Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Russia has imposed a counter sanction against the West. They have said payment for Gas has to be paid in Rouble's or Gold but the contracted price is fixed.

Now that Euro's and Dollars are not much use to Russia because of sanctions imposed on them, they are insisting on that method of payment. It is not up for negotiation.

Are we at the stage yet, where the west must be forced into dealing with the humanitarian situation in Mariupol? No food, no bloody nothing, getting worse by the hour, how long can it be before the west has to say, "look, we're airdropping in food and medicines, if you target our planes, we will **** hammer you!"

They have been using more white phosphorous lately.

Filmed by ITV over Irpin. Video in link.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-03-24/itv-news-films-deadly-bombardments-near-kyiv

You have been thinking yet you fail to realize that there is another possible scenario at play. If they tie their oil and gas exports to ruble they can set the price at which they will sell it to whoever need it to pay for delivery of goods or services.

They can only set the price at the price of oil worldwide.

That is capitalism.

If oil from saudi is 100 dollars per whatever ..that is the price of oil. There is an international price.

They won't buy from the russians what they can find cheaper elsewhere.

The oul both sides argument wearing very thin.

Leningrad survivor and pensioner harrased on the streets by ordinary Russian passer bys for displaying peace posters ...

Germany 1939 . This is what it was like. Despite all of their access to ALL of the worlds information. They are choosing to believe the words of a billionaire who with his friends steals from their own pockets.

If putin wanted staples ...he could swap oil for them.

The West has written them off and is quite happy for the Ukrainians to uphold all the wests vaules and ideals so long as it's only Ukrainian blood, missery and deaths paying for it.

Has Putin made any public appearance since the stadium last week? Will be very curious to see whether his next public statement sounds like escalation (time to go nuclear and take the world out with Russia) or de-escalation ("victory and peace is almost achieved!")

Here's an idea. Why don't you take a break from "your eagerness to query and question western actions " until the immediate problem of this war is over! Right now Ukrainians are being slaughtered in their own country by invading Russians. Russians are threatening to use nuclear weapons and all the indications are that they will use chemical/biological weapons very soon. So let's first try and put an end to this tyrant and his apologists and then afterwards maybe you can pontificate or enlighten us with your concerns.

Elint in the radio spectrum requires antennae. The metal skin of an aircraft blocks radio signals, so antennae have to be external. While they might be able to dual purpose a commercial aircrafts existing antennae, that might pose risks and would limit the bands that could be monitored. Additional antenae added for SIGINT purposes would likely be noticeable and be noted.

I doubt there is anything about aerial refueling that would amount to a secret or intelligence coup these days. About as exciting as staking out a a petrol station.

Most ELINT involves the passive reception of radio spectrum signals. Getting close to an ELINT aircraft that's basically just listening, isn't likely to be an information rich experience either.

Be careful what you wish for. Would it not be better to establish a very long term strategy as to where we - all nations - would like to be in , say 30 years from now . We could start off by - in the post Putin era- clearly DIFFERENCIATING between the Putinists/Oligarchs/stablishment and the ordinary RU people and go from there. IMO it would be very important that all our actions should be about winning over the RU population to peaceful ways of coexisting, etc. Otherwise it will be a continuation of the same

An easy way to understand it is this in reverse. Russian company owes 12.6 mln for bond. Company has money to pay bond but bank does not accept the money.

Now with Russia's case Country wants to buy gas with Euro but Russia says i want Gold or Ruble because Euro is worthless for me because of the sanctions you put on yourself. Here is the amount in Rubles and Gold and when we receive it we will send you the gas. If you do not pay you do not get the gas.

That is it !

The West has pumped in military assets, provided military training, is taking in millions of refugees, and is allowing Ukrainian diplomatic missions to recruit foreign fighters in most, if not all, countries that would comprise NATO and more - somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000 men so far. It would be incorrect to say that the West is happy to stand by and watch so long as it's only Ukrainian lives on the line.

If Western governments calculated that flying a humanitarian mission to Mariupol to drop in supplies would not potentially lead to an escalation, it would have been done weeks ago. Removing the threat of escalation from the equation, it would make no sense not to. Air drops would allow the defenders of Mariupol to keep on fighting, and the humanitarian aspect would be a PR boost as well. Adding back in the threat of escalation, if the Red Cross cannot deliver adequate supplies to the residents of Mariupol, I see no reason why the Russians would allow it to happen by air from Western aircraft. The Russians would most likely claim it was actively hampering their objectives by giving sustenance and (this would be their claim) ammo to the defenders of the city. Unless some sort of backchannel agreement is made for that to happen, the Russians will fire and if one plane goes down, that's it - it's no more airdrops and/or a further escalation in tension.

Yes I think that would be the best thing to do, to eventually bring Russia into the fold but I think America will think Russia been knocked back by years and years both military and domestically and not have to worry about them as much as there in such a bad state they won't be up there as a global player for a very long time, that America can shift most of their focus onto China then. To be honest America has 2 main countries in the world they are worried about and after the Russian fiasco when eventually this all settles they won't have to worry as much about them and can just go and deal with China and put most of their efforts in there. They would be thinking if we can deal with China preferably by peace and America is still the top dog on the world stage then America will be happy but will China. I think China will be thinking a weak Russia on their border is the worse outcome in the long run, I know people say ohh they might land grab off Russia but they won't cos Russia would use nukes especially if there so military weak at that point they couldn't possibly fight off a Chinese invasion if that was to happen, I know China might get cheaper fuel from Russia but at the end of this America's focus will be on China and dealing with them and not to worry about Russia. A strong Russia would divide America's attention but that won't be the case after this Russian invasion.