Sanctions against Russia

[nomadpete]

Do you think it is a bucket list crisis?

ie: "if it's the last thing I do before I die...."

[Marty_d]

The guy has been top of the heap in Russia for a long time.  As such he's had no one telling him anything apart from what he wants to hear.  Is it really so amazing that he's become totally divorced from reality?

[Jerry_Atrick]

I was speaking to a neighbour today, who is housing a Ukranian woman and her daughter. She does not want to return to Ukraine after the war. She is from Marioupol which has been effective razxed to the ground, She also cites Russia will still be a neighbour after the war and that there is little confidence of a lasting peace between them.

 

But, she is hopeful than the war will allow Zelensjy to fight the corruption in Ukranine..

 

 

[willedoo]

17 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

But, she is hopeful than the war will allow Zelensky to fight the corruption in Ukraine..

Let's hope she is right, Jerry. Hopefully Zelensky and his cohort will have gained a bit of clout after their handling of the war situation. In times of peace, the only thing holding Ukraine back would be corruption. If they can control that, they would have a lot of potential as a nation. They have abundant agricultural resources, huge coal and steel producers, and a lot of manufacturing. In Soviet times, Ukraine was a big portion of the manufacturing capacity. They build aircraft, tanks, ships, armoured vehicles, military equipment, jet engines - the list goes on.

[willedoo]

If they can put the Russians back in their box, I can see an immediate future where Ukraine is equipped with F-16's and possibly F-15's, Leopard or Abrams tanks and a lot of foreign military gear like they have been supplied with in recent months. But I can also see Ukraine one day being a major defence industry exporter in their own right. They have a lot of really good domestically designed gear even now.

 

As far as breaking the trade ties with Russia, the two biggest military assets they would miss would be the MiL 8 family of helicopters and the Su-25. Having said that, the F-16 can carry more weight and has a respectable number of hard points, but is nowhere near as survivable in combat as the Su-25 is. I see no reason why Antonov can't branch out and design a Ukrainian alternative to the Su-25.

[willedoo]

I don't know if anyone remembers the story of the Colonel in charge of mobilisation at Vladivostok who committed suicide by shooting himself five times.

 

His wife has written an open letter addressed to Putin giving the authorities a blast, but more aimed at her husband's superiors than anything else. It seems like the Colonel was an honest career military man who was being set up as the fall guy. He had been lumped with the job of organising the mobilisation in the far eastern region and tried to bring attention to the fact that gear was missing, badly maintained and there was not enough resources available. He informed his boss, the Admiral commanding, and was told don't worry, everything will be fine. The Admiral passed the buck and went away on sick leave.

 

Complaints were made about the mobilisation, so an inspection team came down from Khabarovsk and laid the blame on the Colonel. During the inspection, the inspectors told the Colonel that he would be charged with over 100 million rubles (approx. 1.6 million USD) debt for loss and damage of state property and that he would be subject to criminal prosecution with confiscation of his property.

 

So then he allegedly committed suicide in his boss's office by shooting himself five times in the body (no head shot).

[Bruce Tuncks]

I'm amazed at how those in charge continually underestimate the way the population always responds. Putin seem to think that the Ukrainians are more likely to surrender if some of them freeze. But history tells us that making the population angry with you is what you really achieve.

Hitler's blitz on the UK was designed to make the population fearful and wanting to surrender and it achieved the opposite. In fact, not since the mongols actions in the middle-ages can I think of an example where terror has really worked.

[kgwilson]

It all leads to the only conclusion for me. Putin is a complete f**kin wanker, but a very dangerous one. Trump is the same but now not quite as dangerous.

Edited December 1, 2022 by kgwilson

[willedoo]

On 01/12/2022 at 10:53 AM, kgwilson said:

Russia is running out of missiles even using empty cold war era nuclear delivery missiles

I was reading that the Russians are firing the inert nuclear delivery missiles to get Ukraine to waste air defence ammunition on them.

[willedoo]

If these captured Russian documents prove to be legitimate, they will be a good addition to evidence at future war crimes tribunals.

 

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-captured-russian-documents-reveal-moscows-10-day-plan-to-take-over-the-country-and-kill-its-leaders-12759836?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter

 

The extreme right talking heads on Russian media were recently discussing the possibility that they would all be facing tribunals if Russia loses the war. Media host Vladimir Solovyov is the craziest of them. If you got all the nutters on Sky, added them all together and multiplied by ten, you would get Solovyov. The rest of them have been a bit more subdued recently; it seems to have finally sunk in that they are losing.

 

 

[willedoo]

I recon a big challenge in the future of warfare will be how to reduce the cost of things. It's probably long been this way, but these days the winner is the one who doesn't run out of money. Some missile costs are unreal. The  shoulder fired Javelin is a good example. The launcher costs about $180,000 (USD) and the munitions around $80,000 per shot. Another area is combat drones. With about 90% loss rate, they need to be cheap and replaceable as well as effective.

 

The Pentagon has given Raytheon Technologies a $1.2 billion contract for six advanced NASAMS air defense missile systems that will be delivered to Ukraine. The NASAMS is a joint venture between Raytheon and Norway's KDA. That cost works out at 200 million per system. I would guess that is not the unit price per launcher, but the total contract price, possibly including ammunition, delivery and ongoing support.

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by willedoo

[facthunter]

Roll up. Roll up. Buy the best people murdering machines available today. Discounts  for bulk orders.. Get them or we sell them to the other side. Be quick>  Nev

[red750]

Russia appears to be preparing for another large-scale air attack on Ukraine with dozens of bombers spotted massing at a key airbase.

 

Read more here.

 

 

[red750]

War with Japan

According to a newly leaked email from a whistleblower with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), months before Vladimir Putin began his disastrous invasion of Ukraine he was planning to attack Japan.

[willedoo]

This is a fairly good graphic describing the logistic challenges facing Crimea.

 

[willedoo]

A Russian Telegram channel that reports on Putin and the Kremlin's activities, has said that he recently fell down the stairs and crapped his pants. As usual, all these things are unverified; the channel claims to have a source in Putin's entourage.

 

The channel has often discussed Putin's alleged health problems and said he crapped himself because of problems resulting from cancer of the gastrointestinal tract. It also mentioned the common belief that he suffers from Parkinsons, and also that he has Schizoaffective disorder. The last one is believable.

 

It's an interesting channel even though it has to be taken with a grain of salt. It's definitely biased against the Kremlin (understandable), but there would probably be a certain amount of fact amongst all the information. The channel mentions the recent Collective Security Treaty Organization meeting in Armenia. It sounds like the CSTO is going to crumble before too long. Allegedly Putin asked Kazakhstan and Armenia to delay leaving the organisation until November of next year. Possibly some member states now see Russia as weak and declared a terrorist state, so they see no further advantage in aligning with Putin. He might be running out of mates.

[kgwilson]

Russian politicians and top officials seem to have a problem with stairs and keep falling down them, some with fatal results and mostly after they have made statements that don't toe the official line. Staircases with windows must be doubly scary.

[Bruce Tuncks]

willedoo is right about corruption. Ukraine should be a country of very high wealth per capita, and it is corruption which has slowed it down. It will be interesting to see what will happen after the Russians have gone.

There will be big forces to get rid of the corruption and of course there will be big forces wanting to go back to business as usual.

Alas, even in Australia we are getting more corrupt and more oligarchs.

Personally, I would council the grandkids to NOT go and fight for the Australian oligarchs, unless they ( the oligarchs ) made even more sacrifices than being conscripted. There would be about zero chance of this happening.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Bruce Tuncks

[red750]

Russia has issued the West with one request before it would agree to consider meeting to discuss about ending the Ukraine war.

 

United States President Joe Biden flagged on Thursday (US time) he was willing to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin but only if it was about a ceasefire.

 

President Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held talks in Washington and reaffirmed their commitment to stop the war.

 

"I'm prepared to speak with Mr Putin if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he's looking for a way to end the war. He hasn't done that yet," the US leader said.

 

"If that's the case, in consultation with my French and my NATO friends, I'll be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he has in mind. He hasn't done that yet."

 

But hours after his remarks, President Putin's chief of staff Dmitry Peskov issued an ultimatum to the leader of the free world and the West.

 

He declared discussions would only be considered when the four annexed Ukrainian regions are recognised as Russian territory.

 

Four regions in the war-torn nation - Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south - were illegally declared by Moscow in September as its territory after claiming ballots showed residents were in favour of being separated.

 

Ukraine accused the referenda of being a "sham" and argued they were "staged" for the outcome to only go one way, with the United Nations also condemning the move.

 

Mr Peskov said President Biden's refusal to recognise the territories as Russian "significantly complicates the search for mutual ground for discussions".

 

"What did President Biden say in fact? He said that negotiations are possible only after Putin leaves Ukraine," he said but added that was "certainly" not accepted.

 

"The special military operation is continuing."

[willedoo]

It makes you wonder how much of the Russian civilian population is dumb enough to believe the amateurish and laughable propaganda videos the Kremlin puts out. This is the latest one from Ria Novosti, interviewing a so called Russian soldier. He is saying the Ukrainian tank crews are sent on suicide missions by having their turret hatches welded shut so they can't escape the tank.

 

The problem for the propagandists is not so much that they use actors, but more the fact that they use really bad actors. Most of these videos are real Three Stooges stuff. At the start of the video, note the two actors pretending to be Russian infantrymen. If their unsteady legwork and comical gun handling skills are not enough, one of them (not sure if it's Moe or Larry), has a white ribbon tied to the barrel compensator which totally obscures his front sight.

 

And then it's on to the clowns in the interview. The actor being interviewed is staring off to the side at the prepared cheat sheet for most of the interview. The only exception is when the interviewer asks him a question and he looks around toward the interviewer. Predictably, he has to look back at the prepared script before he can answer. I wonder what the next installment will be - maybe Ukrainian Nazis eating babies.

 

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1599017301701197824

[facthunter]

This is what's SPECIAL about the Special Military Operations. Don't mention it's a war on the EU and some other parts of the world. (with trade). Yes you'd have to be a real moron to be fooled by it..   Nev

Edited December 4, 2022 by facthunter

[willedoo]

I remember the Ukrainian video of a Russian armoured vehicle surrendering to Ukrainian forces. To my eye, that was also obviously staged with actors, but there's a big difference between it and the Russian comedy shows. The Ukrainian video was made for an audience of Russian servicemen, as a guide for how to surrender. The Russian videos are made to either praise their own, or to demonise the Ukrainians. Pure self serving propaganda and nothing else.

[willedoo]

Dmitry Peskov, the bozo who is Putler's spokesman, has said the president will visit the Donbass at some stage. Another fake video in the making. Putin is a lot of things, like ruthless and cunning, but there's one thing he's not, and that's brave. If he goes to visit his 'special operation', the Ukrainians will present him with his own special HIMARS shell.

[willedoo]

In the Russian world these days, it seems like the inmates are running the asylum. They're putting up statues of Lenin in occupied Ukraine. This one is in Starobilsk, Luhansk region, which will most likely be back in Ukrainian hands by New Year. It's strange behaviour for a country that hasn't been communist for more than thirty years. I think Putler really is becoming delusional with his back to the USSR aspirations.

 

[willedoo]

Something a bit different, a photo of Ukrainian liberators driving around the Kherson city airport with a pile of decommissioned Annushkas visible. All the same livery; my guess would be ex cropdusters. I went for a ride in one once; they are a great old plane and such a big, slow, stable platform. It's easy to see why the jumpers like them. A great way to idle around the sky if you can afford the fuel bill.