Sanctions against Russia

[kgwilson]

The AK47 is easily the most popular assault rifle in the world and can cope with a lot of abuse, is cheap to produce and easy to use but it is not very accurate at more than 300 metres. But then it is an assault rifle not a sniper rifle. These in the photo could be the later version AK74 (the number meaning the year of original design) which takes a 5.45 round compared to the 47 that takes a 7.62 round.

[onetrack]

The AK-47's were praised by the Americans for their ability to handle dirt and water. Not so the M-16, it was particularly troublesome in severe service conditions.

But the story of why the M-16 suffered so many failures is a typical long and convoluted one - with bureaucrats in the military making changes to the weapon, without understanding what the results would be.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/06/m-16-a-bureaucratic-horror-story/545153/

[old man emu]

21 hours ago, willedoo said:

It's been said that the WW2 Diggers liked the Owen

 

[facthunter]

A lot of things may have been said. I think that's the one that goes all over the place when you fire it.  I got the impression it wasn't very popular.. (Early 60's was my experience). Nev

[old man emu]

You've got the wrong one

 

 

This is the crook one

 

[willedoo]

15 hours ago, kgwilson said:

These in the photo could be the later version AK74 (the number meaning the year of original design) which takes a 5.45 round compared to the 47 that takes a 7.62 round.

The one on the right in the photo is an AK-74M; hard to tell with the photo but the other one is probably the same.

 

Kalashnikov have a lot of YouTube videos of reliability demonstrations of various firearms. This one is the newish AK-12 firing 680 rounds before bursting the barrel. I don't think there's many AK-12's in service yet. The AK-74 variants are still the backbone of the Russian inventory as far as I know.

 

 

[willedoo]

Another positive of Russia's defeat and withdrawal from the Kiev region is the amount of Russian ammunition and gear left behind. Ukraine will be able to shoot it straight back at the Russians in the east. The Ukrainians have been repairing captured armoured vehicles and putting them into service as well. Also, they will have a good supply of second hand tank parts for quite a while.

[kgwilson]

When I did my national service in 1970 we had the SLR & M16. The SLR was an excellent rifle though long & heavy 7.62 calibre but accurate at long range & easy to maintain. The M16 was light but not very accurate & was a piece of crap in the field as any bit of dirt would stop it working & it was finnicky to maintain with too many small bits.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Sky News here is a very different organisation to Australia.

 

This is an interesting admission (no doubt won't be played in Russia)....

 

 

 

[kgwilson]

Yes Sky News Australia is verging on the Ultra Right Wing mouthpiece that was Fox News & Breitbart in the US during the Trump era, cherry picking their data from stories blowing it out of all proportion, getting the facts wrong & only ever making an apology if forced to.

[willedoo]

In the news, the first load of Bushmasters leave today for Ukraine. Credit to them for getting it done promptly. It looks like we are sending 20 in total. I thought 40 or 50 would be a good number considering we have over a thousand of them, but 20 will be a lot better than nothing. Looking at photos of the Dutch Bushmasters, they are RHD as well, so it looks like there's no LHD conversion for exports. Probably too technically complicated to convert.

[willedoo]

Some commentary is making the point that there's a narrow window right now to supply Ukraine with much needed armament. The theory is that the Russian units pulling back from the Kiev region will need a few weeks to regroup, re-equip and relocate to the south east for a future escalation there. Ukraine seems to have had a lot of success with portable air defence systems, man portable anti tank weapons and drones. The shoulder fired weapons appear to be winning the day on the battlefield. I think if Ukraine keeps doing what they've been doing, and other nations can supply arms instead of talking about it, then Ukraine will stand a chance.

 

Those Russian units that have had a big kick in the pants around Kiev might have an even bigger morale problem by the time they are relocated to fight again. My guess is that a lot of them would just want to go home after their experiences and not want round 2 of being Putin's cannon fodder. There's a big difference in morale among the ordinary troops from both sides. The Ukrainian troops are fighting to save their country, whereas the Russians are fighting to stay alive and hopefully steal a microwave or laptop to take home with them.

[willedoo]

Received an email today from a friend in Kharkov city. He's been able to make contact sporadically since the war began. His family have been safely evacuated to the west and he's stayed on in Kharkov to help defend the city. I'm sure Sergey wouldn't mind me posting his message here. In his way, he's thanking all of us for our support and for that of all around the world who have supported Ukraine. The spirit of the Ukrainian people is strong, something that the invaders lack.

 

"Hi, William.
Thank you for your kind words and support.
We are strong, we are fighting and soon there will be victory - God is with us, truth is with us.
Many people and friends from all over the world help us a lot. We were well dressed in protection and are now helping with weapons. We are very grateful to everyone, thanks to all of you we will defeat the injustice and impunity of this rotten regime.
Everyone should be happy!!!
Then it remains only to rebuild our homes for a happy life.
Our children should live in peace and kindness!
Take care my friend.
Write, I'm always in touch.
Good luck.
Your friend Sergey, Kharkiv, Ukraine."

[Jerry_Atrick]

This is an assessment of an interesting assertion that economic sanctions shouldn't be used:

 

I like this in the comments, though:

Octavian Popescu

3 hours ago

They're not sanctions... they're just special economic measures.

[kgwilson]

He is right in that the sanctions are hurting the ordinary Russians who have been brainwashed by Putin and his regime for over 20 years that Ukraine rightfully belongs to Russia and they have to get rid of the Nazi regime there. 

 

Now that there are about 10,000 dead Russian soldiers including half a dozen Generals and they have lost enormous amounts of military hardware, it will be difficult to maintain this belief with ordinary Russians. Wounded Russians will return home with stories that belie Putins BS and the truth will slowly spread. Even though it will be countered by the Kremlin lie machine, the seeds of discontent will be sown. I'd say that this has already begun. The first and most obvious truth will be that the Ukrainians did not welcome the Russian invaders as liberators. All they did was destroy their peaceful existence where they had begun to embrace and enjoy the fruits of Western culture.

 

The sanctions to date are a feather duster approach. The only sanctions that will really hurt are to stop all trade with Russia. The reliance on Russian Oil and Gas has hamstrung Europe & Putin is still laughing all the way to the (Russian) Bank. 

 

The UN is completely toothless. It may as well not exist. Russia should be expelled from the UN or at the very least removed from the Security Council. The fact that this council still exists displays its big Boys Club approach. It is certainly not a democratic organisation when a huge majority of votes can be vetoed by 1 of only 5 permanent members. The other 10 rotated members don't get a say at all.

 

The hope is that during this lull, supply lines for Ukraines defence in the East and South are able to bring in enough to repel the Russians as happened with the first offensive. Anti tank weapons have worn them down but it is Russian Artillary and their long range missiles that seem to be doing the most damage. How many more of these missiles they have and how quickly they can manufacture more is the unanswered question.

[nomadpete]

Putin -> Ukraine. = USA -> Iraq

 

Both were invasions based on lies.

 

Both were convinced that the invaders would be welcomed as saviours, but were dead wrong. 

 

Both cause generations of hateful survivors.

 

Both a tragic waste of lives and money, when there are far more important issues in the world and honorable ways to get famous.

[facthunter]

Iraq was about "almost free" OIL. That was the Murdoch headlines at the time. Haliburton, (in VP Cheney's wife's name,) profited immensely.  Nev

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, kgwilson said:

The sanctions to date are a feather duster approach. The only sanctions that will really hurt are to stop all trade with Russia. The reliance on Russian Oil and Gas has hamstrung Europe & Putin is still laughing all the way to the (Russian) Bank. 

I don't know if it's a verified figure, but I read that since the start of the war, the EU has given Ukraine 1 billion Euros worth of arms, and given Russia 35 billion Euros in energy payments in the same period.

[willedoo]

We hear a lot of things about the war in Ukraine that are not officially verified. Perhaps as time goes by, more facts will emerge. One is that among the Russian's gear left behind when they withdrew from the Kiev district were parade dress uniforms. If true, that would indicate that the Russians intended to capture Kiev and hold a victory grand parade in the city centre.

 

It wasn't long into the invasion after things went pear shaped, that the Russians denied their objective was to capture Kiev and overthrow the Ukrainian government. Dress uniforms aside, judging by the amount of ground troops and type of equipment they sent there, it's obvious that was their original intention. They've been humiliated and are making up the narrative on the run as they suffer setbacks. The retreat from Kiev being dressed up as a goodwill gesture toward the peace talks is a good one. The truth is they got battered and failed miserably in their objective.

 

In this Monty Python sketch, you could substitute the Russian Army for the Black Knight.

 

[willedoo]

The things that happen in war. I don't know if anyone here has seen photos of the kitchen wall cabinet in Borodianka. The photos started showing up on the net a few days ago, and showed an intact kitchen wall cabinet still fastened to the kitchen wall while the rest of the room was blown away. A ceramic cockerel was still sitting in it's place unharmed on top of the cabinet. It turns out now that the ceramic cockerel has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance and some busy potters have been making facsimiles of it.

 

 

[willedoo]

[Marty_d]

21 minutes ago, willedoo said:

The things that happen in war. I don't know if anyone here has seen photos of the kitchen wall cabinet in Borodianka. The photos started showing up on the net a few days ago, and showed an intact kitchen wall cabinet still fastened to the kitchen wall while the rest of the room was blown away. A ceramic cockerel was still sitting in it's place unharmed on top of the cabinet. It turns out now that the ceramic cockerel has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance and some busy potters have been making facsimiles of it.

 

 

Oh, and look, in photo 3, one of those ceramic cockerels is being held by an absolute cock.

[willedoo]

1 minute ago, Marty_d said:

Oh, and look, in photo 3, one of those ceramic cockerels is being held by an absolute cock.

I'm guessing Boris gets to take one home with him. He'll get hours of endless amusement playing with it. He has the experience.

[Jerry_Atrick]

4 hours ago, willedoo said:

If Lithuania can do it, so can the rest of the EU: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1661749/lithuania-becomes-first-eu-country-to-stop-russian-gas-imports

 

[onetrack]

I wonder how the Biden family interests in the Russian and Ukranian economies are going? They don't look like the best investment decisions ever, right about now.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/27/hunter-biden-joe-biden-president-business-dealings

 

Joe is in a bind over the Russian energy sanctions, no matter what he does, it's going to be wrong.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2022/03/09/heres-why-biden-switched-from-opposing-russian-oil-ban-to-supporting-it/?sh=267952f44f60