Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Never dawned on me that not standing clear of a tank while holding a tree log at the height of the tank would be dangerous. Imagine that.

They haven't been given any long-range missiles or artillery as such.

Depending on which particular version of artillery they've received, and what types of charges; there's potential to reach 50-60km with the most expensive rounds. They're not likely to have many of those artillery pieces or shells (if they even have any at all).

In any case they already have some artillery pieces which can fire up to 50km so in terms of range; so none of the new stuff would be giving them much extra reach.

As for unblocking Mariupol that would need a ground assault which just isn't feasible. Or the kind of aerial bombardments even Russia isn't really capable of delivering.

Do you have any thoughts (assuming you are not expecting the poster to have a direct line to the Kremlin or Putin's brain etc!?).

As for your link, referring to Germans saying supply is "guaranteed" right now, probably that will hold for some period of time even if Russia cuts them off completely tomorrow. They are also "monitoring the situation closely"...!

Would say (myself) that Russia are working mischief here, trying to make splits in the EU by selecting particular countries to cut off while still keeping most of the foreign currency earnings. Germany and Italy are 2 very large gas consumers I read this morning on BBC update page about this news. So they would leave them till the end.

They know the EU will not be buying their energy at some point in the near future (how near is the question) + is working away to speed this process up so maybe it will make sense for them to forgo some earnings and use the considerable leverage they have now to maximise dissention in the EU or economic disruption, rather than waiting for countries to wean themselves off their gas/oil supplies.

edit: typos and added a point.

Simple question to poster did they have additional information from German authorities or other sources as I haven't been able to find anything definitive despite a search. Nothing to do with Putins brain or lack thereof 😄

Only thing I definitely know is that the German government have been deliberately dragging its heals over the Russian oil and gas issue.

Russia's use of oil & gas supply restrictions to exert leverage was entirely predictable. And legitimate given that the EU and other states have put a variety of sanctions on Russia that restrict their economy.

Question is what price is the EU is prepared to pay to face down Putin's regime. There are arguments for playing it bit by bit, balancing needs as against just pulling out all together, taking a huge hit and really facing down Russia. Probably will do neither one thing or the other and just have the worst of both outcomes.

Yes there are already in place various qualified as they call it voting majorities needed for various policy areas. As you say there though some of those majorities are very high thresholds and that is almost the equivalent of a veto. Plus there are some major areas such as taxation policy that are subject fully to an individual countries veto power. Look at how Luxembourg has blocked so far an EU financial transaction tax there as an example. Other areas where a veto is still in effect are the EU budget and look here how Hungary and Poland's governments have used the threat of a veto there to stop for a long time the EU trying to reign in the democratic backsliding of the 2 countries governments. Also there is social security/protection, Common foreign and defense policy and this is an area in light of Russian's invasion of Ukraine which is very much to the fore right now, as well as the accession of new members and police co-operation.

No question one of the key positives of the EU is that as you say its a partnership of equals which prevents bigger countries like say Germany and France just running roughshod over everyone and in particular protects the smaller countries including Ireland in that regard and that is important and should stay. But IMHO there should be no areas of veto power. There can be areas where the threshold is very high say 80-90%. For me the current areas of remaining veto power as above should be moved to qualified voting in the 80-90% range so that it still protects smaller states but conversely it stops just one state stopping something on purely selfish grounds that everyone else supports.

The Swiss have a weird kinda cuckoo like moral concept on conflict zones.

Supplying arms into conflict zones is bad and not allowed.

Taking loot i.e. stolen gold and money from conflict zones is ok and damn well encouraged.

Both enable a conflict and help continue the carnage.

An Oiligarch?

By the way for those who were questioning whether Ukraine had TB2s left there have been at least two confirmed shot down inside Russian territory over the past few days:

Unfortunate to see them shot down but it probably explains at least a few of the mysterious fires and explosions inside Russia recently; Ukraine might even happily trade a $2 million drone to blow up some key Russian logistics targets.

Leaving the EU is not something any country would do lightly though. In the case of members of the Eurozone, it would probably crash their economy overnight, as they would have no domestic currency to fall back on.

Looking more and more like a laughable Dr. Evil of Austin Powers fame, by the day. Russian dose.

Footage of the GRU agents individuals carrying out attack in Transnistria

Interesting that the article doesn't list any of the gas buyers who've already paid in rubles / or the 10 in total who've already opened ruble Gazprom accounts in order to purchase Russian oil and gas as dictated by Putin and friends.

Looks however like Germany was one of the first to sign up.

Obviously they mustn't be paying attention to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (herself a former German politician under Angela Merkel) who has warned that paying for Russian gas in rubles, as the Kremlin has demanded, would breach sanctions. Good to see her fellow German politicians don't give a toss apparently.