Sanctions against Russia

[Marty_d]

Moldova always has the best Eurovision acts.

[rgmwa]

That's obviously why Putin's interested in Moldova.

 

[Marty_d]

Something tells me that if Moldova were under the Russian thumb again,  their act wouldn't be so joyful. 

[willedoo]

5 hours ago, rgmwa said:

If Putin moves on to Moldova, it might motivate the West to take more action.

Particularly so considering Romania is a NATO country and has a vested interest in Romanian speaking Moldova. The NATO/EU problem with enabling action against Russia will always be that jerk in Hungary, putin's butt-plug. They need to kick the clown out of both organisations.

[onetrack]

I seem to recall another major warmonger who split his war efforts into more than one front. That didn't end too well for him. His name was Adolf Hitler.

[facthunter]

Not a lot if difference  regarding loss of lives between Hitler and Putler.  Nev

[onetrack]

And not a lot of difference in war leadership abilities, and strategic move abilities, between the two, either.

[spenaroo]

both clearly state the intentions,
but are ignored by leaders that prefer to talk peace and say cooler heads will prevail

If we aren't careful more will fall.

plenty of far right government's being elected through the world.
Isolationism is on the rise.

debt ridden countries like Venezuela are already eyeing off oil rich neighbor's to help repair economies.

how many fronts can we reasonably fight on, eventually we will be pulling back on treaty obligations accordingly

Edited December 8, 2023 by spenaroo

[willedoo]

47 minutes ago, spenaroo said:

both clearly state the intentions,
but are ignored by leaders that prefer to talk peace and say cooler heads will prevail

It looks like history repeating. After 2014, putin was roused on by the West and threatened with the greatest penalty of all - being shirtfronted by Wingnut. Post February 2022, he's been occasionally slapped with a wet lettuce leaf. It must be starting to occur to Ukraine's backers by now that putler's strategy of holding out in an endurance test favours him and not his enemies.

 

To keep the Western support show on the road is like constantly juggling cats. That's a big, unwieldy bunch of cats with varying interests and degrees of skin in the game. putler has none of that to deal with. He has available resources, a population that believes him in a country that doesn't value human life like we do, and he has the friendship and support of governments that count.

 

No wonder he's feeling confident. To supplement his manufacturing, he has friends selling him weapons. Despite been declared a wanted war criminal, he still travels and gets a hero's welcome in China. He's just been to Saudi Arabia and the UAE and been honoured with a parade and airshow with planes skywriting the red, white and blue Russian flag colours. Now he's got the president of Iran visiting him for a few more deals. The US Republicans are blocking aid, Ukraine is rapidly running out of ammunition and money, and for putler, life's not too bad. He doesn't give a sh*t. The West has been weak on Ukraine and he knows it. He also knows if he plays the game, he will outlast us and keep getting what he wants. To put him in his place, I think we need a smarter crop of politicians than what we have now.

[willedoo]

Ukraine is starting to get around the Polish border blockade by putting their stranded trucks on flat bed rail cars to get them across the border.

 

[willedoo]

News coming from the Ukrainian battle front is slowing right down. According to the Ukrainian ground forces commander, their priority now is to preserve their soldier's lives and use their limited ammunition stocks at a sustainable rate. They've lost a lot of lives and equipment for very little gain in the summer offensive, and seem to be trying to find ways to survive without losing too much more territory.

 

There was some talk that they will concentrate on mirroring Russia's defensive fortifications to try to keep the orcs out. It must be looking more like the WW1 battlefield as time drags on. The Russians have been attacking on a few different fronts for some time now, so the pressure is on the Ukrainians to hold the line. The speculation that US aid will end in 2024 must be worrying for them as well. A fair bit of commentary now is saying putin will win this thing; I just hope they're wrong.

 

 

[spenaroo]

yep, and it will continue piece by piece, country by country.

till someone declares its time to take off the kids gloves and send troops not aid.
but that will never happen as its guaranteed WW3

Edited December 13, 2023 by spenaroo

[facthunter]

What is a DEAL with Putin Worth? He even Lies to his own people and "disappears" his Challengers.. Nev

[spenaroo]

Now the interesting part is what happen when Putin dies,

if there is a power vacuum and struggle - how many countries will reclaim their land. possibly with interest?

[willedoo]

7 hours ago, facthunter said:

What is a DEAL with Putin Worth?

Any deal with putin only has value for him. Any peace deal on Ukraine gives him at least part of what he wants. It would be like rewarding a dog for bad behaviour. Ukraine was hoping for success in their summer campaign so that putin would have to negotiate from a position of weakness. That didn't happen and it's absolutely fruitless to try to negotiate with him when he's still holding some cards.

[willedoo]

5 hours ago, spenaroo said:

Now the interesting part is what happen when Putin dies,

if there is a power vacuum and struggle - how many countries will reclaim their land. possibly with interest?

Despite all Kadyrov's brown nosing of putler, the Chechen Republic would probably be first cab off the rank, as well as Dagestan. Probably some of the other republics on the southern border as well. My guess is Tatarstan would like to be independent, but they're small and landlocked by other Russian republics. It would be hard for them to be an isolated, independent enclave.

 

All of Russia's Caspian Sea naval fleet and shipping access to Iran depends on their Caspian Sea frontage, which is the republics of Kalmykia and Dagestan and Astrakhan which is an oblast.

[willedoo]

You'd think China would like a slice of the post-putin pie.

[willedoo]

The bad news lately has been that the Ukrainian ground troops are bogged down for the winter with low stocks of ammunition while the U.S. Republicans and Hungary's PM Orban are blocking much needed financial aid leaving Ukraine with only enough money to last a few weeks.

 

The good news is that the Ukrainians have destroyed the Russian landing ship Novocherkassk in port at Feodosia, Crimea. Reports are that most of the ship is lying below the waterline. It's an interesting development as the Russians have said it was hit by Ukrainian aircraft carrying guided missiles. Feodosia is on the southern coast of Crimea, so if true, it signals new capability by the Ukrainians. It also coincides with Russia reportedly losing five Su-34 bombers in the last few days. It's sparked rumours that they now have some F-16's operational, although that would have to be officially confirmed to be believed.

 

[willedoo]

Some reports are saying that the ship would have been hit by either British made Storm Shadow or French made SCALP-EG cruise missiles launched from a Sukhoi Su-24 bomber in Ukraine. The Russian air defences in Crimea must be getting depleted if the cruise missiles are getting that far.

[Jerry_Atrick]

6 hours ago, willedoo said:

It's sparked rumours that they now have some F-16's operational,

This is not the first I have heard this. For the last couple of weeks, the reports in the papers are that the F16s being deployed were imminent; I think from the Dutch. I am sure it is only coincidence, but then why would they announce with fanfare that they now have them? Surprise and all of that,

[willedoo]

I think those claims of five Su-34 bombers shot down are more likely a mix of Su-34's and Su-30 fighters.

[willedoo]

There's not much left of the landing ship Novocherkassk, basically now just wet scrap metal. I looked up the class on Wiki and they are Soviet era ships built in Poland for the Soviet navy. They are roll-on/roll-off ships with bow and stern doors and a forward deck hatch to enable crane loading/unloading. The internal vehicle deck can hold up to 25 armored personnel carriers with a total loading of 450 tons of cargo. They were designed for beach landings but as far as I know the Russians have been using them to ferry gear across the Azov Sea that arrives in Crimea by train.

 

Probably not a huge tactical loss as they still have four or five landing ships left in the Black Sea Fleet. The only place they could ever use them for an amphibious assault on Ukrainian held coastline would be around Odessa which is heavily defended, so no loss of capability there. The logistical and psychological impact on the Russian fleet would certainly be worth the cost of a couple of cruise missiles.

 

 

[willedoo]

These anti UAV screens are reasonably effective, but I wonder if there's some way around them. Like dropping multiple bomblets slightly staggered so the first one breaches the screen and the second one penetrates and does the damage. A bit like the ammunition belts in fighter aircraft machine guns where penetrating rounds are loaded first followed by explosive rounds.

 

[willedoo]

This training ship was also sunk at it's moorings in the same attack that destroyed the landing ship. I doubt putler will lose any sleep over losing this old tub. Someone made the comment that the bloke in the red shirt is Humphrey Bogart looking over the side of the African Queen.

 

[facthunter]

Lauren Bacall would have to  be there, IF it was him.   Nev