Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Reminds me of the attack the US organized on Japan immediately after Pearl Harbour. It was totally unexpected, just as the Japanese attack had been, and was just a foretaste of what was to come down the road.

Modi is buying lots of Russian oil at 35 to 45 dollars a barrel. Edit. 15 million offered at 35 and current 6 mill barrels is at a 30 dollar discount to Brent.

6 million barrels on the move already, about 3 times the last year's purchase of oil from Russia.

Modi will be looking at deepening ties to Moscow and taking full advantage. The Indians are backing Russia in all of this and that's popular on the street.

Surprised they aren't realising that if Russia ends up beholden to China then their main arms supplier and their regional rival will be on the same team.

It would be a real shame if the Indian outsourcers found themselves on the wrong side of sanctions. How many jobs and from Indian standards high paying ones are reliant on the outsourcers in India? Modi could be very shortsighted with this because the West can hurt India significantly if he's not careful.

The West is reliant on cheap Indian IT labour however. Even more so than Russian gas.

This seems to tie in with the state propaganda. "We're not actually at war and we're fully in control of everything". The way that people seem to swallow everything they are told by the Kremlin without question is certainly a sight to behold.

Here's an interview with a Russian field commander abiut their culinary situation

Putin is not playing "4D chess" or doing anything smart. Some people look for some deeper meaning, because "oh, he is a great leader, he must know what we don't, he is so smart". I have seen and talked to politicians. Some of them are very charming and charismatic. But being smart is not a requirement for a politician, it's the ability to sell your friends and lick correct arses that is needed.

Some people say that Putin is waging war because he wants to re-unite Ukraine with Russia into some kind of pseudo-USSR. That is all fluff, in my opinion. Ukraine is a country that can be plundered and it resources divided between oligarchs close to Putin, and this is a more plausible explanation for the war. That is what "denazification" Putin is talking about -- take all the resources from Ukrainians (="nazis") and give it to Russian capitalists. This is just an imperialist war of conquest.

Will Russians get to hear about it though? I would imagine that if it appears on the news at all it will be presented either as a tragic accident or as a successful attack against Ukrainian forces. To what extent is the Kremlin able to keep a lid on this?

EDIT: never mind, I just read that Moscow has accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack.

Unfortunately the West chose globalization and now has to accept that most of the world does not share it's values or go along with what it think is right.

For just starters India and China will be ignoring sanctions against Russia.

This. They don't give a flying **** if they flatten the entire country as long as they hold control of the gas and oil, they'd probably be happy enough with an ongoing occupation/insurgency but I don't think it's played out that way. If they had done this in 2014 when the Ukrainian army was in disarray then it might have worked. They're now having to compete with a steady supply of modern weapons.

Yes, it has been reported by the Russian media in fact. Lots of faux outrage about how it might stop the supposed "peace talks" from going ahead. I'd say there must be a fair few raised eyebrows in Russia though after people being told that the special operation was a big success.

Everybody's opinions will be based on their own experiences I guess. My own experience is mixed, but I have encountered some extremely clever and capable Indian contractors.