Ok own up who wrote the letter
lol sorry thought the adds were the end of the article.
They cant as they are likely in bold on page 1. Or the European Parliament...
There is a listing for the name in blarney but died in 2018
Except NATO has vowed to blast them if they use a nuke.
More like Putin and his cronies, I think. If we tar all Russians with the same brush, it lessens the chance of conciliation and normalisation of relations with a post-Putin Russia. We just end up with a simmering mutual hatred/distrust that is fertile ground for more war. Hopefully, the decent Russians who realise how pointless and brutal this conflict is can organise against Putin. They're never going to bring Ukraine back into alignment with Russia by trying to smash it to pieces. Instead, they must strive to be a great country whose example other countries want to follow, rather than a corrupt one with a very unsubtle interpretation of 'might is right', squandering its resources.
Oh look the US annexing states from 100+ years and the hypocrisy of it all, reminds me of some posts in this thread not so long ago.
Lukashenko may not be sending 100,000 troops into Ukraine as Vlad requested...but to show he is in fact Putin's friend, he gave him a tractor for his 70th birthday:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63176124
First, Russia will have to be dismantled, the old (present) system gutted and replaced by a completely new one from the ground up. They will have to spend a few years in the wildness while all this is taking place. When the signs of a new Russia start to emerge, then they should be helped, so that gradually they can become a democratic and law-abiding society.
Diesel crunch ahead it seems (petrol not getting a mention but surely the same).
Another 1.5M less barrells per day (on top of OPECs recent 2M cut announcement) for October, likely leading to more misery at the pumps:-
Europe’s diesel crunch is set to worsen in the coming months as more European refineries shut down for maintenance this month, and unplanned outages reduce supply. European fuel demand will draw additional imports from other regions, tightening further already tight global refined product markets. The expected tightening of the diesel market in Europe will come just as the EU prepares to ban the import of Russian refined petroleum products by sea as of February 2023.
More European Refineries Offline
The benchmark diesel profit margins in Europe rose last week to the highest in two weeks, per Reuters’ estimates, while analysts and traders told Reuters that diesel prices are set to jump amid a tightening market.
In October, major refineries across Europe will undergo planned maintenance, bringing a total of 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline, according to estimates from Energy Aspects cited by Reuters. That’s higher than the September capacity under maintenance and above the five-year average before COVID.
Then there are unplanned outages, such as the current refinery outage in France due to a strike of refinery workers over disputes over pay. More than half of France’s refinery capacity is currently offline due to the strikes. Traders of diesel and other products in Europe are concerned that the uncertain timing of the return of that capacity would further tighten the market just ahead of the EU embargo on Russian oil products early next year.
Sounds like interesting times from early next year:-
We expect prices to really spike ... mid-January, probably February, but we may see a spike little bit earlier as the market starts to panic,” Williams told Reuters
And it looks like China is onto an export win with the Russian oil embargo next February:-
A potential savior of the tight global product market could be China, which has just issued its biggest fuel export quotas to its refiners for this year. More exports of fuels from China could alleviate the product market globally ahead of the EU embargo on imports by sea of Russian crude and refined products.
It doesn't even sound like he gave Putin a physical tractor
Mr Lukashenko, Europe's self-styled "last dictator" who has been in power even longer than the Russian leader (since 1994) and whose administration is also under Western sanctions, came to St Petersburg with a gift certificate for the Belarusian-made vehicle.
On Lukashenko's next birthday, maybe Putin can proffer a gift certificate good for one window refitting. Redeemable by the receiver or their closest living relative.
Perhaps Lukashenko is trying to kick start some investment in the Russian arsenal, after all we saw what formidable weapons those Ukrainian farmers tractors were early in the war...
Imagine the tension at the summit, not surprised at Zelensky, but am surprised by Putin attending if true, but then again Indonesia is not a party to the Rome Statute:-
Supposing Russia were to give up on Ukraine, and the Putin government were to collapse spectacularly, I think if a less hawkish government were to form, they should be helped almost immediately, assuming they were prepared to offer some serious reparations toward the building Ukraine and atoning for the war in general. Part of what made the 90s such a disaster for Russia was the rife corruption which gave rise to some very flawed attempts to adopt western-style reforms. I don't think those mistakes should be allowed to be repeated, or else possibly end up with a Putin mk.II at some point down the line.
Hmmm...Blarney...the address checks out.
Serious fire power-
If those two could speak face to face, there may be hope for Noel and Liam yet.
I so want to see Zelensky offer out his right hand to shake Putins hand, then as putin extends out his own hand, Zelensky just drops him with the left.
Not sure if this was posted previously:-
One NATO state President sending birthday wishes, but, not really surprised.
True but neither is the USA and some others. Oddly is not russia in it.
Am sure Mick and Clare sent him a card .
No Russia is not a party either.
Another power cut for Zaporizhia NPP occured yesterday when power was lost for 1.5 hours and back up diesel generators were used to keep cooling active as confirmed by the IAEA.
I wonder how much more of these shelling incidents will happen before the power outage leads to something more serious?
I think the IAEA has previously states the NPP can only realistically last about 10 hours on generators before disaster happens, it really is like a deadly game of Russian Roulette (pardon the pun).
jmeire, I considered this before I replied. I'm not sure this is possible. You can attempt to influence a person or attempt to bring them around to your way of thinking. You can't however, change the mentality of what they are. And I'm not suggesting they are all murdering orcs, they're not, I'm saying the mentality of the russkis, it's not going to change anytime soon.
(late edit, until they are pulverized in UA)
Ideally yes, But personally I don't think that will be possible. You cannot dismantle a system like Russia has had for generations. No, it will take time for the political system to change and produce people capable of making the necessary changes. Anything else will give rise to the same situation again.
I agree, for sure it's not going to be an overnight change. But regardless of how ever long it takes, it's the only way forward for Russia, otherwise you will see history repeating itself in some shape or form but similar in outcome.
That's some amount of money well spent being fired into the enemy.
Would they be something like what was in the predator movie, remember when the predator flicked the switch, and Arnie had to bolt.
When the thing went off there was a small mushroom cloud.
Probably a yield of 700m or something
Jana Černochová, Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic, makes a statement
Clear message to putin from some on his birthday today. Hopefully he does not have any more.
the explosion has been known to level an area of rainforest that would cover up to 300 city blocks
is the trivia of topic.
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