Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Absolutely they are, monitoring here and many other message boards around the world. Incredibly cheap form of surveillance looking for weaknesses and public opinions to exploit. What we are seeing here is an absolute bombardment of propaganda the likes of which we have never been exposed to from both sides. We should be incredibly vigilant with the information we consume over the next few weeks. We have already seen what can happen when you are exposed to continuous pictures of dead Ukrainian children a la the Russian Embassy attack. The west/Ukrainian is obviously light years ahead with their media presence but the Russians are quite devious as well. We saw Russian soldiers pose as rebel insurgents in Crimea to make the Crimean invasion have more legitimacy. It wouldn't be difficult for them to pose as Irish people in message and engage in 'friendly' debate to eke out our opinions and knowledge. Obviously there are actual Irish geebags who just love a good belligerent argument but nefarious forces are at work at every angle here. Pushing us to abandon neutrality, Radicalising sane people to take up arms in a foreign country etc.

Russia last year accounted for about 3 percent of U.S. foreign imports of crude oil, and about 1 percent of the U.S. supply overall. 

Its just for show .... pathetic

Any body think the squabbling about "no fly zone" and "supplying migs" is actually cover. By hook or by crook they will get those migs. Is it just a ploy to give Moscow a false sense that things are falling apart.

Could Putin just pull out and say "yeah job done we killed the nazis" and then start rebuilding trade with the west(obviously with reparations to the Ukrainians).

Right now it seems untenable and non viable to continue with this war both politically and financially. Currently they have only taken KHerson. Even after they have shelled cities to bits the troops will still be afraid to go in and secure the area.

I've just seen Makharova in Moscow saying that Americans have been developing chemical weapons in Ukraine. She is so full of sheet. She definitely needs a one way to the Hague.

Depends on Putin and his close associates doesn't it? Can he back away having gone this far? I'm not sure, unless his arm is twisted. The Ukrainians are not in the mood for total surrender as Russia demands, not having taken this much damage and loss. So not a great look out. However it goes though, you'd have to think that Putin is yesterdays man in Russia - no win here for him at all and only bad outcomes.

Indeed, on top of that it's estimated we have close to 1 trillion dollars worth of their foreign assets locked up. I believe there's already another law gone through whereby the Kremlin can "seize" foreign currencies over a certain amount from Russians.

They'd need more than umbrellas there Rihanna

Biological Threat Reduction Program

Unfortunately the PDF's have been removed from the US Embassy's website, maybe just a coincidence but wayback machine has them saved.

This is the one from Kharkiv and everyone one of them was funded by the USA Department of Defence

https://web.archive.org/web/20170130193016/https://photos.state.gov/libraries/ukraine/895/pdf/dtro-kharkiv-eng.pdf

Sounds like a standard international program

"The U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases. The program accomplishes its bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures. The Biological Threat Reduction Program’s priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats."

Of course I am sure pro-Russian propaganda and supporters will highlight it in order to hint and insinuate there's something nefarious to it. Likewise Moscow is claiming that Ukrainians are building a "dirty bomb" because they have nuclear reactors.

The regime might be winning the internal propaganda battle for now, but the longer the war goes on and the sanctions start to really kick in, it could really start to unravel. It will take some explaining from the state propagandists in a few week's time as to why the Russian army is still fighting in multiple parts of Ukraine and not making any progress.

More Ukrainian farmers stealing Russian kit and quickly becoming the fastest growing military force in the world

Russian equipment being reconstituted into Ukrainian army

Expect them to disconnect Zaporizhzhia next

Fairly good explanation of the Z symbol in the following article. Looks like its use was premeditated and was deliberately designed so as to create support amongst Russians for the Invasion of Ukraine

"Weeks before the Russian attack on Ukraine, military specialists started to ask about strange markings(opens in a new tab) on military vehicles massing along the borders. Several vehicles sported a white Z-sign on the doors or bonnets and experts tried to understand what they meant.

Now we know.

The Z is an attempt to create a cool symbol of the war. The Z is used for hashtags on social media: “#ZaМир” – for peace. The Kremlin’s precondition for the war was a lie; the attempt to market the war, oops, Special Operation, is a lie. Even the word ‘war’ must not be used; Russian authorities have forbidden media outlets to call the war a war.

The Latin Z functions as a recognisable tag kids can draw on the walls. The corresponding Cyrillic letter З looks like the digit 3 (three), and using that would have opened an avalanche of jokes, referring to the school mark 3 – the lowest approved – “Sufficient”. The Russian word ”троечник” is generally translated as “looser”. Specialists in marketing would call this bad optics.

https://euvsdisinfo.eu/the-kremlin-hashtagging-ze-war/