[red750]

The top Russian military leader who is believed to have known in advance about the weekend’s mutiny has been arrested — and security services have him “by the balls,” according to a local report.

 

The Kremlin on Thursday again refused to discuss the whereabouts of Gen. Sergei Surovikin, 56, who has not been seen since the weekend revolt by his close ally, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

 

However, two sources close to Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed to the Moscow Times that the one-time military leader of the Ukraine war has been arrested, with one saying his situation is “not OK.”

 

“Apparently, he [Surovikin] chose Prigozhin’s side during the uprising, and they’ve gotten him by the balls,” one of the sources said.

 

The interrogation of the general — who remained a deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine — is so sensitive that defense department officials “are not even commenting on this information through our internal channels,” one of the sources told the Moscow paper.

[facthunter]

Oh what a tangled web they weave. Who to trust when you surround yourself with YES men and everyone is either bought or threatened. Putins not helped by  all of this. His BALLS might be hard to  find.  Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

With respect to the nuclear power station in Ukraine, I don't understand why the Atomic Energy Commission does not INSIST on inspections etc, and to declare a non-war zone around the station. surely Russia would have to agree,as ukraine is not going to be in charge of the station either.

IF it is only the Russians who will not agree to international people running the place, then will they not have exposed themselves to the world?

[kgwilson]

Why would the Russians allow anything as they have shown absolutely no compliance with any international agreement since their invasion & have committed more war crimes than you can count. Putin has been declared a terrorist and will be arrested if he steps foot in any signatory country.

 

The plant is not producing power and the control rods have been inserted so it is in a holding pattern but still poses massive dangers should anything go wrong. The Ukrainians still manage the plant but the Russians control it and could easily detonate some of their explosives they have there in order to generate a radioactive leak. That is a threat they aim to keep.

[Bruce Tuncks]

If the AEC asks for NATO to police the power station in the event that Russia will not allow international inspections, surely that would not trigger ww3? They are not asking for the Russians to give up the area in favor of Ukrain, and in fact if they are correct in their statements that "Ukraine is going to sabotage the place" then they, the Russians, will have won too.

[rgmwa]

I would not like to be in Surovikin’s shoes. Chances are they are being suspended out of a window somewhere while he’s still wearing them. Or some even worse experience.

[facthunter]

When the Going gets TOUGH the tough get going but how and where are they going?  I wouldn't want to be in Putin's shoes. Nev

[onetrack]

I'd have to opine that Gen. Surovikin is probably being invited to have a chat with interrogators, over a nice cup of Russian polonium tea.

[willedoo]

The ironic thing is that Surovikin is responsible for most of the defences and fortifications that the Ukrainians are struggling to break through. Without him, the Russians would be in a much worse position by now. None of that matters to putler. He's all about self preservation, and he sticks by the two dodos because they are the only ones he trusts.

[willedoo]

Ukrainian intelligence is saying that it's possible the Russian's are planning to blow the nuclear plant this week and blame it on Ukraine. They say they've intercepted communications ordering most Russian troops to withdraw from the plant region before the 5th., and that Rosatom staff have already been recalled leaving just the Ukrainian staff at the plant. Another factor is that on the 5th., the wind forecast is to change from a westerly to blow from the north east. Of course, it could be just Ukrainian intelligence psyops; they're fairly good at that.

 

The other option is that the Russians really are bugging out because they expect to lose control of the region soon. Ukraine will be keen to get control before the water supply for cooling runs out. They say they have a few months supply of water in onsite storage. Before it runs out, they would need to set up a pumping station and pipe water from the river.

Edited July 2, 2023 by willedoo

[Jerry_Atrick]

4 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

If the AEC asks for NATO to police the power station in the event that Russia will not allow international inspections, surely that would not trigger ww3? They are not asking for the Russians to give up the area in favor of Ukrain, and in fact if they are correct in their statements that "Ukraine is going to sabotage the place" then they, the Russians, will have won too.

I think it would be the UN rather than NATO, but there will be no way that Russia will allow them in as it will allow a third party access to not too far beyond the power station to travel to get there, and while the Rouskis could dictate the routes, it would still risk them being open to even more assesment than the power station.

 

I wonder how many nuclear power stations have incorporated into their design protections against foreign invasion.

[willedoo]

6 hours ago, red750 said:

However, two sources close to Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed to the Moscow Times that the one-time military leader of the Ukraine war has been arrested, with one saying his situation is “not OK.”

Worth noting the Moscow Times is not a controlled Kremlin backed media outlet. It's an anti-Kremlin Dutch owned show and more likely to be accurate than any of the current Russian media.

[Old Koreelah]

59 minutes ago, willedoo said:

Worth noting the Moscow Times is not a controlled Kremlin backed media outlet. It's an anti-Kremlin Dutch owned show and more likely to be accurate than any of the current Russian media.

Surprising that anything like independent media is still allowed in Putin’s crumbling empire.

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

Surprising that anything like independent media is still allowed in Putin’s crumbling empire.

It's an on-line news outlet these days, not physically in Russia. It originally started there.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Nitpicking I know, but surely the international inspectors could be helicoptered in? And if the UN is subject to a Russian veto, would they not use it at the risk of exposure?

[Jerry_Atrick]

If they are helicoptered in, they will likely see more from the air than if they were trucked in.  And how many UN nuclear inspectors could be vetoed before one runs out of them?

 

[Old Koreelah]

Being a UN nuclear inspector might be hazardous enough, but how many would be queueing up to work in a war zone? Arriving via helicopter is not my cup of tea, after Wagner troops shot down a heap of Russian ones!

[facthunter]

Helo's look like "sitting Crazy Palm Trees" to me.

[willedoo]

Prigozhin's business empire is starting to unravel. The Russian MoD has cancelled his catering company's contract to supply the military. The contract amounts to around 10 billion USD over the last seven years. In the last 12 months, Wagners received around 1 billion in direct payments, and Prighozhin's catering company received a similar amount for catering to the Ministry of Defence. Added to that is lost income from the other government catering contracts to hospitals and schools. When the mutiny was in full swing, the FSB raided Wagner's headquarters in St. Petersburg and confiscated 50 million in cash that was kept for paying wages to the Wagner mercs. His catering company has had more than 500 law suits against it for supplying poor quality food and substituted products.

 

putin would be keen to send a message to others that if you want wealth and privileges, you have to play his game.