Sanctions against Russia

[onetrack]

In another interesting aside - I started a blog on Google Blogger in 2006 - but I didn't continue with it after about 2008, as it was time consuming for no personal benefit. The blog only had about a dozen or so chapters on it, with a few articles of varying interest. I also put up about a couple of dozen photos - some of my own, some "borrowed" from other sites (with credits).

 

In the last few years, I've rarely gone and looked at the blog. I found there was no way to delete it, so I just left it. Then the photos disappeared a few years ago - I think this happened after Google did some kind of a revamp of Blogger. The photo images just ended up a blank space in the posts.

 

Then, yesterday, I went back and checked out the blog, and all the photos have been hacked, and an image of the Ukrainian flag with "NO WAR" on it, has been pasted in place of the images!

So, it's obvious the Ukrainians are being very active on the IT side of things, with IT-skilled Ukrainians obviously looking for sites on the Internet to hack into.

 

I can only imagine what these Ukrainians are doing to Russian IT and websites and programmes. The Russians are probably doing the same to the Ukrainians - but hopefully, the Ukrainians are doing more damage to the Russians than the Russians are doing to the Ukrainians. I'd really like to see some Russian hackers get hacked!!

 

I can recall, around 2000, when the BIL was doing an IT degree, he told me about this little Asian bloke he was doing the course with, and how he was a wizard with coding and programming, and IT in general.

As something to do in his spare time, with IT practice, this little Asian bloke had devised a potent virus, which he demonstrated to the BIL. The BIL said the virus was so potent, it actually burnt holes in hard drives!!

 

Of course, they both knew, even back then, that it was illegal to produce and distribute a virus, so it went no further than between the two of them.

But it shows the potential of what can be done to IT networks and equipment, if someone is determined enough to infiltrate IT systems, and wreak a lot of damage to IT operations.

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by onetrack

[willedoo]

I don't know how credible the report is, but The Daily Mail, citing the UK Defence Secretary says Putin is preparing an important statement for May 9 announcing a mass mobilization of the population for a decisive blow to Ukraine. It's reported that one of Putin's arguments about organizing a mass conscription of the population into the army will be the declaration of a new war against the "Nazis" of the whole world.

 

I guess he's got to come up with some narrative on Victory Day to save face. He's quite prepared to throw more young conscripts into the meat grinder. This is like Hitler all over again. A dictator gone off the rails and taking everyone else with him in a downward spiral.

Edited April 30, 2022 by willedoo

[kgwilson]

Putins Army Chiefs are reportedly urging Putin to declare war so that the general population can be mobilised and martial law declared. They are embarrassed & frustrated by their constant failures with the Ukraine invasion the latest after Afghanistan, Syria and Chechnya. How much military hardware can be mustered now is another problem. As well, Russian armament systems are chock full of Western technology so with no supply of that componentry those systems will slowly grind to a halt.

 

If war & martial law is declared Western businesses will be nationalised & it seems that as Western companies are shutting up shop already that is underway now. So they call up reserves and their equipment, revoke the 1 year conscription limit, conscript more ordinary people, but if they run short of equipment and losses continue at the same alarming rate then who knows what will happen with their last resort being biological and nuclear options.

 

Putin is unlikely to back down & his military won't accept total failure. The only options will be some sort of takeover by realists or it will end badly for the whole planet.

Edited April 30, 2022 by kgwilson

[willedoo]

Being cut off from Western technology will hurt them for a long time. Just one example, Russian airline Utair is going to lease old Yak-40 and Yak-42 aircraft that are being brought out of storage and refurbished. They've given up on the option of buying Sukhoi Superjets because of looming problems with parts and maintenance. The Superjet has enough % of American components to come under US sanctions. This was first an issue when Iran and Russia  were going to do a deal to manufacture Superjets in Iran and the US blocked the deal.

[willedoo]

I think Ukraine would be learning a lot about their enemy since the war started. They would be gaining valuable knowledge about how to fight the Russians, how to defend against them, and how to prepare for any future repeat. I can see a lot of bunkers being dug in the future. Also lots of air defence.

[onetrack]

IMO, Putin would be extremely reluctant to declare War. That goes totally against his devious nature. He lied about the Ukrainian operation from the word Go - first it was, "we are not going to invade the Ukraine".  Then, it was, "we going to move into the Ukraine in a peace-keeping exercise, because Russians there need protection from attacks". Then, it was a full-on invasion and attack on the Ukraine.

 

It's lie, after lie, after BS, after more lies. Putin makes Trump look like honesty personified. Putin and the Russian military have lied all the way to the Russian soldiers - lied about their contracts, lied about what they were going to do, lied about their losses.

Putin prefers a devious course, designed to keep "the enemy" off-balance - and to keep up psychological pressure on the Ukraine, via attacks from afar, via artillery, rockets and missiles. 

 

But Putin knows, if he officially declares War, that's a whole new ballgame, and it allows NATO to step up to the plate, with troops, air support, and much more equipment.

Putin can't risk getting another pile of countries involved - but eventually, all of Europe will become involved in the Ukraine conflict, there will never be any backing down, or loss of face on Putins behalf.

 

Putin is a master of cunning and strategy. He is now destabilising Transnistria (because the Russians there had a short conflict with Moldova and won concessions - so it's the equivalent of the Donbas. But because Transnistria is on the Western side of the Ukraine, and the Donbas is on the East, this is Putins scheme to have two invasive conflicts, one on each side the Ukraine, thus splitting Ukraines forces and reducing it's ability to respond forcefully.

 

I just trust that the Ukrainians have studied up on, and are now practising Guerrilla warfare - because Guerilla warfare, properly executed, is a low cost, and highly effective way to destroy and demoralise an enemy with bigger numbers of troops.

 

https://www.economist.com/ukraine-crisis

 

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

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/24/tiny-landlocked-moldova-struggles-to-deal-with-the-fallout-of-russias-war-on-ukraine.html

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by onetrack

[Jerry_Atrick]

[Old Koreelah]

Ukraine is certainly winning the propaganda war; a few km west of us in a huge field of sunflowers (Ukraine colours) is a newly-installed viewing platform for tourists. Attached to the steps are two flagpoles flying the flags of Oz and Ukraine.

[kgwilson]

Cracks emerge in Russian elite as tycoons start to bemoan invasion.

 

The following article published today in the Washington Post gives an interesting insight into how Putins dictatorship has affected the rich and famous and silenced many but their tolerance is beginning to fade. A few more months and stagnation of Russian military operations will see the emerging cracks evolve into chasms and eventual internal self destruction. That is my hope anyway.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/29/russia-oligarchs-ukraine-invasion-dissent/

[willedoo]

At this stage, the war in the Donbass region seems to have settled into a front line slog. Ukrainian forces are digging in on a front line now hundreds of kilometers long. Considering the farmland terrain, it can't help but remind of the WW1 front lines in France.

 

One of the best bits of equipment for the Donbass defence Ukraine is getting is 100 M777 howitzers. The US is supplying 90, Canada 4 and Australia 6 units. It's amazing what they can do, especially with Excalibur GPS guided rounds controlled by drone. More than half of the howitzers have been delivered.

 

[facthunter]

There's NO way of predicting Putins likely behaviour. He's capable of anything rather than lose face.. When the truth be known, he already has. This sort of behaviour should never be rewarded.  Those who live by the Sword .... the saying goes..   Nev 

[onetrack]

In other depressing news for the Russians, they've had a major fire in an establishment that designs and develops missiles and rocketry, and which studies Western military stealth technology.

 

The fire doesn't appear to have been caused by any Ukrainian attack or sabotage, it's reported that aged wiring on the building was suspected as the cause of the fire.

 

Nonetheless, it appears the fire has done a fair bit of damage - but only temporarily, I'd guess - to the Russians ability as regards stealth equipment, and air defence equipment, designing.

 

Hopefully, the damage will result in them losing a lot of high end electronic equipment which might be hard to replace in the current COVID-19 restrictions climate.

 

The Chinese won't be supplying any major level of new electronics soon - Shanghai Port is in full lockdown, and in an article I saw just yesterday, they displayed a ship tracking screenshot, showing that there's over ONE THOUSAND ships lined up in the waters outside Shanghai Port, all waiting to load or unload cargo, as soon as the Port opens again - which might even be several weeks!

 

https://eurasiantimes.com/russian-military-facility-housing-gets-seriously-damaged-watch/

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-04-28/china-lockdowns-drive-already-long-shipping-delays/101021770

[nomadpete]

Curious about the Russian 'AN30 spy plane' incursion that the Swiss recently reported.

So I looked it up. Seems the aircraft in question is a geosurvey varient of the AN24. A big bulbous front was added to AN24 for photography. The AN24 looked suspiciously like a copy of the 1950's Fokker Friendship. Maybe it was considered expendable, I doubt that it was all they had left. Anyway, I hazard a guess that the AN30 crew were not trying to exercise maximum cruise speed of 250kts!

 

So, I picture a bunch of modern fast fighter jets trying to slow down enough to 'escort' a slow, lumbering, old urban commuter aircraft dawdling along.

 

Something like an old dog ambling up the path to pyss on his neighbour's front door.

[nomadpete]

In spite of my light hearted take on the above, the act was a serious attempt to incite a reaction.

There are several ways that the incident might have played out and I suspect that Putin has considered each possibility, like a chess player might. Fortunately, so far the result has not given him much to work with.

Edited May 2, 2022 by nomadpete

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Curious about the Russian 'AN30 spy plane' incursion that the Swiss recently reported.

So I looked it up. Seems the aircraft in question is a geosurvey varient of the AN24. A big bulbous front was added to AN24 for photography. The AN24 looked suspiciously like a copy of the 1950's Fokker Friendship. Maybe it was considered expendable, I doubt that it was all they had left. Anyway, I hazard a guess that the AN30 crew were not trying to exercise maximum cruise speed of 250kts!

 

So, I picture a bunch of modern fast fighter jets trying to slow down enough to 'escort' a slow, lumbering, old urban commuter aircraft dawdling along.

 

Something like an old dog ambling up the path to pyss on his neighbour's front door.

I guess they got to blow a few cobwebs out of it.

 

Not meaning to be overly pedantic, but Ukrainian and Russian designations only capitalise the letter representing the start of a word. All others are lower case. Rather than AN30, it's An-30, to represent Antonov-30 (Антонов-30). It's always written that way, whether in Cyrillic or Roman lettering. Hence MiG representing the two designers, Mikoyan and Gurevich being written as MiG (Mikoyan Gurevich) and not MIG.

[willedoo]

Another Russian military site has gone up in flames near Belgorod yesterday, the second in four days in that area. There was some distant video posted on Telegram with lots of ongoing explosions in the audio, so most likely another weapons storage facility.

[willedoo]

Yet another embarrassment for Putler. He sent his Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, to Ukraine to take personal control of operations, but he's been wounded by shrapnel near Izyum and sent home for medical treatment. The day before Gerasimov was wounded, Major General Andrei Simonov was killed in Kharkiv region, bringing the number of Russian Generals killed to nine.

 

Ukraine's special forces hit a headquarters near Izyum and destroyed some armour, so that's probably when Gerasimov was wounded.

 

[willedoo]

As an addition to the above post, the Ukrainians are saying that a number of senior officers were killed in the attack, including three in Gerasimov's entourage. Gerasimov is reported to have damage to his legs and hips. He was reportedly evacuated to Belgorod inside the Russian border and flown out from there. He would have had a good view of the Russian military facility burning near Belgorod as he flew out. One report said he boarded the plane unaided, so his injuries can't be too serious.

Edited May 2, 2022 by willedoo

[facthunter]

Put In should put in an appearance at the front to cheer his Liberating army on and I'm sure the happy Ukranians would shower him with flowers for his NOBLE efforts.   Nev

[willedoo]

Latest press rumours are that Putler is going in for abdominal cancer surgery when the May 9 Victory Day parade is over. The story goes that ex FSB director, and now Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Nikolai Patrushev, will take over as acting President. He's as bad as Putin.

 

[nomadpete]

[kgwilson]

In one of the latest acts of desperation, Russias idiot foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has stated in a interview on the Italian news channel that Hitler was a Jew. This has of course sparked outrage from Israel, their own Foreign Minister Yair Lapid stating Lavrovs statement as "Unforgivable, scandalous and a horrible historical error. The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust,” said Lapid, the son of a Holocaust survivor. “The lowest level of racism against Jews is to blame Jews themselves for anti-semitism.”

 

Next they will be saying the whole western world is run by Nazis when if they were really able to look inwardly at themselves they'd see all the similarities to Hitler and his henchmen in Putin and his murderous military. 

[Old Koreelah]

Throughout history one of Russia’s main exports has been people- escaping oppression, famine and murderous regimes. Nothing seems to have changed. Expect huge numbers of emigres seeking to escape the collapsed motherland.

[onetrack]

It's interesting to see the number of Ukrainians who have lived in Russia for decades, all leaving Russia now, as they realise they can no longer tolerate the crookedly-run Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

Most of these people are highly intelligent, well educated and highly skilled people, and this will be to Russia's detriment.

 

One of the most high profile Ukrainians to "defect" was the former Gazprombank Vice President Igor Volobuev - who states that Putin needs to be put on trial and hung!

The banking and financial arms within Russia are the ones who are sounding the biggest alarms about the massive financial damage to Russias economy that Putin is causing by initiating the War.

 

These people well understand how the chickens will come home to roost shortly as the bottom falls out of the Russian economy, thanks to Russia being excluded from the SWIFT payment system, by the Credit Card companies excluding Russia from their operations, and by huge amounts of Russian funds and assets that are overseas, being frozen or seized.

 

Amongst the biggest losers are the oligarchs who thought they were clever in moving assets out of Russia, or by purchasing Western assets with diverted Russian wealth. Now they find those assets are no longer theirs, or no longer able to be traded. It will take a little while, but when the average Russian starts finding empty shelves and their money is the same value as dunny paper, there will be likely be a revolt.

That's all dependent on whether Putin lasts that long, of course, or whether he meets with an "unexpected heart attack", like his mentor Sobchak.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-43260651

[Old Koreelah]

And another thing: why is it that that Russia, which has far more territory than any nation, wants more?