Fairly important. A lot of people in Russia will be familiar with the BBC world service for international news.
Putin may need to be careful here. If he keeps emptying his munition dumps on Ukraine he has no economic capacity or supplies to replace them and he leaves himself in a very vulnerable position. Add to that high troop losses (mammies going to find out when viktor doesn't come home) and an army no longer willing to fight and he's doubly vulnerable.
This may help the process along...
Butamov says he can always go back to being a paid dress-up Santa, "But that's only once a year..." Worth watching for the interviewer's reaction.
Confirmed. BBC blocked in Russia.
Also reports Apple Store, Google Play and Twitter also blocked.
This ahead of martial law being imposed.
seems like the older folk love their putin
Just a thought that's entered my mind. The construction industry has been in bother getting workers post Covid. Surely we can get some of the Ukrainians in working and rebuilding their lives after the trauma of having to leave their beautiful peaceful lives in Ukraine.
Must try and lobby a TD and speak with construction network contacts about that. Whatever we can do, we must do.
In fairness they took themselves out first.
Thanks for filing in some of the details on the German connection.
I've followed his channel for a good while now and enjoy his informative content. On this topic I'd foresee much of what he said coming to bare on the Russian aviation sector. With details mentioned earlier about the booking systems getting pulled, they could be in trouble sooner than he predicted.
Certainly a knowledgeable outlet to watch for info on how the situation plays out.
This occurred to me, does anyone military-minded know how much in the way of stockpiles and reserves of munitions a large military-like Russia would hold? Would they rely on just-in-time production from munitions factories? If so, they might struggle with paying for foreign inputs into munitions production. A lot of raw materials and components I'm guessing are sourced domestically, but for critical foreign inputs surely the sanctions would slow production?
I'm not suggesting they'll run out of bullets exactly, but the sanctions are of such a scale that it will surely affect their productive capacity in some manner. Just spitballing.
Could this "possession" of leased aircraft trigger a reciprocal action from other Countrys? Aeroflot flight lands, wheel clamps go on. ( I realize of course, that a lot of country's have closed their airspace to Russian flights, but say planes that are on the ground or even ships that are docked?
Add Facebook to the list.
Western news and internet sites being blocked.
Putin fears a revolution. It's proving more difficult to keep things quiet than he realised.
See Germany ww2
But what choice do they (Ukraine] have? To end up with nothing? There’ll be no joining NATO if they are have no country. This is not a contested region. This is an invasion.
He has an absolutely vast border to defend too. That’s usually not factored in when they do those infographics that compare Ukraine and Russian armed forces.
He also has to keep a large contingent of the most disciplined troops at home in case of severe civil unrest. It’s not difficult to see why the Russian army can grind to a complete halt. Ukraine can, and will, throw absolutely everything at this conflict though.
Excellent post.
I guess it'll depend on whether he can advance into western Ukraine and force a government to sign a peace deal. I'm not sure how valuable a puppet government ceding him territory will be if no-one outside Belarus recognises it.
I know alot of their steel comes from Germany. That's not happening any more. It crazy how many countries can be involved in supplying parts for just one product and it only takes one for it not to work. There was ready a global shortage on microchips and pcbs. Nearly all major weapons have these on board for guidance etc. Russia won't be get preference of supply for a while now.
The only thing I would say is in Russia a huge percentage of the population can just fire up VPNs and skirt around restrictions. It’s the same in China.
It won’t be driven by desperation to get news, but more likely entertainment services, social media, Netflix, YouTube, downloading games, and apps and even porn, etc but it’ll bring in plenty of news along side.
the ukranian men are staying behind to fight the russian war .. perhaps the poor unfortunate ukranian women and children will build our over priced houses for us...
It's perverse. I'm tired of radicals on all sides waving their political allegiences around like a badge of honor -- they should be ashamed of themselves for being so egotistical, so one-dimensional, and for letting their ideology blind them to universal rights and wrongs. I think we are in for a period of navel gazing in Europe, about our civilization and what we stand for. We're just going to have get over stupid culture war issues and work as one.
Despite how the Ukrainians are coping, I still think their future looks very grim. The more "plausible" scenarios for me would be that Russia grinds away at a city at a time, taking them over gradually, replacing the administration, FSB disappear people, fake "referendums" and all that. They'll still continue to lose material and men, but their military should be able to adapt, they aren't stupid. Kremlin has full control of domestic propaganda, no issues controlling the narrative there. The declining economy is blamed firmly on the West and "Western hysteria" seeking to punitively attack Russia just as it was engaging in an operation for it's own security. The West will be blamed for turning that operation into a "war" by supplying so many arms and "mercenaries/terrorists" to Ukraine. Probably a few manufactured incidents, false flags, cities "welcoming" Russian soldiers, all that. Russian economy will go down the tube, but Putin and his cohorts will be fine, a few oligarchs defect maybe. As Ukrainian vehicles are destroyed, soldiers will resort more to infantry and guerilla tactics, hit and run, and Russia will use that to claim their forces are under terrorist attack. A few muslim fighters will be found, so "ISIS are with Ukraine". Conflict grinds on, Ukrainians end up having to accept some horrendous peace deal to salvage what's left of their country and lose territory to the Russians
Dmytro Kuleba (Ukranian Foreign Affairs Minister) has a theory about that...
And this doesn't end in Kiev or Odessa. There'll be a Ukrainian up every second tree or down every ditch with a javelin or high powered rifle. If you look at the map they have taken less than 1/10 of the total land mass and as they get more spread out they become more vulnerable and weaker.
You're wondering if ammunition has a "shoot by" date.
Potentially. Especially if they’re in a 3rd country and it’s just contact law. It doesn’t necessarily follow that just because a country is being neutral on Ukraine that it wouldn’t follow through on a leasing company claiming back an asset that’s theirs.
Lads, this just feels like it's escalating out of control at the moment. Heavy sanctions on Russia, terrible bloody fighting in Ukraine, Putin making mental statements on TV. I'm worried about how much more pressure this whole situation can withstand before it becomes a wider conflict.
He has 6,000 nukes, no one in their right mind is going to attack him
They could also borrow from China too in the unlikely event that they would need to.
🤣
Well not exactly, I'm more wondering if for instance the Russian army on the front fires off all its guided missiles or whatever, do they put in an order to the Acme Guided Missile factory in Kazan, and will the sanctions affect their ability to fulfill their order?
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