I would say there was a bit of arm twisting and horse trading done because weren't they one of the ones that abstained in UN vote.
It's starting to appear that all that money spent on investing in the armed forces was being pocketed on the sly from people in the Ministry of Defense.
Sergei Shoigu is closed to Putin, they holiday together. But I bet he and his subordinates are sweating buckets at night for when the ministry of finance look at the books and it would appear that they took a bigger cut than they were supposed to.
Can we afford to be wrong about what “he’s likely to do”?
I’ll answer that for you: No, we cannot.
I don't doubt that Putin would see it as an act of war. He also calls the sanctions an act of war. But he hasn't started bombing EU countries, has he? Like I say, he's at least as likely to back down as escalate
Sickening **** sickening. Children trapped under the rubble of the maternity hospital.
There's been many lowpoints in this war war but bombing a maternity hospital probably lowest.
Dirty **** pricks and anyone that supports Russia the same.
Given that nothing is really worth a world that is rendered uninhabitable by nuclear winter and radioactive fallout, Russia could technically march on Poland and the Baltics, despite their NATO membership, and NATO could say, "Yeah, well, there is article 5 and all that, but we just don't feel that, as an organisation, we want the world to get nuked. Yes, this does diminish our standing in the world, but, y'know, we'd prefer there to still be a world for our standing to be diminished in. So, to those countries being invaded... you're kinda on your own. NATO, as an organisation, is not coming to help. But we wish those member states well, and suggest that they maybe don't resist. After all.... nukes"
I said this days ago.
An ex CIA Moscow station guy the other night mentioned it.
Russia is so corrupt that everything is done to ensure the insider connected ones get their cut.
Thus a legitimate supplier is out in favour of someone that is connected, and how can the quality of kit be proper if a lot of the spend is gone straight into people's pockets.
We heard stories of how bad US and British kit initially was in Afghanistan/Iraq, how they were getting killed because they didn't have enough armour protection.
Well look at how they learned, they dumped the old humvees/landrovers and developed better armour protected vehicles.
The Russian soldiers weren't considered and are not getting their asses handed to them.
I have no pity for them as they are doing the bidding of their master.
Absolutely, I'd say they (and others) are quite bitter over Syria and other events in the M.E. so probably had a few demands themselves. That said, in the long term I reckon they want to be on the right side of this new Cold war.
"There needs to be much firmer pronouncements about the limits of what the west collectively will and will not do"
Zelensky has regular phone calls to the various leaders in the Western world, I'm sure the points of what will and can't happen is made very clear to him.
Despite that though I really don't blame the repeated calls for help, he knows they can't intervene, but, do we really expect him not to repeatedly cry for help?
They do pass them on, to be fair. 😀
Which just leaves us in a stalemate of not doing anything because of being scared that he's stupid enough to use nukes, so in the meantime he gets to do what he wants right up to any NATO borders.
More could be done with supplying offensive weaponry, rather than just anti tank missiles, and keep pushing that to see how serious Putin is about escalation... Then eventually get as far as giving Ukraine the planes.
If he's minded to use nuclear weapons in response to Ukraine being given some tanks then he was always going to anyway.
One thing I notice about the news coverage of the war is that there's lots of talk about Russian movements and Russian tactics, but almost nothing about how the Ukrainian side are operating, e.g. speculation on plans to counter the offensive on Kyiv. Is that due to a directive of some sort, like don't feed the Russians any possible information they could use?
Yes. Sounds good. And would help the global economy.
I'll be watching the numbers closely though. The world consumes something like 97m barrels of oil per day.
The US accounts for around 20m of that (which is unsustainable --and unethical-- given its population is just 4.25% global population, but I digress).
So, it sounds like a big deal when the US and 30 other countries announce that they will be releasing 60 millions barrels from stategic reserves, but that's less than one day's global consumption. I saw earlier that Biden is going to release another 60 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserve to stabilize prices in the US before the midterms. That's a few days worth.
Let's see what places like Venezuela can do (besides laugh at twists of fate). There are massive reserves globally, but the will has to be there...
Denazification
So Russia has finally admitted what we all know. They are using thermobaric bombs.
I doubt it's a directive, but who in their right mind would publish it.
2 US lawmakers so much as tweeted about being on a zoom call with Zelensky and they were excoriated for leaking secure information.
Clare Daly and Mick Wallace will be straight out clarify that Putin was provoked into attacking this hospital. He had no other option here you see.
Link? (Not doubting you.)
Those things are feckin' evil.
EDIT: found a link
US dockworkers not having any of Putin's ****, still refusing to unload
"Thousands of dockworkers at ports along the US west coast are refusing to handle any Russian cargo in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Dani Anguiano writes.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents about 20,000 workers at 29 ports from Bellingham, Washington, to San Diego, California, announced the policy last week, calling the invasion “an act of aggression that endangers a population of more than 40 million people”.
With this action in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, we send a strong message that we unequivocally condemn the Russian invasion,
said Willie Adams, the ILWU International president.
West coast dockworkers are proud to do our part to join with those around the world who are bravely taking a stand and making sacrifices for the good of Ukraine."
Interested to see how NATO's response to this evolves. Russian atrocities are going to mount.
Before members of the usual brigade arrive, yes the US used thermobaric bombs in Afghanistan, against deep cave complexes and tunnel systems
Russia used them on Grozny, and is now using them in Ukraine, the fear is that they use them on population centers
Putin the war criminal is killing everything in his path now to spread terror in Ukraine
My blood is boiling watching these cowards
That be the American Moab?
Think the Russians have a version 'Foab' double in damage.
Bombing childrens hospitals
Yes, the pressure to do something will probably grow. What we can do is the question.
Europe 2022. Absolutely disgraceful.
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