Unless its a deal to do with German gas supplies or something then a "deal" is not in the offing as Scholz has no authority to do any such thing.
Perhaps he means Scholz is close to agreeing terms for Germanys (further) surrender
There's no such thing as a reformed Marxist 😂
The only chance of a deal would be a three way dialogue between Biden, Zelensky and Putin.
Scholz is little more than a bit part player, a bystander.
Some of my own OSINT sleuthing....
I have been tracking a helicopter over the baltic Sea, with invalid transponder data, that kept appearing and disappearing right along the imaginary " centreline" that denotes the international waters, very low at about 1000ft. msl.
Then, the correct data suddenly appeared before it decended and its transponder turned off. It turns out to be a US Navy Strike Hawk, normally seen on Amphibious assault ships.
Zooming out, you can see its proximity to Kaliningrad...
Now, I have speculated that, if Putin decided to " go rogue", Kaliningrad would be the first enclave to fall, as it is essentially a fixed aircraft carrier in the Baltic and a base for the Baltic Fleet. How would it fall? I hear you ask.
Well, an Amphibious assault task force would be an option. One that would have in its inventory our little friend, the Strike Hawk ( basically a Seahawk on steroids).
Some further delving into this hypothesis has uncovered this picture:
....taken on September 4th, it shows a US Navy dock ship plus a Portuguese navy ship as part of an Amphibious Task Force in the exact area where our rotary friend briefly appeared. Fancy that, eh.
A look at the deployment notices on an obscure Navy page tells us...In the Baltic Sea:
The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit is based in North Carolina and includes the command element; the aviation combat element, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron, 263 (Reinforced); the ground combat element, Battalion Landing Team 2/6; and the logistics combat element, Combat Logistics Battalion 26.
The Kearsarge ARG is commanded by Amphibious Squadron Six. Other Navy units in the ARG include Fleet Surgical Team 2, Tactical Air Control Squadron 22, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28, Assault Craft Unit 2, Assault Craft Unit 4, Naval Beach Group 2 and Beach Master Unit 2.
It seems the chess pieces are being slowly and surely moved across the board, just in case.
I'm quite sure much of the ordinary people are just busy surviving but it makes it easier to survive if you're not being looted, raped, starved, frozen, tortured & disappeared etc.
Well NATO and allies have had at least 6 months to plan & prepare and Russia must be acutely aware of this. There's a lot of military planning and intelligence being directed at them. This is likely also unnerving their military bloggers now. Kaliningrad does seem to be important to Russia as is Sevastopol.
I'm glad we agree but my point is in reference to a post war scenario where you have ethnic russians in ukraine or ethnic ukrainians in russia. My point is, those people for the most part probably don't give a sh*t, they just want to get by. Perhaps whomever the political leadership is at the time, can take that into account and not hold ordinary, frankly poor, people responsible when they have very little autonomy.
He had to get back to his day-job as Teacher from Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall pt.II music video.
Big "The German Car Makers will tell Angela Merkel to give Britain a deal" energy off this post.
More russians pulling back to Crimea or other russian border crossings
Sounds like they're expecting a fight for Crimea alright.
Strange interview on Prime time. Guy saying Ukraine can’t win and Russia still have vast military resources.
Tonight's BBC News report from Moscow by Steve Rosenberg. Definite signs of 'trouble in paradise' and a growing awareness that the special operation is beginning to unravel.
Yeah, he's also claiming they can call up two million troops?
From where? And equip them with what?
He's been on a few times before and he's always convinced Ukraine will lose.
Fascinating stuff tbh. Saying the word out of Russia is Putin is too soft and hawks pushing for more.
Not good news if true.
No comment-
I hope RTE aren’t paying him too much for these interviews.
Maybe but we must also remember from our own and other histories that ordinary, frankly poor, people often offer succour, support and information to one side or the other.
Who was it? Maybe another of the David McWilliams types who tell you what happened after it happens.
For the time being, the priority is to defeat Russia and render it incapable of waging war. Thats the Nr 1 objective. Then we come to the nuclear issue. So, scenario Nr 1, Putin decides to go for broke, and launches nuclear strikes, the west responds, and its end of story. Nuclear problem solved. MAD, kicks in. Putin try's to go for broke, but instead, he is dethroned and another power structure emerges. So the new management will have responsibility for the nuclear arsenal. And in your scenario, some of these weapons fall into the hands of any nutter's, then it will be a case of the cards falling as they will, and any preemptive action designed for just such a scenario kicking in. Final scenario, in a post Putin world, where the military has been rendered powerless, and the economy destroyed due to the sanctions, and the fact that Russia is now a pariah state in the world , reduced to selling its oil and gas at a loss. Major street protests are a regular feature, food and medicines scarce, and worse hardship as the citizens have faced since the collapse of the USSR. Then when it has reached this point, sanctions lifted in limited nrs, based on the removal of all nuclear weapons. Or something along these lines, I guess,
Fred Weir is his name I think. He's a correspondent in Moscow with Christian Science Monitor.
I haven't seen the interview yet but it sounds like total nonsense. Throwing huge numbers of new recruits into battle is a fantasy and, as you say, they probably don't even have the equipment, military hardware or supply lines to even make it work.
I remember one of the guests on Eamon Dunphy's podcast talking about the war, and they said that Putin's inner circle has dwindled in recent years and it's pretty much dwindled down to a group of people madder than he is, making Putin the moderate voice. Scary thought.
Yeah not the first time iv'e heard that tbh. There's no guarantee if he's ousted some level headed guy/gal takes his place.
Does he post on boards......
Asking for a friend
I have my doubts about his analysis. He said russia hadn't committed it's air force or Navy. I seem to remember the flag ship of the russian black sea fleet got sunk.
This is genuinely pretty astounding stuff, not only saying full mobilisation is necessary but impossible, but also basically "what the hell are we bombing power stations for, how is that going to help win anything and convince Ukraine we mean well?"
These are the kind of statements we were told were impossible to make in Russia today
How much of the airforce have been shot down over Ukraine close to 300 and he's saying they have committed.
How many airforces can afford to lose that many aircraft in a few months
It wouldn't be a gal .
In Slavic Russia woman don't lead
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